Speculative Fiction Links of the Week for June 12, 2026

 

It's time for the latest weekly round-up of interesting links about speculative fiction from around the web, this week with the upcoming Masters of the Universe live action film and Masters of the Universe in general, Spider-Noir and the Marvel Cinematic and TV Universe in general, Widow's Bay, Disclosure Day, Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Lestat and much more.

Speculative fiction in general:

• Readers of the Guardian share their one hundred favourite novels of all time. 
• Alex Brown shares five queer YA books for pride month 
• S.D. Coverly shares five SFF novels about murder on campus 
• Cynthia Pelayo lists five dark and speculative adaptations of Peter Pan 
• Lorna Wallace shares five horror books featuring older protagonists 
• N.K. Jemisin shares the text of her SFWA Grand Master speech. 
• Kelly Robinson lists eight overlooked characters from Lewis Carroll’s Alice books 
• Literary scholar Alan Gribben who removed some slurs from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain has died aged 84.  

   

Comics and Art:

• Ann Michelle Harris reviews Absolute Wonder Woman Volumes 1 and 2 by Kelly Thompson, Hayden Sherman, Mattia De Iulis and Jordie Bellaire,  
• Alex Jennings takes a look at the Absolute Universe by DC Comics.  
• Tom Gauld shares a cartoon on book lies. 
• Comics scholar John A. Lent has died aged 89.  

  

Film and TV:

• Haley Zapal calls The Mandalorian and Grogu basically just a no-stakes, super-long episode of The Mandalorian
• Cath Clarke calls Signal One a high-concept, low-risk first contact film. 
• Josh Pearce reviews Exit 8 
• James Grebey declares that the new Scary Movie ends a horror era so dumb even Scary Movie figured it out
• Amelia Emberwing interviews the cast of The Legend of Vox Machina. 
• Vanessa Armstrong interviews Chinaza Uche who plays Coffee in The Terror: Devil in Silver.  
• Tyler Dean revisits the 1988 fantasy film The Adventures of Baron Münchausen:
• Keith R.A. DeCandido revisits the 1998 Babylon 5 episode “Darkness Ascending” 
• Eleanor Margolis revisits the 1999 found footage horror film The Blair Witch Project.  
• Radha Vatsal revisits the 2015 post-apocalyptic action film Mad Max: Fury Road.
• Kali Wallace revisits the 2017 horror film The Endless.  

 

Comments on the Masters of the Universe live action film and Masters of the Universe in general:

• Branyan Towe calls Masters of the Universe endlessly fun, with a surprising amount of heart. 
• Jack Bottomly calls Masters of the Universe a colourful, hopeful, blast from start to finish which seriously has the power. 
• Erik Kain calls Masters Of The Universe a surprisingly great He-Man movie
• Amy Koto calls Masters of the Universe an entertaining watched filled with nostalgia. 
• Jason Colavito talks about the experience of watching Masters of the Universe with his nine-year-old son.  
• Dave McRae declares that Masters of the Universe is great.  
• Liam Gaughan calls Masters of the Universe an unabashedly geeky, good-natured fantasy romp 
• Considering Stories calls Masters of the Universe a fun two hours long meditation on the failures of inflexible fathers and the hopes for heroes to rise despite their shaky origins
• Keith Carlington notes that Masters of the Universe is built upon a genuine affection for the source material. 
• Ali Rizvi declares that Masters of the Universe gets it (mostly) right 
• CastleMania Games shares a spoilerish review of Masters of the Universe.  
• Brian Particelli interviews Nicholas Galitzine and Dolph Lundgren who plays He-Man in the 2026 and 1987 Masters of the Universe movie respectively.  
• Hayley Campbell interviews Sir Idris Elba who plays Duncan a.k.a. Man-at-Arms in Masters of the Universe.  
• Peri Nemiroff interviews Alison Brie who plays Evil-Lyn in Masters of the Universe.  
• He-Mania interviews Kojo Attah who plays Tri-Klops in Masters of the Universe. 
• He-Mania.com interviews James Wilkinson who plays Mekaneck in Masters of the Universe. 
• Matt Minton interviews Daniel Pemberton who composed the score for Masters of the Universe. 
• Hannah Hart notes that the inexplicable backlash against Masters of the Universe and The Mandalorian and Grogu says more about cinemagoers and the sorry state of film criticism than about those movies.  
• Listen to the Masters of the Universe soundtrack by Daniel Pemberton and others. 

