Speculative Fiction Links of the Week for February 5, 2021

It's time for the latest weekly round-up of interesting links about speculative fiction from around the web, this week with the 2020 Locus Recommended Reading List, tributes to Kathleen Ann Goonan, Cloris Leachman, Cicely Tyson, Hal Holbrook and others, the many iterations of Star Trek, season 5 of The Expanse, WandaVision and the Marvel Cinematic Universe in general, Bliss, Greenland, the 2021 Golden Globe nominations and much more.

Speculative fiction in general:

• The 2020 Locus Recommended Reading List has been published. 
  
• Tor.com shares all the new science fiction and fantasy books coming out in February.
• Jo Walton shares the SFF books she read in January 2021. 
  
• Everina Maxwell shares six great SFF love stories. 
• Aurora Lydia Dominguez shares eight great LGBTQ science fiction novels.
  
• Adalyn Grace shares six YA speculative fiction duologies to devour. 
• James Davis Nicoll shares five science fiction books that get kinetic weapons very wrong.
  
• James Davis Nicoll shares five truly inhospitable planets from science fiction. 
  
• Tor.com celebrates Groundhog Day by sharing their fourteen favourite Groundhog Day type timeloops in speculative fiction and film. 
• Gary K. Wolfe talks about his 2020 reading. 
• The American Library Association has announces its list of the best graphic novels for adults 2020. 
  
• Peter Larsen talks about California's science fiction scene and the many SFF authors who lived there. 
• Rose Szabo shares five offbeat gothic and horror novels. 
  
• Gemma Armor talks about the female experience of fear and how it influenced horror fiction. 
• Sam J. Miller talks about haunted houses, cursed lands and how the very real threat of gentrification is influencing horror fiction.
  
• Neil Litherland talks about the archetype of the barbarian in fantasy. 
• Thomas Kent Miller talks about fairy lore and how it influenced Arthur Machen and some of his contemporaries. 
• Al Harron finds some unexpected connections between Robert E. Howard and Robert Burns.
  
• John O'Neill shares a history of the legendary horror magazine Whispers. 
• Jaroslav Veis celebrates the centennary of R.U.R. by Karel Capek, the play that gave the world the word "robot". 
  
• Carrie Sessarego traces the history of Peter Pan through the years. 
• Alison Flood reports about the literary afterlife of Sherlock Holmes, the many modern iterations of the character and the litigatious Arthur Conan Doyle estate. 
  
• Abigail Santamaria reports about the correspondence between SFF write Madeleine L'Engle and Ahmad Rahman, an imprisoned member of the Black Panther Party. 
• V.M. Burns explains why escapist fiction is important.
  
• Sarah Hughes shares what sensationalist blockbuster novels aimed at women taught her about life and love. 
• Victoria Song talks about toxic fandom.
  
• Steven Heller and J. David Spurlock share their appreciation for the art of Frank Frazetta. 
• Deuce Richardson shares his appreciation for the art of Allen Anderson. 
• Alison Flood reports that the descendants of poet Danta Alighieri seek to overturn his corruption conviction in 1302.
  
• Chris McKittrick remembers the late James Gunn.
  

 

Tributes to Kathleen Ann Goonan:

• Science fiction writer Kathleen Ann Goonan has died aged 68.
• Andrew Liptak remembers Kathleen Ann Goonan.
• Locus remembers Kathleen Ann Goonan.
  

 

Film and TV:

• Lucy Mangan thoroughly enjoyed Resident Alien. 
• Germain Lussier calls Eight for Silver a mostly successful reinvention of the werewolf movie.
  
• Germain Lussier calls Prisoners of the Ghostland a sensory overload that doesn't make much sense. 
  
• Benjamin Lee calls In the Earth a patchy folk horror film. 
• Peter Bradshaw calls A Nightmare Wakes a mix of horror and Mary Shelley biopic.
• Charles Bramesco calls Little Fish a forgettable post-apocalyptic romance. 
• Elene Botha shares her thoughts on Raised by Wolves.
  
• Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya shares her thoughts on the latest episode of Snowpiercer. 
  
• Ani Bundel shares her thoughts on the latest episode of American Gods. 
• Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya shares her thoughts on the latest episode of The Stand. 
• Camestros Felapton shares his thoughts on the Korean post-apocalyptic drama Sweet Home.
  
• Michael Washburn shares his thoughts on the documentary The Last Wolf: Karl Edward Wagner. 
• Edward Tew remembers Roland Emmerich's 1998 take on Godzilla and finds it better than its reputation.
  
