Podcasts by New Books in Science Fiction
Bestselling and award-winning science fiction authors talk about their new books and much more in candid conversations with host Rob Wolf.
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On H. G. Well's "The Time Machine" from 2022-11-15T09:00
When H.G. Wells was growing up in England in the 1860s, science wasn’t part of education or everyday life the way it is now. Even though the 19th century was an era of dramatic technological invent...
ListenBina Shah, "Before She Sleeps" (Delphinium Books, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Bina Shah’s Before She Sleeps (Delphinium Books, 2018) is set in a near-future Pakistan where a repressive patriarchy requires women to take multiple husbands and become full-time baby makers after...
ListenAlec Nevala-Lee, "Astounding" (Dey Street Books, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Alec Nevala-Lee’s Astounding is the first comprehensive biography of John W. Campbell, who, as a writer and magazine editor, wielded enormous influence over the field of science fiction in the mid-...
ListenSteven Shaviro, “Discognition” (Repeater Books, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Steven Shaviro’s book Discognition (Repeater Books, 2016) opens with a series of questions: What is consciousness? How does subjective experience occur? Which entities are conscious? What is it lik...
ListenEliot Peper, “Borderless” (47North) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
It seems clear that our dependence on the internet will only grow in coming years, offering untold convenience. But how much control will we have to surrender to access this digital wonderland? Th...
ListenJohn Crowley, “Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr” (Saga Press, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr (Saga Press, 2017), John Crowley provides an account of human history through the eyes of a crow. The story takes flight in the Iron Age, when the eponymous ma...
ListenWade Roush, ed., “Twelve Tomorrows” (MIT Press, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Science fiction is, at its core, about tomorrow—exploring through stories what the universe may look like one or 10 or a million years in the future. Twelve Tomorrows (MIT Press, 2018) uses short ...
ListenKarin Tidbeck, “Amatka” (Vintage, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In Karin Tidbeck‘s Amatka (Vintage, 2017), words weave—and have the potential to shred—the fabric of reality. Amatka was shortlisted for the Compton Crook and Locus Awards. A reviewer on N...
ListenRebecca Roanhorse, “Trail of Lightning” (Saga Press, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In Trail of Lightning (Saga Press, 2018), the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Rebecca Roanhorse draws on Navajo culture and history to tell a gripping future-fable about gods and monsters. Th...
ListenRivers Solomon, “An Unkindness of Ghosts” (Akashic Books, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Humans might one day escape Earth, but escaping our biases may prove much harder. That’s one of the lessons from Rivers Solomon’s An Unkindness of Ghosts (Akashic Books, 2017) set on the HSS Matil...
ListenK.R. Richardson, “Blood Orbit,” (Pyr, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
For Inspector J.P. Dillal, the main protagonist in K. R. Richardson’s Blood Orbit (Pyr, 2018), the expression “I’ve got a lot on my mind” takes on new meaning when he allows his bosses to replace a...
ListenMartha Wells, “Rogue Protocol: The Murderbot Diaries” (Tor, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The “artificial” in artificial intelligence is easy to understand. But the meaning of “intelligence” is harder to define. How smart can an A.I. get? Can it teach itself, change its programming, bec...
ListenSam J. Miller, “Blackfish City” (Ecco, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Sam J. Miller loves cities. He lives in one, has a day job dedicated to making urban life more humane and fair, and has set his new novel, Blackfish City (Ecco, 2018), in a teeming metropolis full ...
ListenDaryl Gregory, “Spoonbenders” (Knopf, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
If Tolstoy had written Spoonbenders (Knopf, 2017), he might have started it: “All happy families are alike; each family of psychics is unhappy in its own way.” Then again, who needs Tolstoy when yo...
ListenMaggie Shen King, “An Excess Male” (Harper Voyager, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Maggie Shen King’s An Excess Male (Harper Voyager, 2017) is a work of science fiction inspired by a real-world dystopia: a country with tens of millions of “extra” men who will never find spouses. ...
ListenFonda Lee, “Jade City” (Orbit, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Jade City combines what its author, Fonda Lee, calls the 3 Ms: mafia, magic and martial arts. Lee’s talent for depicting complex characters struggling with both internal and external conflicts ear...
ListenDouglas Lain, “Bash Bash Revolution” (Night Shade Books, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The technological “singularity” is a popular topic among futurists, transhumanists, philosophers, and, of course, science fiction writers. The term refers to that hypothetical moment when an artifi...
