Speculative Fiction Links of the Week for May 23, 2025

 

It's time for the latest weekly round-up of interesting links about speculative fiction from around the web, this week with Andor and Star Wars in general, the Marvel Cinematic and TV Universe in general, news from the upcoming Masters of the Universe live action film and Masters of the Universe in general, season 2 of  The Last of Us, Doctor Who past, present and future, Murderbot, Star Trek in general, season 6 of The Handmaid's Tale, Final Destination: Bloodlines, Alpha, the live action Lilo and Stitch, an uproar involving the 2025 Worldcon in Seattle, Washington, Donald Trump's war on foreign films and much more.

Speculative fiction in general:

• Brian Collins wonders how and why science fiction authors fall into obscurity.
  
• Frederic S. Durbin talks about the weird western.
• Paz Pardo shares five upcoming speculative mysteries and thrillers 
  
• James Davis Nicoll shares five SFF books about imposters, swindlers and con artists 
• Lorna Wallace shares five science fiction stories about things going wrong on the Moon
  
• Ratika Deshpande shares five SFF stories about the magic and allure of stars
• Molly Templeton notes that magic doesn't have to make sense. 
• Ratika Deshpande shares five SFF stories set on hills and mountains
  
• James Davis Nicoll shares five SFF works about meddling, mystery-solving kids 
• Catharina Steel shares middle grade adventure and mystery novels set in fantasy worlds   
• Adam Oyebanji talks about the difficulties of classifying genre-bending fiction.
• Adam Oyebanji declares that speculative fiction is the perfect vehicle for understanding dark history 
  
• David King Dunaway discusses dystopian novels where the US president goes rogue. 
• Constance Grady notes that tech moguls like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos love the Culture series by Iain M. Banks, even though they apparently didn't understand it.
  
• Patrick J. D'Silva talks about the shared destinies of Rand Al'Thor from The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan and Paul Atreides from Dune by Frank Herbert and how they are both highly problematic messiahs. 
• Christopher Golden discusses the concept of the Ur-witch.
  
• Benjamin Mullin profiles Jim Butcher.
  
• Lisa Allardice ranks her ten favourite books by Margaret Atwood. 
• Fran Wilde explains why Locus Magazine is important for the SFF community.
  
• Benj Edwards reports that the Chicago Sun Times has printed an AI-generated summer reading list full of books that do not exist.
  
• Scott Neuman reports that Hadi Matar who stabbed and seriously injured Salman Rushdie in 2022 has been sentenced to 25 years in prison.
  

Comics and Art:

• Blue Book Balloon reviews Downlands by Norm Konyu
• Ritisha Lingampally reviews Talk To My Back by Muraski Yamada
• James Davis Nicoll revisits 1984 The New Teen Titans collection "The Judas Contract" by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez
• Tom Gauld shares a cartoon about how to focus on writing your book.
  

 

 Film and TV: 

• Arturo Serrano calls The King Tide an interesting Omelas retelling.
  
• Matt Schimkowitz calls Bring Her Back a grim fairy tale of resurrection and child endangerment, with an unforgettable turn at the center. 
• Peter Bradshaw calls Resurrection a fascinating phantasmagoria
  
• Alex Wallace declares that Clown in a Cornfield succeeds, because it’s unafraid to directly attack one of the near-uncontested orthodoxies of American civic life: that young people are evil and that parents always know best.   
• Melody McCune shares her thoughts on the latest episode of Surrealestate 
  
• Ben Child wonders whether James Gunn's more human take on Superman can still inspire awe. 
• Cheryl Eddy interviews Ian Cardoni and Harry Belden, who the eponymous characters in Rick and Morty. 
• Kali Wallace revisits the 1984 fantasy anime Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind 
• Cheryl Eddy revisits the 1995 children's fantasy film Casper.
• Keith R.A. DeCandido revisits the 1996 Babylon 5 episode “Severed Dreams” 
  
• Emma Keates reports that Marvel and Disney visual effects workers have voted to ratify their first union contract
  
• Nellie Andreeva reports that The Wheel of Time has been cancelled.
  
• The Guardian reports that Sesame Street has been saved by a streaming deal with Netflix  
• Brooks Barnes reports about AI use in the animation industry. 
• Animation Magazine reports that SAG-AFTRA and Nickelodeon Animation have reached a tentative agreement with AI protections 
• Philip Oltermann reports that director Wes Anderson has criticised Donald Trump's plans of tariffs on films made outside the US and notes that cinema doesn’t ship that way 
• James Foley, director of At Close Range, House of Cards, Who's That Girl?, Fear and many others, has died aged 72. 
  