• Ben Child revisits the 2001 horror movie Donnie Darko and wonders whether the story is ripe for a sequel or reboot. 
• Gavia Baker-Whitelaw explains why the costume design of The Matrix still feels iconic more than twenty years later.
  
• Sophie Heawood interviews Billie Piper who played Rose Tyler in Doctor Who. 
• Katie Rife interviews Rose Glass, writer/director of the horror movie Saint Maud.
  
• Lanre Bakare reports that George Clooney has joined a proposed reboot of the 1970s science fiction series Buck Rogers, which in turn was based on Philip Nowlan's 1928 novel and the comic strip based upon it. 
• Jeffery Martin reports that cartoonist Adam Ellis claims that the movie Keratin was plagiarised from his work. 
• Jon Porter reports that the many delays of the James Bond movie No Time to Die are also playing havoc with the product placement, since many of the products featured are now outdated.  
• Alan Burns, co-creator of The Munsters, has died aged 85.  
• Actor Hal Holbrook, best known for his appearances in The Fog, All the President's Men, The Star Chamber and many others, has died aged 95.
  
• Actress Cloris Leachman, star of Kiss Med Deadly, Crazy Mama, Dillinger and many others, has died aged 95.
• Bill Mumy remembers Cloris Leachman, who played his mother in the classic Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life". 
  
• Pioneering black actress Cicely Tyson has died aged 96. 
• Bill Koenig remembers Cicely Tyson's appearances in several spy series in the 1960s.

 

Comments on Star Trek in general:

• Keith R.A. DeCandido revisits the Star Trek Voyager episodes "Once Upon a Time" and "Timeless". 
• Cora Buhlert interviews Sarah Gulde, editor of Star Trek Quarterly.
  
• Kellam De Forest, scientific adviser to the original Star Trek, had died aged 94.
  

 

Comments on WandaVision and the Marvel Cinematic Universe in general: 

• Andrew Ellard shares his thoughts on "We Interrupt This Program", episode 4 of WandaVision.
• Stephen Robinson shares his thoughts on "We Interrupt This Program".
• Charles Pulliam-Moore shares his thoughts on "We Interrupt This Program".
• Emmet Asher-Perrin shares his thoughts on "We Interrupt This Program". 
• Camestros Felapton shares his thoughts on "We Interrupt This Porgram". 
• Cora Buhlert shares her thoughts on "We Interrupt This Program". 
• The Geekiary share their thoughts on "We Interrupt This Program". 
• Keith R.A. DeCandido declares that WandaVision is mining three separate histories. 
• Charles Pulliam-Moore finds some clues regarding the central mystery of WandaVision in the 1980s comic series West Coast Avengers.
  
• George Marston explains the history of the organisation S.W.O.R.D. as seen in WandaVision. 
• Gavia Baker-Whitelaw reports that there will be a high profile cameo in WandaVision and wonders which character it might be. 
• Michael Livngston explains how he introduced his non-comic reading parents to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  
• Mike Fleming Jr. reports that Ryan Coogler will create a Wakanda series for Disney+. 
  
• Watch a trailer for the second half of season 1 of WandaVision.
  

 

Comments on season 5 of The Expanse:

• Molly Templeton shares her thoughts on "Nemesis Games", the season 5 finale of The Expanse.
• Cheryl Eddy shares her thoughts on "Nemesis Games". 
• Andrew Liptak traces how The Expanse grew from an RPG world into a novel series into a TV series.
  
• Charlie Hall talks about potential plans for The Expanse beyond season 6.
  

 

Comments on Bliss: 

• Peter Bradshaw calls Bliss a conceited science fiction mess with epically bad acting. 
• Jesse Hassenger praises the performance of Owen Wilson, but declares that Bliss only simulates a compelling science fiction drama. 
• Germain Lussier interviews Mike Cahill and Selma Hayek, director and star of Bliss.
  

 

Comments on Greenland:

• Benjamin Lee calls Greenland a solid disaster thriller.
• Inspired by Greenland, Steve Rose points out that the best way to survive a disaster movie is by being a privileged white westerner.
  

 

Awards:

• The 2020 Locus Awards are open for voting. 
  
• Nominations are open for the 2021 Splatterpunk Awards. 
• The shortlist for the 2021 Romantic Novel Awards has been announced.
• The Infected by Art 9 winners have been announced.
• The winners of the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medals have been announced.
• The finalists for the 2021 NAACP Image Awards have been announced with some love for genre fiction.
• The finalists for the 2021 Golden Globes have been announced with some love for genre film and TV. 
• Peter Bradshaw is pleased by Golden Globe nominations for boring but thoughtful works. 
• Gavia Baker-Whitelaw finds plenty to criticise about the Golden Globe nominations. 
• The finalists for the 2021 Screen Actors Guild Awards have been announced with hardly any love for genre movies and TV. 
  