ListenAnnalee Newitz, “Autonomous” (Tor, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Jack Chen is a drug pirate, illegally fabricating patented pharmaceuticals in an underground lab. But when she discovers a deadly flaw in Big Pharma’s new productivity pill, corporate bosses hire a...
ListenE.J. Swift, “Paris Adrift” (Solaris, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Paris has a way of resisting history, absorbing change gradually instead of being transformed by it. The same can be said of Hallie, the protagonist of E.J. Swift’s Paris Adrift (Solaris, 2018), wh...
ListenMur Lafferty, “Six Wakes” (Orbit, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Rob Wolf interviews Mur Lafferty about Six Wakes (Orbit, 2017), her novel about murdered clones that received nods for this year’s Philip K. Dick and Nebula awards—and, after the interview was reco...
ListenTim Pratt, “The Wrong Stars” (Angry Robot, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Rob Wolf interviews Tim Pratt about his Philip K. Dick Award-nominated space opera The Wrong Stars. Pratt is the author of over 20 novels, picking up a Hugo Award and nominations for the Nebula an...
ListenMeg Elison, “The Book of Etta” (47North, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Born into a world where men vastly outnumber women, Etta is expected to choose between two roles: mother or midwife. And yet the protagonist of Meg Elison‘s eponymous second novel chooses a third:...
ListenRobert J. Sawyer, “Quantum Night” (Ace, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this episode, Rob Wolf interviews Robert J. Sawyer, the author of 23 novels, about his most recent book, Quantum Night (Ace, 2016). Sawyer is considered, as he puts it, “an optimistic and upbea...
ListenNick Montfort, “The Future” (MIT, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Popular culture provides many visions of the future. From The Jetsons to Futurama, Black Mirror to Minority Report, Western culture has predicted a future predicated on innovations in technology. I...
ListenOmar El Akkad, “American War” (Knopf, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Set 50-plus years in the future, Omar El Akkad‘s debut novel American War (Knopf, 2017) has been widely praised, becoming one of those rare books with science fiction themes to make numerous mainst...
ListenDavid Walton, “The Genius Plague” (Pyr, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Everyone knows that wild mushrooms can be dangerous, but David Walton in his new novel The Genius Plague (Pyr, 2017) raises the dangers to a new plane. While victims of an unusual fungal infection...
ListenBecky Chambers, “A Closed and Common Orbit” (Harper Voyager, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Rob Wolf interviews Becky Chambers, author of the Wayfarer series. The first book, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Harper Voyager, 2016), was originally self-published then quickly picked up...
ListenStephen Baxter, “The Massacre of Mankind,” (Crown, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this episode, Rob Wolf speaks with Stephen Baxter, author of The Massacre of Mankind (Crown, 2017), the alliteratively titled sequel to H. G. Wells‘ alliteratively titled classic, The War of th...
ListenJulie E. Czerneda, Ed., “Nebula Awards Showcase 2017,” (Pyr, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Since their establishment, the Nebula Awards have proven a trusty guide to what the next generation will consider a classic. Take for example, the inaugural award for Best Novel, which went to Fra...
ListenJohn Rieder, “Science Fiction and the Mass Cultural Genre System” (Wesleyan UP, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
A deft and searching exploration of genre theory through science fiction, and science fiction through genre theory, John Rieder‘s Science Fiction and the Mass Cultural Genre System (Wesleyan Univer...
ListenPJ Manney, “(ID)entity,” (47North, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Artificial intelligence has long been a favorite feature of science fiction. Every robot or talking computer or starship operating system has contributed to our idealized image of the bits-and-byte...
ListenMalka Older, “Null States,” (Tor, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Malka Older‘s Centenal Cycle is set in the latter half of the 21st century and yet, like all good science fiction, it speaks to the current moment. Null States (Tor, 2017), the second book in her ...
ListenBen H. Winters, “Underground Airlines” (Mulholland Books, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Underground Airlines (Mulholland Books, 2016) is a ground-breaking novel, a wickedly imaginative thriller, and a story of an America that is more like our own than we’d like to believe. In an alter...
ListenClaudia Casper, “The Mercy Journals,” (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The Mercy Journals (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2016) is the third novel by Claudia Casper and her first work of science fiction. Set in 2047, it tells the story of Allen Quincy through his journals. Quinc...
ListenPatrick S. Tomlinson, “Trident’s Forge: Children of a Dead Earth, Book Two” (Angry Robot, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Patrick S. Tomlinson is a stand-up comic, political commentator, and the author of the Children of a Dead Earth series. In this interview, we discuss the first two books in the series, The Ark: Chi...
