Speculative Fiction Links of the Week for February 15, 2019

It's time for the weekly round-up of interesting links about speculative fiction from around the web, this week with romance and speculative fiction, Star Trek Discovery, Doom Patrol, The Umbrella Academy, Alita: Battle Angel, Russian Doll, Weird City, abuse in the RPG world, Liam Neeson's problematic remarks about rape, race and revenge and much more. 

Speculative fiction in general:

• Eric Brown offers a round-up of the best recent science fiction. 
• James S.A. Corey a.k.a. Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck explain how the Ceres mission NASA's Dawn spacecraft thoroughly debunked parts of The Expanse series.
  
• The Geek's Guide to the Galaxy points out that there were a lot more women in early science fiction than most people think.
  
• Hanna Jameson explains that the scenarios of dystopian fiction are already a reality for women around the world. 
• Victor LaValle talks about reclaiming the future for marginalised people. 
• Alec Nevala-Lee explains how John W. Campbell Jr. influenced and formed science fiction in the 1930s to 1950s and how the genre eventually grew beyond him.
• Tor.com share their favourite lawful good fantasy characters.
• Serial Box shares ten fictional worlds they wish really existed. 
• Nicole Hill shares five fantasy novels that make great use of footnotes.
• Ceridwen Christensen shares eight science fiction and fantasy retellings of "The Beauty and the Beast".
• Ceridwen Christensen also shares twelve stories about robots in love.
• Sam Reader shares seven deeply weird science fiction and fantasy romances. 
• Natalie Zutter declares that her favourite science fiction and fantasy couples are all beta couples. 
• Amanda Feinman shares her appreciation for the Outlander novels by Diana Gabaldon and the TV series based upon them.
• Jaime Green explains why you should be reading romance novels and shares five great recent romance novels for people who have never read one.
• Natalie Zutter explains how to tell if you are crushing on a book. 
• Vicky Who Reads shares eight YA novels that sit on the borderline between fantasy and science fiction.
• Elizabeth Wheatley asks if YA books can ever be grimdark.
• Maria Tatar shares five books about nonsense. 
• George Mann looks back on ten years of his Newbury & Hobbes Steampunk series.
• Mike Glyer reports about an uproar caused by Chinese science fiction writer Liu Cixin, when he revealed that he wrote several of his novels during his work at a power plant in Shanxi, China.
• Alison Flood reports that an unpublished manuscript by Robert A. Heinlein entitled Six-Six-Six, an early draft of Heinlein's 1980 novel The Number of the Beast, has resurfaced and will be published soon.
• Alsatian writer, cartoonist and illustrator Tomi Ungerer has died aged 87.
• Publisher Betty Ballantine has died aged 100.
• Locus remembers Betty Ballantine.

Film and TV:

• Lily Kuo reports about the Chinese science fiction film The Wandering Earth. 
• Farid Ul-Haq calls Hunter an enjoyable supernatural thriller.
• Hadley Freeman explains why Black Panther should win the best picture Oscar, though it probably won't. 
• Tom Breihan discusses how Guardians of the Galaxy turned a group of second-string Marvel characters into icons. 
• Keith R.A. DeCandido revisits the 2015 superhero movie Ant-Man. 
• Joe George shares his appreciation for the 2011 science fiction film Attack the Block.
• Cath Clarke shares her thoughts on The Kid Who Would Be King. 
• Cancelled Sci Fi revisits the 1973 science fiction series The Starlost.
• Natalie Devitt continues her rewatch of season 1 of the original The Outer Limits from 1964.  
• Katie Rife and Robin R. Means Coleman discuss African American horror movies.
• Joe Otterson reports that Danai Gurira, who plays Michonne, will be leaving The Walking Dead as well. 
• Stuart Heritage mourns the offscreen death of Ser Pounce, the cat, in Game of Thrones
• Paul Levinson shares his thoughts on the latest episode of Counterpart.
• Lesley Goldberg reports that the parallel world TV show Counterpart has been cancelled.
• Rebecca Nicholson interviews Anna Paquin, best known for her parts in the X-Men movies and True Blood. 
• Rebecca Keegan interviews Brie Larson, star of Captain Marvel. 
• Science Insanity reports that actor Keanu Reeves, best known for The Matrix trilogy and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, has been quietly financing countless children's hospitals.
• British actor Albert Finney, best known for Tom Jones, Miller's Crossing and Murder on the Orient Express, has died aged 82. 
• Peter Bradshaw remembers Albert Finney.
• Peter DeBruge remembers Albert Finney.

