Speculative Fiction Links of the Week for February 11, 2022

 

It's time for the latest weekly round-up of interesting links about speculative fiction from around the web, this week with The Book of Boba Fett and Star Wars in general, the many iterations of Star Trek,  Moonfall, The Legend of Vox Machina, the various DC Comics based movies and TV shows, Doctor Who past, present and future, tributes to Richard L. Tierney, Angélica Gorodischer, Douglas Trumbull and Robert Blalack and much more.

Speculative fiction in general:

• Fantasy Faction share their fifty favourite SFF books of 2021.
  
• Jo Walton shares her January 2022 reading list. 
• Tor.com shares twenty-three modern SFF twists on familiar stories.
  
• Evie Green shares five books about the bleak horror of winter. 
• Neil McRobert talks about the resurrection of the horror genre. 
• John Scalzi explains why science fiction books are much longer than they were up to the 1980s.
  
• The Hugo Book Club Blog talks about SFF and its terminology. 
• Hafsah Faizal shares five YA fantasy novels where enemies become lovers.
  
• Horror author Joe Koch explains what the works of H.P. Lovecraft mean to him.
• C.D. Covington shares her thoughts on Maria Dahvana Headley's Hugo winning Beowulf translation. 
• Kristen Bird discusses the darker side of Jane Austen's novels. 
• Aidan Moher explains why The Lord of the Rings is still relevant almost seventy years after it was released.
  
• Rogues in the House share their appreciation for Karl Edward Wagner's Kane sword and sorcery stories and novels. 
• Allison Kubo Hutchinson discusses Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson's The Wheel of Time from a geological perspective. 
• Molly Templeton declares that bars are a great place to read. 
  
• Steve Haffner reports that in the course of reprinting all of Manly Wade Wellman's John the Balladeer stories, they uncovered the outline for The Valley So Low, a John the Balladeer novel that Wellman never got around to writing. 

 

Tributes to Angélica Gorodischer and Richard L. Tierney:

• Angélica Gorodischer, Argentinian author of SFF and other genres, has died aged 93. 
• Vanessa Armstrong remembers Angélica Gorodischer.
  
• Sword and sorcery author Richard L. Tierney has died aged 86.
• Brian Murphy remembers Richard L. Tierney.
• Greg Mele remembers Richard L. Tierney.
  

 

Comics and Art:

• Chelsea Steiner reports that Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples has returned after a three year hiatus to break our hearts all over again. 
• Rob Bricken reports about the return of Shaolin Cowboy by Geof Darrow after an extended hiatus.
  
• Brad Hawley reviews Resident Alien, Vol. 3: The Sam Hain Mystery by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse.
• Roseanna Pendlebury reviews Lore Olympus Volume 1 by Rachel Smythe. 
• Paperback Warrior profiles cover model Steve Holland who appears on the 1960s Doc Savage reprints and many other books of the period.
  
• Defused shares some fan art showing superheroes enjoying some downtime. 
• James Whitbrook reports about the new X-Men miniseries X Deaths and X Lives of Wolverine.
  
• Rob Bricken reports that DC's latest mega event Dark Crisis will not reboot the DC Universe yet again.
  
• Peter Kirn reports that an artist has used an AI to create 1970s style science fiction paperback covers and titles.
• Jennifer Rankin reports that the new Belgian passports will feature popular Belgian comic characters like Tintin or the Smurfs.
• Jarod Facundo reports that the pervasive supply chain issues also effect comics.
• British comics artist Ian Kennedy, who worked on Commando, 2000 AD, Dan Dare and many others, has died aged 90.
  

 

Film and TV:

• Paul Levinson shares his thoughts on the season 2 premiere of Raised by Wolves. 
• Steve Rose discusses how the animated film Belle depicts the future as a futuristic wonderland.
• Stephen Robinson declares that Severance reminds him why offices can be so unpleasant. 
• Leah Schnelbach declares that the animated horror film The House shows the true horrors of home renovation.
  
• Spencer Bollettieri finds some unexpected parallels between Disney's animated musical Encanto and Ray Bradbury's fantasy collection From the Dust Returned. 
• Anthony Breznican and Joanna Robinson offer a look at Amazon's Lord of the Rings prequel series. 
• Brian Davids interviews Tom Holland, star of Uncharted and the Spider-Man movies.
• Rich Pelley interviews Andy Serkis, best known for his appearances in the Lord of the Rings movies, The Hobbit trilogy and the Planet of the Apes movies.
  
• Briana Lawrence interviews Cheyenne Ewulu, director of Shades of Cosplay.
  
• BBC Radio 4 revisits the 1922 vampire movie Nosferatu. 
• Camestros Felapton revisits the 2002 Firefly episode "War Stories".
  
• Cheryl Eddy revisits the 2006 ecological horror film The Last Winter.
• Martin Edwards revisits the 2015 horror film The Invitation.
  