ListenLinda Nagata, “The Last Good Man” (Mythic Island Press, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In The Last Good Man (Mythic Island Press, 2017), Linda Nagata uses a brisk and bracing writing style to immerse us into the lives of private military contractors, in the near future. The team, ba...
ListenNicky Drayden, “The Prey of Gods” (Harper Voyager, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The Prey of the Gods, published by Harper Voyager on June 13th, is Nicky Drayden‘s debut novel, though she’s published many short stories. It’s a compassionate work, despite a neglected blood-thirs...
ListenAliette de Bodard, “The House of Binding Thorns” (Ace, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The House of Binding Thorns (Ace, 2017), Aliette de Bodard‘s novel set in a turn-of-the-century Paris devastated by a magical war, is the follow up to The House of Shattered Wings, which won the 20...
ListenAndre Carrington, “Speculative Blackness: The Future of Race in Science Fiction” (U. Minnesota Press, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Have you ever watched a futuristic movie and wondered if there will actually be any black people in the future? Have you ever been surprised, disappointed, or concerned with the lack of diversity d...
ListenEliot Fintushel, “Zen City,” (Zero Books, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
“The future begins with a traffic jam.” This is how Eliot Fintushel describes the setting of Zen City (Zero Books, 2016), his science fiction novel about the obstacles encountered along the path t...
ListenDave Hutchinson, “Europe in Autumn” (Solaris, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Do not call Dave Hutchinson prescient. Even though his Fractured Europe Sequence envisions a continent crumbling into ever-smaller countries, the idea that his homeland could Brexit the EU had not ...
ListenRamez Naam, “Apex” (Angry Robot, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In the fictional battles between humans and machines, the divide between good and bad is usually clear. Humans, despite their foibles (greed, impulsiveness, and lust for revenge, to name just a few...
ListenAdam Rakunas, “Windswept” (Angry Robot, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Padma Mehta, the hero of Adam Rakunas’ Philip K. Dick Award-nominated novel Windswept, is part Philip Marlow, part Norma Rae, part Jessica Jones. Theres no question that Mehta needs the skills of ...
ListenMarguerite Reed, “Archangel” (Arche Press, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Marguerite Reed‘s Archangel (Arche Press, 2015) introduces a hero not often found at the center of science fiction: a mother, who takes cuddling responsibilities as seriously as she does the fate o...
ListenPJ Manney, “(R)evolution” (47North, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
PJ Manney‘s fast-action novel (R)evolution (47North, 2015) has all the ingredients of a Hollywood thriller: a terrorist attack using nanotechnology, a military-industrial conspiracy, a scientist wh...
ListenBrenda Cooper, “Edge of Dark” (Pyr, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
This episode features author and futurist Brenda Cooper and is the second of my conversations with nominees for the 2016 Philip K. Dick Award. Cooper’s novel Edge of Dark (Pyr, 2015) is set in a s...
ListenDouglas Lain, “After the Saucers Landed” (Night Shade Books, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In today’s episode, I talk with Douglas Lain, one of six authors whose works were nominated for this year’s Philip K. Dick Award. Lain’s novel, After the Saucers Landed (Night Shade Books, 2015) i...
ListenDavid B. Coe, “His Father’s Eyes,” (Baen, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
David B. Coe just finished a busy year in which he published three novels, two of which we discuss in this episode of New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy. His Father’s Eyes (Baen, 2015) is th...
ListenKatherine Addison, “The Goblin Emperor” (Tor Books, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Katherine Addison‘s The Goblin Emperor has earned what might be termed a fantasy Grand Slam: the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel and nominations for the Nebula, Hugo and World Fantasy awards. T...
ListenJane Lindskold, “Artemis Invaded” (Tor, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
At a time when science fiction is more likely to portray ecosystems collapsing rather than flourishing, Jane Lindskold‘s Artemis series is an anomaly. Its eponymous planet is not an ecological disa...
ListenMelinda Snodgrass, “Edge of Dawn” (Tor, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
What do the jobs of opera singer, lawyer and science fiction writer have in common? Answer: Melinda Snodgrass. The author of the just published Edge of Dawn‘s first ambition was to sing opera. Bu...
ListenJames L. Cambias, “Corsair” (Tor Books, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
For his second novel, James L. Cambias chose one of the most challenging settings for a science fiction writer: the near future. Unlike speculative fiction that leaps centuries or millennia ahead ...
