It's time for the latest weekly round-up of interesting links about speculative fiction from around the web, this week with the best SFF of 2019 and the decade, the J.K. Rowling transphobia controversy, the suspension of Courtney Milan from RWA, tributes to Johanna Lindsey, The Mandalorian, The Rise of Skywalker and Star Wars in general, season 4 of The Expanse, season 2 of Lost in Space, His Dark Materials, The Witcher, the latest version of A Christmas Carol, Cats and much more.
Speculative fiction in general:
- James Davis Nicoll discusses classic science fiction that explores lost civilisations.
- James Davis Nicoll shares five science fiction and fantasy stories set in department stores,
- Camestros Felapton discusses various fictional methods for duplicating people.
- Camestros Felapton talks about labyrinths and libraries as fantasy settings.
- Samantha Edmonds talks about eucatastrophes and tear-inducing moments in SFF.
- Charlie Jane Anders shares her appreciation for the Hainish Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin.
- James Wallace Harris celebrates the 90th anniversary of Astounding Science Fiction a.k.a. Analog.
- The Real Book Spy has uncovered the identity of supernatural thriller author Scott Carson.
- Emily Asher-Perrin asks how people visualise stories.
- Tom Gerken reports about book nooks, small dioramas inserted into book shelves.
- Johanna Lindsey, author of historical and science fiction romance, has died aged 67.
- Kelly Faircloth remembers Johanna Lindsey.
- Hannah Frishberg remembers Johanna Lindsey.
Best of 2019 and the decade:
- Pop Matters shares the best fiction of 2019 with lots of love for SFF novels and graphic novels.
- Paste Magazine shares its favourite novels of 2019 with quite a bit of love for SFF novels.
- Grimdark Magazine shares their favourite fantasy novels of 2019.
- Wired shares their five favourite science fiction and fantasy TV shows of 2019.
- Tor.com shares 22 nerdy things that brought them joy in 2019.
- The Guardian shares its biggest TV disappointments of 2019, including many genre shows.
- Caroline Framke and Daniel D'Addario share their twenty-five favourite TV episodes of the 2010s with lots of love for SFF shows.
- Graeme McMillan shares his top ten comics and graphic novels of the 2010s.
- Gavia Baker-Whitelaw lists the ten most influential fandoms of the 2010s.
Comments on the J.K. Rowling transphobia controversy:
- Poppy Noor reports that J.K. Rowling a.k.a. Robert Galbraith has been accused of transphobia over her defensive of a transphobic researcher
- Aja Romano also reports about the J.K. Rowling transphobia controversy.
- Jackson Bird shares his disappointment about J.K. Rowling's transphobic tweets from the POV of a transgender Harry Potter fan.
Comments on the suspension of Courtney Milan from RWA:
- Sarah Wendell reports that romance author Courtney Milan has been suspended from RWA for a year and banned from holding office following complaints by two RWA members Courtney Milan had called out for racism.
- Michael Schaub shares some reactions to the suspension of Courtney Milan from RWA.
- Mike Glyer offers a round-up of links regarding the suspension of Courtney Milan from RWA.
- Wendy the Super Librarian weighs in on the suspension of Courtney Milan from RWA.
- Camestros Felapton weighs in on the RWA ruling and the suspension of Courtney Milan.
- Xan West shares their negative experiences with RWA.
- Laura Vivanco shares some background regarding the initial racism accusations against writer/publisher Suzan Tinsdale and editor Sue Grimshaw.
Film and TV:
- The Guardian shares the most anticipated superhero movies of 2020.
- Mark Kermode calls Jumanji: The Next Level an upbeat, frenetic adventure.
- Peter Bradshaw calls the Chinese movie Long Day’s Journey Into Night a hallucinatory experience.
- Keith R.A. DeCandido shares his thoughts on the 2019 version of Hellboy.
- Alex Abad-Santos declares that the friendship between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers lies at the heart of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
- Kelly Faircloth traces the connection of the popular Christmas Prince movies to the Ruritanian romance subgenre created by Anthony Hope's The Prisoner of Zenda.
- Luke Buckmaster shares his thoughts on the Australian dystopian limate change drama The Commons.
- Camestros Felapton revisits the 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
- Adri Joy revisits the 1987 fantasy movie The Princess Bride.
- Emily Asher-Perrin asks if 1999 was the year modern geek culture took over the world.
- Steve Rose interviews Taika Waititi, director of Thor: Ragnarok and Jojo Rabbit.
- Alex Moshakis interviews Robert Pattinson, star of the Twilight series, High Life, The Lighthouse and Batman-to-be.