• Rob Bricken celebrates legendary film composer John Williams' 90th birthday by remembering nine of his best scores.
• Germain Lussier report that the film company Village Roadshow is sueing Warner Bros over The Matrix: Resurrections, Edge of Tomorrow and the upcoming Wonka.

 

Tributes to Douglas Trumbull and Robert Blalack: 

• Special effects pioneer Robert Blalack, who worked on Star Wars and co-founded Industrial Light and Magic has died aged 73.
• Special effects pioneer Douglas Trumbull has died aged 79.
• Andrew Pulver remembers Douglas Trumbull.
• Leonard Maltin remembers Douglas Trumbull.
  

 

Comments on The Book of Boba Fett and Star Wars in general: 

• Emmet Asher-Perrin shares their thoughts on "In the Name of Honor", the season finale of The Book of Boba Fett. 
• Nick Wanserski shares his thoughts on "In the Name of Honor". 
• James Whitbrook shares his thoughts on "In the Name of Honor". 
• Gavia Baker-Whitelaw shares her thoughts on "In the Name of Honor". 
• Cora Buhlert shares her thoughts on "In the Name of Honor".
  
• Lucas Winkie discusses the lasting appeal of Boba Fett.
  
• Ben Child wonders whether The Book of Boba Fett has ruined the character's Star Wars legacy. 
• Zoe Williams interviews Jennifer Beals who plays Garza Fwip in The Book of Boba Fett. 
• Rob Bricken laments that The Book of Boba Fett treats its titular character like an idiot.
  
• James Whitbrook wonders about the fate of Max Rebo in the latest episode of The Book of Boba Fett.
• James Whitbrook shares his issues with the depiction of Luke Skywalker in The Book of Boba Fett.
• Brady Langman explains how the Luke Skywalker appearance in The Book of Boba Fett came to be without Mark Hamill knowing about it.
• Lawrence Ellsworth revisits the original Star Wars trilogy with a focus on lightsabre fights.
• Ryan Cracknell reports about a rare Star Wars trading card from 1977 and the reason it is so rare.
  

 

Comments on the many iterations of Star Trek:  

• Galactic Journey revisits the 1967 Star Trek episode "Court Martial".
  
• James Whitbrook revisits the Star Trek Voyager episode "Prime Factors".
  
• Keith R.A. DeCandido revisits the Star Trek Enterprise episode "Silent Enemy".
• Daniel Reynolds profiles Emily Coutts who plays Lieutenant Keyla Detmer in Star Trek Discovery. 
• Bobby Derie reviews the 2008 Lovecraftian Star Trek zine Cthulhu Trek by Leslie Thomas.
  

 

Comments on Doctor Who past and present:

• Jessica Holmes revisits the 1967 Doctor Who serial "The Underwater Menace". 
• Alicia Adejobi reports that Jodie Whittaker, who plays the Thirteenth Doctor, is pregnant with her second child.
  

 

Comments on the various DC Comics based movies and TV-shows:

• Jarrod Jones shares his thoughts on the latest episode of Peacemaker.
  
• Daniel Riley interviews Robert Pattinson, star of The Batman.
  

 

Comments on Moonfall: 

• Martin Morse Wooster calls Moonfall so bad that it's the first film he's seen that deserves a triple zero. 
• Arturo Serrano says that Moonfall puts the disaster in disaster movie and that it's barely a movie either. 
  

 

Comments on The Legend of Vox Machina:

• Shivani Ishwar talks about the background of The Legend of Vox Machina.
• Justin Carter interviews Matt Mercer, co-creator of The Legend of Vox Machina.
• Justin Carter interviews the voice cast of The Legend of Vox Machina.
  

 

Awards:

• The winners of the 2022 Chesley Awards have been announced. 
• The semi-finalists for the 2021 Self-Published Science Fiction Competition have been announced. 
• The shortlist for the 2022 Premio Vegetti has been announced.
  
• The finalists for the 2022 Splatterpunk Awards have been announced. 
• The finalists for the 2022 Audie Awards have been announced.
  
• The winner of the 2022 Dell Magazines Award has been announced. 
• The longlist for the 2022 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction has been announced. 
• The nominations for the 2022 Oscars have been announced with some love for genre films.
  
• Cora Buhlert spotlights SFF-related non-fiction eligible for the 2022 Hugo Awards.
  

 

Writing, publishing and promotion:

• Kate Elliott points out that an idea is not a story. 
• Kate Elliott asks what is a story.
  
• Cat Luria talks about new writing experiments she wants to try in 2022.
• Lauren Sapala discusses what to do when your inner critic is holding your inner writer hostage.
• Mark Lawrence explains how to weave worldbuilding information into a story.
  