ListenPeter Oberg, ed., “Waiting for the Machines to Fall Asleep” (Affront Publishing, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
There’s far more to Swedish literature than Pippi Longstocking and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. That’s the message Anna Jakobsson Lund and Oskar Kallner are trying to send the English-speaking ...
ListenPorochista Khakpour, “The Last Illusion” (Bloomsbury USA, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Porochista Khakpour moved to an apartment with large picture windows in downtown Manhattan shortly before September 11, 2001, giving her a painfully perfect view of the terrorist attacks. “The big...
ListenFerrett Steinmetz, “Flex” (Angry Robot 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Ferrett Steinmetz first built an audience as a blogger, penning provocative essays about “puns, politics and polyamory” (among other things) with titles like “Dear Daughter: I Hope You Have Awesome...
ListenMeg Elison, “The Book of the Unnamed Midwife” (Sybaritic Press, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Despite the odds, Meg Elison did it. First, she finished the book she wanted to write. Second, she found a publisher–without an agent. Third, she won the Philip K. Dick Award for Distinguished Sci...
ListenKen Liu, “The Grace of Kings” (Saga Press, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Short story writing, novel writing, and translating require a variety of skills and strengths that are hardly ever found in a single person. Ken Liu is one of those rare individuals who has them al...
ListenClaire North, “The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August” (Redhook) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
When an author creates a character, she can churn through as many re-writes as she’d like until she gets it right. This, of course, is in stark contrast to reality, where people get only one shot. ...
ListenChris Morgan, “The Comic Galaxy of Mystery Science Theater 3000” (McFarland, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
While there are many well known cult television shows still revered by fans, MST3K continues to have an incredibly large following with a thriving following 25 years after its final episode. Chris ...
ListenJennifer Marie Brissett, “Elysium, or the World After” (Aqueduct Press, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Jennifer Marie Brissett‘s first novel, Elysium, or the World After (Aqueduct Press, 2014), portrays a fractured world, one whose seemingly irreversible destruction does nothing to dampen the surviv...
ListenRod Duncan, “The Bullet-Catcher’s Daughter” (Angry Robot, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
While science fiction often seeks to imagine the impact of new science on the future, Rod Duncan explores an opposite: what happens when science remains frozen in the past. In The Bullet-Catcher’s...
ListenBen H. Winters, “World of Trouble” (Quirk Books, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
It’s no surprise that when scientists in Ben H. Winters‘ The Last Policeman series declare that a 6.5-mile asteroid is going to destroy life as we know it on October 3, civilization starts to unrav...
ListenKameron Hurley, “The Mirror Empire” (Angry Robot, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Kameron Hurley has been honored for her mastery of numerous forms. Her first novel, God’s War, earned her the Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer and the Kitschy Award for Best Debut Novel. He...
ListenAlex London, “Guardian” (Philomel, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
This week’s podcast was an experiment. Rather than record the conversation with author Alex London over Skype, I decided to take the subway to Brooklyn and meet with him face-to-face in a coffee sh...
ListenLydia Netzer, “How to Tell Toledo from the Night Sky” (St. Martin’s Press, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Astronomy and astrology once went hand in hand: people studied the location and motion of celestial bodies in order to make astrological predictions. In the seventeenth century, the paths of these...
ListenKathryn Cramer and Ed Finn, “Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future” (William Morrow, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Before Apollo 11, there was Jules Verne’s novel From the Earth to the Moon. Before the Internet, there was Mark Twain’s short story From the ‘London Times’ of 1904. In other words, before the appe...
ListenBrian Staveley, “The Emperor’s Blades” (Tor, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
What does it take to be an emperor? That question is at the heart of Brian Staveley‘s debut novel The Emperor’s Blades (Tor, 2014). In this first of a projected trilogy, Staveley focuses on three...
ListenRobert Silverberg, “Science Fiction: 101” (Roc, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Science Fiction: 101 (Roc, 2014) isn’t just an “exploration of the craft of science fiction” as its subtitle says; it’s also about the impact the stories in this anthology had on the imagination of...
ListenMax Gladstone, “Full Fathom Five” (Tor, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Full Fathom Five (Tor, 2014) the third and most recent novel in Max Gladstone’s Craft Sequence, features dying divinities and depositions, idols and investments, priestesses and poets, offerings to...
ListenAndy Weir, “The Martian” (Crown, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Strand a man on Mars with only a fraction of the supplies he needs to survive and what do you get? A bestseller. Andy Weir‘s The Martian (Crown, 2014) has been on a journey almost as remarkable as...