 

Comments on the Marvel Cinematic and TV Universe in general:

• Alex Wallace calls Thunderbolts* the best Marvel movie since Avengers: Endgame. 
• Ben Child notes that Marvel's post-credits scenes increasingly go nowhere.
• Germain Lussier reports that Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars have been delayed by several months. 
  
• Rich Johnston reports that Mike Deodato, co-creator of Riri Williams a.k.a. Ironheart, is not getting paid for for Disney Plus TV series about the character. 
  

 

Comments on Masters of the Universe in general:

• For Eternia interviews Anthony De Longis who played Blade in the 1987 Masters of the Universe live action movie.
• ITVx profiles James Wilkinson who plays Mekaneck in the upcoming Masters of the Universe live action movie. 
• James Eatock points out that the Widgets had a Bat-signal like He-Man signal in the Filmation He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon. 
  

 

Comments on Andor and Star Wars in general: 

• Phoebe Wagner shares her thoughts on episode 4 of season 2 of Andor.
  
• Erin Underwood shares her thoughts on the ending of Andor.
• Elijah Gonzales declares that Andor was a lesson in self-restraint 
• James Whitbrook shares his twenty favourite moments from season 2 of Andor. 
• Emmet Asher-Perrin is upset by Andor's ending and its use of a tired trope.
  
• Ben Lindbergh shares five takeaways from rewatching Rogue One after Andor
• James Whitbrook shares an ode of Kleya Marki's blaster in the series finale of Andor.
  
• Dalton Ross interviews Tony Gilroy, creator and showrunner of Andor. 
  
• Tara Bennett interviews Tom Bissell, one of the writers of Andor.
• Louis Chilton interviews Rian Johnson, director of The Last Jedi, Knives Out, Glass Onion and Poker Face.
  
• Justin Carter notes that Revenge of the Sith and the two Clone Wars animated series are the foundation of much of modern Star Wars. 
• Cheryl Eddy reports that SAG-AFTRA has called out the video game Fortnite over an AI recreation of James Earl Jones' voice as Darth Vader in a recent Star Wars crossover.
  

 

 Comments on Murderbot:  

• Glen Weldon calls Murderbot the best new comedy of 2025.
  
• Lucy Mangan declares that Murderbot has a funny premise, but falls short.
• Eric Deggans notes that too many great science fiction shows go unnoticed and hopes Murderbot won't be the next
• Alex Brown declares that Murderbot gets off to a bright start, showcasing a wonderfully eclectic cast 
• William Hughes declares that Alexander Skarsgård and David Dastmalchian are easily the best parts of Murderbot's premiere 
  
• Erin Underwood shares her thoughts on the first two episodes of Murderbot.  
• Melody McCune shares her thoughts on the first episode of Murderbot.
• Melody McCune shares her thoughts on the second episode of Murderbot.
• Ryan Britt takes a look at The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon, the fictional science fiction soap opera that Murderbot is obsessed with.

 

 Comments on season 2 of The Last of Us (spoilers):

• Caroline Siede shares her thoughts on “The Price”, the latest episode of The Last of Us.
• Molly Templeton shares her thoughts on “The Price”, the latest episode of The Last of Us.
• Graeme Virtue shares his thoughts “The Price”, the latest episode of The Last of Us.   
• Germain Lussier shares his thoughts“The Price”, the latest episode of The Last of Us.   
• Aaron Jones shares his thoughts on season 2 of The Last of Us to date. 
• Isaiah Colbert declares that the TV adaptation of The Last of Us is afraid of embracing the ambiguity of the games.
• Adam B. Vary interviews Neil Druckmann, co-creator, producer and director of The Last of Us. 
• Christina Radish interviews Craig Mazin, showrunner and co-creator of The Last of Us.
  
• Philip Oltermann reports that Pedro Pascal, star of The Last of Us, The Mandalorian, Fantastic Four: First Steps and many others, has spoken out against Donald Trump's attacks on artists at the Cannes film festival

 

Comments on Doctor Who past, present and future (spoilers): 

• Emmet Asher-Perrin shares their thoughts on “The Interstellar Song Contest”, the sixth episode of series 15 of Doctor Who. 
• James Whitbrook shares his thoughts on “The Interstellar Song Contest”, the sixth episode of series 15 of Doctor Who. 
  