- Robyn Merrett reports that Francesca Scorsese, daughter of The Irishman director Martin Scorsese, is trolling her father by wrapping all his Christmas gifts in superhero paper, given Scorsese's infamous dislike for superhero movies.
- French actress Claudine Auger, best known for playing Domino in the James Bond film Thunderball, has died aged 78.
Comments on The Rise of Skywalker and Star Wars in general (warning: spoilers):
- Leonard Maltin thoroughly enjoyed The Rise of Skywalker, even though the movie felt a little overstuffed in places.
- Angela Watercutter declares that The Rise of Skywalker suffers under the weight of expectations.
- Adi Robertson declares that The Rise of Skywalker is an entertaining movie, but that it still leaves several questions unanswered.
- Mark Kermode calls The Rise of Skywalker a crowdpleasing, but unadventurous finale.
- Gavia Baker-Whitelaw calls The Rise of Skywalker a huge letdown that panders to nostalgia.
- Emily Asher-Perrin declares that The Rise of Skywalker is the spiritual successor of Return of the Jedi, for better or for worse.
- Alex McLevy declares that The Rise of Skywalker walks back the best decisions from The Last Jedi.
- Tor,com shares twenty-one things they loved and five things they hated about The Rise of Skywalker.
- Adi Robertson and Chaim Gartenberg discuss the high and low points of The Rise of Skywalker.
- John Scalzi shares his thoughts on The Rise of Skywalker.
- Chris M. Barkley shares his thoughts on The Rise of Skywalker.
- Paul Levinson shares his thoughts on The Rise of Skywalker.
- Camestros Felapton shares his thoughts on The Rise of Skywalker.
- Dean E.S. Richards shares his thoughts on The Rise of Skywalker.
- Katie Rife and A.A. Dowd discuss The Rise of Skywalker.
- File 770 commenters discuss The Rise of Skywalker.
- Emily Todd VanDerWerff is massively disappointed by Rey's origins in The Rise of Skywalker.
- Emily Asher-Perrin discusses Rey's lightsaber and its symbolism in The Rise of Skywalker.
- Chaim Gartenberg is pleased that the new Star Wars trilogy finally got lightsabers right.
- Andrew James Myers asks 66 burning questions about the final order in The Rise of Skywalker (spoilers).
- Germain Lussier shares twenty questions he has after watching The Rise of Skywalker and six questions that were answered.
- Gavia Baker-Whitelaw complains that The Rise of Skywalker was too reluctant to kill off characters.
- Jim Vorel declares that the new Star Wars trilogy suffers from a complete lack of planning.
- Emily Asher-Perrin points out that The Rise of Skywalker fixes a critical error from Revenge of the Sith.
- Gavia Baker-Whitelaw is troubled by some new revelations regarding Poe Dameron's backstory.
- Gavia Baker-Whitelaw complains that Rose Tico only has a small part in The Rise of Skywalker.
- Shannon O'Connor declares that the much touted LGBTQ representation in The Rise of Skywalker is a disappointing blink and you'll miss it moment.
- Inspired by the blink and you'll miss it same sex kiss in The Rise of Skywalker, Adam B. Vary and Brent Lang ask why there is still so little LGBTQ representation in blockbuster movies.
- Sarah Marsh that the same sex kiss was cut from The Rise of Skywalker in Singapore and other conservative countries.
- Anthony Breznican interviews J.J. Abrams, director of The Rise of Skywalker.
- Thomas Foyd interviews Anthony Daniels who plays C-3PO in the Star Wars movies.
- The BBC reports that The Rise of Skywalker earned more than 400 million US-dollar at the box office during its opening weekend, which is impressive, but less than previous installments of the series.
- Julia Alexander reports that Disney produced an unprecendented eighty percent of the top box office hits of 2019.
- Rob Bricken points out that the 2010s are the decade that Disney won.
- Tim Kreider points out that the experience of watching the original 1977 Star Wars has long since been obliterated by the prequels, sequels and spin-offs.
- Annalee Newitz points out that the polarisation about Star Wars refects that currentz polarisation of US society.
- James Whitbrook counts all the times that Jedi had sex in the Star Wars universe.
- Jonathan Alexandratos discusses what the various toys seen on screen tell us about the Star Wars universe.
- The Guardian reports that Riley Howell, a 21-year-old Star Wars fan who tackled a gunman during a shooting at the University of North Carolina, has now been immotalised by having a Jedi Knight named after him in a new Star Wars book.
- Rob Bricken declares that the greatest crime of the prequels was watsing Christopher Lee.
- Charon Dunn reviews Star Wars Memories by Craig Miller and recalls her own Star Wars experiences.
