It's
time for the latest weekly round-up of interesting
links
about speculative
fiction from
around the web, this week with the upcoming Masters of the Universe live action film and Masters of the Universe in general, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Mercy, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and Star Trek in general, Pluribus, Fallout, Mother of Flies, Cosmic Princess Kaguya, The Beauty, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, the battle for Warner Bros and much
more.
Speculative fiction in general:
- Natalie Zutter shares romantasy books coming out in January and February 2026.
- Ruby Martinez shares five romantasy books with sweet love interests
- Ken Liu explains why science fiction can’t predict the future (and why that’s a good thing)
- Sam Reader shares seven works of cyberpunk written before the eighties made it cool
- Lorna Wallace shares five horror books set in inescapable towns
- James Davis Nicoll talks about updating public domain books and explains why it's a bad idea.
- Alex Brown shares must read short speculative fiction for December 2025
- Jo Walton shares her reading list for December 2025.
- Molly Templeton declares that your to-be-read pile might be lying to you
Comics and Art:
- James Davis Nicoll reviews "Their Kingdom Come", volume 3 of The Night Eaters, by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
- Marlene Harris reviews The Demon of Beausoleil by Mariana Costa
- Markus Helminiak ranks DC's earliest superheroes by importance.
- Isaiah Colbert shares his appreciation for the dark fantasy manga Centuria by Tohru Kuramori
- Scott Edelman interviews comic creator Don Simpson.
- Tom Gauld shares a cartoon on difficult New Year’s resolutions
Film and TV:
- Arturo Serrano calls The Copenhagen Test a deadly game of stories inside stories, masks behind masks
- Peter Bradshaw calls Tim Travers and the Time Traveler’s Paradox a space-hopping comedy that asks big questions
- Isaiah Colbert declares that if you’re not watching Frieren, you’re missing out on the best fantasy anime in ages
- Isaiah Colbert declares that the anime Gnosia is basically the pandemic-era online multiplayer game—but with pretty anime waifus, husbands, an actual alien and a talking dolphin
- Ryan Gilbey ranks his twenty favourite time loop movies.
- Kali Wallace revisits the 1981 science fiction western Outland.
- Keith R.A. DeCandido revisits the 1997 Babylon 5 episode “Intersections in Real Time”
- Zoe Williams interviews Sophie Turner, best known for her roles in Game of Thrones, the X-Men movies, Tomb Raider and Steal.
- Lanre Bakare interviews Wunmi Musaku, best known for her roles in Sinners, Loki, Waking the Dead, Passengers, We Own This City and many others.
- Camestros Felapton takes a look at the Daleks in Doctor Who
- Camestros Felapton takes a look at the Cybermen in Doctor Who
- Germain Lussier wonders how often is too often for new Star Wars movies.
- Ben Child expresses his excitement that Two-Face will appear in an upcoming Batman film.
- Charlie Jane Anders has some ideas about how to reboot Blake's 7.
- Germain Lussier reports that Marvel Studios is apparently pleased with the performance of those odd teaser trailers for Avengers: Doomsday.
- Justin Carter reports that Zootopia 2 is now the highest-grossing animated film of all time.
Comments on Masters of the Universe in general:
- Watch a trailer for the upcoming Masters of the Universe live action film.
- Watch a teaser for the upcoming Masters of the Universe live action film.
- Cora Buhlert shares her thoughts on the teaser trailer for the upcoming Masters of the Universe live action film.
- Cora Buhlert shares her thoughts on the actual trailer for the upcoming Masters of the Universe live action film.
- Jukka Issakainen reviews Masters of the Universe: The Sword of Flaws No. 3 by Tim Seeley and Freddie Williams II.
Comments on Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and Star Trek in general:
- Gavia Baker-Whitelaw calls Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Star Trek meets college drama and a fun but frustrating series
- Keith R.A. DeCandido shares his thoughts on "Beta Test", the second episode of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.
- Keith R.A. DeCandido shares his thoughts on "Vitus Reflux", the third episode of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.