• Martin Belam shares his thoughts on “The Interstellar Song Contest”, the sixth episode of series 15 of Doctor Who. 
• Isobel Lewis shares her thoughts on “The Interstellar Song Contest”, the sixth episode of series 15 of Doctor Who. 
  
• Camestros Felapton shares his thoughts on “The Interstellar Song Contest”, the sixth episode of series 15 of Doctor Who. 
• Melody McCune shares her thoughts on “The Interstellar Song Contest”, the sixth episode of series 15 of Doctor Who. 
• Melody McCune also explains the ending of "The Interstellar Song Contest" and a surprising character return.
  
• Wedaeli Chibelushi reports that Nigerian Doctor Who fans were thrilled that the episode "The Story and the Engine" was set in Lagos.
• Ryan Britt wonders whether Doctor Who is headed for another long hiatus.
  
• Nicola Methven reports that the BBC plans to continue Doctor Who, even if Disney Plus pulls out.
  

 

Comments on season 6 of The Handmaid's Tale: 

• Jackie Strause interviews The Handmaid Tale's author Margaret Atwood, creator and showrunner Bruce Miller as well as several cast and crewmembers.
  
• Lauren Huff interviews  Eric Tuchman and Yahlin Chang, showrunners of The Handmaid's Tale.
• Daniel D'Addario interviews Max Minghella who plays Nick in The Handmaid's Tale.
• Cheryl Eddy notes that the various deaths and survivals in The Handmaid's Tale had to be strategically planned to align with both future plans and The Testaments.  

 

Comments on Star Trek in general: 

• Elijah Gonzales ranks his ten favourite episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
  
• Avery Kaplan traces the history of the holodeck across various iterations of Star Trek.

 

Comments on Final Destination: Bloodlines:

• Leah Schnelbach declares that Final Destination Bloodlines may be the best movie of the franchise
• Mike Miller reports that Final Destinations Bloodlines broke the world record for the oldest person set on fire, when 71-year-old stunt woman Yvette Ferguson came out of retirement to be set ablase for the opening disaster.  
• Germain Lussier interviews Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, directors of Final Destination: Bloodlines 
• Rebecca Rubin reports that Final Destinations Bloodlines has had the best opening weekend for the entire series.
  

 

Comments on Alpha: 

• Peter Bradshaw calls Alpha a disjointed body horror and absolute turkey. 
• Tomris Laffly declares that Alpha drops the body horror and just tortures a metaphor
  

 

Comments on the live action Lilo and Stitch: 

• Jesse Hassenger calls the live action Lilo and Stitch an unnecessary remake, a monstrosity and a ghastly misfire. 
• Jacob Oller calls the live action Lilo and Stitch a dreadful take.
  
• Justin Carter shares early reactions to the live action Lilo and Stitch. 
• Cheryl Eddy declares that in spite of bad reviews, Disney is already pondering a Lilo and Stitch live-action sequel
  

 

 Awards:

• The finalists for the 2025 Theodore A. Sturgeon Memorial Award have been announced.
  
• The finalists for the 2025 Eisner Awards have been announced.
  
• The winners of the 2024 Cóyotl Awards have been announced. 
• The winners of the 2025 Kurd Laßwitz Preis have been announced.
  
• The finalists for the 2025 Seiun Awards have been announced. 
• The winners of the 2025 Romantic Novel Awards have been announced.
  
• Dave Doering discusses the history of SFF fan awards.

 

Writing, publishing and promotion: 

• Linwood Barclay explains how to make everyday things terrifying
  
• Erin Dunn talks about the art of writing genre mash-ups.
  
• Debbie Urbanski explains why writers shouldn't feel obligated to share too much about their lives.
  
• Chris Fox explains why he doesn't use AI in his writing. 
• Matthew Gault reports that Lena McDonald left an AI prompt in her novel Darkhollow Academy: Year 2
• Maia Snow reports that the tech industry has urged the UK parliament to declare that copyright protections do not apply to AI training, against the protests by British creatives and the House of Lords. 
• Jennifer McKiernan reports that the House of Lords demands more protection from AI for British creatives
  
• Dan Gilmo reports that Sir Elton John has spoken out against plans of the UK govenrment to allow tech companies to use copyrighted works for training AI systems without compensation or permission.  
• Clare Duffy reports that more than one hundred organisations are pushing back against the US Republican Party attempting to pass a bill that would ban any kind of AI regulation for ten years.
  
