Speculative Fiction Links of the Week for October 6, 2017

It's time again for our weekly round-up of interesting links about speculative fiction from around the web, this week with Star Trek Discovery, Blade Runner 2049, Inhumans, The Gifted, Stephen King, a lot of horror fiction, the Nobel Prize for Literature as well as the usual mix of awards news, writing advice, interviews, reviews, awards news, con reports, crowdfunding campaigns, science articles and free online fiction. 

Speculative fiction in general:

• Adrian McKinty explains why genre fiction should be a part of the literary canon.  
• Katherine Ashe talks about the art of mixing genres.
• The participants of this month's Mind Meld share their personal definition of urban fantasy.
• Ryan Graudin shares five SFF books dealing with parallel universes and string theory.
• The Hugo Awards Book Club discusses the political power of science fiction.
• Corrie Brundage shares her top five science fiction heroines. 
• Lucy V. Hay shares five debates on female writers that really need to die.
• Cora Buhlert discusses the latest round of romance bashing, this time courtesy of the New York Times. 
• Cora Buhlert also has a follow-up post with reactions from around the web to the romance bashing New York Times article.
• Amanda Diehl shares five romances just begging for a film adaptation.
• Doris V. Sutherland revisits Edmond Hamilton's Interstellar Patrol series.
• Andrew O'Hehir shares his appreciation for the Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin. 
• Camestros Felapton discusses fantasy terrains in The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. 
• Grady Hendrix revisits The Shining by Stephen King. 
• Darren Slade revisits It by Stephen King.
• Leah Schnelbach sharees fifteen haunted house stories. 
• Rachel Cordasco shares eight horror novels from around the world.
• Stephen Graham Jones talks about horror and cautionary tales.
• Joanne Kaufman profiles R.L. Stine.
• Germain Lussier declares that the Flatliners remake should have stayed dead.  
• Barry Monush revisits Steven Spielberg's early 1971 TV movie L.A. 2017.
• Glen Weldon remembers the classic television show The Prisoner for its 50th anniversary.
• Teresa Jusino shares her appreciation for the much maligned Star Trek: The Next Generation character of Wesley Crusher.
• The Geekiary shares their appreciation for the afterlife sitcom The Good Place.
• Todd Mason remembers Kit Reed as well as the other nominees for the Hugo Award for most promising new author of 1959.
• Writer Dian Crayne a.k.a. J.D. Crayne has died aged 75. 
• Actress Anne Jeffreys, who appeared in numerous SFF TV shows, has died aged 94.
  

Comments on Star Trek Discovery: 

• Jodie of Lady Business shares her thoughts about the first episode of Star Trek Discovery and praises the character of Michael Burnham.
• Jodie of Lady Business also shares her thoughts on the second episode of Star Trek Discovery and mourns the fate of Captain Philippa Georgiou.
• Swapna Krishna praises the fact that Star Trek Discovery briefly had two women of colour as leads and mourns the fact that this only lasted for two episodes.
• Kaila Hale-Stern wonders about the symbolism behind the name of Michael Burnham, Star Trek Discovery's central character.
• Anita Sarkeesian and Ebony Aster offer two highly critical reviews of the two-part pilot and the third episode of Star Trek Discovery.
• Angel Wilson declares that Star Trek Discovery is everything she wanted and needed from a new Star Trek series.  
• Angel Wilson also declares that Star Trek is for everyone.
• Gavia Baker-Whitelaw calls Star Trek Discovery a gift for fans old and new.
• Gavia Baker-Whitelaw also reviews Desperate Hours by David Mack, the first Star Trek Discovery tie-in novel, in which Michael Burnham teams up with her adoptive brother of sorts, Mr. Spock.
• Gavia Baker-Whitelaw also recaps episode 3 of Star Trek Discovery.
• Angel Wilson reviews episode 3 of Star Trek Discovery.
• Camestros Felapton is quite pleased with episode 3 of Star Trek Discovery.
• Keith DeCandido feels that the third episode of Star Trek Discovery should have been the pilot rather than the two-parter we got.
• Katharine Trendacosta is pleased that Star Trek Discovery delves into the conflict between the scientific and the military side of starfleet. 
• Beth Elderkin and Katharine Trendacosta also discuss the game-changing technology that's apparently being developed in Star Trek Discovery and why we never see any trace of it in any other Star Trek shows.
• Nick Izumi compares Star Trek: Discovery to The Orville.
• Anthony Cuoto also compares Star Trek Discovery to The Orville.
• Carl Slaughter rounds up several critical YouTube reviews of Star Trek Discovery.
• Anthony Cuoto also attempts to explain why in spite of critical acclaim Star Trek Discovery is not the Star Trek that many fans wanted.
• Cora Buhlert talks about cultural differences and shares some thoughts and baseless speculation about Star Trek Discovery.
• Daniel Holloway interviews Jason Isaacs about his character Captain Lorca in Star Trek Discovery.
  

