Speculative Fiction Links of the Week for June 13, 2025

 

It's time for the latest weekly round-up of interesting links about speculative fiction from around the web, this week with Andor and Star Wars in general, the Marvel Cinematic and TV Universe in general, news from the upcoming Masters of the Universe live action film and Masters of the Universe in general, Doctor Who past, present and future, Star Trek in general, Murderbot, War season 4 of Reisdent Alien, The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments, Superman, Predator: Killer of Killers, The Life of Chuck, Revival, the live action How to Train Your Dragon and much more.

Speculative fiction in general:

• Lorna Wallace shares five stories about being stranded on an alien planet 
• James Davis Nicoll shares five science fiction stories about time travel on a limited scale 
• James Davis Nicoll shares five SFF books about oddballs resisting conformity 
• Otho Eskin shares five novel about the end of democracy. 
• Farah Mendlesohn profiles Joanna Russ. 
• Sylas K. Barrett explains what people can learn from Rand al’Thor’s mental health journey in The Wheel of Time. 
• Fendy S. Tulodo finds unexpected science fiction elements in traditional Indonesian puppet theatre. 
• Alissa Burger talks about a new series remixing classic novels to tell trans stories. 
• Ella Creamer reports that according to a recent survey children’s reading enjoyment has fallen to the lowest ever recorded level in the UK

 

Comics and Art:

• Robin Marx reviews Conan the Barbarian: Scourge of the Serpent by Jim Zub and Ivan Gill.
• Jeet Heer reviews Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life by Dan Nadel. 
• Tom Gauld shares a cartoon about the sounds of writing. 
• SFF artist David Schleinkofer died aged 74.

 

Film and TV:

• Leah Schnelbach declares that All You Need Is Death puts the "folk" in folk horror  
• Leslie Felperin calls Mythica: Stormbound a low-budget but reasonably competent fantasy film.
• Catherine Bray calls Consecration a well-crafted horror movie 
• Diana Keng shares her thoughts on the latest episode of The Librarians: The Next Chapter. 
• Melody McCune shares her thoughts on the season finale of Surrealestate. 
• James Whitbrook shares his thoughts on the latest episode of Gundam GQuuuuuuX 
• Saloni Gajjar declares that the dramatic stakes in The Walking Dead: Dead City are practically non-existent.
• Katie Rife calls Dangerous Animals a thrilling trip to the sea. 
• C.T. Phipps shares his thoughts on Furiosa. 
• Jim Vorel shares his thoughts on the Japanese horror movie Best Wishes to All  
• Stuart Heritage talks about transhumanism and immortality in movies. 
• Jim Vorel shares an ode to shark movies. 
• Cheryl Eddy notes that movies featuring angels were popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s. 
• Don Kaye lists horror movies based on books. 
• Leah Thomas takes a look at Isekai anime. 
• Fiona Moore revisits the 1968 surrealist movie If...
• Jason Sacks revisits the 1970 science fiction film Beneath the Planet of the Apes. 
• Jon Harvey revisits the 1975 shark movie Jaws. 
• Tyler Dean revisits the 1984 fantasy film The NeverEnding Story. 
• Germain Lussier revisits the 1985 adventure movie The Goonies and realises that the central premise makes no sense. 
• Cheryl Eddy revisits the 1997 science fiction horror film Event Horizon and the 2007 science fiction disaster movie Sunshine. 
• C.T. Phipps revisits the 2015 post-paocalyptic film Mad Max: Fury Road 
• Adam Fleet revisits the 2015 dystopian film Elysium. 
• Kali Wallace revisits the 2019 Laotian horror film The Long Walk. 
• Maya Yang reports that multiple women have accused actor and musician Jared Leto of inappropriate sexual behaviour and harassment. 
• Andrew Pulver reports that actress Kate Beckinsale is sueing the producers of the thriller Canary Black over ‘unsafe conditions’  
• Stuart Heritage reports that the stars of the planned new Harry Potter TV-show are already facing massive criticism before the show has even started to film. 
• Thomas Doherty shares likely candidates for a potential Best Stunt Performance Oscar from 98 years of Oscar history. 
• Actress Mara Cordey, who appeared in several monster movies in the 1950s, has died aged 95. 

 

Comments on the Marvel Cinematic and TV Universe in general:

• Scarlett Johansson, who plays Natasha Romanov a.k.a. Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, interviews David Harbour, who plays Red Guardian in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 
• Rebecca Rubin reports that Thunderbolts* lost millions of US-dollars despite great reviews and wonders where Marvel will go next. 
• Watch a trailer for Ironheart.

