Speculative Fiction Links of the Week for August 29, 2025

 

It's time for the latest weekly round-up of interesting links about speculative fiction from around the web, this week with the 2025 Worldcon in Seattle, Washington, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek in general, Masters of the Universe in general, Peacemaker and the DC Cinematic Universe in general, season 3 of Foundation, Star Wars in general, the Marvel Cinematic Universe in general, Alien Earth, Outlander: Blood of My Blood, Invasion and much more.

Speculative fiction in general:

• Julia Kitvaria Sarene shares her favourite self-published epic fantasy books. 
• Julia Kitvaria Sarene shares her favourite self-published urban fantasy books. 
• Julia Kitvaria Sarene shares her favourite self-published gimdark fantasy books.  
• Julia Kitvaria Sarene shares her favourite self-published cosy fantasy books.   
• Logan Karlie shares five romantasy books where the love interest’s face is hidden  
• Peter Rosch shares five novels on the dark allure of our inner (and outer) demons  
• Rebecca Stone Gordon talks about archaeology in horror fiction 
• Lyndsey Faye finds some parallels between the legend of the golem and artificial intelligence.
• Mark Satta notes that George Orwell’s opposition to totalitarianism was rooted in his support for freeing workers from poverty and exploitation 
• Kat Tenbarge talks about a backlash against Harry Potter merchandise and marketing due to J.K. Rowling's transphobia. 
• Tom Tivnan reports that children's book author Julia Donaldson has become the first author to break the NielsenIQ BookScan 50-million-unit barrier 
• Science fiction fan and lawyer Guy H. Lillian III has died aged 76. 
• Rich Lynch remembers lawyer and science fiction fan Guy Lillian III who died aged 76. 
• The Guardian remembers Greg Iles  

 

Comics and Art:

• Michael Whelan shares his ideas and inspirations for the covers for the Del Rey editions of Isaac Asimov's Foundation novels. 
• Tom Gauld shares a cartoon on multi-floor bookstores.

 

Film and TV: 

• Petrana Radulovic lists all the SFF TV shows coming out in September.
• Petrana Radulovic lists all the SFF movies coming out in September. 
• Camestros Felapton notes that Sinners is very good. 
• Olivia Rutigliano talks about the environmental anxiety of the film adaptation of The Sisters Brothers  
• Phil Hoad calls Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing a garbled story of metaverse musicians based on a mobile game that leaves its audience little to grasp hold of 
• Catherine Bray praises the performances of Ella Balinska and Rob Delaney in the science fiction thriller The Occupant. 
• Ann Michelle Harris shares her thoughts on season 2 of the anime The Apothecary Diaries 
• Grimdark Magazine share their thoughts on Bring Her Back. 
• Isaiah Colbert shares his thoughts on the latest episode of Dan Da Dan. 
• Rich Pelley interviews Ridley Scott, director of Alien, Blade Runner and many others. 
• Danielle Directo-Meston interviews Craig Mazin, showrunner of The Last of Us. 
• Ellie Harrison interviews Nikolaj Coster-Waldau who played Jaime Lannister in Game of Thrones.  
• Brian Davids interviews David DiGilio, screenwriter of The Terminal List and Tron Ares.  
• Simon Bland interviews the director and stars of the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. 
• Kayleigh Donaldson discusses how the animated film The Thief and the Cobbler was taken away from its director and turned into a cheap knock-off of Disney's Aladdin.  
• Kris Vyas-Myall revisits the 1967 Czech proto-Steampunk film The Stolen Airship and the 1967 experimental film Herostratus.
• Tim Ford revisits the 1995 French science fantasy film The City of Lost Children 
• Keith R.A. DeCandido revisits season 3 of Babylon 5, which aired in 1995/1996. 
• Gillian Bennett revisits the 1999 science fiction TV series Roswell. 
• Ana Carpenter revisits the 2006 dystopian movie Children of Men. 
• Dan Persons revisits the 2008 animated science fiction film Wall-E. 
• Kali Wallace revisits the 2019 science ficiton horror movie Pandorum. 
• Mary Kate Carr reports that Harry Potter film director Chris Columbus is wondering "what's the point" of the reboot TV series. 
• Saloni Gajjar praises the Emmy-Nominated make-up design of Interview with the Vampire. 
• Isaiah Colbert reports that the animation studio Qzil.la has denied using generative AI for the anime Sekiro: No Defeat 
• Vanessa Armstrong reports that K-Pop Demon Hunters is now Netflix's most watched movie of all time.  
• Animator Phil Mulloy has died aged 76. 
• Actor and screenwriter David Ketchum, best known for playing Agent 13 in Get Smart, has died aged 97. 
• Actor Jerry Ader, best known for his appearances in The Sopranos, The Good Wife, Northern Exposure, Quantum Leap and many others, has died aged 96. 