 Comments on Spider-Noir and the Marvel Cinematic and TV Universe in general:

• Ellery Weil discusses where Spider-Noir fails to live up to its genre — and where it succeeds 
• Rosy Cordero interviews Spider-Noir co-showrunner, writer and executive producer Oren Uziel and actors Lamorne Morris, Jack Huston and Karen Rodriguez.

 

Comments on the future of Doctor Who:  

• Nadia Khomani reports that the 2026 Doctor Who Christmas Special has been cancelled and that the BBC has parted ways with Russell T. Davies and is looking for a new showrunner and production company.   
• Martin Belam wonders whether Doctor Who will survive the exit of Russell T. Davies.  
• Jessica Holmes revisits the 1971 Doctor Who serial "The Daemons".  

 

Comments on Widow's Bay:  

• Stuart Heritage explains why everyone should be watching Widow’s Bay 
• Erik Adams insists that everybody should watch Widow's Bay.  
• Cheryl Eddy shares her thoughts on the latest episode of Widow's Bay.  
• Emma Fraser interviews Matthew Rhys, star of Widow's Bay.   

 

Comments on Disclosure Day: 

• Pete Hammond calls Disclosure Day a masterful 1970s style thriller. 
• Peter Bradshaw calls Disclosure Day a conspiracy spectacular.  
• Nicholas Barber calls Disclosure Day a flimsy alien drama that feels like a drab X-Files episode. 
• Monica Castillo declares that Steven Spielberg phones it in with Disclosure Day 
• Germain Lussier calls Disclosure Day an unforgettable Steven Spielberg science fiction spectacle  
• Aaron Jones shares his thoughts on Disclosure Day.  

 

Comments on Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Lestat:

• Saloni Gajjar declares that the already great Interview With The Vampire enters its vibrant Vampire Lestat era
• Molly Templeton shares her thoughts on "Detroit", the first episode of The Vampire Lestat.  
• Vanessa Armstrong interviews Sam Reid who plays Lestat and Jarda Klapek in The Vampire Lestat
• Gavia Baker-Whitelaw interviews Daniel Hart, who composed the score for Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Lestat.  

 

Awards:

• The finalists for the 2026 Theodore A. Sturgeon Memorial Award have been announced. 
• The finalists for the 2026 Ignyte Awards have been announced.  
• The shortlist for the 2026 Future Worlds Prize has been announced. 
• The semifinalists for the 2026 Self-Published Science Fiction Competition have been announced. 
• The recipients for the 2026 Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award have been announced. 
• The winners of the 2026 Tony Awards have been announced.  

 Writing, publishing and promotion: 

• Brook Wilensky-Lanford talks about finding the perfect title. 
• Locus reports that Subterranean Books will close in late 2027.  
• Hillel Italie shares a guide to bookstores owned by authors. 

 

Interviews:

• Locus interviews Isabel J. Kim. 
• Joel Miller intervies Guy Gavriel Kay.  
• Ed Crocker interviews C.J. Leede. 

 

Reviews:   

