I haven’t done any yearly reading challenge things before because I usually like to just read whatever sounds good when I finish a book, but I think I might use this SFF bingo card from the B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog this year. There’s a nice variety on here, and I’m always looking for new things to read outside my comfort zone. Plus, it’s so pretty, I can’t wait to print it out so I can hang it up next to my work space.

Speaking of reading habits, it’s definitely become the fashion in the last couple of years for those of us of the feminist persuasion to declare, loudly and publicly, that we’re not reading any books by men, or by white men, or whatever. I’m guilty of this myself, a couple of years ago, and I don’t regret it–it’s actually a great way to shock oneself into reading more diversely–but Jia Tolentino at Jezebel makes a pretty compelling case for why we should all shut up about it already.  I don’t entirely agree, but I do approve of preemptively calling out the inevitable rash of self-congratulatory New Year’s think pieces on the topic.

Fandom Following is a voice of reason in the wilderness, with a good explanation of why we shouldn’t care about Game of Thrones season six passing up the books.

Hayao Miyazaki turned 75 this week.

Smart Bitches Trashy Books tells us all about Mary Wollstonecraft.

The Mary Sue tells us all about lesbian vampires.

George Lucas’s ex-wife apparently played a big role in make the first Star Wars trilogy as great as it was. I wish I could say I was surprised by this.

Also at the Mary Sue this week, “John Boyega and the Importance of the Unlikely Hero.”

As previously “unlikely” heroes become more likely and white dude heroes become less likely, racist and sexist white dudes have come out of the woodwork to cry about it. Laurie Penny has some advice for them.

The Root interviewed Nnedi Okorafor on putting Africans at the center of science fiction.

io9 lists 75 sci-fi and fantasy films to watch for in 2016.

At Fantasy Faction, publishers list their most-anticipated SFF novels of the year.

MCM Buzz gives us 6 new fantasy authors to watch in 2016.

Hodderscape has a sneak peek at A Closed and Common Orbit, Becky Chambers’ follow-up to The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, which is one of my most anticipated novels this year.

If you’re looking for some cheap/free fiction this week, the Electronic Freedom Foundation just published a speculative fiction anthology, Pwning Tomorrow. You can donate to the EFF and download the anthology here. The rather impressive table of contents includes Cory Doctorow, Charlie Jane Anders, Kameron Hurley, Neil Gaiman, and many more of today’s most popular authors. It’s like they saw Microsoft’s Future Visions and decided to top it. By a lot.

Happy New Year! As I said yesterday, I’m definitely looking forward to kicking this year’s ass. First, though, I’ve got to make it through what is passing for winter in southwest Ohio but really feels much more like spring. The abundance of increasingly redundant year-end retrospective posts says early January, but the amount of bird shit on my car says mid-March. Regardless of the number of very confused songbirds outside my window, there’s not been an awful lot going on this last week, although that doesn’t mean I haven’t rustled up anything interesting.

The USPS announced that they will be releasing Forever stamps in 2016 with Star Trek designs. Also some very cool-looking stamps with planets on them AND some special stamps just featuring Pluto.

George R.R. Martin has a lengthy update on what’s going on with The Winds of Winter. It’s not great news–it seems very unlikely now that we’ll see it before late this year–but it’s nice to know.

Rhianna Pratchett shared some memories of her late father in The Guardian.

N.K. Jemisin has a new column in the New York Times. In her first installment, she tells us what’s good and new in sci-fi and fantasy.

The L.A. Times looks at book trends to watch for in 2016. Science fiction, paper books, and diversity are all on the menu.

Fandom Following has a great piece up on media realism.

Mythcreants examines five bad defenses of bad stories.

This year mark’s the four hundredth anniversary of the Bard’s death, and Tor.com kicks off the year with a great list of gender-, race-, and sexuality-bent Shakespeare.

The Daily Dot talks about why we need more diverse superheroes.

Okayafrica collects the best moments of 2015 in African sci-fi.