 

Comments on Masters of the Universe in general:

• The return of the fansite He-Man.org is announced.
• James Eatock revisits the 1985 Masters of the Universe illustrated readalong audio book "The Power of the Evil Horde" by Tim Kilpin with artwork by Bruce Timm.   

 

Comments on season 3 of Foundation: 

• Melody McCune shares her thoughts on “Foundation's End”, the latest episode of season 3 of Foundation.
• Paul Levinson shares his thoughts on “Foundation's End”, the latest episode of season 3 of Foundation.
• Cheryl Eddy shares her thoughts on “Foundation's End”, the latest episode of season 3 of Foundation. 
• Cheryl Eddy interviews Brandon P. Bell who plays Han Pritcher in Foundation.
• Cheryl Eddy interviews Cherry Jones who plays Ambassador Quent in Foundation. 

Comments on Peacemaker and the DC Cinematic Universe in general: 

• Emmet Asher-Perrin shares their thoughts on the season 2 premiere of Peacemaker.  
• Graeme Virtue declares that John Cena puts in an Emmy-worthy performance in Peacemaker.
• William Hughes declares that  with the one-two punch of Superman and Peacemaker season two, James Gunn seems to be deliberately rejecting the idea that his superhero universe will have any limits in either direction.
• Inspired by Superman and Fantastic Four: First Steps, Mike Mariani notes that wholesome, noble superheroes are back in fashion, even if the world is anything but noble and wholesome. 
• J.L. Akagi compares different depictions of Lois Lane on screen. 
• Saloni Gajjar interviews Christin Milioti who plays Sofia Falcone in The Penguin.  

 

Comments on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek in general: 

• Keith R.A. DeCandido shares his thoughts on “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans”, the latest episode of season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.   
• James Whitbrook shares his thoughts on “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans”, the latest episode of season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.  
• Caroline Siede shares her thoughts on “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans”, the latest episode of season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.    
• Avery Kaplan shares her thoughts on “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans”, the latest episode of season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.     
• Melody McCune shares her favourite quotes from “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans”, the latest episode of season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.     
• Avery Kaplan and Diana Keng share their thoughts on “What is Starfleet?”, the previous episode of season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.     
• James Whitbrook ranks the various journalists who have appeared in Star Trek over the years.
• Jeff Spry interviews Valerie Weiss, director of several Star Trek Strange New Worlds episodes. 

 

Comments on Star Wars in general: 

• Ben Child wonders why the Star Wars sequel trilogy was so forgettable.
• William Hughes reports that Katee Sackhoff has declared that she could not identify with the character of Bo-Katan Kryze in The Mandalorian, in spite of voicing the same character in various Star Wars cartoon series. 

 

Comments on Alien: Earth:

• Leah Schnelbach shares her thoughts on the latest episode of Alien Earth.
• Matt Schimkowitz shares his thoughts on the latest episode of Alien Earth. 
• Germain Lussier shares his thoughts on the latest episode of Alien Earth.  
• James Hibberd interviews Noah Hawley, creator and showrunner of Alien Earth.
• Mike Hale reports about the filming of Alien: Earth in Thailand. 

 

Comments on Outlander: Blood of My Blood: 

• Melody McCune shares her thoughts on the latest episode of Outlander: Blood of My Blood. 
• Tara Bennett interviews Matt Roberts, showrunner of Outlander: Blood of My Blood.  

 

Comments on the Marvel Cinematic Universe in general: 

• Kenneth Lowe revisits the 2013 Marvel TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.   
• David Canfield interviews Chloé Zhao, director of Eternals. 
• Justin Carter reports that according to actor Kumail Nanjiani, there were much bigger plans for Marvel's Eternals.  

 

Comments on Invasion: 

• Diana Keng shares her thoughts on the season 2 premiere of Invasion.
• Diana Keng visits the Brutalist Convocation Mall at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, which served as a filming location for Invasion. 

 

Awards:

• The winners of the 2025 Silver Falchion Awards have been announced. 
• The winner of the 2025 YA Book Prize has been announced. 
• The winners of the 2025 American Manga Awards have been announced.  
• The winners of the 2025 Gamescom Awards have been announced.

