Speculative Fiction Links of the Week for September 27, 2024

 

It's time for the latest weekly round-up of interesting links about speculative fiction from around the web, this week with Masters of the Universe in general, Agatha All Along and the Marvel Cinematic Universe in general, Transformers One, season 2 of The Rings of Power, Twilight of the Gods, The Penguin, Wynonna Earp: Vengeance, The Wild Robot, A Different Man, Salem's Lot, Terrifier 3, The Substance, Apartment 7A, Grotesqurie, Lost at twenty and much more.

Speculative fiction in general:

• Tobias Carroll shares indie and small press speculative fiction coming out in September and October 2024. 
• James Davis Nicoll wonders when SFF got too big to keep up with.
  
• Kristen Patterson talks about the importance of architecure in science fiction. 
• Stephanie Wrobel shares thrillers and horror novels set in hotels.  
• M.L. Rio talks about the horrors of home in fiction and reality. 
• James Davis Nicoll shares five SFF works about creating, revising and obfuscating history 
  
• Delilah S. Dawson talks about revenge and capitalism in pop culture. 
• Dan Selcke lists six science fiction and fantasy authors who hated the screen adaptations of their books.
  
• Molly Templeton praises books that are just plain good. 
  
• Dean Koontz looks back on his writing career. 
• Ashley Lawson finds unexpected parallels between the works of Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith and Leigh Brackett.
  
• Emily Temple profiles Maggie Bradbury, wife of Ray Bradbury. 
  
• Cora Buhlert remembers Cele Goldsmith Lalli, editor of Amazing and Fantastic in the 1960s.
• Science fiction scholar and critic Fredric Jameson has died aged 90.
  

 

Comics and Art:

• Alasdair Stuart reviews  FML by Kelly Sue DeConnick, David López, Cris Peter and Clayton Cowles 
• Serena Labrecque reviews The Adventure Zone, Here There Be Gerblins by Clint, Griffin, Justin, and Travis McElroy and Cary Pietsch 
• Justin Carter wonders whether the manga My Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen were really as ground-breaking as their fans like to think.
  
• Patrick Sauer recounts the history of Mad Magazine. 
• David Pogue also discusses the history of Mad Magazine. 
• Locus interviews Miaela Alcaino.
• Christine Foltzer and Cynthia Shepphard explain how the cover of Swordcrossed by Freya Marske came to be. 
• Gordon Jackson reports that Marvel still doesn't want Peter Parker to get married again, seventeen years after the infamous "One More Day" storylne. 
  
• Tom Gauld shares a cartoon that comments on the generative AI craze.
  

 

Film and TV:

• Lindsay Ribar talks about Our Flag Means Death and the thematic problem of Izzy Hands
  
• Charlie Jane Anders calls Back to 15 a fun, science-fiction take on time travel, high school, and past mistakes that everybody should be watching.
• Germain Lussier calls Escape From the 21st Century a Street Fighter II time travel movie with a twist 
  
• Germain Lussier calls Daniela Forever a dream of a film about dreams  
• Peter Bradshaw declares that the time travel movie My Old Ass has a promising opening but fails to deliver
  
• Isaiah Colbert declares that the anime Uzumaki was well worth its endless spiral of delays  
• Phuong Le calls Detective Conan: The Million-Dollar Pentagram a convoluted anime with flashes of brilliance. 
• Germain Lussier calls Heretic a scary, tense and slightly uneven horror movie and praises the performance of Hugh Grant.
  
• Germain Lussier declares that Ick is like The Blob meets Venom, but in a high school horror movie  
  
• Leslie Felperin calls Azrael: Angel of Death review a dialogue-free science-fiction horror film. 
• Germain Lussier calls Mads a one-shot rollercoaster ride through a deadly zombie outbreak  
• Leila Latif declares that the horror series From gets grislier and grander in season 3 
• Catherine Bray calls Home Sweet Home: Where Evil Lives a fresh take on a pregnant-woman-in-peril horror film.
  
• Matthew Jackson declares that V/H/S/Beyond has more of a throughline than normal for an anthology film. 
  
• Catherine Bray calls Escape a sleazy throwback survival horror 
• Cath Clarke calls Dragonkeeper a fairly average animated fantasy film.
  
