SF/F/H Link Post for 2014-05-16

Interviews & Profiles

• Amazing Stories interviews Tim Marquitz and Joe Martin, authors of The Ten thousand Things.
• BuzzFeed interviews Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, producers of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine interviews Leo Vladimirsky, author of the short story “Collar.”
• Ginger Nuts of Horror interviews Suzanne Church, author of Elements.
• My Bookish Ways interviews Stephen Graham Jones, author of “Father, Son, Holy Rabbit.”
• Speculate! interviews Peter V. Brett and Brent Weeks, author of “Red Sonja Blue” and The Way of Shadows, respectively, on the topic of graphic novels. (Part 2)
• Tor.com interviews Ari Marmell, author of Hot Lead, Cold Iron.
• KCRW interviews Jeff VanderMeer, author of Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance.

News

• Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi is the winner of the Prize for Arabic Fiction.
• Harrison Ford Officially Offered Rick Deckard Role In Blade Runner 2… on the condition he never records another movie voice over ever, ever again. (Knock on wood.)
• Solaris announces The Valdur by Clifford Beal

Events & Event News

• The 72nd World Science Fiction Convention will be held August 14 – 18 at the ExCeL in London.
• The Doris Lessing Conference 2014 will be held September 12-13 at the University of Plymouth.
• The Game Of Thrones Exhibition will be in Toronto from May 14-18th.

Crowd Funding

• Aurora in Four Voices – an audiobook anthology from author Catherine Asaro which includes the Nebula Award-winning story “Spacetime Pool” read by narrator Sylvia Roldán Dohi.
• The Last Man Off Earth – a black-and-white-expressionist-science-fiction-comedy set in the distant future! In this future, everybody is fitted with a computer chip in their head that keeps them young, healthy and alive forever. It also connects them to the single, vast computing network called the Nimbus. But one day… Matthew’s chip malfunctions. He is mortal, growing older and experiencing a host of sensations lost to the rest of humanity.
• Support Eric Orchard creating A fantasy adventure webcomic.

Articles

• Book Review: Paul Di Filippo reviews The Weirdness by Jeremy Bushnell at Barnes and Noble.
• Book Review: Kirkus offers the first review of Frostborn by Lou Anders.
• Movie Review: Sci-Fi Fan Letter offers a few brief thoughts on Timecrimes.
• 6 Things Ben Affleck’s Costume says about the upcoming Batman VS Superman movie.
• 10 Things We Want to See in Marvel’s Agent Carter TV Series, starting with a load of action.
• 25 Things You Didn’t Know About The Phantom Menace… probably.
• Blastr reminds us Why Godzilla Matters on the eve of the film’s release.
• The Book Smugglers discuss Jim C Hines’ Visibility Matters in the SFF in Conversation.
• Disquieting Visions talks about Suspense, Horror and Romance in Epic Fantasy. “One of the things I love about writing epic fantasy is that within the genre, there is room for elements of other genres. Like the old spaghetti sauce ad, ‘it’s in there.'”
• The Geek Twins recap A Brief History of Lando NOT being cast in Star Wars Episode VII.
• Helen Lowe has posted a list of her Favourite Fairy Tale Retellings.
• Ian Whates talks Fermi Paradox and All that Jazz… [via Paul Di Filippo]
• In a guest post, Tom Doyle, author of American Craftsmen, reflects on Foes and Friends.
• Jason Sizemore on Story behind Irredeemable.
• Jo Walton obsesses over What We Can Learn From The Name of the Wind Playing Cards.
• John Scalzi profiles author Will McIntosh in the latest installment in his The Big Idea series.
• Mark T. Barnes discusses how he made his mark in what is already a crowded genre.
• Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season Finale: HuffPo points out Five Things That Worked
• Motherboard dreams of Floating Utopias for the Age of Rising Seas [via Paul Di Filippo]
• My Bookish Ways recommends Must Reads in Science Fiction and Fantasy for June 2014, including The Girl With All the Gifts by MR Carey.
• Multiple worlds stop fantasy travel boredom: Thief’s Magic author Trudi Canavan explains how multiple words keep fantasy exciting.
• Katherine Addison talks about The Goblin Emperor on Mary Robinette Kowal’s blog.
• Rhizome runs down a brief history of LARP in a three part article. (Part 2, Part 3)
• Screen Robot complains that Christopher Nolan sucked the fun out of my summer at the cinema.
• SFx picks the Top 10 Clones And Doppelgangers from our favorite franchises.
• Solaris presents the complete, definitive, total, unassailable, unquestionable list of the top SF and fantasy books EVER. Kinda.
• Stretching franchises is choking studio films, claims Screen Robot.
• The Torn Generation: Chinese Science Fiction in a Culture in Transition
• What Happens When Kings Don’t Die: Sarah Cawkwell on an England where Richard III won
• What now for Hydra in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
• World Building for Writers Through Map Making: “Writers are creative animals. We like to jump right in when we get a new idea without taking proper steps to consider what the new world looks like. One way to get to the typing faster is to create a map.”

Art

• “Concept robots” by Mathieu Lamble
• “Kalisto” by Dmitry Klyushkin
• “Kris the Starfarer” by Choi Yongjae
• SciFi Ideas’ latest inspiration gallery features the artwork of Alex Ries
• “Ships” by Mack Sztaba

More Fun Stuff

• 10 Words Every Book Lover Should Know
• The First Space Colonies Might Be Illegal under current law… making them all the more bad-ass.
• In astronomy new, Jupiter’s Great Red Spot has Shrunk to its Smallest Size Ever
• Listen to “Good Old Old Dad” by Matthew Sanborn Smith at Beware the Hairy Mango.
• The Military Wants To Teach Robots Right From Wrong: The U.S. government is spending millions on developing machines that understand moral consequence. Am I the only one who realizes that this sentence is the set-up of every science fiction techno-horror film ever made?
• Quirk Books recommends Five Pieces of Poetry Science Fiction Fans Will Love. [via Paul Di Filippo]
• Read an excerpt from The Enceladus Crisis by Michael J. Martinez at Tor.com.
• Read an excerpt from “The Familiars” by Micaela Morrissette from The New Black anthology.
• Watch the short film “Godzilla vs Walter White” at YouTube.
• Watch a trailer for Philip K. Dick’s Radio Free Albemuth at Tor.com.