- James Whitbrook shares his thoughts on "Vitus Reflux", the third episode of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.
- Dylan Roth explains what Star Trek means to him.
- James Whitbrook shares his appreciation for the character of Nahla Ake, played by Holly Hunter, in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.
- Alexis Solaski interviews Holly Hunter who plays Nahla Ake in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
- Vanessa Armstrong interviews Robert Picardo who plays The Doctor in Star Trek Voyager and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.
- Lacy Baugher interviews Robert Picardo.
- Ryan Britt interviews Paul Giamatti who plays Nus Braka in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.
- Vanessa Armstrong interviews Gina Yashere who plays Lura Thok in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.
- David Moye reports that Donald Trump adviser Stephen Miller has been soundly mocked for begging William Shatner to save Star Trek from wokeness
- James Whitbrook is baffled about what precisely is upsetting rightwingers about Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.
Comments on A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms:
- Rhik Samadder calls A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms a glorious grossout comedy and Game of Thrones at its best
- Tyler Dean calls A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms a delightful buddy comedy.
- Lucy Mangan calls A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms the Game of Thrones we all need now
- Glen Weldon calls A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Game of Thrones for the haters
- Jarrod Jones declares that A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms kicks off on a delightful and refreshingly modest note
- Cheryl Eddy declares that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms kicks off its delightful new Game of Thrones adventure
- James Whitbrook shares a brief reminder of when in the history of Westeros A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms takes place
- Cheryl Eddy interviews Ira Parker, showrunner of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
- Vanessa Armstrong interviews Ira Parker and Peter Claffey who plays Dunk in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
- Cheryl Eddy interviews Bertie Carvel, who plays Baelor Targaryen in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
- Cheryl Eddy interviews Daniel Ings who plays Ser Lyonel Baratheon in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
- Cheryl Eddy interview various castmembers of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
Comments on Mercy:
Comments on season 2 of Fallout:
Comments on Pluribus:
Comments on 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple:
- Leah Schnelbach calls 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple wild, brutal and a perfect middle child in the trilogy
- Rory Doherty declares that 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple's villain makes an existential struggle for survival blandly literal
- Matthew Jackson declares that the best scene in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is a musical war for symbols
- Matt Schimkowitz declares that the ending of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple reveals its faith in the humanities
- Germain Lussier discusses the ending of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (spoilers).
- Justin Carter reports that 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is off to a decent box office start
Comments on Cosmic Princess Kaguya!:
Comments on The Beauty:
Comments on Mother of Flies:
Comments on the bidding war between Netflix and Paramount for Warner Bros:
Awards:
- The finalists for the 2026 Oscars have been announced.
- The finalists for 2026 Golden Reel Awards have been announced.
- The finalists for the 2026 Cinema Audio Society Awards have been announced
- The finalists for the 2026 Golden Raspberries have been announced.
- Scott Roxborough points out that the Oscars can’t pretend that anime doesn’t exist anymore
Writing, publishing and promotion:
- David Guterson talks about maintaining an authorial persona... or not
- Kelly Scarborough talks about taking dramatic license in historical fiction
- Esther Addley asks if listening to an audiobook is as good as reading.
- Steven D. Brewer explains how to hand-sell books for fun and profit
- Jason Sanford talks about the evolution of AI book club scams.
- Ted Gioia talks about the death of the midlist in the 1990s.
- Sophia Stewart reports that the Tor Publishing Group has announced the creation of a commercial fiction imprint named Wildthorn
- Tanya Roth discusses the many reason for book bans and pulling books from library shelves.
- Tamilore Oshikaniu reports that the Fairhope public library in Alabama has lost state funding after refusing to move several books, including The Handmaid’s Tale, out of its teen section
- Claire Kirch reports how bookstores in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, are affected by the increased activity of ICE in the cities, following the murder of Renee Good.