- Steve Vertlieb recounts his in person encounters with Star Wars composer John Williams and star Daisy Ridley.
Comments on The Mandalorian (warning: spoilers):
- Alex Cranz points out that based on Baby Yoda's development, adult Yoda would have been the equivalent of barely thirty in human years.
- Zoe Haylock reports that a Baby Yoda plush doll is coming in February.
- Watch "Go to Sleep, Baby Yoda", a fanmade video in which The Mandalorian tries to persuade Baby Yoda to go to bed.
- Make a papercraft Baby Yoda tree ornament.
Comments on His Dark Materials:
- Beth Elderkin shares her thoughts about the season 1 finale of His Dark Materials.
- Lisa Weidenfeld shares her thoughts on the season 1 finale of His Dark Materials.
- Myles McNutt shares his thoughts on the season 1 finale of His Dark Materials.
- Tyler Dean shares his thoughts on the season 1 finale of His Dark Materials.
- The BBC explains how the polar bear character of Iorek Byrnison was animated in His Dark Materials.
Comments on season 4 of The Expanse:
- Rhett Allain declares that season 4 of The Expanse is science fiction like TV has never seen.
- Paul Tassi calls season 4 of The Expanse one of the best shows on TV and particularly praises the character of Amos Burton.
- Craig Elvy declares that season 4 of The Expanse gives the character of Klaes Ashford the story that the books couldn't give him.
- Adam Savage interviews Jim Murray, prop master for The Expanse.
Comments on season 2 of Lost in Space:
- Danette Chavez declares that Lost in Space remains aggressively fine in season 2.
- Beth Elderkin interviews the cast of season 2 of Lost in Space.
- Brett White wonders when season 3 of Lost in Space will come out.
Comments on The Witcher:
- Gavia Baker-Whitelaw calls The Witcher a dull and confusing disappointment.
- William Hughes declares that The Witcher becomes a lot more fun once it stops pretending to be Game of Thrones.
- Stephen Kelly declares that The Witcher is not the next Game of Thrones.
- Lucy Mangan declares that fans of TV fantasy epics will enjoy The Witcher.
- Daniel Fienberg also feels that The Witcher is mainly for pre-existing fans.
- Scott Meslow offers episode by episode reviews of The Witcher.
- James Whitbrook shaers five things he loved and three things he didn't like about The Witcher.
- Cameron Scheetz interviews Anya Chalotra and Freya Allan, two of the stars of The Witcher.
- Kayla Cobb interviews actor Joey Batey and composers Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli about the music of The Witcher.
- Cian Maher reports about a visits to the set of The Witcher.
- Charles Pulliam Moore explains how the portal effect in The Witcher was created.
- Sylas K. Barrett reports that he read Andrzej Sapkowski's novels upon which The Witcher is based and was underwhelmed.
Comments on the latest version of A Christmas Carol:
- Daniel Fienberg declares that the latest version of A Christmas Carol is definitely not for children and probably not for adults either.
- Lucy Mangan calls the latest version of A Christmas Carol a twee-free torment fest.
- Allison Shoemaker is also not a fan of this dark and gritty adaptation of A Christmas Carol.
- Ed Powers explains why The Muppet Christmas Carol still sets the gold standard for Charles Dickens adaptations.
Comments on Cats:
- Ignatiy Vishnevetsky declares that Cats is as bad as it looks.
- Tyler Coates calls Cats a disaster from start to finish.
- Scott Tobias calls Cats fundamentally wrong.
- Rob Bricken offers a summary of Cats, so you don't have to suffer through it.
- Hannah Gold feels as if Cats has plunged her into a ceaseless fever dream.
- Alex Cranz watched the patched version of Cats, which corrects some of the most egregious CGI errors, and finds that is is not an improvement.
- Leonard Maltin declares that Cats does not manage to capture the magic of the stage version.
- Caroline Siede revisits the stage version of Cats and realises that it does not make any sense either.
- Anthony D'Allesandro reports that Cats is unsurprisingly a box office bomb.
Awards:
- The winners of the 1964 Galactic Stars have been announced.
- Nominations are open for the 2019 Stabby Awards.
Writing, publishing and promotion:
- Maria Haskins shares her top ten tips for better writing.
- Bonnie Randall asks writers to embrace the bleak in their stories.
- Charity Bradford has some advice for writers who think of quitting.
- Kristine Kathryn Rusch talks about the future of audio books.
- Constance Grady looks back at the Apple agency pricing controversy and calls it the reason the e-book revolution never happened as predicted.
Interviews:
Reviews:
- Kellie Doherty reviews To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers.
