Science/Fiction author Steven Hoefer discusses the best speculative fiction and science in this monthly show. Regularly features book recommendations, groundbreaking science, original fiction, essays, and more.
It has a been a long minute since that last episode, but there's a good reason! The name is changing, though the content will be the same. I talk briefly about what's going on. And I offer up some good reading to tide you over until the full episodes of next season arrive. Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Rowanhorse Blackfish City by Sam Miller The Outside by Ada Hoffman The Gurkha and the Lord of Thursday by Saad Hossain Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach by Kelly Robson
Reader's Room pulls the most fascinating writing from speculative fiction, science, and technology. In this edition we look at how two stories can simultaneously be strikingly similar and completely different. We also have a roundup of interesting science and technology, N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth books, and Rosemary Kirstein The Steerswoman series. Show links: N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth series. Rosemary Kirstein The Steerswoman series. This year's Ig Nobel Winners and a roundup of the weird science. Implanted organs printed from a patent's own cells. Why we say 'Hello' when we answer the phone. and why we say 'automobile' instead of oleo locomotive. Suggestions, comments, or subscribe to the email newsletter at ReadSteven.com
Reader's Room pulls the most fascinating writing from speculative fiction, science, and technology. In this edition we talk about what happens when the wind goes out of your sails, speculative fiction from Fireside, the optimistic present from Future Crunch, and long-term thinking from The Long Now foundation. And we talk about my difficulty with naming things. Show links: Future Crunch Their newsletter subscription.. Good News links from past newsletters. Their Patreon. The Long Now Foundation List of seminars. (Available as podcasts and videos. Members can get better access.) The 10,000 year clock. The Interval (Their coffee shop and cocktail bar.) Fireside Magazine The grown selection of newly published books Their website which features their short fiction (after subscribers get it) Subscriptions If you think what they do is worth money. (It is.) Suggestions, comments, or subscribe to the newsletter at ReadSteven.com
Reader's Room pulls the most fascinating writing from speculative fiction, science, and technology. In this edition we talk about coming to terms with things, including glitter, Shakespeare, and loss. Show links: Margaret Atwood's Hag-Seed Which is part of the Hogarth Shakespeare collection. UK exam board fined$250,000 for confusing characters from Romeo and Juliet. Clark County inmates learning to engineer, produce, and play music. (Autoplay video warning. Sorry.) 10 minute documentary about a very unlikley soul album.YouTube Link. Here's one of their songs. Paper: The Surprising Creativity of Digital Evolution: A Collection of Anecdotes from the Evolutionary Computation and Artificial Life Research Communities PDF link Suggestions, comments, or subscribe to the newsletter at ReadSteven.com
Reader's Room pulls the most fascinating writing from speculative fiction, science, and technology. In this edition we talk about experience on a Japanese leisure island, the unhelpfulness of book blurbs, and Nick Harkaway’s The Gone Away World. Show links: Odaiba fortresses turned leisure island in Tokyo bay. Palette Town giant, eclectic collection of amusements. Mega Web. What happens when Toyota builds a theme park. The origin of the book blurb. Nick Harkaway's The Gone Away World. Linkdump: How writers mess with our brains. Facial recognition software finds 3000 lost kids in four days. Injecting memories into sea slugs. (Full original paper here.) Suggestions, comments, or subscribe to the newsletter at ReadSteven.com
Reader's Room covers the month's speculative fiction, science and technology. In this edition we talk about how to grow literature in the desert, the very real ways words can threaten life, as well as Kawamata Chiaki’s novel Death Sentences. Show links: Nevada's Black Mountain Institute The Believer magazine The Believer Festival BMI's City of Asylum program. Progenitor of Surrealism, André Breton The Surrealist game, Exquisite Corpse And the Twitter thread where I talk my way though an editing problem. (Warning: Several swear words.) Suggestions, comments, or subscribe to the newsletter at ReadSteven.com
Reader's Room covers the month's speculative fiction, science and technology. In this edition we talk about autonomous vehicles, and how they're still a nuisance on the road if they can't communicate with the humans around them. We also talk about what causes car crashes in professional races, using AI to keep people and sharks safe from each other, and Karin Tidbeck’s powerful short story collection, Jagannath. Show links: Las Vegas's autonomous shuttle. The giant, fire breathing mantis at Container Park. Linkdump: Studying car crashes in Formula One Racing suggests that competitiveness is more likely to cause crashes than skill or weather. The 2018 Hugo Award nominations are out. Good source of ideas for more for reading, watching, and listening. Australian beaches are looking to protect swimmers from sharks usingAI linked to buoys and drones to sense sharks in the water. Suggestions, comments, or subscribe to the newsletter at ReadSteven.com