Comments on Star Trek Discovery and Star Trek in general (spoilers):

• Zack Handlen shares his thoughts on "An Obol for Charon", the latest episode of Star Trek Discovery.
• James Whitbrook shares his thoughts on "An Obol for Charon".
• Keith R.A. DeCandido shares his thoughts on "An Obol for Charon".
• Gavia Baker-Whitelaw shares her thoughts on "An Obol for Charon". 
• Kayti Burt shares her thoughts on "An Obol for Charon". 
• Camestros Felapton shares his thoughts on "An Obol for Charon".  
• Camestros Felapton has more thoughts about "An Obol for Charon".
• Cora Buhlert shares her thoughts on "An Obol for Charon". 
• Swapna Krishna shares her thoughts on "An Obol for Charon". 
• Camestros Felapton finds some unexpected parallels between the Red Angel from season 2 of Star Trek Discovery and the Mothman.
• Elizabeth Rayne shares ten Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes featuring awkward romances. 

Comments on Doom Patrol: 

• Vinnie Mancuso calls Doom Patrol a weird and wonderful surprise.
• Eric Joseph declares that there is nothing quite like Doom Patrol out there and calls it the jewel of the DC Universe streaming service. 
• Gavia Baker-Whitelaw declares that Doom Patrol starts off slow, but shows promise.
• Samantha Nelson worries that Doom Patrol might not be weird enough to stand out.
• Alan Sepinwall compares Doom Patrol to The Umbrella Academy and finds them both delightfully weird, though he prefers Doom Patrol, because it seems to relish in its strangeness.
• Brian Lowry also compares Doom Patrol and The Umbrella Academy, but prefers the latter.
• Mike Hale also finds similarities between The Umbrella Academy and Doom Patrol.
• Jim Dandy shares everything you need to know about Doom Patrol.
• Vinnie Mancuso offers a guide to the characters of Doom Patrol.
• Watch a trailer for Doom Patrol.
• Watch an extended trailer for Doom Patrol.
  

Comments on The Umbrella Academy: 

• Gavia Baker-Whitelaw calls The Umbrella Academy the adult superhero show she has been waiting for.
• Matthew Gilbert calls The Umbrella Academy a superhero show for people who don't like superhero shows.
• Brian Truitt declares that The Umbrella Academy is both for people who don't like superheroes and people who've seen too many superhero films and shows.
• Glenn Weldon calls The Umbrella Academy intriguing, but also slow paced and overcrowded.
• Matt Zoller-Zeitz declares that The Umbrella Academy has no personality of its own.
• Emma Dibdin offers a guide to the characters of The Umbrella Academy.
• Joe Deckelmeier interviews Gerard Way, musician and creator of The Umbrella Academy, and showrunner Steve Blackman.
  

Comments on Alita: Battle Angel:

• Gavia Baker-Whitelaw calls Alita: Battle Angel a surprisingly fun teen adventure. 
• The Geekiary declares that Alita: Battle Angel has enough heart and style to overshine its pacing issues.
• Donald Clarke calls Alita: Battle Angel a childish film that wastes its huge budget. 
• Renaldo Matadeen declares that the ending of Alita: Battle Angel is absolutely heartbreaking.
• Joe Deckelmeier interviews Christoph Waltz who plays Dr. Ido in Alita: Battle Angel.
• The Geekiary interviews Eric Saindon, visual effects supervisor for Alita: Battle Angel. 
• Robert Rodriguez, director of Alita: Battle Angel shares his ten favourite science fiction movies.
  

Comments on Russian Doll:

• Camestros Felapton talks about Russian Doll and the Groundhog Day plot.
• Alibi Shop shares their thoughts on Russian Doll. 
• Katherine Duckett finds some parallels between Russian Doll and Alice Sola Kim's story "Now Wait for This Week".
• Ross Johnson shares seven books to read after watching Russian Doll.
  

Comments on Weird City:

• Jamie Sugah declares that season 1 of Weird City is spot on.
• Alex McLevy calls Weird City weirdly unfunny.
• Farid Ul-Haq discusses the backlash against actor Dylan O'Brien, who is straight, playing an LGBT character in Weird City. 
• Watch episode 1 and 2 of Weird City. 

Discussion of Liam Neeson's problematic comments regarding rape, revenge and racism:

• Matt Donnelly analyses what Liam Neeson's problematic remarks mean for his upcoming movies and overall job prospects. 
• Donald Clarke points out that this is not the first time that Liam Neeson has said something problematic.
• Fintan O'Toole declares that Liam Neeson speaks the language of the lynch mob.
• Christopher Vourlias reports that Hans Petter Moland, director of Liam Neeson's latest film Cold Pursuit, has defended Liam Neeson's problematic remarks and claims that Liam Neeson is not racist.
  