 

Writing, publishing and promotion: 

• Tim Lebbon talks about creating villains. 
• S.J. Fleet explains how they went from writing non-fiction to legal thrillers. 
• Cerys Davis reports that the AI company Anthropic has agreed to a settlement in the class action lawsuit brought against them by multiple writers whose books were pirated to train Anthropic's large language model. 
• Annelise Levy also reports about the settlement of the class action lawsuit against Anthropic AI. 
• Sophia Stewart reports that US National Endowment for the Arts’ 2026 Creative Writing Fellowships have been cancelled due to the Trump government pulling funding. 
• Steven Poole lists twenty frequently banned books.
   

 Interviews:

• Scott Eldeman interviews Mur Lafferty. 
• Runalong the Shelves reviews R.J. Barker.
• Lacy Baugher Milas interviews Maggie Stiefvater. 

 

Reviews: 

• Liz Bourke reviews The Two Lies of Faven Sythe by Megan E. O’Keefe 
• Gary K. Wolfe reviews Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz  
• Marlene Harris reviews Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz 
• Bill Capossere reviews Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky 
• Mary Picken reviews The Transcendent Tide by Doug Johnstone  
• Niall Harrison reviews Minds in Transit by Joan Slonczewski 
• James Davis Nicoll reviews Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky 
• Alex Wallace reviews Children of Doro by M. L. Clark  
• Maya C. James reviews All the Ash We Leave Behind by C. Robert Cargill 
• Liz Bourke reviews Penric and the Bandit by Lois McMaster Bujold
• Rob Bedford reviews Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me by Django Wexler.  
• Marlene Harris reviews The Late-Night Witches by Auralee Wallace 
• Daniel Dern reviews Stone & Sky by Ben Aaronovitch.
• Runalong the Shelves reviews Bones & Betrayals - Silence of the Dead by Andi Ewington and Erica Marks
• Julia Kitvaria Sarene reviews Beggar’s Rebellion by Levi Jacobs 
• Marlene Harris reviews Making History by K. J. Parker 
• Julia Kitvaria Sarene reviews Ain’t No Witch: The Wanderings of Mamma Lucy by John Linwood Grant 
• Mahvesh Murad reviews Mad Sisters of Esi by Tashan Mehta  
• James Davis Nicoll reviews Mad Sisters of Esi by Tashan Mehta 
• Fiona Denton reviews The Last Vigilant by Mark A. Latham 
• Joanne Anderton reviews Fate’s Bane by C.L. Clark  
• Runalong the Shelves reviews Tideborn by Eliza Chan  
• Arturo Serrano reviews The Raven Key by Harper L. Carnes  
• Esmay Rosalyne reviews To Touch a Silent Fury by R. A. Sandpiper  
• Chris Kluwe reviews When They Burned the Butterfly by Wen-yi Lee 
• Esmay Rosalyne reviews The Fallen and the Kiss of Dusk by Carissa Broadbent 
• Maura Krause reviews Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab  
• Jenny Hamilton reviews This Is My Body by Lindsay King-Miller 
• Ian Mond reviews Curandera by Irenosen Okojie 
• Roseanna Pendlebury reviews Katabasis by R.F. Kuang  
• Grimdark Magazine reviews Katabasis by R.F. Kuang 
• Colleen Mondor reviews Polybius by Collin Armstrong 
• Doreen Sheridan reviews The Confessions by Paul Bradley Carr 
• Ali Karim reviews Whistle by Linwood Barclay  
• Archita Mittra reviews Cinder House by Freya Marske  
• Bill Capossere reviews Daedalus is Dead by Seamus Sullivan 
• Sam Byers reviews Good and Evil and Other Stories by Samanta Schweblin  
• Ali Karim reviews The End of the World As We Know It, edited by Christopher Golden and Brian Keene  
• James Davis Nicoll reviews Sinopticon - A Celebration of Chinese Science Fiction, edited by Xueting Christine Ni 
• Dana A. Williams reviews Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler by Susana M. Morris 
• Jamie Sutcliffe reviews Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction And The Alt-Right by Jordan S. Carroll.

 

Classics reviews:

• Ruthanna Emrys and Anne M. Pillsworth revisit the 1859 supernatural story “The Lifted Veil” by George Eliot.  
• Brian Collins revisits the 1926 dark fantasy story “The Woman of the Wood” by A. Merritt 
• Sandy Ferber revisits the 1926 humorous fantasy novel Topper by Thorne Smith 
• Bobby Derie revisits the 1935 Jirel of Joiry sword and sorcerey story "Jirel Meets Magic" by C.L. Moore. 
• David L. Ulin revisits the 1950 science fiction fix-up novel The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury.
• James Davis Nicoll revisits the 1963 anthology Stories of Suspense, edited by Mary E. MacEwen 
• John Coulthart revisits the 1966 science fiction novel The Crystal World by J.G. Ballard. 
• Cora Buhlert revisits the 1970 weird fiction collection Zothique by Clark Ashton Smith. 
• Sam Reader revisits the 1974 time travel story  “A Little Something for Us Tempunauts” by Philip K. Dick
• Christopher Lockett revisits the 1990 Discworld fantasy novel Eric by Terry Pratchett.
• James Davis Nicoll revisits the 1990 science fiction collection Facets by Walter Jon Williams 
• Fantasy Faction revisits the 1990 humorous science fiction novel Phule’s Company by Robert Asprin 
   
