Speculative Fiction Links of the Week for May 15, 2015

And here is our weekly round-up of interesting links about speculative fiction from around the web, this time with yet more Hugo debate as well as plenty of discussion of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Daredevil and Marvel in general.

Speculative fiction in general:

• Andrew Liptak profiles John Wyndham. 
• The Washington Post profiles Andy Weir. 
• Elena Linville shares her appreciation for Sir Terry Pratchett. 
• James Wallace Harris points out that it's the writing rather than the science which dates older science fiction.
• Heather Massey reports that a publisher demanded a writer to remove SF elements and worldbuildings from an SF romance, claiming that the SF elements would too hard for romance readers to understand.
• Christa Yelich-Koth explains why she loves space opera.
• Phenderson Djeli Clark discusses fantasy's othering fetish. 
• Font Folly discusses the stories marginalised people have to tell.
• The Guardian asks why YA novels about politics are always dystopian. 
• Keith Allison discusses the relativity of dystopias, taking Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson as an example.
• Jill Lepore discusses the scientific background of Orphan Black. 
• Some people appear to be upset about Charlize Theron's starring role in Mad Max: Fury Road.
• Raych Krueger asks us to rethink the princess stereotype. 
• Caroline Siede discusses the hypocrisy and uneven distribution of nude scene in Game of Thrones. 
• Leigh Alexander explains why the stories are often so bad in videogames. 

Avengers: Age of Ultron, Daredevil and Marvel in general:

• Juliet Kahn wonders why so many superheroines are rather boring, making them good role models rather than interesting characters.
• Cher Martinetti points out that it's time for Hollywood to embrace female supervillains.
• G.W. Thomas shares his thoughts on Daredevil.
• Caroline Siede explores the portrayal of masculinity in the Daredevil TV show.
• Caroline Siede also discusses the stereotypical portrayal of Asians in Daredevil.
• Alexandra Erin shares some thoughts about the connection between Captain America and Daredevil in the TV show.
• Jamie Wyman complains about the lack of female characters of note in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and how many of them are treated on screen.
• Jill Lepore takes a look at Age of Ultron and A-Force, the new all-female Avengers team, with her two young sons.
• Leia Calderon responds to Jill Lepore with more background on the superheroines Lepore dismisses.
• G. Willow Wilson, writer of A-Force, also responds to Jill Lepore.
• A former Marvel employee explains why there is so little merchandise featuring Marvel superheroines. 
• Sady Doyle claims that Avengers: Age of Ultron is badly written and also destroying the popcorn movie as a whole. 
• Eleanor Arnason responds with her thoughts on Age of Ultron. 
• Devin Faraci takes a look at the character arcs in Age of Ultron. 
• Melinda Snodgrass shares her thoughts on Avengers: Age of Ultron. 
• Cheryl Morgan shares her thoughts on Avengers: Age of Ultron. 
• Jim C. Hines shares his thoughts about Age of Ultron.
• Arthur Chu discusses what Ex Machina and Age of Ultron say about our fear of artificial intelligence. 
• Kelly Dickerson explains why we shouldn't be freaked out by the superintelligent robots in Ex Machina and Age of Ultron.

Awards:

• The winners of the 2014 Bram Stoker Awards have been announced. 
• The winners of the 2014 Australian Shadows Awards have been announced.
• The winners of the 2015 Sir Julius Vogel Awards have been announced.
• The finalists for the 2014 John W. Campbell Memorial Award have been announced.
• The finalists for the 2014 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award have been announced.
• The nominees for the 2014 Shirley Jackson Awards have been announced. 
• The winners of the 2015 German Science Fiction Prize have been announced.
• The nominees for the 2015 Premios Ignotus, the Spanish SFF award, have been announced.
• Martin Wisse shares a list of notable, award-nominated or winning SFF novels of 2014.
  

Hugo controversy:

• Alis Franklin compares various genre awards and who votes for and wins them. 
• Mihalea Perkovic takes a look at the Hugo controversy from a Croatian POV. 
  