- Russell Letson reviews The Menace from Farside by Ian McDonald.
- Ian Mond and Gary K. Wolfe review The Rosewater Redemption by Tade Thompson.
- Gary K. Wolfe reviews Curious Toys by Elizabeth Hand.
- James Davis Nicoll reviews Wicked Fox by Kat Cho.
- James Davis Nicoll reviews Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey.
- Paul Weimer reviews The Gossamer Mage by Julie E. Czerneda.
- Katharine Coldiron reviews The Princess Beard by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne.
- Dianthaa Dabbles reviews The Hanged Man by K.D. Edwards.
- T.O. Munro reviews God of Gnomes by Demi Harper.
- Cheryl Morgan reviews The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.
- Adrienne Martini reviews Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo.
- Marion Deeds reviews The Labyrinth Alchemist by Day Al-Mohamed.
- Ian Mond reviews Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson.
- Paula Guran reviews The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht.
- Edward Gwynne reviews Odin's Wolves by Giles Kristian.
- Amy Goldschlager reviews Teeth in the Mist by Dawn Kurtagich.
- Paul Di Filippo reviews Anyone by Charles Soule.
- C.T. Phipps reviews Shattered Dreams by Ulff Lehmann.
- Michael Patrick Hicks reviews Consequences by John Quick.
- Runalong the Shelves reviews Sherlock Holmes: The Vanishing Man by Philip Purser-Hallard.
- Michael Patrick Hicks reviews Tales From the Shadow Booth, Vol. 4, edited by Dan Coxon.
- Lesa Holstine reviews A Very Scalzi Christmas by John Scalzi.
Classics reviews:
- James Davis Nicoll revisits the 1843 Christmas ghost story A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
- James Wallace Harris revisits the 1912 science fiction novel The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson.
- Joachim Boaz revisits the 1962 generation ship tory "Thirteen to Centaurus" by J.G. Ballard.
- Victoria Silverwolf revisits the January 1965 issue of Fantastic Stories of Imagination.
- M. Porcius revisits The Rebel Worlds, a 1969 Dominic Flandry space opera novel by Poul Anderson.
- James Davis Nicoll revisits the 1976 science fiction novel Stargate by Stephen Robinett.
Con and event reports:
- John Hertz shares yet more of his experiences at Loscon XLVI in Los Angeles, California.
- Mike Glyer shares some videos of the symposium "An Astounding 90 Years of Analog Science Fiction and Fact" in Brooklyn, New York.
- Ellen Datlow shares some photos of the latest edition of the Fantastic Fiction readings series in New York City featuring Paul Tremblay and Nathan Ballingrud.
- Mike Glyer reports about the winners of the "Chengdu After 100 Years" art competition held at the 5thChina International Science Fiction Conference in Chengdu, People's Republic of China, and shares the winning artworks.
- Rebecca Whittaker reports about My Father's Belongings, a photo exhibition in Oxford, UK, which Wendy Aldiss photographs the things of her late father, science fiction legend Brian Aldiss.
Science and technology:
- Science Magazine lists the scientific breakthroughs of the year.
- Alexandra Witze reports about Marsquakes.
- Ryan F. Mandelbaum discusses some strange changes detected in Betelgeuse.
- Bobby Allyn reports that Boeing's Starliner has landed safely after an aborted mission to the International Space Station.
- Nicholas C. Stone and Nathan W.C. Leigh offers a statistical solution to the three-body problem.
- Kaye Dee reports about the launch of the San Marco 1 and Explorer 26 satellites in 1964.
- Laura Foster reports that the world's oldest fossilised trees have been found in New York state.
- Mathematician and computer scientist Tony Brooker has died aged 95.
- Computer pioneer Randy Suess has died aged 74.
Free online fiction:
- "I, Cthulhu, or, What’s A Tentacle-Faced Thing Like Me Doing In A Sunken City Like This (Latitude 47° 9’ S, Longitude 126° 43’ W)?" by Neil Gaiman at Tor.com
- "Silent Lullaby" by Tolu Senok in Luna Statio Quarterly.
- "The Kingdom of the Butterflies" by Isabel Cañas in Luna Station Quarterly.
- "Joss Papers for Procelain Ghosts" by Eliza Chan in The Dark.
- "A Bad Day in Utopia" by Matthew Baker in Lightspeed.
- "The Mocking Tower" by Daniel Abraham in Lightspeed.
- "The Erlking's Widow" by Rachel Halsall in Mookychick.
- "The Myth of You" by Kurt Fawver in Nightmare Magazine.
- "The Really Big Ka-Boom" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
Odds and ends:
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