Comments on Blade Runner 2049: 

• Scott Huver declares that Blade Runner 2049 almost equals the original.
• Chris Klimek calls Blade Runner 2049 even sharper than the original.
• Cassam Looch calls Blade Runner 2049 a worthy successor to the original that may even exceed it.
• Katharine Trendacosta calls Blade Runner 2049 gorgeous, brilliant, pretentious and very long. 
• Liam Nolan explains what viewers should know before watching Blade Runner 2049.
• Damien Walter shares five questions the new Blade Runner must answer.
• John Bardinelli shares some background information about Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep?, the Philip K. Dick novel on which Blade Runner was based.  
• Ross Johnson ranks every philip K. Dick film adaptation.
• Meanwhile, Sarah Gailey shares her reactions to watching the original 1982 Blade Runner for the first time.
• Beth Elderkin and Charles Pulliam Moore also share their reactions to watching the original Blade Runner for the first time.
• Watch Black Out 2022, an animated tie-in short film to Blade Runner 2049.
  

Comments on Inhumans:

• Glen Weldon calls Inhumans inept and inert.
• Kevin Melrose argues that the supposed antagonist Maximus might actually be the hero of Inhumans. 
• Charles Pulliam Moore finds at least one good idea in Inhumans.
• Meagan Damore traces differences between the TV version of Inhumans and the version that was shown in IMAX theatres.
  

Comments on The Gifted: 

• Farid Ul-Haq calls The Gifted a good X-Men spin-off that doesn't offer anything new. 
• Charles Pulliam Moore declares that The Gifted is not trying to be an X-Men show, which is what makes it good.
• Kevin Melrose explains why The Gifted changed a scene featuring the mutant Lorna Dane a.k.a. Polaris in prison between the trailer and the episode that actually aired.
  

Awards:

• Kazuo Ishiguro had been awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature.
• The winners of the 2017 British Fantasy Awards have been announced. 
• The winners of the 2017 Salam Award for Imaginative Fiction have been announced. 
• Composer and writer Somtow Sucharitkul a.k.a. S.P. Somtow has been awarded the KulturPreis Europa.
• The winner of the inaugural Sputnik Award has been announced.
• The winners of the 2017 Lord Ruthven Awards have been announced.
• The winners of the 2017 Inky Awards have been announced.
• Adam Roberts offer a phantom version of the 2017 Kitschies in place of the real award, which was put on hold this year. 
• Chris M. Barkley shares his views and suggestions regarding the Dragon Awards.
• Red Sonja of the Red Panda Fraction explains why the Red Pandas created a slate for the 2017 Dragon Awards.
  