• Redneck Gaijin shares his thoughts on the Hugo controversy and points out that no one is entitled to a Hugo.
• Jason Sanford explains why even a broad support for "No Award" will not mean the end of the Hugos.
• John Scalzi points out that the Hugos are not actually being destroyed. 
• Making Light has a proposal for changing the Hugo nomination process to limit the influence of slates. 
• Martin Wisse explains the Baen fallacy.
• David Gerrold points out the irony and contradictions in many statements from the Sad Puppy side.
• K. Tempest Bradford and David Gerrold both point out that the Hugo controversy had the unintended consequence of leading to a record number of Worldcon supporting memberships.
• Nicholas Whyte analyses the membership numbers of the London and Spokane Worldcons. 
• Jim C. Hines analyses the gender breakdown of past and present Hugo nominees.
• S.L. Huang does the math and also analyses the gender breakdown of past and present Hugo nominees. 
• Chaos Horizon shares some Hugo nomination and voting statistics.
• Matthew Foster explains how he is voting for the Hugos.
• Alexandra Erin reviews famous children's books Sad Puppy style. 

Writing and publishing: 

• Nick Mamatas discusses good versus bad writing with some examples.
• Brent Weeks shares the three key writing tools he learned from reading other writers.
• Mette Ivie Harrison talks about protecting your creative self. 
• Damien Walter tells writers that they should resist becoming just one thing. 
• Kyra Halland interviews her characters Silas and Lainie.
• Helen Lowe talks about plotters and pantsers.
• Stacy Claflin explains how she wrote 150000 words in one month. 
• Rob McClellan shares some facts about e-book production costs and pricing.
• Jim Hines, Kameron Hurley and Mary Robinette Kowal discuss negotiating social media for writers. 
• Patty Jansen evaluates some promotional techniques for writers. 

Interviews:

• Veronica Scott interviews Sharon Lynn Fisher.
• Collen Sheehan interviews Robin Chambers.
• Josh Vogt interviews M. Darusha Wehm.
• Kristin Centorcelli interviews Ethan Reid.
• Robyn Lupo interviews Annie Bellet.
• Nadine Matheson interviews Michael Patrick Hicks.
• S.W. Fairbrother also interviews Michael Patrick Hicks.
• Ted Cross interviews Michael Patrick Hicks as well.
  

Reviews:

• Michael Patrick Hicks reviews Weapons of Mass Deception by David Bruns and J.R. Olson.
• Paul Weimer reviews The Apollo Quartet by Ian Sales. 
• Chris Gerrib reviews A Sword into Darkness by Thomas A. Mays. 
• Judy Goodwin reviews The Passage by Justin Cronin.
  

Crowdfunding:

• The Anathema, a comic series by Tom Savage, is looking for funding.
• Fangirl, a graphic novel by Tom Stillwell, is looking for backers.
• Hard Wyred, a cyberpunk comic by Erik Bitmanis and Joshua Suarez, is looking for funding. 
• The Future of Travel Exhibition by the Museum of Science Fiction is looking for funding.
• The Heinlein Society is looking for donations to fund a bust of Robert A. Heinlein to be displayed at the state capitol in Heinlein's birth state Missouri.
• The DiverSciFi Convention, a con focussing on diverse SFF, is looking for support to finance its inaugural convention in New York City in 2016.
• LightSail, a solar sail powered spacecraft, is looking for funding. 

Con reports:

• Mihaela Perkovic shares her experiences at Pyrkon 2015 in Poznan, Poland.

Science and technology:

• Living in space means recycling everything.
• The USA considers breaking international treaties to mine asteroids.
• Archeology robots explore places humans cannot access.

Free online fiction:

• "A Song for You" by Jennifer Marie Brissett in Terraform.
• "Spaceships in the Desert" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.  
• Chapter 11 of The Pirate's Grand Plan by K.S. Augustin.
• "The Comte de la Fere is a Ghost Story", chapter 51 of Musketeer Space by Tansy Rayner Roberts. 
• Chapter 5 of "The Ballad of the Bad Lass", part 85 of The Descendants by Landon Porter.
• "Pilot Part 2", episode 2 of season 1 of Imago by Landon Porter.

Odds and ends: 

• Watch a trailer for the Supergirl TV show. 
• Watch a trailer for the Minority Report TV show.
• Watch a trailer for Jem and the Holograms (though unlike the original cartoon, the movie remake doesn't seem to be SFF) 
• Watch Black Angel, the short film initially shown together with The Empire Strikes Back in 1980.
  
• Watch Game of Chairs, a Sesame Street parody of Game of Thrones.