Around the Web: Sprayed Edges, Ted Chiang, Lethem on PKD, Latham on LDV, Octavia E. Butler

» NY Times, 27 Dec 2024: The Hottest Trend in Publishing: Books You Can Judge by Their Cover, subtitled “Elaborately designed books with patterned edges and other effects started as a trend in romance and fantasy, and have now spread throughout the publishing industry.” (Discussing examples like Rebecca Yarros’s Fourth Wing and her upcoming Onyx Storm.)

» Ted Chiang, The Humanist.com, 4 Dec 2024: The Distinction Between Imaginary Science and Magic (excerpt from Chiang’s acceptance speech for the Humanist Inquiry & Innovation Award at the American Humanist Association’s 83rd Annual Conference in Sept. 2024)

» Jonathan Lethem, The Paris Review, 14 Nov 2024: Multiple Worlds Vying to Exist: Philip K. Dick and Palestine (link via Boing Boing, which summarizes and excerpts)

» Rob Latham, Los Angeles Review of Books, 23 Nov 2024: Back to the New Wave Future: Rob Latham reviews Harlan Ellison’s anthology The Last Dangerous Visions and the 60th anniversary issue of Michael Moorcock’s New Worlds magazine.

» Smithsonian Magazine, Stephen Kearse, Jan/Feb 2025: In Her Inventive and Prescient Stories, Octavia Butler Wrote Herself Into the Science Fiction Canon, subtitled “On her beloved typewriters, the literary legend mapped out a course for the future of the genre”