Writing, publishing and promotion:

• Christopher Laney shares three concepts (aspiring) writers should know.
• Barbara G. Tarn shares five things she learned in the age of the typewriter. 
• Thomas Oppong shares some tips for not screwing up your creativity.
• John Scalzi discusses why the current political situation is negatively affecting his writing and his wordcount.  
• Frank McKinley explains how to get your writing done, when you're busy all the time.
• Damien G. Walter explains why all stories are fractal. 
• Damien G. Walter also talks about emotion, the thermonuclear weapon in a writer's arsenal.
• Bookplan Pro talks about contrast in storytelling.
• Greg Ruth explains what writers of all genres can learn from horror fiction. 
• Scott Warren discusses three-tier worldbuilding.
• Marshall Ryan Maresca talks about living with a fantasy city inside his head.
• Michael Coorlim talks about writing an interactive series. 
• Dean Wesley Smith shares his criticisms of the practice of using beta readers.
• Michael Coorlim explains how self-publishing saved his life.
• Abby Norman explains that writing a book may not change your life, but that it will change you.
  

Interviews:

• Ana Grilo and Thea James interview Ann Leckie. 
• Mary Louise Kelly interviews Stephen and Owen King.
• Mark Lefevre interviews Charles de Lint.
• Joel Cunningham interviews Elizabeth Bear.
• Andrew Liptak interviews Jeff VanderMeer.
• Dianca London Potts interviews Tanarive Due.
• The Qwillery interviews Ausma Zehanat Khan.
• The Qwillery interviews Tim Doyle.
  

Reviews:

• Martin Cahill reviews The Tiger's Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera. 
• Sam Reader reviews Quillifer by Walter Jon Williams.
• Paul Weimer reviews Horizon by Fran Wilde. 
• Liz Bourke reviews The Stone in the Skull by Elizabeth Bear.
• Abigail Nussbaum reviews The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin.
• Jason Sheehan reviews The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo. 
• Ceridwen Christensen reviews Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeanette Ng.
• John Connolly reviews Sleeping Beauties by Stephen and Owen King.
• Mark Yon reviews Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill.
• Kirkus reviews Satellite by Nick Lake. 
• Michael Patrick Hicks reviews Phasma by Delilah S. Dawson. 

Crowdfunding:

• Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith are looking for funding to bring back Pulphouse Fiction Magazine after 21 years.
• Joe Praska is looking for personal stories about journeys to fandom.
  

Con reports:

• Rich Johnston reports about an uproar during a Marvel panel at New York Comic Con, where several comic retailers made racist, sexist and homohpobic complaints about various Marvel characters.
• At The Geekiary, Bekah shares a report about Dragon Con in Atlanta, Georgia. 
• Gideon Marcus reports about Geek Girl Con in Seattle, Washington.
• Daniel Dern reports about a reading plus Q&A session featuring Stephen and Owen King in Newton, Massachusetts.
• Mark L. Blackman reports about the latest installment of the New York Review of Science Fiction Readings series in Brooklyn, New York, featuring Michael Swanwick and Grdner Dozois.
• Brian Lee Durfee is planning to organise a convention inside Utah State Prison for the inmates.
  

Science and technology:

• Elon Musk plans to use rockets for intercontinental passenger flights. 
• The mysterious bright spots on Ceres might have a common origin.
• Chinese scientists have managed to cure diseases by performing DNA surgery on human embryos.
• The tomb of St. Nicholas of Myra, better known as Santa Claus, has been discovered in Turkey.
  

Free online fiction:

• "Down and Out in R'lyeh" by Catherynne M. Valente in Uncanny Magazine.
• "Longing for Stars Once Lost" by A. Merc Rustad in Lightspeed.
• "The Tale of Mahliya and Mauhub and the White Footed Gazella" by Sofia Samatar in Lightspeed.
• "Red Lights, and Rain" by Gareth L. Powell in Clarkesworld.
• "Fandom for Robots" by Vina Jie-Min Prasad in Uncanny Magazine.
• "Crispin's Model" by Max Gladstone at Tor.com.
• "The Whalebone Parrot" by Darcie Little Badger in The Dark.
  

Odds and ends:

• Watch a trailer for The Beyond.
• Watch a trailer for Ghosted.
• Watch a trailer for Future Man. 
• Watch a trailer for the French science fiction series Missions. 
• Watch a clip for season 2 of Stranger Things.
• In Casper, Wyoming, the police have arrested a drunken man who claims to be a time traveller from the year 2048 come to warn us of an alien invasion.