Interviews:
Reviews:
- Alex Brown reviews The Starseekers by Nicole Glover
- Runalong the Shelves reviews Insurgents by Allen Stroud
- Ed Crocker reviews The Night Ship by Alex Woodroe
- Marlene Harris reviews The Elsewhere Express by Samantha Sotto Yambao
- Rai Furniss-Greasley reviews A Hole in the Sky by Peter F. Hamilton
- Bill Capossere reviews Slow Gods by Claire North
- Paul Weimer reviews This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar
- Marlene Harris reviews Nine Goblins by T. Kingfisher
- Lesa Holstine reviews Twelve Months by Jim Butcher
- Kat Hooper reviews Winter Lost by Patricia Briggs
- Runalong the Shelves reviews The Witch Roads by Kate Elliott
- Paul Di Filippo reviews The Village at the Edge of Noon by Darya Bobyleva
- Tobias Carroll reviews The Village at the Edge of Noon by Darya Bobyleva
- Lesa Holstine reviews A Midnight Pastry Shop Called Hwawoldang by Lee Onhwa
- Kate Jackson reviews Mockingbird Court by Juneau Black
- Julia Kitvaria Sarene reviews Corin Hayes by G. R. Matthews
- Niall Harrison reviews Pedro the Vast by Simón López Trujillo
- Arturo Serrano reviews Self-Portrait with Nothing by Aimee Pokwatka
- Melissa A. Watkins reviews An Arcane Inheritance by Kamilah Cole
- Julia Kitvaria Sarene reviews Gods of the Wyrdwood by R.J. Barker
- Blue Book Balloon reviews The Bone Raiders by Jackson Ford
- Alex Puncekar reviews Splinters of Heaven by Theo Tsirigotis
- C.T. Phipps reviews Destroying Angels by David Hambling
- Blue Book Balloon reviews The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle
- Colleen Mondor reviews The Steeping of Blood by Hafsah Faizal
- Stew Hotston reviews The Regicide Report by Charlie Stross
- Runalong the Shelves reviews A Numbers Game by R.J. Dark
- Runalong the Shelves reviews Who Will You Save? by Gareth L Powell
- Gary K. Wolfe reviews The Universe Box by Michael Swanwick
- Paul Weimer reviews ECO24: The Year's Best Speculative Ecofiction, edited by Marissa van Uden.
- Paula Guran reviews The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Seventeen, edited by Ellen Datlow
Classics reviews:
- James Davis Nicoll revisits the 1965 near-future political thriller.Night of Camp David by Fletcher Knebel
- Alan Brown revisits the 1967 time travel novels The Time Tunnel and Timeslip! by Murray Leinster
- Kris Vyas-Myall revisits the Winter 1970/71 issue of Worlds of Fantasy
- Gideon Marcus revisits the February 1971 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
- Maureen Hogan revisits the 1971 science fiction novel The Days of Glory by Brian M. Stableford, Kris Vyas-Myall revisits the 1971 science fiction novel Saltflower by Sydney van Scyoc and Another End by Vincent King, Tonya R. Moore revisits the 1971 science fiction novel Trouble on Project Ceres by Ted White, Winona Menezes revisits the 1971 science fiction novels The Leaves of Time by Neal Barrett, Jr. and To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer and Amber Dubin revisits the 1971 sword and sorcery collection The Traveler in Black by John Brunner
- Gideon Marcus revisits the 1971 science fiction novels Alice's World and No Time for Heroes by Sam L. Lundwall, Victoria Silverwolf revisits the 1971 dystopian novel The Sun Grows Cold by Howard Berk and the 1971 historical fantasy novel The Sword of the Golem by Abraham Rothberg and Jason Sacks revisits the 1971 Eternal Champion fantasy novel Phoenix in Obsidian by Michael Moorcock.
- James Davis Nicoll revisits the 1978 essay On Thud and Blunder by Poul Anderson
- Judith Tarr revisits the 1981 science fiction novel The Pride of Chanur by C.J. Cherryh.
- James Davis Nicoll revisits the 1986 historical fantasy novel The Iowa Baseball Confederacy by W. P. Kinsella
- Alissa Burger revisits the 1995 YA horror novel The Visitor by Christopher Pike.