ListenJames L. Cambias, “A Darkling Sea” (Tor, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
History is shaped by cultures interacting either peacefully (through trade or art, for example) or violently, through war or colonialism. There doesn’t seem to be any way to avoid cultural intermix...
ListenShelbi Wescott, “Virulent” (Arthur Press, 2013) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
It wasn’t until Shelbi Wescott was deep into her career as a high school teacher that she published her first novel, Virulent: The Release (Arthur Press, 2013). The inspiration for the story came d...
ListenEmmi Itaranta, “Memory of Water” (Harper Voyager, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
It’s clear to most scientists that human activity fuels climate change. What’s less clear is global warming’s long-term impact on geography, ecosystems and human society. If global warming continue...
ListenGreg van Eekhout, “California Bones” (Tor Books, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Southern California can seem magical, thanks to sunny skies, warm weather, orange groves and movie stars. In Greg van Eekhout‘s California Bones (Tor Books, 2014) the magic is real. The Kingdom of ...
ListenChuck Adler, “Wizards, Aliens, and Starships: Physics and Math in Fantasy and Science Fiction” (Princeton UP, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
[Re-posted with permission from Wild About Math] I’ve admitted before that Physics and I have never gotten along. But, science fiction is something I enjoy. So, when Princeton University Press sen...
ListenBen Hatke, “Legends of Zita the Spacegirl” (First Second, 2012) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this sequel to Zita the Spacegirl, Zita faces the perils of being a famous space hero. Ben Hatke once again combines whimsical and lovely drawings with a great sense of humor. Although I purchas...
ListenHugh C. Howey, “Wool” (Simon and Schuster, 2012) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Hugh C. Howey, author of the award-winning Molly Fyde Saga, is best known for his self-published and bestselling series Wool. This post apocalyptic tale of human survival within the infamous silos ...
ListenPatrick James and Abigail Ruane, “The International Relations of Middle-Earth: Learning from the Lord of the Rings” (University of Michigan Press, 2012) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Patrick James is the Dornsife Dean’s Professor of International Relations at the University of Southern California. A self-described intellectual “fox,” James works on a wide variety of subjects in...
ListenR.S. Belcher, “Six-Gun Tarot” (Tor, 2013) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
R.S. Belcher‘s first book, Six-Gun Tarot (Tor, 2013), has receive widespread praise in the online reviewing community. It tells the fantasy-western-horror story of a Nevada town, called Golgotha, t...
ListenRamez Naam, “Nexus” (Angry Robot, 2012) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Ramez Naam is a computer scientist who lives in the pacific northwest. His debut novel, Nexus (Angry Robot, 2012), has received an impressive level of positive buzz, including an endorsement from o...
ListenFelix Gilman, “The Rise of Ransom City” (Tor, 2012) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
I first learned about Felix Gilman‘s work from the influential academic blog Crooked Timber. I proceeded to read Thunderer, Gears of the City, and Half-Made World and found myself impressed by Gilm...
ListenMichael Gordin, “The Pseudoscience Wars: Immanuel Velikovsky and the Birth of the Modern Fringe” (University of Chicago Press, 2012) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
When I agreed to host New Books and Science Fiction and Fantasy there were a number of authors I hoped to interview, including Michael Gordin. This might come as a surprise to listeners, because Mi...
ListenAlastair Reynolds, “Blue Remembered Earth” (Gollancz, 2012) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Blue Remembered Earth (Gollantz, 2012) takes place roughly 150 years in the future. Climate change, as well as the political and economic rise of Africa, have transformed the planet. Humanity is co...
ListenMadeline Ashby, “vN: The First Machine Dynasty” (Angry Robot Books, 2012) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Amy Peterson is a five-year old self-replicating android who lives with her synthetic mother and human “father.” Her struggles might be that of any super-intelligent youngster whose body and mind m...
ListenMeagan Spooner, “Skylark” (Carolrhoda Books, 2012) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Lark Ainsley lives within a near-hermetically sealed city located in a world scarred and depleted my magical wars. The Architects, who oversee the City, maintain it by harvesting the non-renewable ...
ListenD.B. Jackson, “Thieftaker” (Tor Books, 2012) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
“D.B. Jackson” is David B. Coe’s pen name for his new historical-fantasy series, The Thieftaker Chronicles. Thieftaker (Tor Books, 2012) centers on Ethan Kaille, a private detective and conjurer, a...
ListenKen MacLeod, “The Night Sessions” (Pyr, 2012) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
I met Ken MacLeod when we participated in a sequence of “Science Fiction and International Orders” panels at the London School of Economics in the winter of 2011. Ken is an important figure in his ...