• Bloomberg reports that Google decided against allowing web publishers to opt out of their AI search overview project, because it would have been too complicated.  
• Ed Nawotka reports that Shira Perlmutter, fired former head of the US Copyright Office, is sueing in a Federal Court to get her job back  
• Publishers Weekly reports that the Authors Guild has delivered a petition against Shira Perlmutter's dismissal to the US Congress
  

 

Interviews:

• Emily Wilson interviews Larry Niven.
• Marissa van Uden interviews Ai Jiang. 
• Locus interviews Rita Woods
  

 

Reviews:

• Blue Book Balloon reviews Paladin's Grace by T Kingfisher 
• Paul Weimer reviews Quantum Garden by Derek Künsken  
• Alexandra Pierce reviews The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses by Malka Older
• Melissa A. Watkins reviews Esperance by Adam Oyebanji 
  
• Adrienne Martini reviews The Martian Contingency by Mary Robinette Kowal 
• Rob Bedford reviews The Martian Contingency by Mary Robinette Kowal  
  
• Niall Harrison reviews Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata
• Runalong the Shelves reviews Days of Shattered Faith by Adrian Tchaikovsky 
• Gary K. Wolfe reviews Written on the Dark by Guy Gavriel Kay  
  
• Bill Capossere and Rob Rhodes reviews Written on the Dark by Guy Gavriel Kay  
• Vanessa Armstrong reviews Brighter Than Scale, Swifter Than Flame by Neon Yang. 
• Runalong the Shelves reviews The God Road by David Gullen and To Sail The Interstice by Ben Wright  
  
• Marlene Harris reviews The Glass Garden by Jessica Levai 
• Marlene Harris reviews The Memory Collectors by Dete Meserve 
• James Davis Nicoll reviews Aunt Tigress by Emily Yu-Xuan Qin 
  
• Colleen Mondor reviews All Better Now by Neal Shusterman
• Alex Brown reviews Casual by Koji A. Dae
  
• Julia Kitvaria Sarene reviews Hallowed by Y. R. Liu 
• Bill Capossere reviews The Ashfire King by Chelsea Abdullah
• Paul Weimer reviews Birth of a Dynasty by Chinaza Bado 
• Xan Brooks reviews The Book of Records by Madeleine Thien 
• Clare Clark reviews The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey
• Julia Kitvaria Sarene reviews Warlock at Law by R.L. Baranowski
  
• Lesa Holstine reviews Death at a Highland Wedding by Kelley Armstrong  
• Julia Kitvaria Sarene reviews The Green Wyvern, Volume One by Matt Heppe 
  
• James Davis Nicoll reviews Sky Pride Volume 1 by Warby Picus 
• Marion Deeds reviews A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett
  
• Alex Puncekar reviews You’ve Lost a Lot of Blood by Eric LaRocca
• Ed Crocker reviews Breathe In, Bleed Out by Brian McAuley
• Steven Poole reviews The AI Con by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna 
• Ian Mond reviews Colourfields: Writing About Writing About Science Fiction by Paul Kincaid

 

Classics reviews:

• Jim Kozubek revisits the 1818 science fiction novel Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley. 
• Sam Reader revisits the 1859 horror story “What Was It?” by Fitz-James O’Brien 
  
• Ed Simon revisits the 1900 children's fantasy novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.
• Gabrielle Bellot revisits the 1941 science fiction story "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov.
  
• James Davis Nicoll revisits the 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury 
• Carl Abrahamsson also revisits the 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.
• Dave Hook revisits the 1959 anthology A Treasury of Great Science Fiction, Volume One & Two, edited by Anthony Boucher.
• Mayri Cooper revisits the 1962 science fiction novel Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper.
  
• Gideon Marcus revisits the June 1970 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. 
• Victoria Silverwolf revisits the June 1970 issue of Worlds if Tomorrow.
  
• Kris Vyas-Myall revisits the June 1970 issue of Vision of Tomorrow. 
• Victoria Silverwolf revisits the 1970 science fiction novel Vector by Henry Sutton, Biran Collins revisits the 1970 science fiction novel Tau Zero by Poul Anderson and Cora Buhlert revisits the 1970 Dominic Flandry space opera novel A Circus of Hells by Poul Anderson.
• Brian Collins revisits the 1973 science fiction novel The Dream Millennium by James White 
• Christopher Lockett revisits the 1987 Discworld fantasy novel Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett. 
• Alissa Burger revisits the 1988 Final Friends YA horror trilogy by Christopher Pike. 
• Elizabeth Costello revisits the 1990 science fiction collection Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree Jr.
  