- Runalong the Shelves revisits the 2002 science fiction horror novel Night of the Triffids by Simon Clark
Con and event reports:
- Mike Glyer reports that the 2028 Worldcon bid for Brisbane, Australia, has unveiled a new indigenous logo.
- Jason W. Ellis shares videos and photos from the Tenth Annual City Tech Science Fiction Symposium on “Image in SF”
- The 2026 International Philip K. Dick Festival in Fullerton, California, has issued a call for papers.
- Matthew Gault reports that the 2026 San Diego Comic Con in San Diego, California, has banned AI art, following a pushback from artists.
- Gary M. Kramer reports about the premiere of the opera The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, composed by Michael Bates, with a libretto by Gene Scheer, adapted from Michael Chabon’s eponymous novel, in New York City.
- James Whitbrook reports how the recent remodelling has completely messed up the Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge attraction at Disneyland in Anaheim, California.
Crowdfunding:
Science and technology:
- Ian Sample reports about the upcoming launch of NASA's Artemis II mission to the orbit of the Moon.
- Keith Cooper reports that the SETI@home project is investigating the final 100 signals.
- Futura reports that teenager Matteo Paz has stunned scientists by mapping 1.5 million previously unknown space objects
- Manuela Callari reports that viruses that evolved on the International Space Station and were sent back to Earth were more effective at killing bacteria
- Stephanie Baum reports that research at Aarhus University in Denmark reveals that complex building blocks of life form spontaneously in space.
- Kaye Dee profiles NASA engineer Marjorie Townsend.
- Cory Doctorow promises that AI companies will fail and wonders what can be salvaged from the wreckage
- EcoNews reports that Africa is slowly splitting in two.
- L.A. Chandlar talks about the historical implications and fictional possibilities of the Hindenburg disaster
Gaming:
- Joe DelFranco reviews the video games Pokémon Legends: Z-A and Mega Dimensions DLC
- Keza MacDonald notes that Animal Crossing’s new update has revived her interest in the game.
- Justin Carter reports that Games Workshop is finally making female Custodes figures for Warhammer 40000.
- Liv McMahon reports that Ubisoft has canceled six video games including Prince of Persia and is closing two studios
Toys and collectibles:
- Cora Buhlert reviews the Mythic Legions: War of the Aetherblade Attila Leossyr II and Gorgo Aetherblade II Two-Pack from Four Horseman Studios
- D Amazing reviews the Mezco One:12 Collective Doc Savage action figure.
- James Whitbrook shares a look at an upcoming LEGO Legend of Zelda set.
- Cheryl Eddy shares a look at the Hot Toys Squid Game Player 456 action figure.
- Cheryl Eddy shares a look at some new It: Welcome to Derry themed Funko Pops.
- Ben Feuerherd reports about an armed robbery at the Pokémon shop Poké Court shop in Chelsea, New York.
Free online fiction:
- "The Great King’s Lost Bride" by R.K. Duncan in Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
- "Strike First And Then Give Tongue" by Lalini Shanela Ranaraja in Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
- "The Palanquin" by Rab Foster in Swords and Sorcery Magazine.
- "The Face of the King" by Adrian Tchaikovsky in Grimdark Magazine.
- "Tomorrow's Beautiful Dream" by Ju Chu, translated by Carmen Yiling Yan, in Clarkesworld.
- "Rehearsals for the End" by Steve Rasnic Tem in The Dark.
- "Hunter, Hunter" by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe in Lightspeed.
- "Academic Neutrality" by M.R. Robinson in Lightspeed.
- "The Very Important Case of Rami and the Rainbow Bird" by Marlene Jo Baquiran in Imagine 2200.
- "Jennifer’s Daughter" by Sara S. Messenger in Nightmare Magazine.
- "Girl Stuff" by Claire Humphrey in Uncanny Magazine
- "The Spew" by Jeffrey Ford in Reactor.
Trailers and videos:
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