Speculative Fiction Links of the Week for July 15, 2016

Here is our weekly round-up of interesting links about speculative fiction from around the web, this week with a debate about Sulu's sexual orientation in Star Trek Beyond, comments on the new Ghostbusters, yet more developments in the Iron Man comic as well as the usual mix of writing advice, interviews, reviews, awards news, con reports, crowdfunding projects and free online fiction. 

Speculative fiction in general:

• Ross Johnson shares five science fiction classics he'd like to see revisited.
• Joe Monti praises humor in fantasy and science fiction. 
• Kelly Anderson shares alternate history takes on five real world empires.
• Caitlyn Paxson shares five cool YA SFF novels.
• Kyle Arnold wonders about the state of Philip K. Dick's mental health. 
• S.L. Huang talks about manpain and why the trope annoys her.
• Jen Williams explains why dragons are cool. 
• Michael Livingston finds some parallels between Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones and Cleopatra.
• Thea James lists some books about unexpected superheroes.
• Germain Lussier reports that Doctor Doom will now become Iron Man as well. 
• Evan Narcisse reports that Marvel has killed off another popular character. 
• Chuck Wendig shares his thoughts about Batman versus Superman: Dawn of Justice.  
• Katharine Trendacosta explains why the Outlander TV show is so good, even though we already know what happens.
• B. Alan Orange reports why David Yost, who starred in the original Power Rangers TV show in the 1990s, is angry about Bryan Cranston being cast in the reboot.
• Omari Akil explains why playing Pokemon Go! could be lethal for a black man. 
• Alex Cranz shares his thoughts about the first episode of season two of Mr. Robot.
• Science fiction, fantasy and romance author Roberta Gellis died aged 89.

Comments on the new Ghostbusters: 

• Drew McWeeney declares that Ghostbusters has successfully passed the torch to a new generation.
• Nigel M. Smith declares that Ghostbusters is a blast.
• Germain Lussier says that Ghostbusters isn't perfect, but is so much fun you won't care. 
• Hadley Freeman likes but doesn't love the new Ghostbusters.
• David Rooney was not taken in by the new Ghostbusters.
• Germain Lussier also chronicles the long way that led to the new, all-female Ghostbusters.
• Catherine Shoard hopes that the new Ghostbusters will lead to a trend for female buddy movies.
• Nosheen Iqbal profiles Leslie Jones, one of the four new Ghostbusters.
• Walt Hickey explains that the new Ghostbusters is a perfect example for why online ratings are broken.
  

Comments on Star Trek and Sulu being gay:

• Seth Abramovitch reports that George Takei isn't all that happy with Sulu now being portrayed as a gay man, since that wasn't what Gene Roddenberry had in mind originally. 
• Simon Pegg respectfully disagrees with George Takei about gay Sulu and also tackles the question of what is and isn't canon.
• Adam-Troy Castro also disagrees with George Takei about gay Sulu and explains what Sulu being gay does for the story, even if it adds nothing to the plot.
• Peter David, who penned a tie-in novel in which Sulu was portrayed as straight, has no problem with the fact that Sulu will now be portrayed as gay.
• Natalie Haynes explains why Star Trek was subversive and groundbreaking when it premiered fifty years ago.
• John Jackson Miller traces Lucille Ball's connection to Star Trek.
  

Awards:

• The nominees for the 2016 World Fantasy Awards have been announced.
• The nominees for the 2016 Emmy Awards have been announced. 
• The winners of the 2015 Shirley Jackson Awards have been announced.
• The winners of the 2016 Seiun Awards have been announced. 
• The winners of the 2016 Prometheus Awards have been announced. 
• The shortlist for the 2016 David Gemmell Awards has been announced. Voting for the finalists is here.
• The shortlist for the 2016 Sunburst Awards has been announced.
• The nominees for the 2015 Sidewise Awards have been announced.
• The nominees for the 2016 Scribe Awards have been announced.
• The shortlist for the 2016 Geffen Awards has been announced.
  

Writing, publishing and promotion:

• Devlin Blake shares four classic writing techniques that have fallen out of favour. 
• Robert Repino explains the "show, don't tell" maxim, using Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell as an example.
• Tanarive Due talks about writing horror. 
• Mac Childs talks about timing in horror.
• Juliette Wade talks about using games as a worldbuilding device.
• Adam Rakunas talks about writing women characters as a man. 
• Helen Gould talks about her forty year journey to publication. 
• David Neth explains why publishing frequently is important for indie authors.
• Max Zsol has compiled the most useful hashtags for writers.
• Cat Rambo explains what the SFWA is doing for writer and that it is not in fact a gelatinous cube.
  

Interviews:

• Qu Chaonan interviews Hugo nominee Hao Jingfang. 
• Nicole Brinkley interviews Kate Elliott. 
• Paul Weimer interviews Jen Williams. 
• Joel Cunningham interviews Alastair Reynolds.
• Locus interviews Peter Straub.
• E.P. Beaumont interviews Heather Rose Jones.
• Dag Rambraut interviews Matt K. Turner.
• Farid Ul-Haq interviews Joel Furtado.
  

Reviews:

• File 770 collects links to reviews of various Hugo and Retro Hugo finalists.
• Sam Reader reviews Time Siege by Wesley Chu.
• Nicole Hill reviews The Devourers by Indra Das. 
• Bethanne Patrick reviews Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters. 
• Michael Patrick Hicks reviews Hell Divers by Nicholas Sansbury Smith.
• Sam Adams reviews the movie The Legend of Tarzan. 
• Nigel M. Smith reviews the movie The Purge: Election Year.

Crowdfunding:

• Dead Jack and the Pandemonium Device, the first novel in a fantasy/horror series by James Aquilone, is looking for funding. 
• Mark Teppo is looking for funding for his novel Hidden Palms.
• Tales of Ollundra, an anthology edited by Craig Teal, is looking for funding.
  

Con reports:

• Sabrina Vourvoulias discusses problems she encountered at Readercon 27 in Boston, Massachusetts.
• Scott Edelman shares photos and podcast interviews from Readercon 27. 
• George Morgan also shares some photos of Readercon 27.
• Kal Spriggs shares his experiences at Liberty Con in Chattanooga, Tennessee. 
• Casey Phillips reports about Liberty Con in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  
• File 770 reports about the Mensa Annual Gathering in San Diego, California, and Wil Wheaton's keynote address.

Science and technology:

• Astronomers have discovered an exo planet with three suns.
• Scientists have discovered the first instance of water clouds outside our solar system. 
• The prospects for life on Titan look increasingly good.
• The crew of the ISS has been equipped with a handheld DNA sequencer.
• Space travel is causing visual impairment in some astronauts.
• Five transport technologies that failed to have the expected impact.
• A Philistine cemetery has been discovered in Israel and may shed some light on Biblical mysteries.
  

Free online fiction:

• "The Night Bazaar for Women Becoming Reptiles" by Rachael K. Jones in Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
• "Fire in the Haze" by Mishell Baker in Beneath Ceaseless Skies
• "El Cantar of the Rising Sun" by Sabrina Vourvoulias in Uncanny Magazine.
• "Once More Into the Abyss" by Dennis Danvers at Tor.com.
• "Unity Undone" by Ren Warom at the B&N Blog.
• "The Business at Hand" by T.S. Paul. 

Odds and ends:

• Watch the first few minutes of the first episode of the streaming video series Stranger Things.
• Check out these cute plushtoys of the Game of Thrones direwolves.