• The finalists for the 2021 D.I.C.E. Awards have been announced.
• Actor LeVar Burton, best known for playing Geordi LaForge in Star Trek: The Next Generation and for hosting Reading Rainbow, has been named the inaugural PEN/Faulkner Literary Champion.
  

 

Writing, publishing and promotion:

• Pierre E. Pettinger Jr. explains that it's never too late to start writing.
  
• Anna Catalano points out that writers sill break out after thirty or any other arbitrary age. 
• Everina Maxwell shares some worldbuilding tips.
• Tracy Townsend talks about fan fiction and character development.
• Keith R.A. DeCandido talks about writing and researching his latest novel Animal.
  
• Mike Glyer reports that the Authors Guild, Open Markets Institute, Horror Writers Association, National Writers Union, Novelists Inc., Romance Writers Association, Sisters in Crime and Western Writers of America have urged the antitrust division of the US department of justice not to approve the Bertelsmann Group's purchase of Simon and Schuster, since Bertelsmann already owns Penguin Random House. 
• Andy Cox reports that the science fiction magazine Interzone has not been sold to a new publisher after all. 
• Mike Glyer reports that publisher PS Publishing is launchings its own science fiction magazine called ParSec after failing to acquire Interzone. 
  
• Alison Flood reports that the magazine Poetry is facing an outcry after publishing a poem by a convicted sex offender. 
• Alison Flood reports that UK bookstore chain Waterstone's will not pay its furloughed staff minimum wage, because that would not be "prudent".  
• Jim Milliot reports that booksales per unit according to BookScan have hit a record high in 2020.
  
• Christopher Little, literary agent of J.K. Rowling, had died aged 79.
  

Interviews:

• Robert Caro interviews Kurt Vonnegut in 1999.
  
• Books, Bones and Buffy interviews Tim Pratt. 
• Arley Sorg interviews Karen Osborne. 
• Arley Sorg interviews S.B. Divya.
  
• Andrea Johnson interviews Everina Maxwell.
  
• Cat Luria interviews Melodie Corrigall. 
• David Barnett interviews Mitch Benn. 
• David Betancourt interviews Roye Okupe. 
• Track of Words interviews C.L. Werner.
  
• Cora Buhlert interviews Jean-Paul Garnier.
• Cora Buhlert interviews Rachel Cordasco.
  

Reviews: 

• Liz Bourke reviews Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell. 
• James Davis Nicoll reviews Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell. 
• Runalong the Shelves reviews Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell.
  
• Alex Brown reviews Rise of the Red Hand by Olivia Chadha.
  
• Constance Grady and Emily VanDerWerff review Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. 
• Katharine Coldiron reviews The First Sister by Linden A. Lewis.
  
• Amy Goldschlager reviews Last Smile in Thunder City by Luke Arnold. 
• Rob Bedford reviews Doors of Sleep by Tim Pratt. 
• Blue Book Balloon reviews Purgatory Mount by Adam Roberts.
  
• Tadiana Jones and Bill Capossere review The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton. 
• Runalong the Shelves reviews The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho.
  
• Gary K. Wolfe and Adrienne Martini review The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey.  
• Runalong the Shelves reviews Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi.
  
• Books, Bones and Buffy reviews Threader Origins by Gerald Brandt.
• Mark Yon reviews Inscape by Louise Carey.
• Tadiana Jones reviews A Single Light by Tosca Lee.
• Liz Bourke reviews Ruinsong by Julia Ember.
• Paul Weimer reviews A Song with Teeth by T. Frohock.
• Molly Templeton reviews What Big Teeth by Rose Szabo.
  
• Bill Capossere reviews The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox.
• For Winter Nights reviews The Two Lost Mountains by Matthew Reilly.
• Gary K. Wolfe reviews The Wall by Gautam Bhatia.
  
• Kat Hooper reviews Crystal Keepers by Brandon Mull.
  
• Colleen Mondor reviews The Silence of the Wilting Skin by Tlotlo Tsamaase. 
• Paula Guran reviews Root Magic by Eden Royce. 
• Kelly Lasiter reviews Available Dark by Elizabeth Hand. 
  
• Paul Di Filippo revies The Evidence by Christopher Priest.
• Runalong the Shelves reviews Relics, Wrecks and Ruins, edited by Aiki Flinthart.
• Daniel Pietersen reviews Masks in Horror Cinema: Eyes Without Faces by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas.

Classics reviews:

• M. Porcius revisits the January 1930 issue of Weird Tales. 
• Adventures Fantastic revisits the 1932 Bran Mak Morn sword and sorcery story "Worms of the Earth" by Robert E. Howard. 
  
