And here is our weekly round-up of interesting links about speculative fiction from around the web, this week with commentary on the Fantastic Four movie as well as the latest twist of the endless Hugo debate.
Speculative fiction in general:
- Eric Norton takes a look at upcoming SF and fantasy releases and trends.
- Ann Leckie, Alastair Reynolds and Kim Stanley Robinson discuss how important it is for science fiction to correctly extrapolate towards the future.
- Adam Rowe explains how a misunderstanding in the 1870s created an entire science fiction subgenre.
- Buck Rogers finds himself at the centre of a copyright row.
- Jeff Somers shares 8 dated science fiction novels still worth reading.
- Ian Sales wonders why space opera so rarely exploits the full potential of the subgenre.
- Aidan Moher shares his appreciation for Cordelia's Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold.
- The G. shares his appreciation for Old Man's War by John Scalzi.
- Ha-Joon Chang shares his appreciation for The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
- Jake Kerridge profiles Brian Aldiss.
- Stephen Benedict Dyson profiles Liu Cixin.
- Will Lawrence profiles Peter Dinklage.
- Petra Mayer profiles Beverly Jenkins.
- Kari Sperring talks about comfortable misogyny in and outside the SFF world.
- Anthony Vicino asks where all the people of colour in science fiction and fantasy cover art are.
- John Scalzi speculates why some people vehemently dislike him.
- Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt complain about the increasing prevalence of trigger warnings.
- Maddy Myers responds and explains why trigger warnings are importat and helpful.
- Piers Bizony explains how 2001: A Space Odyssey changed cinematic design.
- Rich Trenholm explains why prequels always suck and how to make sure that they don't.
- Scott Mendelson wonders why the male lead in the upcoming Wonder Woman movie can't be a mere love interest.
Comments on Fantastic Four:
- Rick Klaw calls Fantastic Four one of the worst superhero movies of all time.
- Andrew Liptak wonders whether the Fantastic Four reboot was doomed from the start.
- Anthony Breznican wonders why Fantastic Four director Josh Trank would slam his own movie.
- Drew McWeeny tries to figure out what really happened with the Fantastic Four movie.
- Joseph Baxter shares the lessons to be learned from the new Fantastic Four movie.
- Dan Weitz wonders whether the Fantastic Four in general aren't losing relevance, since the comic has been doing badly for a long time, too.
- Jack Conner shares his Fantastic Four rant.
- Kyle Buchanan focusses on one of the many problems with Fantastic Four, the awful wig worn by Kate Mara in some scenes.
- Dan Wickline actually liked Fantastic Four.
- Ryan Lambie laments the Fantastic Four bodyhorror superhero movie that we'll never get to see.
Awards and Hugo debate:
- The winners of the 2015 David Gemmell Awards have been announced.
- The final agenda for the Sasquan business meeting about changes to the Hugo rules has been released.
- Chad Sokol shares a summary of the Hugo controversy to date.
- Jim C. Hines shares his preliminary Hugo predictions.
- Cheryl Morgan shares some Hugo predictions of her own.
- Mike Glyer shares a summary about the latest escalation of the Hugo conflict.
- Editor Carrie Cuinn shares her experiences as a result of the latest escalation of the Hugo conflict.
- Natalie Luhrs offers some additional context on the latest escalation of the Hugo conflict and criticises Sasquan's decision not to ban a Hugo nominee for violating their harrassment policy.
- Jason Sanford offers a preliminary postmortem on the Hugo debate and calls for people not to forget their love for the SFF genre in the face of all the genre controversies.
- Camestros Felapton offers a map of the Hugo kerfuffle.
- Jess Nevins takes a look at potential Victorian Hugo candidates for 1893.
Writing, publishing and promotion:
- Kate Elliott discusses her writing process.
- S.A. Hunt talks about action figures, imagination and creating characters.
- N.K. Jemisin discusses creating fantasy races.
- Amanda Nelson discusses research, rabbit holes and SFF worldbuilding.
- Gerrard Cowen talks about worldbuilding and maps.
- Zoe Marriott talks about dastardly tropes and what to do with them.
- Elena Linville explains why she writes her first drafts longhand.
- Adrian Faulkner explains why a writing career is like playing an MMORPG.
- J.W. Manus talks about indie writers and who can give them permission (or not) to publish.
- Dean Wesley Smith shares some tips for writing blurbs.
- Mike Shreeve shares his marketing tips for indie authors.
- Kameron Hurley offers a cautionary tale about the danger of author meltdowns in the age of livetweeting.
Interviews:
- Jessica May Lin interviews Ken Liu.
- Jeff Somers interviews Lilith Saintcrow.
- Adrian Liang interviews Ilona and Andrew Gordon a.k.a. Ilona Andrews.
- Paul Weimer interviews Linda Nagata.
- Susan B. James interviews Veronica Scott.
- Anthony Tinsman interviews Luz Thompson.
- Ralph Kern interviews Nick Webb.
- Kyra Halland interviews Vanessa MacLellan and Fiona McShane.
- Paul Levinson interviews John Glenn.
Reviews:
- Paul Weimer reviews A Prospect of War by Ian Sales.
- Meghan B. reviews One Good Dragon Deserves Another by Rachel Aaron.
- Renay Williams reviews Court of Fives by Kate Elliott.
- Naomi Novik reviews The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin.
- Venetria K. Patton reviews Falling in Love with the Hominids by Nalo Hopkinson.
- Elena Linville reviews Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison.
- Floyd Looney reviews Sand of Osiris by Steven J. Shelley and Mutation Z: The Ebola Zombies by Marilyn Peake.
- Michael Patrick Hicks reviews Andersonville by Edward M. Erdelac.
Crowdfunding:
- Uncanny Magazine, edited by Michael and Lynne M. Thomas, is looking for funding for its second year.
- Transreality: New Worlds, a graphic novel by Christopher Lackey, is looking for funding.
- Two SFF anthologies with the themes "Alien Artefacts" and "Were-creatures Gone Wild", both edited by Joshua Palmatier, are looking for funding.
- The audiobook version of King of Prawns: Steps of Power by Jessica Sherwood is looking for backers.
Con reports:
Science and technology:
- The future of space travel.
- Why it's too late to prevent the robot apocalypse.
- How we could detect an alien apocalypse from Earth.
- The future plans of the unfortunately named food substitute Soylent.
Free online fiction:
- "R-Point" and "Mind Prisoner" by Floyd Looney.
- "Track 61" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
- "Milagroso" by Isabel Yap at Tor.com.
- "siseneG" by Arthur C. Clarke.
- Part 4 of "Oasis" by Floyd Looney.
- Chapter 2 of "Tome of Battle", part 88 of The Descendants by Landon Porter.
Odds and ends:
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