Taylor Swift released a new music video, for her song “Out of the Woods,” and it’s pretty excellent:

This is my last weekend links post of 2015, and it feels a little light on substance, probably because about 80% of what everyone is publishing this week is year-end retrospectives and “Best of 2015” lists. Goodness knows, I’ll be doing my own round of those this coming week. In the meantime, it doesn’t help that I’ve also been making a last-ditch effort to make up for the reading slump I had after I broke my foot back in May. That said, I’ve still managed to see a bunch of cool stuff on the internet this week.

There’s this great piece about Erszebet Bathory from the Hairpin.

WebUrbanist showcased some rad pre-fab Hobbit houses.

Sqrrl is a neat art project on display in New York. If you’re trapped in the Mid West (or somewhere equally remote) like I am, you can still check out the website for the exhibit.

The Mid West isn’t entirely devoid of culture, of course. My best Christmas gift of the year was the tickets my parents gave us to see The Revolutionists, a new feminist play premiering at Cincinnati’s Playhouse in the Park. If you’re in the area in February, I highly recommend checking it out. I know I’m pretty excited about it.

While I’m not a huge Harry Potter fan, I did enjoy seeing racists go nuts this week when stage!Hermione was cast as a black woman. Still, there are good arguments to be made that this casting decision isn’t the great win for progressivism that some are framing it as.

There’s now a Doctor Who Lego set, and it’s amazing. Certainly my ardor for the show has cooled during the Moffat era, but the Lego Tardis looks excellent.

Andy Weir is writing a new book–with a female main character.

I know Christmas is over, but this project of Yule log alternatives could be useful if we ever get some wintry weather.

io9 and The Daily Dot both address accusations that Rey from Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a Mary Sue. Spoiler: she’s not, and you’re probably sexist if you think so.

Black Gate has a list of fantastic reference and non-fiction books.

The Mary Sue talks about why feminist criticism is important for video games as an art form.

At The Book Smugglers, Sunil Patel writes about his first foray into reading romance novels.

The Atlantic examines the perennial sci-fi obsession with imagining the subjugation of white people.

I love this Ars Technica piece on the fact that hating parts of Star Trek is essential to loving Star Trek.

The L.A. Review of Books examines the term science fiction and what it means to the genre in “Toward a New Fantastic: Stop Calling It Science Fiction.”

Bookworm Blues has a list of some of the most anticipated new books of 2016.

At the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog, editors offer their picks for what they think we should be reading in the coming year.

Obviously, this whole week (and most of the last several weeks, really) has been dominated by Star Wars coverage. Unfortunately, I won’t be seeing the film until at least Tuesday, possibly even next Tuesday depending on how quickly I can get my holiday baking done (I’m finished with candy-making, but I’ve still got gingerbread reindeer, miniature gingerbread houses, and three flavors of French macarons that I’m planning on making in the next few days). That doesn’t mean I haven’t paid any attention to any Star Wars stuff, though.

• The Broad Side discusses Princess Leia’s Feminist Agenda.
• Vox covers Carrie Fisher’s glorious press tour to promote the new movie.
• I somehow missed Carrie Fisher’s interview of Daisy Ridley back in October, but it’s definitely worth a read.
• And since I obviously can’t read everything, I recommend checking out the TWO supposedly spoiler-free link posts at SF Signal about The Force Awakens. Here and here.

This five hour Darth Vader “Yule log” video is much better than the actual Star Wars holiday special:

Jimmy Fallon, the Roots, and the cast of The Force Awakens sing the Star Wars theme a cappella, which is delightful:

The Force Awakens is likely the last exciting genre film release of 2015, but don’t worry. Den of Geek is already looking forward with 30 of 2016’s must-see fantasy and sci-fi films.

Meanwhile, at the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog, they’ve already got a list up of 42 new releases to look for in 2016. I thought 2015 was a great year for reading, but next year is only going to be better. I’d say that I can’t wait, but I’m still finishing a few things from this year.

io9 contends that Legend is the weirdest Ridley Scott movie of all time, to which I can only respond, “Yeah, so?” Maybe it’s just because I saw it at a formative age–right on the cusp of changing from a little girl who loved horses to one who loved dragons and wizards–but Legend (along with Willow) will always be a film that I just uncritically adore.

Tor.com discusses where to start with reading the works of Dianna Wynne Jones. Howl’s Moving Castle, in my opinion, which also gives you an excuse to start watching Studio Ghibli films if you haven’t already.

Michael Moorcock’s birthday was this week. If you haven’t read his stuff, you should think about doing so soon.

The Toast published the sequel to “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” that no one ever asked for.

At Kirkus, there’s a list of books to read if you like The Expanse.

At LitStack, there’s a lovely post in praise of difficult genre fiction.

At LitHub, Rebecca Solnit has an excellent new essay: “Men explain Lolita to me.” Because of course they do.

Finally, this Dangerous Minds post about Soviet-era sci-fi holiday cards might be my favorite thing I’ve seen this week. They’re all just so wonderfully weird and strangely beautiful.

The most important news of the week is obviously that Margaret Atwood is writing a graphic novel called Angel Catbird. The bad news is that we have to wait until fall of 2016 to actually read it.

The Phrontistery is a thing that exists in the world, and it’s incredible. I’ve been reading a little bit every day since I discovered it, and I’ve learned far more wonderfully obscure words than I can ever hope to use.

Someone made a Christmas album that is goat noises instead of words. You’re welcome.

This weekend, you can watch the biggest meteor shower of the year if you are lucky enough to have a clear night.

This happened on SNL this past weekend. You’re welcome again:

Atlas Obscura has a short history of Martians.

Amazing Stories looks at Frankenstein imagery through the years.

The Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi and Fantasy blog has an informative piece on the history of science fiction in China.

Zigzag Timeline talks about 10 bizarre ways that reading/writing while underrepresented messes with your head.

Wole Talabi lists some of his favorite African SFF short stories of the year.

Tor.com has a list of the sci-fi and fantasy characters they couldn’t stop talking about in 2015.

Buzzfeed has their lists up of 2015’s best fantasy and sc-fi.

Paste Magazine collects the best comic books of 2015, which reminds me how much I ought to read more comics.

Loser City is listing the best 100 comics of the last five years, which makes me feel even more like I’ve missed out on a whole sector of publishing.

Bookworm Blues has an epic best of 2015 list.

And if you’re like me and already building your reading list for 2016, Beauty in Ruins has an early list of the most anticipated fantasy reads to look forward to over the next year.

In spite of it not feeling like it (at least in Cincinnati, where we’re still having daily highs in the 50s and 60s), it is December, and if you need something to help you get into the holiday spirit, Book Riot has a wonderful literary Advent calendar.

Climate change has been on my mind this unseasonably warm week, so I’ve got a pair of climate change links to get us started on the more substantial side of things.

• At Gizmodo, Margaret Atwood writes about the war against climate change as our battle for Middle Earth.
• And at New Statesman, there’s a look at how “cli-fi” novels humanise the science of climate change.

If Atwood’s Gizmodo piece isn’t enough for you, she’s also featured in the New York Times’ By the Book this week, and it’s just more proof that she’s one of the world’s most wonderful human beings.

I finally got around to watching Jessica Jones last weekend, though I haven’t written my piece on it yet. However, lots of other people are still churning out several pieces a day on it. These are my favorites this week:

• At Tor.com, Natalie Zutter talks about what rape apologists need to learn from the show (SPOILER: more than they will learn).
• The Mary Sue has an excellent piece examining the Kilgrave fandom. Yes, that’s a thing. No, it’s not entirely full of garbage people.

In tangentially related news, Scientific American published a piece on some science that’s being done on how we’re affected by female superheroes. Discouragingly, it seems that the psychological benefits of seeing strong, capable female characters may be almost entirely offset by having them dressed in sexualizing and objectifying costumes.

I loved this piece at Smart Pop Books about love as a political act in The Hunger Games.

Black Girl Nerds has some great suggestions on what a new Star Trek ought to look like.

At Slate, there’s a great piece up on utopian and dystopian visions of Afrofuturism and whether or not we’re seeing more characters of color in science fiction.

At Book Riot, it’s posited that there are two types of girls: those who read Madeleine L’Engle and those who didn’t.

If you are one of the people who hasn’t read her and wants to start, there’s a ranking of Madeleine L’Engle’s YA canon at Flavorwire. Personally, I’d rank A Wrinkle in Time highest, but I never did get around to reading all of the listed books when I was a girl.

What I did read when I was a girl, though, was lots and lots of books about horses, so I was tickled to see Tor.com’s list of the greatest horses of fantasy this week. I was appalled, however, that not one horse from anything by Tamora Pierce made their list. An absolute travesty.

Electric Literature interviewed Catherynne M. Valente about her new novel, Radiance.

A.C. Wise interviewed A.M. Dellamonica about her latest, A Daughter of No Nation, which came out on Tuesday.

And the final installment of Queers Destroy came out this week as well. You can buy Queers Destroy Fantasy here, and I highly recommend that you do.

I can’t tell if my favorite cool thing I’ve seen this week is these gorgeous tilt-shift astronomy photos or this story about jetpacks being used to fight fires in Dubai.

My favorite funny thing of the week, though? Mightygodking’s 2016 election Magic: The Gathering cards.

The World Fantasy Award is looking for a new statuette design to replace the bust of H.P. Lovecraft.

Meanwhile, S.T. Joshi continues to have a public meltdown about it. The Arkham Digest reports, and there’s a good piece at Salon on the mixed legacy of H.P. Lovecraft.

Robert Jackson Bennett has some thoughts on worldbuilding.

At Black Gate, Sarah Avery looks at why we love enormous fantasy book series.

Ian Sales has some ideas on reasons to be cheerful in space opera.

Lit Reactor lists 5 Ray Bradbury stories that tell us everything we need to know about writing.

The Mary Sue talks about Supergirl vs. Jessica Jones. Turns out the world is wide enough for both. And more.

io9 looks at how Doctor Who managed to waste Clara Oswald.

Games Radar collects 25 of the most kick-ass TV heroines.

Tor.com has a roundup of the covers for their winter publishing schedule, and they look so good.

Tycho Journal wants to reinvent the sci-fi magazine.

Read “On Pandering” over at Tin House.

If you’re looking for something to read, Largehearted Boy is collecting all the “Year’s Best” lists you could ever hope for.

Let’s start the weekend with a piece of great, though not exclusively SFF-related advice from Terrible Minds: Google before you share stuff.

We’re moving into the season of “Year’s Best” lists, and while I haven’t gotten mine quite together yet (trying to read a few more things in the next couple of weeks) they’re starting to trickle out, reminding me of how much I still want to read in the next month or so.

• The Barnes & Noble Sci-fi and Fantasy Blog has got 25 of the Best SFF Books of 2015, which I’ve only read a dozen of.
• The SFWA just released their Nebula reading list, of which I haven’t counted how many I’ve read, but it’s a small enough percentage to make me feel like I’ve missed out on almost everything this year.

So, it turns out that an actual white nationalist organization is creating their own H.P. Lovecraft award.

If that’s not enough to make you feel happier about the replacement of Lovecraft as the face of the World Fantasy Awards, there’s a sensible reminder at the Atlantic that this turn of events won’t destroy Lovecraft’s legacy. I suspect, though, that literal white nationalists using Lovecraft’s likeness for their own ends will do much more to damage the man’s image than anything else.

In interesting news, it looks like Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle may be getting a television adaptation.

Inverse breaks down some of the interesting recent changes at SyFy with a look at what’s coming up from the network over the next few months.

Microsoft has released their (FREE) Future Visions story collection, with work from Elizabeth Bear, Greg Bear, David Brin, Nancy Kress, Ann Leckie, Jack McDevitt, Seanan McGuire, and Robert J. Sawyer.

At Futurity, an exploration of why sci-fi is so obsessed with Mars.

At Slate, there’s a great piece on pulp science fiction’s legacy to women in science.

And at C-Net, a look at why Carrie Fisher looks so right in the new Star Wars movie.

This week would have been Kurt Vonnegut’s 93rd birthday, and there’s a new animation of a talk he gave at NYU in 1970:

The winners of this year’s World Fantasy Awards were announced this week.

Which brings us to, probably, the biggest genre news of the week, which is the decision to replace the current World Fantasy Award statuette–a stylized bust of influential horror author and notoriously vile racist H.P. Lovecraft–with something less upsetting and more in line with what the awards actually represent.

• File 770 has a good rundown of the situation.
• Alexandra Erin (quite reasonably) points out that H.P. Lovecraft was always a terrible choice for the award.
• Small Beer Press reminds us that it was never the H.P. Lovecraft award.
• Apparently Lovecraft biographer S.T. Joshi is having a giant pissbaby fit about it.
• And Damien Walter has the best suggestion I’ve seen so far on what the new award should be.

In other news, Starbucks has already fired the first shots in this year’s War on Christmas, and national treasure Chuck Tingle has written porn about it.

Geek Feminism looks at why new musical Hamilton is so popular with geek feminists.

Atlas Obscura goes on a quest to find the fairytale capital of the world.

At the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi and Fantasy blog, a look at why there’s never been a better time to be a sci-fi and fantasy reader.

The Oatmeal made a comic about Gene Roddenberry, and now I’ve got something in my eye.

Tamora Pierce did a Reddit AMA.

Fantasy Literature interviewed Ann Leckie.

SyFy posted this video about their process of adapting The Expanse:

Tor.com has a big list of upcoming sci-fi and fantasy adaptation projects. It’s sadly about 90% adaptations of work by and about men, but I have some suggestions that would shift that balance a little.

The Atlantic looks at why there are so many Catholics in science fiction.

New Republic examines the work of the group of  writers they call The New Utopians.

HuffPo examines the trend towards optimism in science fiction.

I know it’s been a big week with Star Wars trailers (awesome) and Warcraft trailers (even more awesome) and stuff, but the thing that most excited my this week was the news that Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials is being adapted into a miniseries by the BBC. I love the books so much, and I can’t wait to see how this new adaptation shapes up. I want to see some armored bear fights!

In Nigeria, new comics startup Comic Republic is working to spotlight female superheroes.

Brain Pickings shares Ursula K. Le Guin on the Sacredness of Libraries.

Meanwhile, Ursula K. Le Guin herself tries to answer where she gets her ideas from.

Elsewhere, Margaret Atwood discusses the ways that technology can help and hinder creativity.

The New Yorker takes on The Tangled Cultural Roots of Dungeons & Dragons.

Kirkus has a great list of Monstrous Women.

Gizmodo reports on the Best Cities in Which to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse.

I’m not sure if this piece at The Mary Sue–“Everything I Love is Problematic”–is a good piece about recognizing one’s own privilege and being self-aware of one’s own inadequacies and need to try hard or if I think it’s a boring piece of falsely modest, self-congratulatory humble-bragging.

There’s a nice piece at Slate about Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch trilogy, which should serve as a reminder that if you haven’t yet you ought to go out and read these books immediately. I’m just finishing up Ancillary Mercy now, and it’s every bit as wonderful as the first two books of the series.

At Clarkesworld, Liu Cixin writes about Chinese Science Fiction and Chinese Reality.

Discover Magazine examines the ideas behind Liu Cixin’s The Dark Forest.

Author David Mitchell talks about genre on The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Pop Matters looks at the state of the post-apocalyptic story, especially as it relates to The Last Man on Earth, which you should definitely be watching.

At Tor.com, the question is (apparently) how to tell the difference between grimdark and horror. Personally, I didn’t realize this was that confusing, but this is an interesting read nonetheless.