• Alex Brown revisits the 2000 fantasy novel Wheel of the Infinite by Martha Wells.
  
• Brian Collins revisits the 2001 science fiction novella “Yesterday’s Tomorrows” by Kate Wilhelm 
• John Mauro revisits the 2014 zombie novel The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey  

 

Comments on the Seattle Worldcon ChatGPT controversy:

• Cora Buhlert offers a round-up of responses and reactions to the Seattle Worldcon ChatGPT controversy.
  
• Joe Wilkins offers an overview over the Seattle Worldcon ChatGPT controversy.

 

 Con and event reports:

• Fox45 reports about the 2025 Balticon in Baltimore, Maryland.
  
• Kevin Standlee reports that Santa Clara, California, is bidding for the 2027 Westercon. 
• Nicole Saraneiro reports about a visit to Rocket Park in Queens, New York, a leftover exhibition from the 1964 World Fair in New York City.
  
• Sabina Graves reports about the 70th anniversary celebrations of Disneyland in Anaheim, California.
• Aidin Vaziri reports that the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles has laid off 14% of its full-time staff, a year ahead of its scheduled opening in 2026. 
• Sabina Graves shares everything you need to know about the new Epic Universe attraction at the Universal Studios theme park in Orlando, Florida.  
  
• Sabina Graves shares all the spooky details she loved at Epic Universe’s Darkmoor attraction at the Universal Studios theme park in Orlando, Florida. 
  

 

Science and technology:

• Matthew Williams reports that a SETI survey has revealed unexplained pulses from distant stars
• Mark Piesing reports about space archaeologists who try to preserve infrastructure and artefacts of human space travel that are at risk of being lost or destroyed.  
• Jamie Carter explains why the skies of Mars will turn green this week. 
• Kate Payne reports about a lawsuit in Florida where a family sued an AI company after an AI character chatbot allegedly caused a teenager to commit suicide. 
• Maxwell Zeff reports that Anthropic’s new Claude Opus 4 AI model has attempted to blackmail developers to prevent them from turning it off.  
• Liv McMahon reports that AI systems tend to resort to blackmail if told they will be removed 
  
• Emine Saner profiles Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI and one of the worst people in the world.
  
• Jamie Grierson reports that Alan Turing's papers, which were saved from the shredder, are going up for auction,
  
• Robert "Ed" Smylie, the NASA engineer who saved the Apollo 13 crew with duct tape, cardboard and plastic bags, has died aged 95.

 

Gaming: 

• Isaiah Colbert reviews Doom: The Dark Ages
• Christian Donlan and Keith Stuart share  the twelve greatest homes in video game history

 

Toys and collectibles:

• Pixel Dan reviews the Mattel Masters of the Universe Origins Rio Blast, Demo-Man, Geldor, Vultak and Hurricane Hordak action figures.
• James Whitbrook shares a look at the Doctor Who Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby Sunday Barbie and Ken dolls by Mattel.
  

 

Free online fiction: 

• "We, the Fleet" by Alex T. Singer in Clarkesworld. 
• "Descent" by Wole Talabi in Clarkesworld.
• "The Liberation of Brother Buffalo" by Michael Boatman in Apex Magazine.
  
• "Edward Fish’s Folly" by Zachary Olson in Swords and Sorcery Magazine.
• "Notes from the Graft Failure" by R. Diego Martinez in Nightmare Magazine 
  
• "Apostasy in Fruit" by Moustapha Mbacké Diop in The Dark.
• "The Seed Dropper" by Simone J. Banks in Grist.
  
• "Asymmetrical" by Garth Nix in Reactor.
• "Circus Skills" by Seán Padraic Birnie in Interzone Digital. 
• "Through the Machine" by P.A. Cornell in Lightspeed.  
• "Where Are They Now? by Meg Elison in Lightspeed.
  
  

Trailers and videos:

• Watch a sneak peak for season 2 of Wednesday.
  
• Watch a trailer for Predator: Killer of Killers 
• Watch a trailer for It: Welcome to Derry. 
• Watch a trailer for Fountain of Youth.
• Watch a trailer for Jurassic Park Rebitrth 
• Watch a trailer for The Exit 8. 
• Watch a trailer for Zootopia 2.