ListenAlison Miers, “Charlinder’s Walk” (CreateSpace, 2011) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In our very first fiction-book interview on New Books in Secularism, we chat with Alyson Miers, author of Charlinder’s Walk (CreateSpace, 2011). In this adventure secularism-themed novel, Miers int...
ListenFrederic Krome, “Fighting the Future War: An Anthology of Science Fiction War Stories, 1914-1945” (Routledge, 2011) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
It is not often that fictional accounts might warrant serious consideration by military historians, but in the case of Frederic Krome‘s recent book, Fighting the Future War: An Anthology of Science...
ListenMark Stephen Meadows, “We Robot: Skywalker’s Hand, Blade Runners, Iron Man, Slutbots, and How Fiction Became Fact” (Lyons Press, 2011) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
If technology is the site of digital culture, then robots are the future platforms of our social projections and interactions. In fact, that future is already here in small but fascinating ways. Ma...
ListenJasper Fforde, "The Constant Rabbit" (Viking, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In Jasper Fforde’s The Constant Rabbit (Viking, 2020), residents of the United Kingdom live among human-sized anthropomorphized rabbits. The rabbits make fine citizens—more than fine, in fact. They...
ListenDiane Cook, "The New Wilderness" (Harper, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Diane Cook’s The New Wilderness (Harper, 2020) is a poignant portrait of a mother and daughter fleeing the polluted cities of a near-future dystopia for a hand-to-mouth existence in the country’s l...
ListenRodrigo Quian Quiroga, "NeuroScience Fiction" (Benbella Books, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In NeuroScience Fiction (Benbella Books, 2020), Rodrigo Quian Quiroga shows how the outlandish premises of many seminal science fiction movies are being made possible by new discoveries and technol...
ListenMadeline Ashby, "ReV: The Machine Dynasty, Book III" (Angry Robot, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Writers and readers of science fiction love stories about artificial intelligence, robots, and mechanical beings whose sentience mirrors, matches or exceeds that of humans. The stories stay fresh f...
ListenPremee Mohamed, "Beneath the Rising" (Solaris, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Premee Mohamed’s debut novel, Beneath the Rising (Solaris, 2020) came out in March, but don’t call her a new writer. “I find it funny that people refer to people who have just started to get publis...
ListenIlze Hugo, "The Down Days" (Skybound Books, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Few science fiction writers have their vision of the future tested upon publication. But that’s what happened to Ilze Hugo, whose novel about a mysterious epidemic, The Down Days (Skybound Books, 2...
ListenTochi Onyebuchi, "Riot Baby" (Tor.com, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Tochi Onyebuchi’s Riot Baby (Tor.com, 2020) tells the story of two siblings—Ella, who is gifted with powers of precognition and telekinesis, and her younger brother Kevin, whose exuberant resistanc...
ListenBrian Greene, "Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe" (Random House, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics, a...
ListenBrian Crim, "Planet Auschwitz: Holocaust Representation in Science Fiction and Horror Film and Television" (Rutgers UP, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In his new book, Planet Auschwitz: Holocaust Representation in Science Fiction and Horror Film and Television (Rutgers University Press, 2020), Brian Crim explores the diverse ways in which the Hol...
ListenMegan E. O'Keefe, "Velocity Weapon" (Orbit, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Velocity Weapon (Orbit, 2019) by Megan E. O’Keefe centers on siblings: Biran, a member of an elite cadre that controls the interstellar gates by which humans travel among star systems, and his sist...
ListenLaura Lam, "Goldilocks" (Orbit, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Laura Lam’s new book Goldilocks (Orbit, 2020) takes readers into space with an all-female crew bound for a distant Earth-like planet. The all-female crew isn’t the only twist; there’s also the fact...
ListenLeslie M. Harris, "Slavery and the University: Histories and Legacies" (U Georgia Press, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Slavery and the University: Histories and Legacies (University of Georgia Press, 2019), edited by Leslie M. Harris, James T. Campbell, and Alfred L. Brophy, is the first edited collection of schola...
ListenTyler Hayes, "The Imaginary Corpse" (Angry Robot, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Tyler Hayes's The Imaginary Corpse (Angry Robot, 2019) offers an escape from the unending stress of the Covid-19 pandemic with three simple words: plush yellow triceratops. Nothing could be farther...
ListenKen Liu, "The Hidden Girl and Other Stories" (Gallery/Saga Press, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Ken Liu’s second collection of speculative stories explores migration, memory, and a post-human future through the eyes of parents and their children. Whether his characters are adjusting to life o...
