[SF/F/H Link Post] Alien Queen Wall Lamp, M. Night Shyamalan strikes again, Rogue One concept art

Interviews & Profiles

• Amazing Stories interviews Shawn King, cover designer of SkinJumper.
• Electric Literature interviews Mary Costello, author of Academy Street.
• A Fantastical Librarian interviews Peter Newman, author of The Vagrant.
• The Future And You interviews Robert J. Sawyer, author of Red Planet Blues
• Lawrence M. Schoen interviews Cat Rambo, author of Beasts of Tabat.
• My Bookish Ways interviews MJ Scott, author of The Shattered Court.
• The Qwillery interviews Peter Newman, author of The Vagrant.
• Speculate SF interviews Justin Landon, Tor.com’s commissioning editor.
• Suvudu interviews Gareth Edwards, director of Star Wars: Anthology: Rogue One.

News

• 2015 Seiun Award Nominees announced.
• Chinese researchers have genetically modified a human embryo, and if science fiction has taught us anything, it’s that we should expect the world’s first super villain to appear in about seventeen years, give or take one bad prom experience.
• DC Comics and Mattel team up for superhero action figures for girls.

Events & Event News

• Nick Offerman will serve as Toastmaster for the Nebula Awards Thursday, June 4 to Sunday, June 7 at the Palmer House Hotel.
• A working copy of the tentative panels and proposed panelists for NecromoniCon Providence August 20-23, 2015 is now available. [via Paul Di Filippo]

Crowd Funding

• Apocalypse Weird Super Launch! – Wonderment Media, want to make “story” the building block of our DNA. We’re looking to take our characters and our world and break it for your amusement. We’re looking to wreck stuff and let you have fun reading it. We’re building something… and we’re tearing it apart. It’s called The Apocalypse Weird. It’s run by writers so writers and readers can finally do what they’ve wanted to do regardless of some “bottom line” that saves us from the consequences of great storytelling. What we’re doing is dangerous, but we think that’s where the fun is.
• Broken Frontier – A creator-owned anthology about breaking boundaries and exploring the great unknown by the most inventive talents in comics.
• MOLLY DANGER: Book Two Graphic Album and Audiobook – The second book in the Adventures of Molly Danger! Molly and Austin’s partnership is tested as “Father” gathers the Supermechs!

Articles

• Comic Review: Paul Constant on The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage, in which Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage become steampunk detectives.
• Movie Review: BFI reviews Avengers: Age of Ultron. [via Paul Di Filippo]
• 5 Reasons Iain M. Banks’ Culture Should Be the Next Big Sci-Fi Adaptation.
• The 10 Funniest Sci-Fi TV Shows Of All Time, as chosen by CinemaBlend.
• 10 sci-fi novel opening lines that’ll take your breath away.
• Hollywood Reporter asks What happens when Star Wars is just a war film.
• How dystopia hammers home the reality of climate change with its teenage archers.
• io9 on Why Even Magic Needs To Play By The Rules In Fiction.
• Is Christopher Nolan to blame for all the dark, serious comic book movies?
• Lessons on the environment from a sci-fi classic.
• Letter to the Editor: In Praise of The Golden Compass’ Mrs. Coulter.
• The Martian Will Be This Year’s Sci-Fi Oscar Contender, begin preparing yourself now for next year’s articles about how losing that Oscar is a secret victory.
• Raph Koster weighs in on A Jedi Saga.
• Shakespeare Died 399 Years Ago Today and Sci-Fi/Fantasy Still Can’t Get Enough.
• Star Wars: 10 Unsung Heroes Behind A New Hope.
• Teen opinion: how dystopian fiction calls me to the wild side.
• Warp Drive is the piece of sci-fi technology Neil deGrasse Tyson really wants.

Art

• Here’s some Rogue One concept art
• This Alien Queen Wall Lamp will give you nightmares.

More Fun Stuff

• A 7-year-old Star Wars fan and aspiring Jedi Knight named Colin Gilpatric, who found himself with a tremendous dilemma. When he grows up he wants nothing more than to be a fully fledged Jedi, but according to Star Wars canon, Jedi are forbidden to marry because such personal attachments can be fraught with danger and lead Jedi to the Dark Side. But Colin wasn’t having it and decided to go to the source to solve this problem. He wrote a letter to George Lucas asking the creator of Star Wars to change this solemn rule so that he may fulfill his dreams without losing himself to the Dark Side.
• Arcology: cutaways of the future city-hives that never were.
• Cthulhu Watermelon Carving, because why should Halloween only come once a year?
• Hear Orson Welles Read Edgar Allan Poe on a Cult Classic Album.
• Here’s a rundown of the first scene from Spectre.
• Read an excerpt from The Scarlet Gospels by Clive Barker, the Hellraiser Sequel in which Pinhead killed most of the world’s secret wizards, at Daily Dead.
• Step Inside a Gallery of STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS Costumes and Props.
• Take a Closer Look at the Batmobile from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
• Watch a chilling New Trailer for Ex Machina.
• Watch a trailer for Chase Me, the world’s first 3D-Printed movie.
• Watch a trailer for The Visit, that new Shyamalan flick you’re going to justifiably spend the rest of your life complain about. I can’t tell if everyone’s already dead, or there’s a magical mohawk monkey involved somewhere.
• Watch Babies & Kids React To Latest Star Wars: The Force Awakens Trailer.
• Watch a Supercut of Every Star Wars Character.