And here is our weekly round-up of interesting links about speculative fiction from around the web, this time with yet more Hugo debate as well as plenty of discussion of Mad Max: Fury Road and Tomorrowland.
Speculative fiction in general:
- Jonathan McCalmont discusses the origins of science fiction inequality.
- John Ohno discusses science fiction as "machine it", i.e. fiction designed as a delivery mechanism to introduce a particular idea or concept to the reader.
- Steve Davidson takes a look at the military science fiction subgenre.
- Andrew Liptak traces the history of The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey.
- Andrew Liptak also expresses his appreciation for Lois McMaster Bujold.
- Nancy Jane Moore discusses the diversity of SF readers in age, race, gender and life experience.
- The Book Smugglers host a roundtable on diversity in SFF with M. Sereno, Aliette de Bodard, Zen Cho, Bogi Takács and J.Y. Yang.
- Lauren Davis explains why the most powerful time travel stories are not about changing the past.
- Sherwood Smith discusses pastoral fantasy.
- Nancy Springer explains how she started writing fantasy.
- G.W. Thomas wonders what happened to sword and sorcery from the 1980s on.
- Beth Kelly takes a look at Game of Thrones and the legacy of Robert E. Howard.
- Jeanne the Fangirl points out that Game of Thrones has a rape problem.
- Chris Beckett shares his appreciation of Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
- The Pulp Super Fan shares his appreciation for E.E. Smith.
- Sam Jordison discusses the science of Disc World.
- Britt Peterson discusses how writers of endangered languages are embracing science fiction.
- Alexandra Erin discusses what is and is not speculative fiction and why the difference isn't necessarily clear.
- Rebecca Ann Smith asks who owns popular culture?
- Keith West remembers the forgotten women SF writers, editors and fans of the pulp era.
- James H. Burns remembers the impact that pulp magazines and radio serials had on the veterans of World War II.
- Scotland Yard apparently worried that various SF TV shows, including Star Trek, Roswell and Dark Skies, might inspire doomsday cults.
- Hans Rollmann takes a look at Canadian SF TV shows.
- Caroline Preece asks whether it's time for superheroes to ditch the secret identity cliché.
- Ryan Britt discusses the first season of The Flash.
- Simon Abrams thinks that The Flash is the best superhero show on TV.
Tributes to Tanith Lee:
- British SFF writer Tanith Lee died aged 67.
- NPR remembers Tanith Lee.
- Charlie Jane Anders explains why Tanith Lee was an indispensible fantasy writer.
- John O'Neill shares his appreciation of some of Tanith Lee's novels.
Awards:
- The nominees for the 2015 Aurora Awards have been announced.
- The winners of the 2015 Spectrum Fantastic Art Award have been announced.
- The winner of the 2015 Roswell Award has been announced.
- The winner of the 2015 Compton Crook Award has been announced.
- The winner of the 2015 Tomorrow Prize has been announced.
- Nicola Griffith takes a look at the gender breakdown of authors and protagonists of books that have won various literary awards.
- Ladybusiness takes a look at the gender breakdown in award-winning YA novels.
Hugo controversy:
- The New Republic weighs in on the Hugo debate.
- Ruth Davies shares her thoughts about the Hugo debate.
- Adult Onset Atheist attempts a history of the Hugo controversy.
- Lisa Goldstein shares her impressions of Hugo nominated short stories.
- Doctor Science points out some issues with the Hugo nominees in the fan and pro artist categories.
- Ridley Kemp draws some lessons from baseball all-star teams for the current Hugo controversy.
- Font Folly refutes some Sad Puppy talking points.
- Gabriel McKee points out the the SF genre never was the way that some claim it was and also points out that cover art was never a reliable indicator of an SF novel's contents.
- David Gerrold clarifies what precisely he said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal about the controversy.
- Marie Brennan shares her proces for evaluating the Hugo nominees.
Discussion about Mad Max: Fury Road:
- The Literary Omnivore reviews Mad Max: Fury Road.
