It's time again for a special Thanksgiving edition of our weekly round-up of interesting links about speculative fiction from around the web, this week with Star Trek Discovery, Justice League, The Punisher, Blade Runner 2049, Future Man as well as the usual mix of awards news, writing advice, interviews, reviews, awards news, con reports, crowdfunding campaigns, science articles and free online fiction.
Speculative fiction in general:
- The editors of the B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog share their favourite science fiction and fantasy novels of 2017.
- Stephen Blackmore recommends plenty of science fiction and fantasy books.
- Alexander Chee shares his appreciation for the late science fiction, horror and mystery writer Kit Reed.
- Liz Bourke shares her appreciation for the 1988 science fiction novel A Matter of Oaths by Helen S. Wright.
- Smart Bitches, Trashy Books share their appreciation for Inda by Sherwood Smith.
- Judith Tarr revisits Andre Norton's 1964 science fiction novel Ordeal in Otherwhere.
- Mark Yon revisits Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein.
- Martin Cahill talks about the flawed utopia of Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota series.
- Emily Temple shares thirty dystopian novels by and about women.
- Yunng In Chae compares Emily Wilson's new translation of The Odyssey with Maragret Atwood's retelling The Penelopiad.
- Jeet Heer reports about the late killer Charles Manson's interest in science fiction.
- John Wenz chronicles how science fiction writers Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle became a driving force behind Ronald Reagan's SDI program of the 1980s.
- Stina Leicht discusses her problems with the treatment of women in relationships in genre fiction and uses Wonder Woman as an example.
- Naomi Elias shares her favourite filmic science fiction romances of the past two decades.
- Germain Lussier explains how the TV show The Strain made Guillermo del Toro's upcoming movie The Shape of Water possible.
- Beth Elderkin implores the fiary tale TV show Once Upon a Time to get rid of its magical rape plots.
- Keith DeCandido revisits the 1991 film adaptation of The Rocketeer and the 1996 adaptation of The Phantom.
- George Gene Gustines reports that C.B. Cebulski has been named new editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics.
- Kim Masters reports that John Lasseter, head of Disney/Pixar animation had been accused of several instances of sexual harrassment.
- Anita Singh reports that "Shada", a Doctor Who serial from 1979 left unfinished due to strikes, will be completed as a feature film starring the original cast.
- The original Robby the Robot prop from the 1956 science fiction movie Forbidden Planet has been auctioned off for more than five million US-dollars.
- Actress and singer Della Reese, best remembered for her role in the Christian fantasy TV show Touched by an Angel, has died aged 86.
- Mike Glyer reports that longtime fanzine editor and writer Randy Byers has died aged 57.
Comments on Star Trek Discovery:
- James Hunt shares his thoughts on episode 9 of Star Trek Discovery.
- Cora Buhlert shares her thoughts on episode 9 of Star Trek Discovery and also offers a verdict on the series as a whole to date.
- Jodie from Lady Business shares her thoughts on episode 5 of Star Trek Discovery.
- Devon Maloney uses the fact that Star Trek Discovery is a prequel as a springboard to wonder why Hollywood seems to be so reluctant to take a chance on far future science fiction.
- Ethan Siegel addresses the unanswered scientific questions of Star Trek Discovery.
- Karen Pinkus discusses Star Trek Discovery's fungus drive and the future of fuel.
- Beth Elderkin and Katharine Trendacosta wonder if the character of Michael Burnham will ver become captain in Star Trek Discovery.
- Caroline Preece interviews Sonequa Martin-Green who plays Michael Burnham in Star Trek Discovery.
- Caroline Preece also interviews Jason Isaacs who plays Captain Gabriel Lorca and Shazad Latif who plays Ash Tyler in Star Trek Discovery.
- Meanwhile, Camestros Felapton revisits the original Star Trek episode "Errand of Mercy" from 1966.
Comments on Justice League:
- Emily Asher-Perrin declares that Justice League is what happens when you try to do a superhero team-up without a cinematic universe in place.
- Ciara Wardlow wonders whether Justice League has killed the superhero origin story.
- Kristy Puchko calls Justice League overstuffed and uneven.
- Chris Klimek calls Justice League a work of thudding mediocrity.
- Ryan Lambie declares that Justice League barely looks finished at times.
- Camestros Felapton calls Justice League not good, but not as terrible as Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice or Suicide Squad either.
