[SF/F/H Link Post] Flying Cars, Guardians of the Galaxy Concept Art, Robots & Sexuality, Tomorrowland

Interviews & Profiles

• Alan Tudyk discusses the upcoming web series, “Con Man,” coming soon to Vimeo.
• Alex Garland talks A.I., consciousness and why “the gender stuff” of Ex Machina is only one part of the movie’s big idea.
• BBC interviews Sydney Padua of The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage.
• Christopher Eccleston explains why he left Doctor Who.
• Concordia University interviews William Gibson, author of The Peripheral.
• Doug Fabrizio interviews Neil Gaiman, author of Trigger Warning.
• The Functional Nerds interviews Ferrett Steinmetz, author of Flex.
• John Danaher joins Robot Overlordz to discuss The Ethics of Robot Sex.
• Joss Whedon on Why a Planet Hulk Movie Might Not Work.
• MIT CMS/W interviews Jeff VanderMeer, author of the Southern Reach Trilogy.
• My Bookish Ways interviews Courtney Alameda, author of Shutter.
• Notes from Coode Street interviews K.J. Parker, author of The Two of Swords.
• Tor.com interviews Mike Johnson, author of DC’s “Supergirl” and IDW’s “Star Trek”

News

• Announcing the Restored Edition of Philip José Farmer’s Flight to Opar
• If you were a fan of Funcom’s Anarchy Online, it’s a great time to give it a second try.
• The Parsec Awards Steering Committee is pleased to announce that we are now accepting nominations for the 2015 Parsec Awards. Nominations close on May 31. Any material released between May 1, 2014 and April 30, 2015 is eligible for the 2015 awards. Material needs to be free for download and released via a mechanism that allows for subscriptions.

Events & Event News

• Comedian Chris Hardwick will appear at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston, MA on Friday, May 1st at 7:30 PM and 10:00 PM! Get tickets at the link or RSVP on Facebook.
• Nick Abadzis and Simon Fraser will appear at the Union Square Barnes & Noble in New York City on Tuesday April 28, 2015 at 6:00 PM to sign DOCTOR WHO comics!

Crowd Funding

• Flyte: Levitating Light – a levitating lightbulb powered through the air. (Via)
• The Monster Series: Between Monster & Man – The first entry in The Monster Series: Between Monster & Man which pits humans against a mighty alien race.
• Undad comic miniseries ‘Season 2’ – The first Undad book was more than just another zombie story. Now comes ‘Season Two’, a continuation of the gory family drama.

Articles

• Book Review: Sabaa Tahir’s An Ember in the Ashes Is an Imaginative YA Page-turner.
• Movie Review: “Science fiction might rank as the defining genre of modern films, but too often it is used. simply for an escapist space adventure or paranoid dystopian fantasy. A sci-fi movie that says something. intelligent about science seems all too rare. Fortunately, audiences get just that in Ex Machina.”
• Movie Review: They may be dead-eyed, gray-skinned and determinedly brain-hungry, but zombies have feelings too in Maggie, an improbably bred but surprisingly humane hybrid of flesh-eater horror and young-adult weepie.
• 17 Movie Robots That Have Made Us Confused About Our Sexuality.
• 6 SFF Horror Stories Ripped from the Headlines.
• John Christopher’s Tripods Series Taught Me to Be a Grownup.
• John DeNardo meditates on Science-Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Retellings.
• Marvel Secretly Cuts Off Hands As A Star Wars Tribute, Here’s Proof.
• Matt Damon’s Struggle To Stay Alive In The Martian’s Cinema Con Footage Is Riveting.
• The Most Beautiful and Terrifying Predictions of Post-Humanity In Video Games.
• The story behind Poseidon’s Children by Alastair Reynolds.
• Wake Up and Stop Writing Dream Sequences.

Art

• Guardians of the Galaxy concept art by Atomhawk Design Ltd.
• Julie Alice Chappell’s Computer Component Bugs are sculptures of insect-like creatures that she makes out of discarded components and parts from obsolete gadgets.
• Photographer Transforms Ordinary Cars Into Flying Cars in Digitally Retouched Photos.

More Fun Stuff

• Chewbacca and JJ Abrams went Lady And The Tramp on some licorice for charity.
• For Borderlands fans, there’s now a Lifesize Claptrap Replica.
• Iron Man Fan Creates Working Gauntlet With Lasers.
• Maurice LaMarche Narrates Two Promotional Animations About the Backstory to Disney’s Upcoming Film Tomorrowland.
• PITtv imagines Interstellar in Real Life with hilarious results.
• R2-D2 Met A Little Guy In A Wheelchair And Totally Made His Day, And Ours.
• A recent episode of MinutePhysics compares the relative sizes of the Sun, Earth, and Moon to other objects in the solar system.
• Rise of robotic killing machines has a cautious world talking.
• Self-Driving Chevy Blurs Sci-Fi and Reality: Chevy’s FNR Concept is the futuristic, self-driving car you’ve been dreaming about. It looks like a glorious combination of the light bike from Tron and the xenomorph from Alien — and that’s just the exterior.
• These Star Wars Schematics Hawaiian Shirts from Think Geek will make it plain to the world that you’re not really an outdoors sort of guy this summer, just in case your fish belly white skin wasn’t confirmation enough.
• Watch a trailer for Area 51.