 

Comments on Masters of the Universe in general:

• James Eatock reveals where Prince Adam hides the Sword of Power in his bedroom in Eternos Palace in the Filmation He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon.
• Matt Donnelly wonders whether the sexual misconduct allegations against Jared Leto, who will play Skeletor in the upcoming Masters of the Universe live-action movie, will impact Masters of the Universe as well as Tron Ares.  
• Adam McComb shares the script for a never published Masters of the Universe mini-comic called "The Ring of Dreams". 

 

Comments on Andor and Star Wars in general: 

• Aaron Jones shares his thoughts on season 2 of Andor.
• Phoebe Wagner shares her thoughts on episode 6 of season 2 of Andor.  
• Maggie Lovitt interviews Tony Gilroy, showrunner of Andor. 
• ATX TV interviews Tony Gilroy and Beau Willimon, writer of Andor. 
• Leia Mendoza interviews Tony Gilroy and star Diego Luna about the Ghorman massacre in Andor. 
• James Whitbrook discusses what it took to build the Death Star. 
• Anthony Breznican discusses how the music from the wedding dance scene in Andor became an unlikely summer hit. 
• Ben Child wonders whether Star Wars can survive without Mark Hamill. 
• Readers of The Guardian remember watching the original Star Wars in the theatre for the very first time. 

 

 Comments on Murderbot:  

• Camestros Felapton notes that he is enjoying Murderbot. 
• Alex Brown shares their thoughts on “Rogue War Tracker Infinite”, the latest episode of Murderbot.
• Melody McCune shares her thoughts on “Rogue War Tracker Infinite”, the latest episode of Murderbot.
• William Hughes shares his thoughts on “Rogue War Tracker Infinite”, the latest episode of Murderbot.
• Steve Weintraub interviews Murderbot showrunners Paul and Chris Weitz and stars Alexander Skarsgård and Jack McBrayer.

 

 Comments on season 4 of  Resident Alien:

• Tara Bennett shares her thoughts on the season 4 premiere of Resident Alien.  
• Melody McCune shares her thoughts on the season 4 premiere of Resident Alien. 

 

Comments on Doctor Who past, present and future (spoilers): 

• Arturo Serrano declares that the clumsy finale of series 15 of Doctor Who should not overshadow a cleverly written season and a fantastic protagonist 
• James Whitbrook wonders where Doctor Who will go after the series 15 finale.
• Cheryl Eddy reports about rumours that David Tennant and Billie Piper will reunite for a Doctor Who special to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the revived series, only that they are both the Doctor now. 
• Max Goldbart reports that the BBC is planning to produce an animated Doctor Who series aimed at preschool children.  

 

Comments on Superman: 

• Nick Romano profiles the Justice Gang, a group of superheroes appearing in Superman.
• Nick Romano interviews Nathan Fillion who plays Guy Gardner a.k.a. Green Lantern in the upcoming Superman movie.  
• Watch a trailer for Superman.  

 

Comments on Star Trek in general: 

• Avery Kaplan discusses why the Trills in Star Trek are a trans analogy. 
• Tracy Brown interviews George Takei, best known for playing Sulu in Star Trek. 
• James Whitbrook revisits the 1993 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Duet". 
• Avery Kaplan shares her appreciation for the character of Jennifer "Jen’" Sh’reyan from Star Trek Lower Decks. 
• James Whitbrook reports that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will end with season 5. 
• Watch a trailer for season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

 

Comments on The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments: 

• Jackie Strause discusses how The Handmaid’s Tale sets up The Testaments sequel series 
• Jackie Strause interviews Samira Wiley who plays Moira in The Handmaid's Tale. 

 

Comments on Predator: Killer of Killers:  

• Toussaint Egan calls Predator: Killer Of Killers a gruesome animated battle for the ages
• Justin Carter declares that Predator: Killer of Killers just rules  
• Jim Vorel declares that Predator: Killer of Killers offers bloody action but iffy animation 
• Germain Lussier talks about the ending of Predator: Killer of Killers  

 

Comments on the live action How To Train Your Dragon: 

• James Grebey declares that the live action How To Train Your Dragon remake trades animated magic for money-hungry mediocrity
• Radheyan Simonpillai calls the live action How to Train Your Dragon a faithful yet utterly soulless remake 
• Jesse Hassenger declares that the live-action How to Train Your Dragon offers a DreamWorks version of the Disney process to remake their animated classics as inferior live action versions, 
• Sabina Graves calls the live action How to Train Your Dragon a dazzling fantasy epic  
• Sabina Graves interviews Dean DeBlois, director of How To Train Your Dragon. 