- Gary Westfahl agrees that Justice League was much better than Man of Steel and Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice.
- Kurt Loder declares that Justice League was at least not a grim slog like Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice.
- Graeme McMillan explains how Justice League retcons DC's cinematic past.
- Joshua Olivieri explains Justice League's biggest plotholes.
- Emily Asher-Perrin shares eight things that did not need to happen in Justice League.
- Geoff Miller reports that Justice League underperforms at the box office.
- Farid Ul-Haq wonders whether the portrayal of Wonder Woman isn't part of the reason why Justice League hasn't performed as expected at the box office.
- Steve Zeitchik explains why Justice League failed and where DC can go from there.
- Charles Pulliam Moore declares that making Aquaman sexy in Justice League was a smart decision.
- Renaldo Matadeen explains how Justice League handles Aquaman's ability to talk to fish.
- Renaldo Matadeen also declares that Justice League finally gets Superman right.
- Renaldo Matadeen explains the parademons of Justice League.
- Germain Lussier wonders how the mother boxes in Justice League actually work.
- Evan Narcisse dissects the post-credits sequence of Justice League.
- Brian Cronin reveals fifteen Justice League Easter eggs that many viewers will have missed.
- Emily Zemler interviews Henry Cavill who plays Superman in Justice League.
- Hunter Harris explains how the mustache actor Henry Cavill who plays Superman in Justice League had to grow for another film had to be electronically removed.
- Ryan Lambie uses Justice League as an example to discuss the dangers of extensive reshoots.
- Aaron Couch discusses the DC versus Marvel rivalry, using Justice League and Thor Ragnarok as examples.
Comments on The Punisher:
- Charles Pullim-Moore calls The Punisher a brutal humanisation of Frank Castle, who can't face his own demons.
- Camestros Felapton calls The Punisher an artfully crafted moral vacuum.
- Ed Power calls The Punisher a great grisly man-hug of a comic adaptation.
- Keith DeCandido declares that The Punisher is running away from his roots.
- Keith DeCandido also shares his impressions of the first three episodes of The Punisher.
- Dave Richards shares his thoughts on the first four episodes of The Punisher.
- James Hunt shares his thoughts on episode 1 of The Punisher.
- James Hunt shares his thoughts on episode 2 of The Punisher.
- Eammon Jacobs shares eight things he liked about season 1 of The Punisher and seven things he did not like.
- Adam Fitch wonders whether the character of Micro survives season 1 of The Punisher.
- Charles Pulliam-Moore takes a look at the books Frank Castle reads during season 1 of The Punisher.
Comments on Blade Runner 2049:
- Evan Narcisse calls Blade Runner 2049 science fiction film noir at its finest, just like the original.
- Beth Elderkin reports that Denis Villeneuve, director of Blade Runner 2019, is still trying to understand why the movie underperformed.
Comments on Future Man:
- Eric Thurm offers an episode by episode review of the streaming video series Future Man.
- Glenn Garvin calls Future Man gleefully sophomoric.
- Maureen Ryan calls Future Man a routine homage with very little substance.
- Jacob Oller explains why Future Man owes its great first season to Derek Wilson.
Awards:
- The winners of the 2017 Endeavour Awards have been announced.
- The winners of the 2017 Premio Ignotus have been announced.
- Brittle Paper reports about the 2017 Nommo Award ceremony and shares some photos.
- The Arthur C. Clarke Foundation has announced the winners of its 2017 awards.
- Samuel R. Delany has started a campaign to award the SFWA's Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award to science fiction writer Katherine MacLean.
Writing, publishing and promotion:
- Nikki Chapman talks about writers' block and the creatives' curse.
- Jessica Cote talks about writing what you love.
- Jessica Cote also talks about the importance of creating great characters.
- Corrina Lawson and Myke Cole talk about creating characters and writing realistic fight scenes.
- Ryan Holiday shares the only real strategy for successful authors.
Interviews:
- David Streitfeld interviews Ursula K. Le Guin.
- Joel Cunningham interviews Yoon Ha Lee.
- Lauren Kane interviews Carmen Maria Machado.
- Tom Hunter interviews Anne Charnock.
- Felicity Hartley interviews Andy Weir.
- Farid Ul-Haq interviews Lucy Eleazar.
- SpecPo interviews Denise Domars.