   

Reports about the 2025 Worldcon in Seattle, Washington: 

• Grigory Lukin shares his experiences at the 2025 Worldcon in Seattle, Washington. 
• Chris M. Barkley shares his experiences at the 2025 Worldcon in Seattle, Washington. 
• Miri Baker shares her issues with the 2025 Worldcon in Seattle, Washington, in particular and with Worldcon in general.

 

Other con and event reports:

• Sarah Waiswa shares several photos of the Otamatsuri Anime x Manga in Nairobi, Kenya. 
• Mike Glyer shares the program for the New York Science Fiction Film Festival in New York City. 
• Kaye Dee reports about the 1970 Expo in Osaka, Japan.
• Germain Lussier reports about a very science fictional Backstreet Boys concert at the Sphere in Las Vegas, Nevada, 

 

Science and technology:

• Ima Caldwell reports that the world's first osmotic power plants has opened in Fukuoka, Japan. 
• Hannah Devlin reports that the oldest known ankylosaur fossil has been found in Morocco 
• Anna Iovine explains why internet age verification laws are so problematic.
• Zachary Small discusses the impact of the Trump government's policies on museums across the US  
• Ellyn Lapointe reports that birds are singing longer than before due to light pollution. 
• The New York Times reports about silicon doodles found on older computer chips. 
   

Gaming: 

• Susan Dennard shares five video games for every type of SFF reader 
• James Davis Nicoll lists five SFF book series adapted into roleplaying games. 
• Alex Taylor profiles British gamer and Twitch streamer Alyce Rocha 
• C.T. Phipps reviews the video game Lies of P 

 

Toys and collectibles:

• Toy Habits reviews the Mattel Masters of the Universe Masterverse Vintage Collection Stratos action figure.  
• Pixel Dan reviews the Mattel Masters of the Universe x Transformers Megatron Armor Skeletor and Bumblebee Armor Man-at-Arms. 
• James Whitbrook reports that the Hasbro Star Wars Black Series Revenge of the Sith Anakin and Obi-Wan figures, which were released as a two-pack as a San Diego Comic Con exclusive, will receive individual releases, but without some of the additional accessories of the two-pack.
• James Whitbrook shares a look at the Bandai S.H. Figuarts Spider-Man action figure. 
• Germain Lussier shares a look at the Lego Pirates of the Caribbean Black Pearl set.
• Jessica Leigh Hester reports about memorabilia inspired by the Soviet canine cosmonauts Laika, Belka and Strelka. 

 

Free online fiction: 

• "The Hungry Mouth at the Edge of Space and the Goddess Knitting at Home" by Renan Bernardo in Reactor. 
• "A Dream of Twin Sunsets" by Ryan Cole in Clarkesworld.
• "Vwooom!" by Uchechukwu Nwaka in Clarkesworld. 
• "To Access Seven Obelisks, Press Enter" by V.M. Ayala in Lightspeed.  
• "Anti-Capitalism vs. the Man of Flowers" by Naomi Kanakia in Lightspeed.  
• "Little Trinkets" by A. J. Sharpe in The Deadlands. 
• "Soft Edges" by Elizabeth Bear in The Sunday Morning Transport.
• "Denizens of My Face" by Emil Morrell in Apex Magazine.
• "The Capture" by Raja'a Khalid in Strange Horizons.  
• " Yesterday" by A.M. Barrie in Strange Horizons. 
• "The Taint" by Anne Wilkins in The Dark.

Trailers and videos:

• Watch a trailer for Deathstalker. 
• Watch a trailer for season 3 of Alice in Borderland. 
• Watch a trailer for Robin Hood. 
• Watch a trailer for Arco.
• Watch a trailer for The Toxic Avenger. 
• Watch a trailer for 100 Nights of Hero. 
• Watch a trailer for Night of the Reaper. 
• Watch a trailer for V/H/S Halloween. 
• Watch a trailer for Return to Silent Hill. 
• Watch a trailer for Bone Lake.