• Daniel Dern reviews Radiant Star by Ann Leckie.  
• Adrienne Martini reviews The Best of All Possible Planets by Alex Shvartsman  
• Sasha Bonkowsky reviews The Photonic Effect by Mike Chen.
• Marlene Harris reviews Cash and Gravity by Perrin Pring 
• Mark Yon reviews The Traveller by Joseph Eckert.  
• Marlene Harris reviews Valet by J.P. Lacrampe 
• Cory Doctorow reviews Obstetrix by Naomi Kritzer.  
• Michael Faber reviews The End of Everything by M. John Harrison 
• Vanessa Armstrong reviews The Tapestry of Fate by Shannon Chakraborty  
• Marlene Harris reviews Field Guide for the Formerly Villainous by Autumn K. England 
• Julia Kitvaria Sarene reviews Charms, Charts, and Conspiracies by David Green
• Paul Weimer reviews The Final Chronicle of Yeneh by Jo Miles
• Alex Wallace reviews The Palace of Eros by Caro de Robertis 
• Bill Capossere reviews Mortedant’s Peril by R.J. Barker  
• Marlene Harris reviews Heaven’s Graveyard by Grace Curtis 
• Stuart Cripps-Schnoor reviews Daughter of Crows by Mark Lawrence  
• Summer Hanford reviews Breath of the Dragon by Shannon Lee and Fonda Lee 
• Esmay Rosalyne reviews Rising Gale by Z.B. Steele  
• Christopher Keene reviews Iron Prince by Bryce O’Connor and Luke Chmilenko 
• C.T. Phipps reviews Anarch by Dan Abnett 
• Niall Harrison reviews What We Are Seeking by Cameron Reed 
• Rob Bedford reviews It Came From Neverland by Cynthia Pelayo. 
• Ian Mond reviews Department of the Vanishing by Johanna Bell 
• Molly Templeton reviews An Impossibility of Crows by Kirsten Kaschock. 
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Dead First by Johnny Compton  
• Arley Sorg reviews My Dear You by Rachel Khong 

 

Classics reviews:

• Sandy Ferber revisits the 1964 weird fiction anthology Worlds of Weird, edited by Leo Margulies
• Alan Brown revisits the 1967 TV adaptation Star Trek and its 1968 sequel Star Trek 2 by James Blish. 
• Gideon Marcus revisits the July 1971 issue of Galaxy.  
• George Pritchard revisits the 1971 science fiction anthology Universe 1, edited by Terry Carr. 
• Runalong the Shelves revisits the 1972 science fiction novel The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Kat Hooper revisits the 2005 Pip and Flinx space opera Running from the Deity by Alan Dean Foster 

 

Con and event reports:

• Meredith G. White recounts how Phoenix Fan Fusion in Phoenix, Arizona, grew from small comic con to pop culture giant

 

Science and technology:

• Brendan Byrne reports that NASA has appointed four astronauts for the Artemis III mission 
• Andy Tomaswick reports that space telescopes are now overwhelmed by satellite trails 
• Space Daily reports that in 1977 a radio telescope in Delaware, Ohio, picked up an extremely strong and clear radio signal from the diection of Sagittarius, which has never been heard again.  
• Douglas Fox reports that Earth’s stratosphere is a mysterious superhighway for microbes 
• Thomas Ling explains why cats love sitting on laptops. 
• Caitlin Mullen talks about the legend of the Jersey Devil. 

 

Gaming: 

• Matthew Castle calls 007 First Light a triumphant James Bond game made by obsessive fans
• Matthew Castle interviews Patrick Gibson who portrays James Bond in 007 Frst Light. 

 

Toys and collectibles:

• ToyBro reviews the Harbinger Studios Savage Crucible Elric of Melniboné action figure. 

 

Free online fiction: 

• "Immigrant Girl from the End of the World" by Hannah Yang in Uncanny Magazine 
• "A Princess of the East" by Matthew Ilseman in Swords and Sorcery Magazine.
• "The Beach House with Its Back to the Sea" by Íde Hennessy in The Dark. 
• "No Agency Without Identity! Stay In Character Always!" by James Patrick Kelly in Reactor.  
• "The Devil in the Details" by Rev. Joe Kelly in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly. 
• "Ice, Rock, Empathy" by Damián Neri in Clarkesworld. 
• "A Life Measured in Seconds" by Anne Wilkins in Clarkesworld. 
• "My Suicides" by Debbie Urbanski in Apex Magazine.  
• "Memeostasis" by Benjamin Rosenbaum in Lightspeed. 
• "An Oral History of the Schooner Key Invasion" by Alex Irvine in Lightspeed.  

 

Trailers and videos:

• Watch a trailer for Enola Holmes 3.  
• Watch a trailer for The Dog Stars.
• Watch a trailer for Walking Dead: Dead City.