Reviews:
- Natalie Zutter reviews The Tiger's Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera.
- Tadiana Jones reviews The Emerald Circus by Jane Yolen.
- Rob Bedford reviews City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty.
- Jason Sheehan reviews Valiant Dust by Richard Baker.
- Martin Cahill reviews Valiant Dust by Richard Baker.
- Camestros Felapton reviews All Systems Red by Martha Wells.
- Becca Evans reviews New Reality by Jessica Payseur.
- Kristin Centorcelli reviews After the End of the World by Jonathan L. Howard.
- Michael Patrick Hicks reviews Rolling in the Deep by Mira Grant.
- Tasha Robinson reviews Artemis by Andy Weir.
- Maureen Corrigan reviews Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich.
- Jason Sheehan reviews Creatures of Will and Temper by Molly Tanzer.
- Colleen Monder reviews Sovereign by April Daniels.
- Mark Chitty reviews Brass Man by Neal Asher.
- Alice Arneson and Paige West review Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson.
- Jeff Somers reviews The Seventh Decimate by Stephen R. Donaldson.
- Rob Bedford reviews The Dragon Lords: Fool's Gold by Jon Hollins.
- The Fantasy Café reviews Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor.
- Taya Okerlund reviews The Fisher of Bones by Sarah Gailey.
- Kelly Lasiter reviews Magpie's Song by Allison Pang.
- The Hugo Award Book Club reviews The Hot War by Harry Turtledove.
Crowdfunding:
- Craig Engler is looking for funding for his serialized novel The Last Days of Earth.
- Book 2 of the webcomic Stand Still, Stay Silent by Minna Sundberg is looking for funding.
- Habibi, an anthology of love stories in prose and comic form by Muslim women, edited by Hadeel al-Massari and Nyala Ali, is looking for funding.
- Swan Song, an anthology of comics about music, is looking for funding.
- Singeporean writer and editor Joyce Chng needs some help to afford the trip to the 2018 ICFA conference of the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando, Florida.
Con reports:
- April Carvelli reports about problems at the Cosplay Con and Anime Experience in North Little Rock, Arkansas.
- Julie Muncy reports about a panel at Vulture Fest LA in Los Angeles, California.
- Stephanie Lai reports about the 2017 Singapore Writers Festival.
- Peter Watts reports about the symposium "Space Vampires and the Future of 'I' - The Fiction of Peter Watts" at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
- Cheryl M. Morgan reports about a reading by M. John Harrison in Bath, UK.
- Angel Wilson shares her experiences at the Dystopia Rising LARP event in Hawaii.
- Jim Young reports about the rise of white supremacism in the furry community.
Science and technology:
- Andrea Lo reports about Asgardia, the world's first space nation, which currently consists only of a single micro-satellite.
- Paul Rincon reports about the bizarre shape of an interstellar asteroid.
- Ethan Siegel answers the question whether matter could escape the event horizon during the merger of two black holes.
- James Gallagher reports about the first gene-editing attempts inside a human body.
- George Dvorsky reports that Dolly the sheep did not die prematurely, because she was cloned.
Free online fiction:
- "Cake Baby (A Kango and Sharon Adventure) by Charlie Jane Anders in Lightspeed.
- "The Wardrobe" by Matthew Sanborn Smith in See The Elephant Magazine.
- "Stealing Tales" by Mari Ness in Daily Science Fiction.
- "The Jewel in the Toad Queen's Crown" by Jane Yolen at Tor.com.
- "The Mouth of the Oyster" by Adam-Troy Castro and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro in Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
- "Nothing To Push Against" by Richard Prosch in Beat to a Pulp.
- "Woe and Other Remedies" by Michael Anthony Ashley in Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
- "The Commission of the Philosophical Alembic" by Jonathan L. Howard in Lightspeed.
- "Elemental Love" by Rachel Swirsky in Uncanny Magazine.
Odds and ends:
- Watch the First Doctor meet the Twelfth Doctor in a clip from the 2017 Doctor Who Christmas Special.
- Watch a trailer for A Wrinkle in Time.
- Watch a TV trailer for The Last Jedi.
- Watch another trailer for The Last Jedi.
- Watch a teaser for Incredibles 2.
- Watch a trailer for season 3 of The Magicians.
- Try out four different recipes for homemade butterbeer.
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