• Bill Ward revisits the 1933 Conan sword and sorcery story "The Tower of the Elephant" by Robert E. Howard. 
• Adventures Fantastic revisits the 1936 Northwest Smith story "Tree of Life" by C.L. Moore. 
• G.W. Thomas revisits the 1937 horror story "The Dweller in the Tomb" by Henry Kuttner.
• Steve J. Wright revisits the August 1941 issue of Unknown. 
  
• James Davis Nicoll revisits the 1953 science fiction novel The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth.
• Mark R. Kelly revisits the 1957 science fiction novel The Deep Range by Arthur C. Clarke.
  
• Gideon Marcus revisits the February 1966 issue of Analog. 
• Judith Tarr revisits the 1973 time travel novel Here Abide Monsters by Andre Norton.
  
• Ken Lizzi revisits the 1981 sword and sorcery anthology Flashing Swords #5: Demons and Daggers, edited by Lin Carter.
  
• James Malizewski revisits the 1986 fantasy novel Artifact of Evil by Gary Gygax.
• The Por Por Books Blog revisits the 1987 science fiction novel The Penal Colony by Richard Herley.
• Michael Ledwidge revisits the 1987 horror thriller Misery by Stephen King.
• James Davis Nicoll revisits the 1987 fantasy of manners Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner.
• Alan Brown revisits the 1998 science fiction novel Dinosaur Summer by Greg Bear.
  

Con and event reports:

• DisCon III, the 2021 Worldcon in Washington D.C., shares an update on its hotel situation and the convention dates. 
  
• Gene Armstrong reports that Westercon 73, originally supposed to be in Seattle, Washington, has gone virtual in response to the pandemic. 
• LepreCon 47, originally supposed to be in Phoenix, Arizona, has also gone virtual. 
• Kit Stubbs reports that WisCon 45 in Madison, Wisconsin, will be much reduced to fulfill the hotel contract and that there likely will be a virtual event as well.
  
• A.A. Dowd reports about the virtual 2021 Sundance Festival.
• First Fandom Experience reports about how fans travelled to the first few Worldcons from all over the US in freight trains.
  

 

Science and technology:

• Patrick Whittle reports that the company BluShift Aerospace has successfully launched a prototype rocket.
• Sophia Chen reports that scientists are finding new applications for laser technology. 
• Hakim Bishara reports about YInMn, the first new blue pigment developed in two centuries. 
  
• Michael Irving reports that a newly discovered nao-chameleon is the world's smallest reptile.
  
• Mark Bittman explains why we need an agroecological revolution.
• Marthe de Ferrer reports that scientists have engineered spinach plants to detect certain components in the ground and send e-mail alert.
• Cora Buhlert reports about the Lufthansa flight 005 crash in 1966.
  

Free online fiction:

• "Mr. Death" by Alix E. Harrow in Apex Magazine.
  
• "The Failed Dianas" by Monique Laban in Clarkesworld. 
• "Terra Rasa" by Anastasia Bookreyeva, translated by Ray Nayler in Clarkesworld.
  
• "Laughter Among the Trees" by Suzan Palumbo in The Dark. 
• "Across the Dark Water" by Richard Kadrey in Tor.com.
  
• "At the Intersection of Light and Sound" by Michelle Mellon in Fireside Magazine. 
• "We, the Girls Who Did Not Make It" by E.A. Petricone in Nightmare Magazine. 
• "The Mathematics of Fairyland" by Phoebe Barton in Lightspeed.
• "Church of Birds" by Micah Dean Hicks in Lightspeed. 
  
• "Crab Pots" by Amanda Baldeneaux in Luna Station Quarterly.
• "Fair Trade" by Natalie Sifuma in Omenana. 
• "Eruption" by Jaymee Goh in Anathema Magazine. 
• "Speaker" by Simon Brown in Slate: Future Tense. 
• "The Girl Without a Spacesuit" by Evergreen Lee in Daily Science Fiction.
  
• "Scars" by Anatoly Belilovsky in Daily Science Fiction. 
• "You Can't Get There From Here" by Rex Caleval in Daily Science Fiction. 
• "Blackman's Flight in Four Parts" by Shingai Njeri Kagunda in Fantasy Magazine.
• "Rainbow Pit" by Ray Newman in Horrified.
• "Handfast" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
  

Trailers and videos: 

• Watch a trailer for season 7 of The Flash.
• Watch a trailer for The Nevers.
• Watch a trailer for Tribes of Europa.
• Watch a trailer for Psycho Goreman.
• Watch a trailer for Cosmic Sin.