SF/F/H Link Post for 2014-07-25

Interviews & Profiles

• Beauty in Ruins interviews Rik Stone, author of Birth of an Assassin.
• CBR interviews Al Ewing & Rob Williams, authors of the Doctor Who comics.
• Civilian Reader interviews Edward Cox, author of The Relic Guild.
• Collider interviews Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige on Guardians of the Galaxy.
• Entertainment Weekly interviews Michael Ealy, who portrays Dorian on Almost Human.
• HollywoodChicago interviews Mike Cahill, director of I, Origins.
• The Hollywood Report interviews Zoe Saldana of Guardians of the Galaxy.
• The Qwillery interviews Arianne ‘Tex’ Thompson, author of One Night in Sixes.
• Review-Journal interviews Matthew Kadish, author of Earthman Jack vs. The Ghost Planet.
• Soapbox Science interviews Jon Spaihts, screenwriter of The Darkest Hour, Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and the upcoming Passengers and The Mummy.
• Urban Fantasy Investigations interviews Ella Grey, author of The Raven’s Kill.

News

• Bay Area writers Karen Joy Fowler and Richard Powers longlisted for Man Booker Prize
• Amazon Studios Adds Philip K. Dick’s The Man In The High Castle To Pilot Season

Events & Event News

• Loncon 3, the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention will be held August 14-18, 2014 at ExCeL London. The full schedule is available through an online interactive programme guide and the native mobile Grenadine Event Guide app, available for free from the Android and Apple app stores. The identifier to download the schedule in the phone apps is LONCON.
• Steampunk Events for August 2014
• The Texas Book Festival will be held October 25 – 26, 2014 in Austin

Crowd Funding

• Nemesis – a new hardcore science fiction Massively multiplayer online role-playing game
• Static – stories of alternate universes, fantasy, time travel, horror, and science fiction

Articles

• Book Review: Paul Di Filippo reviews All Those Vanished Engines by Paul Park
• Movie Review: I, Origins Transmogrifies an Interesting Indie Premise Into Sci-Fi Corn
• 5 Comics to Read Before Seeing Guardians of the Galaxy
• 6 Filmmaking Tips from Terry Gilliam, courtesy of Film School Rejects.
• 10 Science Fiction And Fantasy Stories That Editors Are Tired Of Seeing
• 15 Sci-Fi Books That Predicted the Future, chosen by Mashable.
• Search for Extraterrestrial Air Pollution: Alien factories could be a sign of life outside our system.
• Cult shows that would have survived in the streaming age.
• Dispatches from the Robot Wars; Or, What is Posthuman Security?
• Dusk Before the Dawn continues its re-read of Tad William’s The Dragonbone Chair. Part 1, Part 2
• Former Lives: 11 Actors Who Amusingly Acknowledged Their Past Roles
• George R.R. Martin responds to a letter from thirteen year-old fan.
• Hollywood’s Dystopian View of Population is Entertaining But Not Realistic, says HuffPo
• How Marvel Became the Envy (and Scourge) of Hollywood
• Jason M. Hough discusses Casting Sacred Things is a guest post at MyBookishWays.
• Lowe’s Uses Science Fiction to Innovate
• No Death, No Taxes: The libertarian futurism of a Silicon Valley billionaire.
• Snowpiercer: This summer’s Indie Savior or Casualty?
• The True History Of Star Trek Is Finally On Its Way
• Unlimited Profit: The math behind Kindle Unlimited
• What Echo’s Journey to Self-Awareness Tells Us About the Human Soul
• Why Amazon Terrifies Publishers: Let’s Look At Royalty Statements
• Why Are Books Getting Longer?
• Would Aliens Save or Destroy Us? Seven Possible Scenarios for Extraterrestrial Contact

Art

• Doctor Who Converse High-Top Shoes
• These Chinese Lord of the Rings Book Covers Are Breathtaking

More Fun Stuff

• Get your very own Star Wars Darth Vader Lightsaber BBQ Fork
• In episode 184 of the Sword and Laser, Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt talk of high fantasy.
• Infographic: A Visual Guide to the memorable Game of Thrones Deaths
• In Anti-Surveillance Camouflage for Your Face, technology reporter Robinson Meyer details an experiment in which he tried actually going about his day to day life in downtown Washington DC while wearing CV Dazzle, makeup and hairstyles to confuse facial recognition software. The technique is inspired by the old naval technique of dazzle camouflage, which sought not to conceal a ship, but to confuse viewers as to its size and heading. Similarly, CV Dazzle aims to confuse software by making your face look less like a face and more like a confusing collection of shapes. This proves to have unanticipated effects on how Robinson is perceived by humans as well, leading to insights about how our appearance signals our privilege and place in the social hierarchy, and how that can overlap or conflict with the digital wakes we leave.
• Jaym Gates has released the Table of Contents for Genius Loci
• Read an excerpt from Echopraxia by Peter Watts at Tor.com.
• Scientists use wireless Oculus Rift to create real life holodeck
• That’s No Moon Or Space Station, Just A Fantastic Death Star Rug
• Things That Are Totally Doable But Will Never Happen: Personal rapid transit maglev pods
• Watch Nathan Fillion describe his First Comic-Con With Joss Whedon: “The Floors Began to Shake”
• Watch this 1980s computer hacking supercut. Lawnmower Man misses the cut by being from 1992, but it had the first interesting believable presentation of virtual reality.
• Watch Nathan Fillion play Star Trek’s Captain Kirk in a photo shoot for The Hollywood Reporter.
• When all the jobs belong to robots, do we still need jobs? If not, I wish they would hurry up.