[SF/F/H Link Post] Adam Savage Built a Hellboy Sword; History of Black SciFi; Neil Gaiman’s SANDMAN Off Track

Interviews & Profiles

• AptDesign interviews Kay Kenyon, author of Queen of the Deep.
• GoodReads interviews Ben Berman Ghan, author of Wychman Road.
• J.J. Abrams explains his vision for the Cloverfield movie universe
• My Bookish Ways interviews Patricia Briggs, author of Fire Touched.
• Paul Levitz profiles Denny O’Neil
• The Qwillery interviews Matthew De Abaitua, author of The Destructives.
• The Santa Cruz Good Times profiles author Samuel R. Delany. [via Paul Di Filippo]
• Weird Sister interviews Sofia Samatar, author of The Winged Histories.

News

• George RR Martin denies being dead after George Martin dies. “If you’re not dead, then where’s The Winds of Winter?” fans demand. “Nevermind.” retracts Martin estate.
• The Robots Sent Into Fukushima Have ‘Died’
• Scientists tweak genes and grow a dinosaur leg on a chicken. End result still more natural than what you buy at your local KFC. A different group of scientists previously modified a chicken to give it dinosaur teeth. Evidently, developing robots into humanity’s doom was just coming along too slowly.

Events & Event News

• The Pasgon committee announced they’re unable to host the 2017 Eastercon in Wales
• Steven Paul Leiva is organizing a new tribute to Ray Bradbury. The Ray Bradbury Read will he held in Maguire Gardens, situated between the Central Library and Ray Bradbury Square, on August 22, 2016 — Bradbury’s birthday. Here’s the Facebook event page.

Crowd Funding

• Alice goes steampunk – Artworks printed on canvas – “Alice in Wonderland” with steampunk elements. Awesome design for home!
• Armadillo Run: The Iron Phoenix. A Science Fiction Novel. – an adventure that blends fantasy with reality so seamlessly you will never look at the stars the same way again.
• Lil’ Cthulhu – You cannot win, only hope to survive! – A card game for 2-5 players where you, Cultists of Cthulhu, backstab each other to appease Lil’ Cthulhu before going insane.
• Worlds of the Cypher System – Explore all new worlds and play in any genre with the award-winning roleplaying game system behind Numenera and The Strange.

Articles

• Book Review: Paul Di Filippo reviews Matt Ruff’s Lovecraft Country.
• 5 Science-Fiction Books Recently Optioned for TV and Film
• 7 Young Adult Series That Deserve the TV Treatment
• 10 Cloverfield Lane Could Change Movie Franchises
• 10 Fascinating Deleted Scenes From Marvel Movies
• 10 Reasons To Be Excited For X-Men: Apocalypse
• 11 Marvel Movie Scenes You Didn’t Know Were Improvised
• 12 Most Irritating Fake-Out Deaths on TV
• The Adventures of the LA Science Fantasy Society
• A Brief History of Zack Snyder Defending the End of Man of Steel
• A crash course in the history of black science fiction: 42 black science fiction works that are important to your understanding of its history. Nisi Shawl has assembled a rich syllabus of novels and story collections, from 1859 to 2015.
• Department of Pre-Crime Is Becoming a Reality: Reason.com weighs in on Civil liberties and the pitfalls of predictive policing
• Early Reviews For 10 Cloverfield Lane Champion A Haunting, Accomplished Spinoff
• The Eerily Powerful Gaze in Stanley Kubrick’s Films
• The Fan Theory That Fixes One of the Most Annoying Plotholes in The Lord of the Rings
• How emotion research is pulling robots out of the uncanny valley and into our lives
• How to Turn NPR Fans Into Artificial Intelligence Cynics
• Is Artificial Intelligence Being Oversold?
• It’s Just Business: Why Rejection of Your Art Feels So Personal
• Losing My Religion: I just realized that losing my religion as an early teenager led to a lot of troubled times throughout my teens and even into my early 20s. [via Paul Di Filippo]
• The making of Cosmic Encounter, the greatest boardgame in the galaxy: The story of Cosmic Encounter is about a flash of creative genius in the early seventies, followed by four decades of struggle to see that vision fully realised. Despite the rapturous critical acclaim Cosmic Encounter has accrued in the 39 years since its first publication, it has not been followed by commercial success. Indeed, the creators of the greatest boardgame in existence have never made a living off it.
• N.K. Jemisin’s verdict on Rowling’s magical North America is: “It could’ve been great.”
• Neil Gaiman’s Sandman: maybe a film adaptation just isn’t meant to be
• Omnivoracious recommends The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of March
• Rudy Rucker remembers the late David Hartwell (1941-2016) [via Paul Di Filippo]
• Ten Things I Want My Readers to Know About Me by Gwenda Bond [via Paul Di Filippo]
• Watching In the Mouth of Madness Too Many Times Might Actually Drive You Insane
• What We Know About The Dark Tower Movie So Far

Art

• 2001: A Space Odyssey “Zarathustra” by Nikita Kaun
• “Obsessed” Created by Mikołaj Birek

More Fun Stuff

• BB-8 Visited NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab to Meet Some Fellow Robots
• Kenneth Thompson searched the internet to find a place to purchase one of Gaff’s unicorns from Blade Runner, and when he couldn’t find any he decided to make it himself. And while he does sell them, he has provided free instructions and videos to help anyone make their own Blade Runner origami unicorn or chicken.
• Orson Welles Hosted a NASA Documentary About Aliens in the ’70s and It Is Amazing
• Perth fandom unites for 41st Swancon [via Paul Di Filippo]
• Read an excerpt of The Invisible Guardian by Dolores Redondo at The Qwillery.
• Up and Coming: Stories by the 2016 Campbell-Eligible Authors is now available for FREE
• Watch Adam Savage Build a Hellboy Sword (and Impaled Demon)
• Watch a trailer for British developer Bulkhead Interactive’s The Turing Test. The game will be available for PC players via Steam at the end of summer, in August.
• Watch Original Star Wars Trilogy Trailers recut in the Style of The Force Awakens
• Watching a Solar Eclipse From a Plane Is Wonderfully Apocalyptic