ListenK. M. Szpara, "Docile" (Tor.com, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In Docile (Tor.com, 2020), the debut novel by K.M. Szpara, people pay off family debts by working as indentured personal assistants to the ultra-wealthy. Tor describes the book as a “science fictio...
ListenKarl Schroeder, "Stealing Worlds" (Tor Books, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
To catch the people who killed her environmentalist father, the main character of Karl Schroeder’s Stealing Worlds (Tor Books, 2019) disappears into a virtual world of overlapping LARPs—live action...
ListenPhillipa Chong, “Inside the Critics’ Circle: Book Reviewing in Uncertain Times” (Princeton UP, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
How does the world of book reviews work? In Inside the Critics’ Circle: Book Reviewing in Uncertain Times (Princeton University Press, 2020), Phillipa Chong, assistant professor in sociology at McM...
ListenNino Cipri, "Homesick: Stories" (Dzanc Books, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
When Nino Cipri entered the Dzanc Short Story Collection Contest, they had no expectation of winning, so when they won, they were shocked. The prize came with a publishing contract, and suddenly Ci...
ListenKameron Hurley, "The Light Brigade" (Saga Press, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Some war stories emphasize heroism and a higher purpose; others emphasize brutality and disillusionment. The first kind of story got Dietz, the narrator of Kameron Hurley’s military science fiction...
ListenMike Chen, "A Beginning at the End" (MIRA, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The end of the world is no excuse for eating French fries. That’s a lesson 7-year-old Sunny Donelly learns from her father, Rob, who tries to give her as normal a childhood as possible in the post-...
ListenSeanan McGuire, "Middlegame" (Tor.com, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Science fiction and fantasy often feature characters who seek absolute control (over a kingdom, country, world, galaxy or universe), but few break down the secret to power as elegantly as Seanan Mc...
ListenK Chess, "Famous Men Who Never Lived" (Tin House, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Famous Men Who Never Lived (Tin House, 2019) is set in two Brooklyns. In one, people ride in trams; in the other, they take subways. In one, the swastika is a symbol of luck; in the other, it signi...
ListenSarah Pinsker, "A Song for a New Day" (Berkley, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Sarah Pinsker’s A Song for a New Day (Berkley, 2019) explores how society changes following two plausible disasters: a surge in terrorism and a deadly epidemic. In the Before, people brush against ...
ListenJim Clarke, "Science Fiction and Catholicism: The Rise and Fall of the Robot Papacy" (Gylphi, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Ah, science fiction: Aliens? Absolutely. Robots? Of course. But why are there so many priests in space? As Jim Clarke writes in Science Fiction and Catholicism: The Rise and Fall of the Robot Papac...
ListenCraig DiLouie, "Our War" (Orbit, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In science fiction, “near future” usually refers to settings that are a few years to a few decades off. But Craig DiLouie’s Our War (Orbit, 2019)—about a second U.S. civil war that starts after the...
ListenKathryn Conrad on University Press Publishing from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
As you may know, university presses publish a lot of good books. In fact, they publish thousands of them every year. They are different from most trade books in that most of them are what you might...
ListenH. G. Parry, "The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep" (Redhook, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
While all fiction writers can pull characters from their imaginations and commit them to the page, most readers can’t do what Charley Sutherland can: pull characters from the page and commit them t...
ListenJohn Birmingham, "The Cruel Stars" (Del Rey, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
After writing more than 30 books, including memoirs, military science fiction, alternate histories, and a book of writing advice, John Birmingham was ready to try his hand at the sweeping and drama...
ListenAnnalee Newitz, "The Future of Another Timeline" (Tor, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Amid a wave of time travel books published this year, Annalee Newitz’s The Future of Another Timeline(Tor, 2019) stands out for its focus on a woman’s right to obtain a safe abortion. The book open...
ListenCadwell Turnbull, "The Lesson" (Blackstone Publishing, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In Cadwell Turnbull’s The Lesson (Blackstone Publishing, 2019), the U.S. Virgin Islands serve as Earth’s entry point for the Ynaa, beings from a far corner of the universe whose intentions and desi...
ListenC.A. Fletcher, "A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World" (Orbit, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
C.A. Fletcher’s new novel, A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World(Orbit, 2019), takes place several generations after a pandemic has turned humans into an endangered species. For Griz, the adol...
