[SF/F/H Link Post] Best And Worst Sci-Fi of 2015; Real Science in The Expanse; Star Wars’ Social Science

Interviews & Profiles

• 20th Century Fox has posted a discussion with the Cast and Crew of The Martian.
• Blastr interviews Charles Dance, star of Childhood’s End.
• Blastr interviews Mark Fergus, producer of The Expanse on return to space.
• Bookpage interviews Dean Koontz, author of Ashley Bell.
• Ginger Nuts of Horror interviews Adam Millard, author of Dead Cells.
• GQ talks to Daniel Wu, star of Into The Badlands, about training 12 Hours a Day.
• Inverse interviews Jack McDevitt, author of Thunderbird.
• LA Review of Books interviews Nathan Larson, author of The Immune System.

News

• Church of Jediism claims 250,000 members as Star Wars fans stand in line.
• Elon Musk’s Billion-Dollar AI Plan Is About Far More Than Saving the World.
• How Asteroid Mining Is Changing Space Law: On November 24, President Obama signed the “US Commercial Space Law Competitiveness Act” into law. Among other things (like that the government should not pester SpaceX), it states that any US citizen who takes a chip off an old block of asteroid then owns that chip. The law also applies to other celestial bodies blessed with “resources,” like the Moon and every other planet and lower-case moon because “resources” is a vague word. The US citizen—or, more likely, a group of citizens who are part of a company, like Planetary Resources, Inc., or Deep Space Industries — can then “possess, own, transport, use, [or] sell” the resource.
• MST3K breaks Kickstarter records, secures 14 episodes.
• Nnedi Okorafor’s The Camel Racer to Be Developed By Disney’s Triggerfish Story Lab.
• Robopocalypse Author Daniel H. Wilson Sells Avtomat Novel To Fox.

Events & Event News

• The Brainery Workshop is Offering Writing Classes with Tor Authors and Editors!

Crowd Funding

• Cyber Descent issue Premier – Cyber Descent Issue # 5 Six weeks after the attempted kidnapping of Governor Maxwell Tanaka Cyberman continues his studies of Humans.
• Downstream – A sick woman’s brain, mind, and soul are transplanted into a cybernetic body. Follow her as she struggles to discover who she is.

Articles

• TV Review: The Expanse Delivers the Sci-Fi Political Thriller We’ve All Been Waiting For.
• 5 Characters Who May Not Survive Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
• 8 Questions That Star Wars: The Force Awakens Needs To Answer.
• 9 Reasons Into The Badlands’ Emily Beecham is a Badass.
• 15 best horror films of 2015.
• Building a Galaxy Far Far Away: Heir to the Films (1990-1994)
• Den of Geek looks ahead The top 30 must-see movies of 2016.
• Five Uses of Real Science in The Expanse.
• Gimbling in the Wabe In Praise of Difficult Genre Fiction.
• Gollancz suggests Christmas Reads for SF Lovers.
• The HuffPo recommends the 25 Best Ever Sci-Fi for YAs.
• Logan’s Run Would Make For a Terrible YA Film Franchise: No matter how much producers want it to be, it’s not the next Hunger Games.
• Nothing will ever be like The Phantom Menace again (not even The Force Awakens.)
• The Relic Guild author Edward Cox on crafting a sequel.
• Science Fiction’s Greatest Power? Inspiring Us to Build the Future.
• ScienceFiction.com names its picks for the Best And Worst Sci-Fi Films Of 2015.
• Star Wars’ Social Science: Fiction as Religion, Politics, and Psychosis.
• The Star Wars prequels suck, but The Clone Wars series (almost) justifies them.
• Syfy’s Gamble on The Expanse Is Prioritizing Science Fiction Over Television.
• There is One Decent Moment in The Star Wars Holiday Special.
• The truly dangerous AI gap is the political one.

Art

• The 10 Coolest Artworks from the Star Wars Tattoo Portrait Show.
• “Captain Phasma” by Makushiro.
• “Deep Space” by Kuroi-kisin.
• “Escape from Skull Island” by Mr-Ripley.
• “The Force Awakens” by herringbonnes is a wonderfully vibrant piece with strong color and style. Rey’s fierce expression leads the viewer to wonder what she’s reacting to.

More Fun Stuff

• 14 Easter eggs you might have missed in Doctor Who series 9.
• Astronauts Do the Silliest Dances in Zero Gravity.
• Before Hollywood Ruins Them: 11 SFF Scripts On The 2015 Black List.
• Cover Reveal: Children of Earth and Sky by Guy Gavriel Kay.
• Gamersradar picks the Feature 30 best Star Wars gifts.
• 6 Classic Philip K. Dick Stories Adapted as Vintage Radio Plays.
• Read an excerpt from Midnight Taxi Tango by Daniel José Older at Tor.com.
• “This Is a Room of Lies!” Mac and Cheese Ad Skewers Collectors Better Than SNL.
• Watch a trailer for the indie sci-fi-noir Synchronicity.
• Watch a trailer for Tom Hiddleston’s High-Rise.
• Watch Siskel and Ebert Defend STAR WARS from Bashing by Critic Who Hated It.