• Sara Gran talks about the art of writing suspense. 
• Rebecca Sacks shares some principles for writing great sex scenes.
  
• Lincoln Michel talks about word counts. 
• Cat Rambo shares some tips on crowdfunding and Patreon for writers.
  
• Cat Rambo reports about some possible upcoming changes to the SFWA membership requirements. 
• Draft2Digital announces that they are aquiring Smashwords. 
• Alison Flood reports that in person library visits have declined in 2021 due to the covid pandemic, but digital visits have increased.
  
• Alison Flood reports that more than 100 writers have signed a letter calling for urgent action in the case of the Rwandan poet Innocent Bahati, who went missing a year ago. 
• Adam Gabbatt reports about the Banned Books Club, a book club for teenagers on Pennsylvania, dedicated to books banned in some parts of the US.
  
• Philip Oltermann reports that the Stasi ran a poetry circle called "Working Circle of Writing Chekists". 
• Play with Narrative Device, an AI that writes the opening paragraph of a story based on two themes you enter. 
  

Interviews:

• The Guardian interviews David Mitchell. 
• Runalong the Shelves interviews H.M. Long.
  
• S.E. Lindberg interviews John C. Hocking. 
  
• S.E. Lindberg interviews John C. Hocking again (part 2 of the interview above).
• Scott Edelman interviews Daryl Gregory.
• Cat Rambo interviews Joe R. Lansdale.
  
• Locus interviews Marlon James. 
• Redditors interviews Marlon James.
  
• The Red Hot Chilli Writers interviews Dean Koontz.
• Oliver Brackenbury interviews Jason Ray Carney. 
• Runalong the Shelves interviews Louise Carey. 
  
• Cat Luria interviews Elizabeth Hinckley. 
• Phoebe Barton interviews Dominique Dickey.
  
• The HWA interviews Penelope Flynn.
• The HWA interviews Maurice Carlos Ruffin.
• The HWA interviews L. Marie Wood.
• The HWA interviews Marc L. Abbott.
• Cora Buhlert interviews Camestros Felapton.
  

Reviews:

• Lesa Holstine reviews Abandoned in Death by J.D. Robb 
• Rob Bedford reviews Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes.
  
• Russell Letson reviews Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey. 
• Martin Cahill reviews Lightyears From Home by Mike Chen.
  
• Marlene Harris reviews When the Goddess Wakes by Howard Andrew Jones. 
• Dear Author reviews The Bones of the Old Ones by Howard Andrew Jones.
  
• Paul Weimer reviews The Green Man's Foe by Juliet E. McKenna.
  
• Runalong the Shelves reviews A Face in the Leaves by Nina Oram.
• Liza Wemakor reviews Where the Rain Cannot Reach by Adesina Brown.  
• Mark Yon reviews The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan.
  
• Rich Horton reviews Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. 
• Amy Goldschlager reviews Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune and Empire of the Vampires by Jay Kristoff. 
• Joe Sherry reviews Spelunking Through Hell by Seanan McGuire.
  
• Runalong the Shelves reviews 36 Streets by T.R. Napper.
  
• Blue Book Balloon reviews The This by Adam Roberts.
• Maya C. James reviews Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber.
  
• James Davis Nicoll reviews The Legacy of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson. 
• Ian Mond reviews Burntcoat by Sarah Hall.
  
• Carrie Chi Lough reviews The Mad Trinkets by Cameron Scott Kirk. 
• Runalong the Shelves reviews The Queen of the High Fields by Rhiannon A. Grist. 
• Alex Brown reviews Skin of the Sea by Natasha Bowen. 
• Alex Brown reviews Ashes of Gold by J. Elle.
  
• Runalong the Shelves reviews The Chancels of Mainz by Russell Hemmell. 
• Jonathan Myerson reviews Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart.
  
• Runalong the Shelves reviews The Moment You Remember, The Moment You Forget by Tiffany Jimenez.
• Runalong the Shelves reviews Off Target by Eve Smith. 
• Becky LeJeune reviews Off Target by Eve Smith. 
  
• James Davis Nicoll reviews The Employees: A Workplace Novel of the Twenty-Second Century by Olga Ravn, translated by Martin Aitken. 
• Kat Hooper reviews Cress by Marissa Meyer.
  
• Runalong the Shelves reviews Luca by Or Luca.
• J. Hoberman reviews Pulp Empire: The Secret History of Comic Book Imperialism by Paul S. Hirsch.
  

 
Classics reviews:

• The Appendix N Book Club revisits the 1908 horror novel The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson.
  
• Sandy Ferber revisits the 1910 lost world novel The House on Stilts by R.H. Hazard.
  
• James Maliszewski revisits the 1935 dark fantasy story "The Flower-Women" by Clark Ashton Smith. 
• Matt Mikalatos revisits the 1945 religious science fiction novel That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis.
  