ListenAmal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, "This is How You Lose the Time War" (Gallery, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
For Blue and Red—arch enemies at the center of Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone’s epistolary novella, This is How You Lose the Time War (Gallery, 2019)—the only thing that endures after millennia o...
ListenDavid Wellington, "The Last Astronaut" (Orbit, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In The Last Astronaut (Orbit, 2019), David Wellington turns his prolific imagination—which is more often associated with earthbound monsters like zombies, vampires, and werewolves—to the threat of ...
ListenEliot Peper, "Breach" (47North, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The massive corporation at the center of Eliot Peper’s Analog trilogy, which he completed last month with the publication of Breach (47North, 2019) is radically different from most science fictiona...
ListenVandana Singh, "Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories" (Small Beer Press, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Vandana Singh has made a career of studying both hard science and the far corners of creativity. It’s no surprise then that Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories (Small Beer Press, 2018), which was ...
ListenAudrey Schulman, "Theory of Bastards" (Europa Editions, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Audrey Schulman’s Theory of Bastards (Europa Editions, 2018) uses a scientist’s relationship with bonobos—and her struggle to keep them alive following a civilization-shattering dust storm—to explo...
ListenCaitlin Starling, "The Luminous Dead" (Harper Voyager, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Caitlin Starling’s debut The Luminous Dead (Harper Voyager, 2019) takes readers along with her young protagonist, Gyre Price, to a place few would voluntarily go—into a deep, pitch-dark cave inhabi...
ListenDan Golding, "Star Wars after Lucas: A Critical Guide to the Future of the Galaxy" (U Minnesota Press, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In 2012 George Lucas shocked the entertainment world by selling the Star Wars franchise, along with Lucasfilm, to Disney. This is the story of how, over the next five years, Star Wars went from nea...
ListenMeg Elison, "The Book of Flora" (47North, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Meg Elison’s The Book of Flora (47North, 2019) trilogy is as much about gender as it is about surviving the apocalypse. The first installment, the Philip K. Dick Award-winning The Book of the Unnam...
ListenCharlie Jane Anders on Space Colonization, Permanent Midnight, and Nuclear War from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Charlie Jane Anders’ The City in the Middle of the Night (Tor Books, 2019) is a coming of age story about Sophie, a young woman trying to forge her identity on a planet of rigid social classes, har...
ListenTade Thompson, "The Rosewater Insurrection" (Orbit, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Tade Thompson’s The Rosewater Insurrection (Orbit, 2019) takes us deep into the heart of an alien invasion that divides humans among those who welcome the extra-terrestrials and those who want to s...
ListenMike Chen, "Here and Now and Then" (MIRA, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Mike Chen’s debut novel Here and Now and Then (MIRA, 2019) is a portrait of patience. The main character, Kin Stewart, waits 18 years for his employer to retrieve him from an assignment. Then, afte...
ListenJames Rollins, "Crucible" (William Morrow, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
James Rollins’ books are usually categorized as thrillers, but most of them could easily be labeled science fiction. An instant bestseller, his latest novel, Crucible, is no exception, revolving ar...
ListenTom Sweterlitsch, "The Gone World" (G.P. Putnam Son's, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Tom Sweterlitsch’s The Gone World (G.P. Putnam Son's, 2018) tells the story of Navy investigator Shannon Moss, who travels to the future to solve present-day crimes. The book opens with a brutal mu...
ListenCatherynne M. Valente, "Space Opera" (Saga Press, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The Eurovision Song Contest has launched careers (think ABBA and Celine Dion), inspired outrageous costumes, and generated spinoffs. The campy competition also led a fan to dare author Catherynne M...
ListenPeng Shepherd, "The Book of M" (William Morrow, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The pandemic in Peng Shepherd’s debut novel, The Book of M, starts with magic—the disappearance of a man’s shadow. The occurrence, broadcast worldwide, is greeted with delight until more and more p...
ListenMark Stephen Meadows, “We Robot: Skywalker’s Hand, Blade Runners, Iron Man, Slutbots, and How Fiction Became Fact” (Lyons Press, 2011) from 2011-07-06T13:39:42
If technology is the site of digital culture, then robots are the future platforms of our social projections and interactions. In fact, that future is already here in small but fascinating ways. Ma...
ListenMark Stephen Meadows, “We Robot: Skywalker’s Hand, Blade Runners, Iron Man, Slutbots, and How Fiction Became Fact” (Lyons Press, 2011) from 2011-07-06T13:39:42
If technology is the site of digital culture, then robots are the future platforms of our social projections and interactions. In fact, that future is already here in small but fascinating ways. Ma...
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