• Fiona Denton shares her thoughts on Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
  
• Arturo Serrano shares his thoughts on The Last Movie Ever Made
• Adam-Troy Castro shares his thoughts on In a Violent Nature 
• Melody McCune shares her thoughts on the series finale of Snowpiercer.
• Melody McCune shares her thoughts on the latest episode of The Ark.
  
• Nick Kolakowski shares his favourite crime and noir movies with supernatural elements.  
• Kyle MacNeill wonders why stop motion animation is still going strong a century after it was invented. 
• Gayle Sequeira wonders why pregnancy horror is on the rise. 
• Rich Pelley interviews Paul Feig, director of the 2016 Ghostbusters.
  
• Empire interviews James Cameron, director of Aliens, The Terminator, Avatar, True Lies, Titanic and others.
• Ryan O'Rourke interviews Charlie Brooker, creator and showrunner of Black Mirror. 
• Cheryl Eddy interviews Robert Englund and Heather Langenkamp, stars of the original A Nightmare on Elm Street.
• Germain Lussier interviews Alexander Aja, director of Never Let Go.
  
• Isaiah Colbert interviews voice actress Jennifer Hale. 
• Joe Hofferman and Dan Sato interviews Wayne Stables, visual effects supervisor for House of the Dragon.  
• Gavia Baker-Whitelaw interviews Mara LePere-Schloop, production designer for the new Interview with the Vampire.
• Fiona Moore revisits the 1969 horror movie Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed and the 1969 heist movie The Italian Job
• Kali Wallace revisits the 1979 post-apocapytic movie Stalker.
  
• Keith R.A. DeCandido revisits the 1994  Babylon 5 episode “Points of Departure”
  
• Justin Carter looks back on the 2014 superhero crime drama Gotham.  
• Aaron Jones revisits the 2019 supervillain movie Joker.
• Ben Child wonders whether Krypto the Superdog will be in Superman: Legacy. 
  
• Benjamin Lee reports that the film studio Lionsgate has partnered with the AI company Runway and gives them access to its library to develop AI solutions for the film industry.  
• Peter Bradshaw notes that the negative responses to Lionsgate's AI partnership show that filmgoers don't want AI-generated films. 
• British actor David Graham, who voiced the Daleks in the original Doctor Who and also worked on Thunderbirds and Peppa Pig among many others, has died aged 99.
  

 

Comments on Masters of the Universe in general: 

• For Eternia interviews Tim Seeley and Freddie Williams II, writer and artist of the Turtles of Grayskull comic mini-series.
  
• James Eatock shares fifty things about Orko.
  

 

Comments on Agatha All Along and the Marvel Cinematic and TV Universe in general: 

• Emmet Asher-Perrin shares their thoughts on “Through Many Miles of Tricks and Trials”, the latest episode of Agatha All Along.
• Jen Lennon shares her thoughts on “Through Many Miles of Tricks and Trials”, the latest episode of Agatha All Along.
• Gordon Jackson shares his thoughts on “Through Many Miles of Tricks and Trials”, the latest episode of Agatha All Along. 
• Anna Govert calls Agatha All Along the kooky, queer, witchy side-quest the Marvel Cinematic Universe desperately needed
  
• Avery Kaplan shares five things she loved about the Agatha All Along premiere.
  
• James Whitbrook notes that Agatha All Along‘s most intriguing mysteries could all be connected 
  
• Diego Ramos Bechara reports that Kathryn Hahn, who plays Agatha Harkness in Agatha All Along, lobbied for a nude scene.
• Nick Romano interviews Jac Schaeffer, showrunner and creator of Agatha All Along.
  
• Inspired by Agatha All Along, Kayleigh Dray discusses why witches are popular again on TV.
  
• Daniel D'Addario interviews Sebastian Stan, best known for playing Bucky Barnes a.k.a. the Winter Soldier in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 
• James Whitbrook shares an overview of the characters in Thunderbolts.
  
• Watch a trailer for Thunderbolts. 
  

 

Comments on Transformers One:  

• Jesse Hassenger declares that Transformers One sells sketchy credibility first, toys cecond 
• Germain Lussier interviews Josh Cooley, director of Transformers One.
  

