The Linksital Plague

• An interview with Junot Diaz, including some “throat-clearing” from his planned next novel, Dark America:
  

  I’m somewhere in the Zone, traveling on top of an transport. Bound for City.

  The only City there is.

  What I see. Usually just the f-ckedup hide of the truck. Every now and then I lift my head a little and see the other Travellers sucked onto the metal of the container like remora. See the fresca from the night before, long hair whipping back in thousands of everchanging streams. See: fields of white crosses, an endless proliferation of kudzu, a basketball game between the Junior Klan and the Uncle Muhammed Youth League–a regular five on five with a ref and everything so you know we’re in the End Times for real. And sometimes, if I’m not careful, I see my mother and my brother standing by the edge of the road.

  There full extract is a bit longer, but are you pondering what I’m pondering, Pinky?

• Free books! Get a pdf of John Kessel’s new collection, The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories, or sign up for a proof of Nick Harkaway’s debut The Gone Away World (it has ninjas, I gather).
• Colin Greenland reviews Will Ashon’s The Heritage
• Karen Burnham has started working her way through the reading list for the SF Masterclass. Here’s her take on Queer Theory, Gender Theory: An Instant Primer
• Gwyneth Jones reviews Matter, and generates some discussion
• An in-depth look at The Carhullan Army
• Philip Palmer on why The Raw Shark Texts isn’t sf
• Jonathan McCalmont on Brasyl
• The latest SF Signal mind-meld: Is the short fiction market in trouble?
• Catherynne Valente on last week’s Doctor Who
• The Bookseller reports that Quercus have bought David Wingrove’s “nineteen-book epic” Chung Kuo. Last time I checked it was only eight volumes, so clearly he’s been busy.
• And finally: something to look forward to …?