Speculative Fiction Links of the Week for June 10, 2016

Here is our weekly round-up of interesting links about speculative fiction from around the web, this week with more on the debate about whether fandom is broken, a discussion of Cyberpunk, comments on the movie Warcraft as well as the usual mix of writing advice, interviews, reviews, con reports, crowdfunding projects and free online fiction. 

Speculative fiction in general:

• The participants of the latest Mind Meld shares their favourite visions about the future in SFF.
• Andrew Liptak discusses ten fictional megastructures.
• Brenda Cooper shares her obsession with robots.  
• Arkady Martine takes a look at artificial intelligence and queerness in Chris Moriarty's Spin trilogy. 
• Malka Older discusses the line between Cyberpunk and Post-Cyberpunk.
• Several authors weigh in on the best and worst aspects of Cyberpunk.  
• Future War Stories share ten crucial elements of military science fiction. 
• Jeff Somers shares a rough guide to single climate planets.
• Justina Robson talks about being a woman writing science fiction and fantasy.
• Joanne Hall talks about being a woman writing science fiction and fantasy. 
• Joel Minty shares his appreciation for the Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson.
• Zach Brooke reports how a marketing campaign for the 1981 fantasy novel The Secret by Byron Preiss led to a 35 year treasure hunt. 
• Alison Flood profiles Adam Croft. 
• Steven Spohn shares an open letter to Joyo Moyes. 
• Alex Storer talks about illustrating science fiction.
• Abraham Riesman profiles comics writer Louise Simonson. 
• Tony Guerrero reports that Superman is dead again. 
• Cass R. Sunstein explains what Star Wars really is about.
• John Plunkett reports that the role of Doctor Who would almost have been played by a black actor. 
• Josh Kramer shares an illustrated guide about why adults are playing Dungeons & Dragons.
• Longtime SFF critic and fan James H. Burns has died aged 56.
  

Awards:

• The finalists for the 2016 Mythopoetic Fantasy Awards have been announced. 
• The finalists for the 2016 British Fantasy Awards have been announced.
• The finalists for the 2016 Prism Awards have been announced.
• The nominees for the 2016 Chesley Awards have been announced. 
• The longlist for the 2016 Sunburst Awards has been announced. 
• The Chinese Association for Science and Technology has announced that it is setting up its own SFF award.
  

The "Fandom is broken" debate:

• Elizabeth Minkel shares her response to Devin Faraci's claim that fandom is broken.
• Zoe Quinn weighs in on the toxic fandom debate.
  

Comments on Warcraft: 

• Jason Schreier says that Warcraft is not good.
• Germain Lussier feels that Warcraft is too busy setting up future sequels that may never be made to function as a self-contained movie.
• Alasdair Stuart calls Warcraft a tragedy with surprising depth.
• James Whitbrook reports that Warcraft is extremely popular in China.
  

Writing, publishing and promotion:

• Maria Popova shares Ray Bradbury's advice how making lists can boost your creativity.
• Evan Pickering talks about his daily writing habits. 
• Mark McClure talks about the time travelling writer's life.
• M.J. Kelley talks about the joys and setbacks of worldbuilding. 
• Aderyn Wood talks about outlining.
• Colin Dickey offers a defence of the adverb.
• Laura Lis Scott talks about the author/editor relationship.
• Kameron Hurley explains that who you know matters in publishing.
• Alessandra Clarke shares some thoughts about reviews.
• Ronovan Hester explains why readers stop reading books.
• John Scalzi discusses Amazon author rankings and envy.
• Indies Unlimited talks about some problems with e-mail marketing.
  

Interviews:

• Rachel Swirsky interviews Ann Leckie. 
• Dag Rambraut interviews Brenda Cooper.
• Dag Rambraut also interviews Todd Berger.
• Carl Slaughter interviews Lawrence M. Schoen.
• Ilana Teitelbaum interviews Guy Gavriel Kay.  
• Andrea Johnson interviews Mary Pletsch.
• Smash Dragons interviews Hank Schwaeble.
• Grey Dog Tales interviews Joanne Hall.
  

Reviews:

• Jonathan Thornton reviews Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire.
• The Speculative Herald reviews Spear of Light by Brenda Cooper.  
• Kelsey Jefferson Barrett reviews Last Call at the Nightshade Lodge by Paul Krueger.
• Rob Bedford reviews The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor.
• Ana Grilo reviews Jolly Foul Play by Robin Stevens.
• Kate Coe reviews The Tree of Souls by Katrina Archer.  
• Nicole Hill reviews A Green and Ancient Light by Frederic S. Durbin.
• Andrew Liptak reviews The Fireman by Joe Hill. 
• Jason Heller reviews Infomocracy by Malka Older.
• Michael Patrick Hicks reviews A Song for No Man's Land and Return of Souls by Andy Remic. 
• Rachael McKenzie reviews The God Wave by Patrick Hemstreet.

Con reports:

• Alexandra Erin shares her experiences at WisCon in Madison, Wisconsin. 
• Mikki Kendall reports about her experiences at WisCon. 
• K. Tempest Bradford also reports about WisCon. 
• Mark Oshiro shares his experiences at WisCon.
• Charles Payseur shares his experiences at WisCon.
• Sigrid Ellis shares a few thoughts about WisCon.
• Michael J. Martinez shares his experiences at Phoenix Comicon in Phoenix, Arizona.  
• David Paul Hellings reports about the UK Games Expo in Birmingham, UK.
• The board have issued a statement regarding organisational issues at Balticon 50 in Baltimore, Maryland.
• Steve Fahnestalk remembers Moscon in Moscow, Idaho. 
• Ursula Vernon reports about the evolution of convention art shows.

Crowdfunding:

• Geeks Doing Good is raising money for the Worldbuilders charity and is looking for donations.
• Fantasy Fraction is looking for patrons.
• The annual Clarion Write-a-Thon is looking for participants.

Science and technology:

• Is the universe expanding faster than we thought? 
• A newly born exoplanet is being torn to shreds.
• China wants to build a deep sea space station.
• What happened to the dream of underground cities?
  

Free online fiction:

• "Folk Hero" by Mary Pletsch in Apex Magazine.
• "Lullaby for a Lost World" by Aliette de Bodard at Tor.com.
• "The Mighty Phin" by Nisi Shawl at Tor.com. 
• "Man of God" by Koren Shadmi in Terraform.
• "The Snow of Jinyang" by Zhang Ran, translated by Ken Liu and Carmen Yiling Yan in Clarkesworld. 
• "And Then, One Day, the Air was Full of Voices" by Margaret Ronald in Clarkesworld.
• "Walk Briskly" by Alexandra Erin.
• Chapter 6 of Escape from the Free Republic by Floyd Looney.

Odds and ends: 

• Watch a trailer for The Space Between Us.
• Watch a trailer for Independence Day: Resurgence.
• Watch some videos introducing the four new Ghostbusters and their secretary. 
• Watch a teaser for About Tomorrow, a documentary about the 2015 Hugo Awards controversy.
  
• Watch a (fake) trailer for Captain America: Civil War, as it would look if it had been directed by Ed Wood in the 1950s.