 

Comments on Twilight of the Gods:

• Kathryn Porter calls Twilight of the Gods another typical, flawed Zack Snyder affair
• Luke Buckmaster calls Twilight of the Gods an animated feast of Zack Snyderisms
  

 

Comments on The Rings of Power: 

• Matt Schimkowitz shares his thoughts on  “Doomed To Die”, the latest episode of The Rings of Power. 
• James Whitbrook shares his thoughts on  “Doomed To Die”, the latest episode of The Rings of Power.  
• Melody McCune shares his thoughts on  “Doomed To Die”, the latest episode of The Rings of Power.   
• Sylas K. Barrett shares his thoughts on "Where is he?", the previous episode of The Rings of Power.
• Rafael Motamyjor declares that The Rings of Power is about to turn Celebrimbor into Jar Jar Binks.  
• Melody McCune interviews "Doomed to Die" director Charlotte Brändström and cinematographer Alex Disenhof

 

Comments on Wynonna Earp: Vengeance: 

• Melody McCune shares her twelve favourite moments from Wynonna Erap: Vengeance.
• Melody McCune shares her favourite quotes from Wynonna Earp: Vengeance.
  

 

Comments on The Wild Robot: 

• Matthew Jackson calls The Wild Robot a deeply affecting animated take on life beyond the confines of engineering.
• Adrian Horton calls The Wild Robot a heartfelt animated adventure and a soaring success
  
• Germain Lussier calls The Wild Robot a magnificent movie in every way 
  

 

Comments on A Different Man: 

• Germain Lussier calls A Different Man a subtle science fiction drama and praises the performance of Sebastian Stan. 
• Drew Gillis calls A Different Man absurdly sharp and also praises the performance of Sebastian Stan.
  

 

Comments on the new Salem's Lot:

• Jacob Oller declares that Salem's Lot has no heart and no stakes 
• Cheryl Eddy declares that the new Salem’s Lot doesn’t quite scare up satisfation
  

 

Comments on Terrifier 3: 

• Matthew Jackson calls Terrifier 3 an indulgent, dramatic, gore-drenched showstopper. 
• Germain Lussier calls Terrifier 3 every bit as gory, depraved and entertaining as you’re hoping for 
  

 

Comments on The Substance: 

• Katarina Docalovich calls The Substance a stale satire and clumsy feminist critique 
• Natalie Zutter calls The Substance a satirical body horror Picture of Dorian Gray 
  
• Katie Rife calls the horror film The Substance a bloody, feminist catharsis in action 
• Krysta Fauria calls The Substance brilliantly disgusting and deranged
• Emma Keates shares a spoilerish review of The Substance.
  
• Arturo Serrano shares his thoughts on The Substance.
  

 

Comments on Apartment 7A:

• Cheryl Eddy declares that Rosemary's Baby didn't really need a prequel, but finds Apartment 7A compelling anyway. 
• Natalia Keogan calls Apartment 7A a muddled Rosemary’s Baby riff 
• Brianna Zigler declares that Apartment 7A asks “What if Rosemary’s Baby was worse?”
  

 

Comments on The Penguin: 

• Keith R.A. DeCandido shares his thoughts on "After Hours", the first episode of The Penguin.
• Lucy Mangan calls The Penguin a powerful Batman spin-off. 
• Terry Terrones calls The Penguin DC’s answer to The Sopranos
• Diego Ramon Bechara interviews Colin Powell who plays Oswald Cobblepot a.k.a. the Penguin in The Penguin. 
  
• Ray Flook reports that the New York Times included an edition of The Gotham Gazette intended to promote The Penguin. 
• Timothy Adams reports about several events intended to promote The Penguin in New York City.
  

 

Comments on Grotesquerie: 

• Rebecca Nicholson calls Grotesquerie a horror series as gorily unsubtle as you’d expect from Ryan Murphy 
• Bryan Tallerico declares that Grotesquerie feels caught between camp and realism
  

 

Lost at 20:

• Stanley Bucksbaum and Wesley Stenzel revisit the 2004 disaster show Lost and share their ten favourite episodes. 
  
• Dalton Ross shares a defence of the controversial Lost finale.
  

 

Awards:

• The winners of the 2024 Prix Aurora-Boréal have been announced.
• The winners of the 2024 Dream Foundry Contest have been announced.
  
• The winners of the 2024 Ringo Awards have been announced.
  