• Cthulery revisits the 1948 horror story "The Whippoorwills in the Hills" by August Derleth.
• Nicholas Whyte revisits the 1950 science fiction fix-up The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. 
• Jaclyn Adomeit revisits the 1968 fantasy novel The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle.
  
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1973 gothic novel House of Dark Illusions by Caroline Farr.
• James Davis Nicoll reviews the 1976 science fiction anthology Orbit 18, edited by Damon Knight.
  
• James Davis Nicoll revisits the 1977 science fiction novel Earthchild by Doris Piserchia. 
• James Maliszewski revisits the June/July 1981 issue of White Dwarf.
  
• Nathaniel Webb revisits the 1982 sword and sorcery novel Nifft the Lean by Michael Shea. 
• Eileen Gunn revisits the 1984 Cyberpunk novel Neuromancer by William Gibson.
  
• Ben Peek revisits the 1984 Dragonlance fantasy novel Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. 
• Alissa Burger revisits the 1993 teen horror novel Broken Hearts by R.L. Stine and the 1995 teen horror novel My Bloody Valentine by Jo Gibson.
  
• Adam Roberts revisits the 1994 science fiction novel Mars Plus by Frederik Pohl and Thomas T. Thomas. 
• James Davis Nicoll revisits the 1997 historical speculative fiction novel The Moon and the Sun by Vonda N. McIntyre.
  
• Joe Sherry revisits the 2021 October Daye urban fantasy novel An Artificial Night by Seanan McGuire.
  

 

Crowdfunding:

• Volume 7 of The Long List Anthology: More Stories From the Hugo Award Nomination List is looking for funding.

 

Con and event reports:

• Morgan Hazelwood reports about the panel "Short Stories Expanded" at DisCon III, the 2021 Worldcon in Washington DC.
  
• The Greenville Journal reports that a collection of Ray Bradbury's papers and books has found a new home at the University of South Carolina in Greenville, South Carolina.
• Dr Pawl Frelik has been elected the next President of the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts.

 

Science and technology:

• Laura Dobberstein reports that a geomagnetic storm took out 40 of 49 newly launched Starlink satellites. 
• David Rothery reports that an asteroid sharing Earth's orbit has been found.
  
• Jeff Foust wonders whether film studios in space are a possibility or a science fiction fantasy. 
  
• William Harwood discusses the science behind the disaster satire Don't Look Up. 
• Neil Bradbury writes about strynchnine and why it was so popular as a murder weapon among crime fiction writers in the late 19th and early 20th century. 
  
• Jennifer Ouellette has unearthed an account of ball lightning by a monk named Gervase of Canterbury from 1195 AD. 
• S.A. Barnes shares a history of ghost ships.
  

Free online fiction:

• "Bonsai Starships" by Yoon Ha Lee in Beneath Ceaseless Skies. 
• "Rich Growth" by Aliya Whiteley in Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
  
• "Crows of the Mynchmoor" by Rab Foster in Sword and Sorcery Magazine.
  
• "Father of Rivers" by Gregory Mele in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly. 
• "The Chronologist" by Ian R. MacLeod in Tor.com. 
• "Bad Code" by Stephen Graham Jones in Lightspeed. 
• "When We Were Gods" by Isha Karki in Lightspeed.
  
• "Informed Consent Logs from the Soul Swap Clinic" by Sarah Pauling in Clarkesworld. 
• "You're Not the Only One" by Octavia Cade in Clarkesworld. 
• "Seen Small Through Glass" by Premee Mohamed in Fireside Magazine.
  
• "The Nix Trial" by Emma Schmid in Luna Station Quarterly. 
• "Slow Communication" by Dominique Dickey in Fantasy Magazine.
  
• "Tooth, Teeth, Tongue" by Ai Jiang in The Dark. 
• "Isimmiri" by Marycynthia Chinwe Okafor in Omenana. 
• "Fenworth City Municipal Watersheds Field Survey" by A.L. Goldfuss in Nightmare Magazine.
  
• "Rock Hard Place" by Don Redwood in Daily Science Fiction.
• "Super Hero" by Karen Brenchley in Daily Science Fiction.
  
• "Multiverse Apocalypse: A Villanelle" by Timothy Mudie in Daily Science Fiction.
  
• "What To Expect, When Your Daughter Returns From Neverland" by Luke Sekiguchi in Daily Science Fiction. 
• "Helmie" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
  
• "Ballroom Blitz" by Cora Buhlert.
  

 

Trailers and videos:

• Watch a sneak peek for season 3 of The Orville: New Horizons.  
• Watch a trailer for The Lazarus Project.
  
• Watch a trailer for the latest version of Firestarter.
  
• Watch a trailer for Men. 
• Watch a trailer for The Adam Project.
  
• Watch a trailer for Jurassic World: Dominion.
  
• Watch a trailer for Lightyear.