[SF/F/H Link Post] Lovecraft Panels; The Martian; Mr. Robot; Real Dystopia in Real Time; and The Walking Dead

Interviews & Profiles

• Bull Spec interviews Kim Harrison, author of The Drafter.
• Lawrence M. Schoen interviews Brian Staveley, author of The Emperor’s Blades.
• Nerds of a Feather interviews Aliette de Bodard, The House of Shattered Wings.
• Reddit recently held an AMA for Kim Harrison, author of The Drafter.
• SFFWorld interviews Cecilia Dart Thornton, author of Bitterbynde Trilogy.
• Virtual Memories interviews John Clute, winner of multiple Hugo Awards.

News

• The Telluride Institute has announced the establishment of The Clute Science Fiction Library at Telluride, which contains over 11,000 volumes comprising the most important books in the field, from the early nineteenth century until the present. The library will be located on Colorado Avenue in Telluride, Colorodo. Cover scans for more than 7,000 titles in the library can already be found on the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.

Events & Event News

• The Boston Science Fiction Film Festival and Marathon is February 5 – 15, 2016. Now through September 16, you can save 10% off the regular tickets at BostonSciFi.
• Watch recordings of the Lovecraft-themed panel discussions at Necronomicon 2015.

Crowd Funding

• INVASION – Graphic Novel: Aliens ready to attack earth decode SatelliteTV; believe Sci-Fi movies are reports of previous attacks on earth: afraid.
• Metal Made Flesh 2 – A Cyberpunk Graphic Novel – Humanity has been chased to the brink of extinction and must fight to survive on the brutal cyberpunk world of Tuaoni.

Articles

• TV Review: Mr. Robot Telegraphed Its Punches And Knocked Us Out Anyway.
• 7 Reasons Why Mr. Robot Is Better Than Every Other Show This Summer. Amen.
• 10 Fictional Heroes Who Really Suck at Their Jobs.
• Austin Grossman’s CROOKED: the awful, cthulhoid truth about Richard Nixon
• Blouin News asks Is Mr. Robot A realistic hacker show? To answer the question definitively, Wired offers A Peek Inside Mr. Robot’s Toolbox.
• Conceptual Fiction peeks behind the veil of The Most Secretive Woman in the History of Science Fiction, profiled at Tor.com as well.
• The fantastically weird legacy of The Far Side.
• Feel Better? The Uncaring Science of The Walking Dead.
• Five Sci-Fi Books That Crank Out the Funny, as chosen by Patrick S. Tomlinson.
• How Batman’s Butler Alfred Evolved from a Joke Character to a Total Badass.
• How to Spot a Dubious Star Wars Rumor: CGI Peter Cushing Edition.
• The Hugo Nominees 2016 Wikia is Making a list of eligible Hugo Award works for 2016.
• Lovecraft without the adjectives. This’ll be a quick read, each story’s like a page long.
• N.K. Jemisin talks about writing The Fifth Season. Beware of spoilers.
• The real NASA-approved science behind The Martian!
• Science Fiction Writers Explain How to Write Videogames That Never Feel Dated
• Space Samurai vs Space Nazis. If it were on SyFy it would bomb, but chances are, you’ll be standing on line to get a ticket soon enough.
• Stephen Hawking’s New Theory on Black Holes is Fantastically Insane.
• Tor.com calls Hurricane Katrina: Dystopia, in Real Time.
• Tor.com looks ahead to September Releases in Science Fiction.
• Veil to be lifted soon on new Millennium thriller.
• Why Bestselling Author Warren Ellis Chose to Self-Publish. [via Paul Di Filippo]
• Why Mr. Robot is one of the best shows on TV.

Art

• Hand-Drawn Maps Of Planets And Moons For Children.
• “Let’s Go to Saturn!” by SMPritchard.
• “Royal Dockyards” by RadoJavor.

More Fun Stuff

• DARTH PUNK – THE FUNK AWAKENS – Radically Retro Music Video.
• Han Solo in carbonite backpack will make Jabba jealous.
• Read an excerpt from Made to Kill by Adam Christopher at Tor.com.
• Read an excerpt from “The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps” by Kai Ashante Wilson at Tor.com.
• Read an excerpt from Voyagers: Project Alpha by D.J. MacHale at My Bookish Ways.
• Read the short story “That Seriously Obnoxious Time I Was Stuck at Witch Rimelda’s One Hundredth Birthday Party” by Tina Connolly at Tor.com.
• Scientists Confident Artificially Intelligent Machines Can Be Programmed To Be Lenient Slave Masters. Huzzah! [via Paul Di Filippo]
• Sure, the Marvel Legends Phil Coulson had his own giant alien gun to blast people with, but it’s unlikely we’ll ever get to see a Lola in the same scale for him to ride around in. Good thing Funko is here with a giant-headed Agent Coulson with a flying hot rod.
• Target has recently launched a website called Share the Force, to collect memories from Star Wars lovers all around the globe. The website stores each unique memory in vast 3D virtual “galaxies” named after Star Wars characters. The vast collection of memories will later be archived for Lucasfilm.