Discussion of abuse in the RPG world:

• Mandy Morbid accuses her former partner, RPG developer Zak Smith a.k.a. Zak Sabbath, of abusive behaviour towards her and other women (content warning).
  
• Morrus' Unofficial Tabletop RPG News reports about the accusations against Zak Smith.
• Game developer Kenneth Hite responds to the allegations against Zak Smith and declares that he will not work with him anymore in the future.
• Steve Wieck announced that DriveThruRPG will not accept any future titles to which Zak Smith contributed for sale and that they will donate Smith's share of the royalties of existing titles to charity.
  

Awards:

• The winner of the 2019 Crawford Award has been announced.
• The finalists for the 2019 Compton Crook Award have been announced. 
• The winners of the 2018 Cybils Awards have been announced.
• The first round nominations for the 2019 Grand Prix de L'Imaginaire have been announced.
• The finalists for the 2019 Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics have been announced.
• The winners of the 2019 Grammy Awards have been announced with some love for genre music.
• The nominations for the International Film Music Critics Association Awards have been announced with some love for genre films.
• The 2019 inductees into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame have been announced and they include science fiction artist Vincent Di Fate.
  

Writing, publishing and promotion:

• Anthony DeCastro talks about ideas. 
• Janice Hardy shares an easy tip for getting unstuck in a scene.
• Laurence MacNaughton revisits Lester Dent's pulp fiction master plot and explains how it can be adapted to novels. 
• Lauren Sapala explains why so many writers have a fear of marketing and how to overcome it.
• Alythia Brown explains how publishing constantly will help you grow a thick skin.
  

Interviews:

• Guardian readers interview Neil Gaiman. 
• Ezra Klein interviews N.K. Jemisin.
• The Guardian interviews Emma Glass.
• Rob Thornton interviews Jason Heller.
• The Qwillery interviews Leife Shallcross.
• The Qwillery interviews Kevin A. Muñoz.
• Andrea Johnson interviews Izzy Wasserstein.
• Smashwords interviews Richard Blakemore.
  

Reviews:

• Liz Bourke reviews Ancestral Night by Elizabeth Bear. 
• Brit Mandelo reviews The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders. 
• Aidan Moher reviews The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders.
• Kat Hooper reviews Breach of Containment by Elizabeth Bonesteel.
• Paul Di Filippo reviews Arkad's World by James Cambias. 
• Mark Chitty reviews Nemesis by Alex Lamb. 
• Michael Patrick Hicks reviews Lost Solace by Karl Drinkwater.
• Meghan Ball reviews Your Favourite Band Cannot Save You by Scotto Moore. 
• Liz Bourke reviews Healer's Wedding by M.C.A. Hogarth and Thornbound by Stephanie Burgis. 
• Fantasy Faction reviews The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon.
• James Davis Nicoll reviews Fate of Flames by Sarah Raughley.
• Colleen Mondor reviews City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab.
• Summer H. Paulus reviews The Forgetting Moon by Brian Lee Durfee.
• Niall Alexander reviews The Hod King by Josiah Bancroft. 
• James Davis Nicoll revies The Gutter Prayer by Gareth Hanrahan. 
• Rob Bedford reviews The Gutter Prayer by Gareth Hanrahan. 
• A.M. Justice reviews The Blighted City by Scott Kaelen.
• Steven Poore reviews Seven Deadly Swords by Peter Sutton.
• Taya Okerlund reviews Archenemies by Marissa Meyer. 
• Brit Mandelo reviews Wild Life by Molly Gloss.
• Amal El-Mohtar reviews Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James.
• Mahvesh Murad reviews Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James.
• Gary K. Wolfe reviews The Sacerdotal Owl and Three Other Long Tales by Michael Bishop. 
• Bill Capossere reviews Early Riser by Jasper Fforde.
• Carolyn Cushman reviews Breach by W.L. Goodwater and For a Muse of Fire by Heidi Heilig. 
• Alex Brown reviews The Cassandra by Sharma Shields.
• Tadiana Jones reviews Damsel by Elana K. Arnold.
• Ian Mond reviews The Third Hotel by Laura van den Berg. 
• Matthew Keeley reviews The Test by Sylvain Neuvel.
• Paula Guran reviews Knaves Over Queens, edited by George R.R. Martin and Melinda M. Snodgrass.
• Arley Song reviews Fright into Flight, edited by Amber Fallon. 
• Arkady Martine reviews A People's Future of the United States, edited by Victor LaValle and John Joseph Adams.
• Matt Brandenburg reviews Bad Dreams by A. Kale.
• Logan Noble reviews Will Haunt You by Brian Kirk.
• Richard Cosgrove reviews All Roads End Here by David Moody.
  