• The winners of the 2024 New York Science Fiction Film Festival have been announced.
  

Writing, publishing and promotion: 

• Linda Huang explains why artificial intelligence can't replace human creativity.
• Victoria Strauss warns about a social media marketing scam targeting authors. 
• Claire Kirch reports about the problems of the publisher TouchPoint Press. 
• Thad McIlroy and Jim Milliot report that forty percent of publishing jobs disappeared over the past thirty years and wonder why.
  
• Paul Blumenthal discusses how the copyright lawsuit of the Big Five publishers versus the Internet Archive exposes ethical issues inside the US Supreme Court.  
• Elizabeth Harris reports how new laws in several US states are fuelling book bans.
  
• Mike Glyer reports about the most challenged and banned books in the US.
  

 

Interviews:

• Daniel Roman interviews George R.R. Martin.
• Delilah S. Dawson and Lilliam Rivera interview each other. 
• Scott Edelman interviews Jeffrey Ford.
  
• Jean-Paul Garnier interviews Pedro Iniguez
  
• Antonia Lloyd Jones interviews Olga Tokarczuk.
• The Guardian interviews Pat Barker.
• Alex Clark inteviews Richard Powers.
  

 

Reviews:

• Blue Book Balloon reviews The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia   
• Rich Horton reviews The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley 
• Runalong the Shelves reviews Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee 
• Mark Yon reiews Exodus: The Archimedes Machine by Peter F. Hamilton
• Vanessa Armstrong reviews The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society by C.M. Waggoner
  
• Lesa Holstine reviews The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki, translated by Jesse Kirkwood.
• Runalong the Shelves reviews The Darkness In The Pines by David Green 
• Tobias Carroll reviews In the Shadow of the Fall by Tobi Ogundiran.
  
• Adrian Collins reviews The Boodless Princes by Charlotte Bond
  
• Molly Templeton reviews Asunder by Kerstin Hall.
• Natalie Zutter reviews Hum by Helen Phillips.
  
• Grimdark Magazine reviews A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang
• Archita Mittra reviews A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang
  
• Runalong the Shelves reviews The Last Day And the First by Tim Lebbon
  
• Marlene Harris reviews The Daughters’ War by Christopher Buehlman
  
• Runalong the Shelves reviews Warlords of Wyrdwood by R.J. Barker
• Tobias Carroll reviews Smothermoss by Alisa Alering. 
• Roseanna Pendlebury reviews Gorse by Sam K. Horton
  
• Runalong the Shelves reviews The Ravening by Daniel Church 
• Abergale Shep reviews Necrology by Meg Ripley 
  
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Through The Midnight Door by Katrina Monroe
• Rob Bedford reviews Small Town Horror by Ronald Malfi.
  
• James Davis Nicoll reviews Model Home by Rivers Solomon 
• Marlene Harris reviews Haunt Sweet Home by Sarah Pinsker
  
• Gabino Iglesias reviews Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman
• A.K. Blakemore reviews A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enríquez, translated by Megan McDowell 
• Fiona Denton reviews The Book of Witches, edited by Jonathan Strahan 
• Runalong the Shelves reviews Sinophagia - A Celebration of Chinese Horror, edited by Xueting C. Ni.
• Eugen Bacon reviews Sinophagia - A Celebration of Chinese Horror, edited by Xueting C. Ni. 
• Bill Capossere reviews The Last Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison and J. Michael Straczynski 
• Gary K. Wolfe reviews New Adventures in Space Opera edited by Jonathan Strahan  
• Arley Sorg reviews The Year’s Best Fantasy: Volume Three, edited by Paula Guran  
• Daniel Wilson Wise reviews The Literary Role of History in the Fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien by Nicholas Birns and Representing Middle-Earth: Tolkien, Form, and Ideology by Robert T. Tally Jr.  
• Ian Mond reviews Track Changes by Abigail Nussbaum
     
  

Classics reviews:

• Ruthanna Emrys and Anne M. Pillsworth revisit the 1904 ghost story “Oh Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad” by M.R. James.
  