 

Comments on Revival:

• Jarrod Jones calls Revival a rural noir series heavy on drama and light on thorny questions 
• Melody McCune shares her thoughts on the first episode of Revival. 
• Vanessa Armstrong interviews Luke Boyce and Aaron B. Koontz, showrunners of Revival. 
• Melody McCune also interviews Aaron B. Koontz and Luke Boyce  

 

Comments on The Life of Chuck: 

• Leah Schnelbach declares that The Life of Chuck reminds us to dance while the sun shines
• Germain Lussier declares that The Life of Chuck may change the way you look at movies and yourself  
• Matthew Jackson declares that Mike Flanagan's particular style of storytelling is honed to a fine point in The Life Of Chuck 
• Anna McKibbin declares that  The Life of Chuck contains somewhat less than multitudes

  

 Awards:

• The winners of the 2024 Nebula Awards have been announced 
• The finalists for the 2024 Shirley Jackson Awards have been announced.
• The shortlists for the 2025 Ignyte Awards have been announced.
• The longlist for the 2025 Manly Wade Wellman Award has been announced. 
• The recipient of the 2025 Infinity Award has been announced. 
• The recipients of the 2025 Bill Finger Awards have been announced. 
• The winner of the 2025 Maine Literary Awards have been announced. 
• The finalists for the 2025 Colorado Book Awards have been announced.  
• The winners of the 2025 Tony Awards have been announced. 

 

Writing, publishing and promotion: 

• Lucy Clarke shares eight tips for how to get the most out of your research trip 
• Victoria Strauss reports about the bankruptcies of Unbound and Albert Whitman & Co and the impact on the affected authors. 
• C.T. Jones reports how fear of AI scraping is ruining the fanfiction community.

 

Interviews:

• Paul Krugman interviews Ada Palmer. 
• Harriett Gilbert interviews N.K Jemisin 
• Locus interviews Joan Slonczewski 
• Garrick Webster interviews Linwood Barclay.
• Jennie Ivins interviews A.A. Freeman. 
• Alexandra Penth interviews Cora Buhlert 

 

Reviews: 

• Paul Weimer reviews The Immeasurable Heaven by Caspar Geon  
• Tobias Carroll reviews Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky 
• James Davis Nicoll reviews The Transitive Properties of Cheese by Ann LeBlanc 
• Marlene Harris reviews Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove 
• Camestros Felapton reviews Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell 
• James Davis Nicoll reviews The Witch Roads by Kate Elliott 
• Rob Bedford reviews The Witch Roads by Kate Elliott   
• Liz Bourke reviews Point of Hearts by Melissa Scott
• Ian Mond reviews The Antidote by Karen Russell 
• Melissa A Watkins reviews Black Salt Queen by Samantha Bansil  
• Marlene Harris reviews It Takes a Psychic by Jayne Castle 
• Julia Kitvaria Sarene reviews A Charm of Magpies by K. J. Charles  
• Marlene Harris reviews Wooing the Witch Queen by Stephanie Burgis 
• Rachel Cordasco reviews The Proposal by Bae Myung-Hoon, translated by Stella Kim. 
• Z.B. Steele reviews The Price of Power by Michael Michel 
• Sasha Bonkowsky reviews Written on the Dark by Guy Gavriel Kay.  
• Julia Kitvaria Sarene reviews Sairo’s Claw by Virginia McClain 
• Roseanna Pendlebury reviews Red Sword by Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur.
• Blue Book Balloon reviews Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett 
• Jake Casella Brookins reviews A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett 
• Runalong the Shelves reviews Sour Cherry by Natalia Theodoridou 
• Colleen Mondor reviews They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran 
• Marion Deeds reviews The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar 
• Z.B. Steele reviews Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson. 
• Rebecca Fisher reviews Utterly Dark and the Tides of Time by Philip Reeve
• Paul Di Filippo reviews The Country Under Heaven by Frederic S. Durbin 
• James Vella-Bardon reviews War Cry by Ian Ross 
• Gary K. Wolfe reviews Anima Rising by Christopher Moore 
• Michael Donkor reviews Muckle Flugga by Michael Pedersen  
• James Davis Nicoll reviews Numamushi by Mina Ikemoto Ghosh 
• Alexis Ong reviews Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata.  
• Blue Book Balloon reviews We Live Here Now by Sarah Pinborough    
• Colleen Mondor reviews Unhallowed Halls by Lili Wilkinson 
• Jenny Hamilton reviews The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling 
• Marlene Harris reviews The Devils by Joe Abercrombie 
• Mary Picken reviews Whistle by Linwood Barclay 
• Gabino Iglesias reviews (S)Kin by Ibi Zoboi 
• John Mauro reviews ITCH! by Gemma Amor 
• Runalong the Shelves reviews Heartwood - A Mythago Wood Anthology, edited by Dan Coxon 
  
  

 Classics reviews:

• Sandy Ferber revisits the 1923 science fiction novel Draconda by John Martin Leahy
• Dave Hook revisits the 1949 science fiction mystery collection John Carstairs: Space Detective by Frank Belknap Long 
• Dave Hook revisits the 1949 science fiction collection A Martian Odyssey and Other Stories by  Stanley G. Weinbaum  
• Cal Newport revisits the 1950 science fiction fix-up I, Robot by Isaac Asimov.
• Joachim Boaz revisits the October 1950 issue of Galaxy. 
• Alan Brown revisits the 1957 science fiction novel City on the Moon by Murray Leinster and the 1958 science fiction collection Men on the Moon, edited by Donald A. Wollheim 
• Gideon Marcus revisits the July 1970 issue of Galaxy. 
• John Boston revisits the July 1970 issue of Amazing. 
• James Davis Nicoll revisits the 1972 post-apocalyptic novel The Heirs of Babylon by Glen Cook 
• James Davis Nicoll revisits the 1977 science fiction collection From This Day Forward by John Brunner 
• Christopher Lockett revisits the 1987 Discworld fantasy novel Mort by Terry Pratchett. 
• Kat Hooper revisits the 2002 YA fantasy First Truth by Dawn Cook a.k.a. Kim Harrison. 

 

 Con and event reports:

• Octothorpe discusses Reconnect, the 2025 Eastercon in Belfast, Northern Ireland. 
• The agends and instructions for the virtual WSFS Buisness Meeting of the 2025 Worldcon in Seattle, Washington, is now online. 
• Locus reports about the latest Brooklyn Books and Booze event in Brooklyn, New York.
• Alyssa Mercante and Keza MacDonald report about the 2025 Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, California. 
• Severin Carrell reports about the line-up for the Edinburgh International Book Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. 
• Germain Lussier reports about an exhibition of Jaws inspired posters and artwork in Red Bank, New Jersey

 

Science and technology:

• Ellyn Lapointe reports that astronomers have found a hidden volcano on Mars   
• Paul Voosen reports that Trump government's budget cuts would mean the end for dozens of active and planned NASA missions and spacecraft.  
• NPR reports that the Japanese private lunar lander Resilience has crashed into the Moon during a failed mission 
• Elizabeth Gibney reports about the establishment of the African Space Agency. 
• Dee Jefferson interviews Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield. 
• Sy Boles wonders whether 75 years after Fermi's paradox, we are any closer to finding alien life 
• Sarah Durn explains how quickly New York City would decay in a world without people. 
• Noor Al-Sibai reports that a 1976 Atari 2600 Console has beaten ChatGPT at chess. 
• Raechal Shewfelt reports that Disney and Universal are sueing the AI company Midjourney over its use of copyrighted characters
• Ella Creamer reports that researchers at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, have identified a method to quickly identify arsenic containing pigments in nineteenth century books. 
• Software designer Bill Atkinson, who developed the modern desktop, has died aged 74.
   

Gaming: 

• Keza McDonald reviews the Nintendo Switch 2 console. 
• Keith Stuart and Keza MacDonald share their fifteen favourite games presented at the 2025 Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, California. 
• Katie Notopoulos reports that the Roblox "Grow A Garden" game, which was developed by a sixteen-year-old, is breaking popularity records.
• Justin Carter reports that Electronic Arts cancelled a proposed Black Panther game.  
• Tiffany May reports that the videogame Reversed Front: Bonfire has been banned in Hong Kong for allegedly promoting an armed revolution. 

 

Toys and collectibles:

• The KnightWolf reviews the Formo Toys Legends of Dragonore Ignytor action figure. 
• Germain Lussiers shares a look at the Hasbro Marvel Legends SDCC exclusive Savage Land three-pack.
• Sabina Graves shares a look at a Godzilla Minus One Funko Pop figure. 

 

Free online fiction: 

• "Multi-Spatial Apartment Complex Malfunction Results in Body Horror" by Reyes Ramirez in Lightspeed. 
• "When the Faerie King Toured the Human Realm" by Vanessa Fogg in Lightspeed.  
• "Let the Gods Drown With Us" by R.K. Duncan in Beneath Ceaseless Skies. 
• "Not a Fish" by Andrew Dykstal in Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
• "The Eighth Pyramid" by Louis Inglis Hall in Clarkesworld. 
• "In the Shells of Broken Things" by A. T. Greenblatt in Clarkesworld. 
• "Eleven Songs for Another Lover" by V.H. Chen in Nightmare Magazine.  
• "Howl Rising" by Kirsty Campbell in Swords and Sorcery Magazine.
• "The Death of Abigail Goudy" by Neil Williamson in The Dark.
• " Hi! I’m Claudia" by Delilah S. Dawson in Uncanny Magazine
  
  

Trailers and videos:

• Watch a trailer for season 3 of Foundation.
• Watch a trailer for Freakier Friday.
• Watch a trailer for The Institute. 
• Watch a teaser for Spaceballs 2.