Classics reviews:

• Alison Flood revisits What Not, a 1918 feminist dystopian novel by Rose Macauley.
• Richard Robinson revisits the 1952 science fiction novel Islands in the Sky by Arthur C. Clarke.
• Alan Brown revisits the 1952 science fiction fix-up novel City by Clifford D. Simak.
• James Davis Nicoll revisits The Long Way Around, a 1952 fantasy novel by Naomi Mitchison.
• Mark Yon revisits Robert A. Heinlein's 1958 science fiction novel Methuselah's Children.
• Gideon Marcus revisits the March 1964 issue of World of If. 
• John Boston reviews the March 1964 issue of Amazing Stories. 
• James Davis Nicoll revisits the 1965 science fiction novel Operation Columbus by Hugh Walters.
• Rich Horton revisits the 1965 science fiction novels Android Avenger by Ted White and The Altar on Asconel by John Brunner.  
• Judith Tarr revisits Andre Norton's 1967 time travel novel Octagon Magic. 
• Jaclyn Ardomeit revisits the 1968 fantasy novel The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. 
• Paperback Warrior revisits Kill Deadline, a 1973 novel in the science fictional men's adventure series The Enforcer by Andrew Sugar.
• Rich Horton revisits the 1982 fantasy novel The Kestrel by Lloyd Alexander.
• Alex Preston revisits the 1984 novel The Spirit of Science Fiction by Roberto Bolaños.
• Bogi Takács revisits the 1988 Haitian magical realist novel Hadriana in All My Dreams by René Depestre.
• James Davis Nicoll revisits the 1988 science fiction novel Four Hundred Billion Stars by Paul J. McAuley. 
• Amanda Rutter and Kelly Lasiter revisit the 1992 YA paranormal romance The Initiation by L.J. Smith.
• Rich Horton revisits the 1999 science fiction novel Black On Black by K.D. Wentworth.
  

Con and event reports:

• James Bacon announces that the membership rates for the 2019 WorldCon in Dublin, Ireland, will rise on February 18.
• Kees van Torn announced Reunicon 2020, a 30th anniversary reunion of ConFiction, the 1990 WorldCon in Den Haag, Netherlands. 
• Chuck Tingle will appear at CONvergence in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
• Marilyn Vix reports about attending a paranormal investigation aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California.

Science and technology:

• Jonathan Amos reports that the Mars InSight lander has deployed another surface instrument which will drill into the surface of Mars.
• Ryan F. Mandelbaum reports that WALL-E and EVE, two small satellites that accompanied NASA's InSight Mars lander, have gone silent. 
• John Wenz reports that NASA has declared the Mars rover Opportunity dead after communications broke off last summer.
• Benjamin Plackett explains how to dismantle a nuclear bomb.
  

Free online fiction:

• "We Are All Monsters Here" by Kelley Armstrong in Nightmare Magazine.
• "Okay, Glory" by Elizabeth Bear in Lightspeed.
• "Ti-Jean's Last Adventure, as told to Raccoon" by K.T. Bryski in Lightspeed.
• "The Song" by Erinn L. Kemper at Tor.com. 
• "Second Chances" by Megan Lindholm at Tor.com.
• "The Willows" by Delilah S. Dawson in Uncanny Magazine.
• "Adrianna in Pomegranate" by Samatha Mills in Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
• "Blood, Bone, Seed, Spark" by Aimee Ogden in Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
• "The Crafter at the Web's Heart by Izzy Wasserstein in Apex Magazine.  
• "Necessary and Sufficient Conditions" by Wole Talabi in Apex Magazine.
• "Finding Their Footing" by Marissa Lingen in Analog.
• "Pelt" by Carol Emshwiller in Library of America Story of the Week.
  

Odds and ends: 

• Watch "The Seven Worlds", an advertising spot for Hennessy Cognac directed by Ridley Scott.
• Watch a trailer for Love Death + Robots.
• Watch a trailer for Tolkien.
• Watch a trailer for The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot. 
• Watch a trailer for Ma. 
• Watch a trailer for Aladdin.
• Watch a trailer for Frozen 2.