• Sandy Ferber revisits the 1907 horror novel The Feast of Bacchus by Ernest G. Henham
• Bobby Derie revisits the 1937 horror story “The Ho-Ho-Kam Horror” by Bruce Bryan 
• Sandy Ferber revisits the 1960 post-apocalyptic novel Facial Justice by L.P. Hartley
  
• James Davis Nicoll revisits the 1976 gothic horror novel Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice 
• Sam Reader revisits the 1980 horror story “You Can Go Now” by Dennis Etchison
  
• Brian Collins revisits the 1984 science fiction horror story “Beachworld” by Stephen King
• Alissa Burger revisits the 1995 YA horror novel The Boy Next Door by Sinclair Smith and the 1996 YA horror novel The Boy Next Door by R.L. Stine.
  
• James Davis Nicoll revisits the 2004 Borderlands fantasy novel Covenants by Lorna Freeman
  
• Alex Brown revisits the 2011 Raksura science fantasy novel The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells.
  

 

 Con and event reports:

• Dave Hook reports about the panel "The Conclusion of the Retro Hugo Era" at the 2024 Worldcon in Glasgow, Scotland. 
  
• The 2025 StokerCon in Sanford, Connecticut, has announced two additional guests of honour.
• Cora Buhlert shares her experiences at the 2024 Toyplosion in Castrop-Rauxel, Germany. 
• Germain Lussier shares his favourite movies from the 2024 Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas.
  
• Stuart Heritage reports about a disappointing Bridgerton Ball experience in Detroit, Michigan.
  

 

Science and technology:

• Jon Brodkin reports that the game company Cards Against Humanity is sueing SpaceX, alleging that Elon Musk's firm illegally took over a plot of land on the US/Mexico border that the game company bought in 2017 in an attempt to stymie then-President Trump's attempt to build a norder wall. 
• Helen Bushby profiles Neil Harbison, an artist who considers himself a cyborg.
  

 

Gaming: 

• Haley Zapal reviews the video game Star Wars Outlaws. 
• Joe DelFranco reviews the video game Astro Bot by Team Asobi 
  
• Marie Vibbert talks about playtesting card games.
• Austin Conrad talks about playtesting tabletop roleplaying game stories. 
• Dan Thurot reports that Kurt Vonnegut used to design boardgames and that one of his games has been published.
  
• Jennifer Maas reports that the previously exempt MMORPG League of Legends is now also affected by the SAG-Aftra strike of video game voice actors
  
• Stewart A. Shearer shares a little Dungeons & Dragons adventure called "A Cat in a Treant"
  

 

Toys and collectibles:

• Scott Neitlich explains why there are so many Acolyte toys available, even though The Acolyte underpeformed and was cancelled.
• James Whitbrook reports that Lego will continue to include physical instructions with its sets following a backlash when they announced they would only have digital instructions henceforth. 
• Ottilie Von Henning reports that a father and son in North Carolina built a lifesize TARDIS complete with console.
  

 

Free online fiction: 

• "The Mote in Bird’s Eye; or, Note Attached to a Frozen Corpse Retrieved from Deep Space" by Jon Lasser in Lightspeed.
• "Two Motes in the Zeugma Dark" by Sagan Yee in Lightspeed.
  
• "The Eight Things You’ll Never Be Now That You’re Slowly Turning Into a Giant Spider Creature" by Alex Sobel in Apex Magazine.
  
• "A Tapestry of Dreams" by Victor Forna in Apex Magazine.
  
• "A World of Milk and Promises" by R H Wesley in Clarkesworld.
  
• "A Theory of Missing Affections" by Renan Bernardo in Clarkesworld
• "F*** These Wizards" by Alex London in The Sunday Morning Transport.
• "Just a Little Chat" by Steven French in Wyldblood. 
• "Spill" by Cory Doctorow in Reactor. 
• "Vigilant" by Cory Doctorow in Reactor. 
• "Big Boned" by Kristi DeMeester in The Dark.
• "Changeling" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
  

 

Trailers and videos:

• Watch a trailer for season 2 of The Last of Us.
  
• Watch a trailer for Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft 
• Watch a trailer for Devil May Cry. 
• Watch a trailer for Rumours.
  
• Watch a trailer for Teacup. 
• Watch a trailer for Sinners. 
• Watch a trailer for Hysteria!
  
• Watch a trailer for V/H/S Beyond.
  
• Watch a trailer for Daddy's Head.