Poona Sci-Fi Book Club

Today's episode has us discussing Greg Egan's "Permutation City", which is a cyberpunk novel set in the near future where humanity can upload their brains into a computer. The book explores themes of mortality and consciousness, following an insurance salesman with a grand vision, and a software programmer out to explore the origins of life. Listen along with us as we give you a spoiler-free review in the first part of the episode and then discuss all of the major plot points in part 2. Our next book will be "The Fifth Season" by N.K. Jemisin, which is book 1 of the Broken Earth trilogy. Email us with questions, comments, requests or recommendations at PoonaSFBookClub@gmail.com Our theme music is The Vendetta by Stefan Kartenberg (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/JeffSpeed68/58628 Ft: Apoxode

After a long break, we are back with our next episode! Today we are discussing Andy Weir's "Project Hail Mary", a spiritual sequel to his first novel, "The Martian". This book talks about humanity grappling with a dimming Sun, and follows a single protagonist as he engineers and sciences his way to the solution. Listen along with us as we give you a spoiler-free review in the first part of the episode and then discuss all of the major plot points in part 2. Our next book will be "The Fifth Season" by N.K. Jemisin, which is book 1 of the Broken Earth trilogy. Email us with questions, comments, requests or recommendations at PoonaSFBookClub@gmail.com Our theme music is The Vendetta by Stefan Kartenberg (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/JeffSpeed68/58628 Ft: Apoxode

Today we have all of our usual hosts back on the podcast, discussing The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. This books falls in the category of "slice of life in the future". We follow the crew of a subspace tunnelling ship called the "Wayfarer" as they set about punching a tunnel from the galactic core to more familiar space in the Galactic Commons. The Galactic Commons itself is modelled after the Federation from Star Trek, except humans aren't a particularly important race. Listen along with us as we give you a spoiler-free review in the first part of the episode and then dive into details later on. Email us with questions, comments, requests or recommendations at PoonaSFBookClub@gmail.com Our theme music is The Vendetta by Stefan Kartenberg (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/JeffSpeed68/58628 Ft: Apoxode

Today we discuss Leviathan Falls by James SA Corey, the ninth and last book in The Expanse series. Vivek and Varad sat this one out because they haven't read the other books in the series yet. Instead we have a very special guest on today's show, Rohit, who is an actual rocket scientist! We will have spoilers for the other eight books and the TV series as well, so you might want to avoid this episode if you aren't done with all of those books/episodes. Next book: The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. Email us with questions, comments, requests or recommendations at PoonaSFBookClub@gmail.com Our theme music is The Vendetta by Stefan Kartenberg (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/JeffSpeed68/58628 Ft: Apoxode

We are back after a month-long hiatus! We discuss Olaf Stapledon's 'Sirius', a book about a human-level-intelligence dog, set in the 1930s and 1940s. The book came out in 1944 and explores what it means to be human, and the challenges for a true outsider to fit into human society, especially when he has no society of his own. Next books: Leviathan Falls by James SA Corey and The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. Email us with questions, comments, requests or recommendations at PoonaSFBookClub@gmail.com Our theme music is The Vendetta by Stefan Kartenberg (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/JeffSpeed68/58628 Ft: Apoxode

We discuss Rebecca Roanhorse's "Black Sun" First with a spoiler-free review and then digging into the details of this 2020 Hugo and Nebula award nominated fantasy novel, set in a Mesoamerican backdrop. Email us with questions, comments, requests or recommendations at PoonaSFBookClub@gmail.com Our theme music is The Vendetta by Stefan Kartenberg (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/JeffSpeed68/58628 Ft: Apoxode

We discuss MJ Locke's 'Up Against It.' First with a spoiler-free review and then digging into the details of this interesting cyberpunk/space opera novel from 2011. Email us with questions, comments, requests or recommendations at PoonaSFBookClub@gmail.com Our theme music is The Vendetta by Stefan Kartenberg (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/JeffSpeed68/58628 Ft: Apoxode