- A 70-year-old woman reviews Mad Max: Fury Road.
- Liz Bourke has compiled some links about Mad Max: Fury Road.
- Liz Bourke also shares her thoughts on Mad Max: Fury Road.
- Jared Shurin considers Mad Max: Fury Road rather unexceptional and explains why that's okay.
- Tansy Rayner Roberts explains why Mad Max is a feminist ally.
- Kat Green discusses Mad Max: Fury Road and the narrowing gender gap in Hollywood.
- Kameron Hurley talks about the people economy of Mad Max: Fury Road.
- Nick Schrager views Mad Max: Fury Road as a dystopian tale of reproductive rights.
- Totally Pretentious discusses the visual rhetoric and apocalyptic social rebirth in Mad Max: Fury Road.
- Chuck Wendig compares Mad Max: Fury Road to Game of Thrones.
- Devin Faraci explains why the latest Mad Max fan theory doesn't hold.
Discussion about Tomorrowland:
- Steve Davidson shares his thoughts about Tomorrowland.
- Leah Schnelbach shars her thoughts on Tomorrowland.
- Erik Hendriksen discusses the hollow hope of Tomorrowland.
- Brent Lang believes that Tomorrowland offers further evidence for Hollywood's originality problem.
- Dave Parfitt takes a look at some of the settings for Tomorrowland.
- Chris Woodyard traces the origin of some of the retro-futuristic cars seen in Tomorrowland.
Writing, publishing and promotion:
- Henry Olsen shares his favourite writing books.
- C.P.D. Harris discusses adding minor characters.
- Robert Jackson Bennett asks for the reasoning behind writing rape scenes and shares three things that shaped how he feels about writing scenes of sexual abuse.
- Anne R. Allen shares ten tips for choosing the right book title.
- Kristine Kathryn Rusch points out that writers must make the choices that are right for them and their career.
- Louis Shalako explains why he quit reading about writing.
- Twelve book marketing tips from twelve experts.
- Steve Vernon discusses promoting e-books on a deep discount budget. There is also a follow-up.
Interviews:
- Ken Liu interviews Liu Cixin.
- Arizona Central interviews Ann Leckie. There's also an outtake here.
- R.M. Webb interviews Robert Dahlen.
- Fiona McVie interviews David Neth.
Reviews:
- Melinda Snodgrass reviews The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison.
- Elise Bergslien reviews The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin.
- Michael Patrick Hicks reviews Apex by Ramez Naam.
- Elena Linville reviews The Singular & Extraordinary Tale of Mirror & Goliath by Ishbelle Bee.
Crowdfunding:
- The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction, Volume 3, is looking for funding.
- Rack and Ruin, the third book in the Out of Orbit trilogy by Chele Cooke, is looking for funding.
- Jameson Quinn, expert for voting and election systems, needs some help to attend Worldcon and more specifically the WSFS business meeting in order to present the Hugo voting reform proposal he helped to develop.
Con reports:
- Deirdre Saoirse Moen shares some notes about panels at BayCon in Santa Clara, California.
- Martha Wells shares her experiences at Comicpalooza in Houston, Texas. There is also a follow-up post here.
- Rachel Cordasco shares her experiences at Wiscon 39 in Madison, Wisconsin.
Science and technology:
- J.N. Nielsen explains why how we get to the stars matters.
- Will superintelligent AIs ignore humans instead of destroying them?
- An inflatable plane would float like a leaf through the atmosphere of Venus.
Free online fiction:
- "Too Many Yesterdays, Not Enough Tomorrows" by N.K. Jemisin in Ideomancer.
- "Application for the Delegation of First Contact: Questionnaire, Part B" by Kathrin Köhler at The Book Smugglers.
- "Zapped" by Sherwood Smith at Tor.com.
- "Good Genes" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
- "The Many Deaths of Milord", chapter 53 of Musketeer Space by Tansy Rayner Roberts.
- Chapter 2 of "Those Not Forgotten", part 86 of The Descendants by Landon Porter.
Odds and ends:
