Blinks: Chiang; Delany; Tolkien; Best of 2017 at Seattle Times, B&N; Zinos-Amaro reviews; Borderlands events

» Buzzfeed: Ted Chiang’s Silicon Valley Is Turning Into Its Own Worst Fear, about capitalism, Silicon Valley, and its fear of superintelligent AI

» Slate Podcast: How Does Samuel R. Delany Work?: The acclaimed science-fiction novelist talks about his queer career.

» Guardian: Maev Kennedy: From the north pole to Middle-earth: Tolkien’s Christmas letters to his children

» Seattle Times: Nisi Shawl picks Noteworthy books of 2017: speculative fiction by Kij Johnson, Cory Doctorow, Christopher Brown, Lara Elena Donnelly, Daniel H. Wilson, Annalee Newitz, Matthew David Goodwin, Cynthia Ward, Kim Stanley Robinson, Daryl Gregory, and Nicky Drayden

» Barnes & Noble’s Best Books of 2017: Fiction include Andy Weir’s Artemis, Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West, Louise Erdrich’s Future Home of the LIving God, Gregory Maguire’s Hiddensee, George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo, Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology, Stephen & Owen King’s Sleeping Beauties, Robin Sloan’s Sourdough, Joe Hill’s Strange Weather, and Alice Hoffman’s The Rules of Magic

» IGMS: Alvaro Zinos-Amaro reviews books by Liz Ziemska, Jonathan Strahan

» Borderlands in January hosts Seanan Maguire and Kate Elliott