The Reader's Room talks about speculative fiction, science, and technology. This month, we ask what kinds of changes you might make to your body to improve your work, or better reflect your beliefs. We also talk about the transhumans in Alistair Reynolds' new book, Elysium Fire, and his 2008 book The Prefect, as well as some of the people and technology taking us forward. Show Links: Alistair Reynolds’ Revelation Space stories The Prefect (2007) Elysium-Fire (2018) Diving for ancient ivory under the Bering Sea at the Anchorage Daily News Actress Angel Guiffria @aannggeellll on Twitter Interview with B.J. Murphy on Medium Elastic, self repairing sensors at Quartz. Suggestions, comments, or subscrive to the email newsletter at ReadSteven.com
This month we talk about the possibilities of making a single change in reality, and I get caught up on Charles Stross's Laundry Files novels. Show links: The Atrocity Archives, Stross's first Laundry Files book. The Delirium Brief, the most recent novel in the series. Laundry Files Reading Order MIT's Neuron on a chip at MIT's media site. Rab the Giant versus the Witch of the Waterfall at Fireside Fiction ‘Atomic Bill’ and the Birth of the Bomb at undark.org, explores the ethics of the New York Times star reporter hired by the Manhattan Project to chronicle and cheerlead the nuclear age. Suggestions, comments, or subscribe to the newsletter at ReadSteven.com
Reader's Room ponders the best speculative fiction and and science for the month. This edition we look at how and why authors create specilatve worlds, and their impact on storytelling. Show links: We talk about Andy Weir's latest book, Artemis. If you have an hour, Weir did an interview about the process of creating Artemis on Conversations with Tyler on Medium. (Both audio and transcript.) If you only have five minutes, he also did an interview on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday in November. (Audio and text excerpts.) Charlie Jane Anders wrote the excellent, The Seven Deadly Sins of Worldbuilding, on her site, io9. It’s a few years old, but it all remains true. A good read for writers, but it'll also give readers some tools to figure out why they love or hate a story world. Imaginary Worlds is a bi-weekly podcast all about world building. It explores everything from author’s creation to fandom. I've mentioned it before, but it's a great resource for getting behind the scenes of your favorite creations, and learning to appreciate entirely new things. Suggestions, comments, or subscribe to the newsletter at ReadSteven.com
No essay this month. Instead, I share a new piece of short fiction that does better than the essay ever did. It explores the legal idea of personhood and what possibilities are unlocked when we apply it a little more broadly. As always, suggestions, comments are welcome. If you want to get in touch, learn more, or subscribe to the newsletter at ReadSteven.com
Reader's Room ponders the best speculative fiction and and science for the month. This month we talk about how we become attached to technology and Analee Newitz's new novel Autonomous. And there's a little piece of original flash fiction up front. Show links: Highlights of the Cassini mission. from NASA. Autonomous: A Novel by Analee Newitz The Imaginary World podcast is a fascinating interview show about all kinds of worldbuilding. From Siri With Love the story of an autistic child and how his digital assistant became his best friend. (Also part of collected memoirs that just came out.) Short story Islands in the Dark by Sarah Goldman over at the Escape Pod podcast. (Audio and text are at the link.) Where we bury spacecraft over at Business Insider. Suggestions, comments, or subscribe to the newsletter at ReadSteven.com
Reader's Room ponders the best speculative fiction and and science for the month. This week we talk about searching for answers in the wake of worldwide disaster and local tragedy, and N. K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy. Suggestions, comments, or subscribe to the newsletter at ReadSteven.com
Reader's Room ponders the best speculative fiction and and science for the week. This week I visit some of the same craters that the Apollo astronauts walked on fifty years ago, and we talk about making up some history just so we can mess it up later. Show links: Cinder Lakes Training Field (PDF) where the Apollo astronauts trained. S. (aka Ship of Theseus) by Doug Dorst and J. J. Abrams Linkdump: Steal The Stars Tor Labs weekly dramatic podcast The Economist explains algorithms Robot Priests leading funerals in Japan at the Guardian. Ten best SF stories you can read for free at The Chicago Review of Books Support: Nevada Museum of Art, launching a satellite for the sake of art. (Kickstarter) Escape Pod, weekly genre podcasts. (Patreon) Story Hospital weekly, quality writing advice from a talented editor. Suggestions, comments, or subscribe to the newsletter at ReadSteven.com
Reader's Room ponders the best speculative fiction and and science for the week. This week think about what makes up a journey, and Kij Johnson's novel The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe. Show links: Should robots be given copyright protection? Advice for journalists writing about (and readers reading about) artificial intelligence. Uncanny Magazine's Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction Supported creators: Clarkesworld Magazine and Podcast. Fireside Fiction Author Yoon Ha Lee A print from Yuko Shimizu Space T-shirt from Julieah Kaliski Suggestions, comments, or subscribe to the newsletter at ReadSteven.com
Reader's Room ponders the best speculative fiction and and science for the week. This week we talk about the crazy ideas that have propelled us forward, even if we didn't know we could reach them. Show links: Elon Musk's presentation Making Humans a Multi-Planetary Species (pdf) (Available until July 5, 2017) Ordinary rockets sometimes land on farmhouses. Linkdump: Sylvain Neuvel's Waking Gods, the sequel to Sleeping Giants. Curtis Chen's Kangaroo Too, the sequel to Waypoint Kangaroo. The XPrize foundation put a bunch of SF authors on a plane and sent them 20 years into the future. Here's what they saw Suggestions, comments, or subscribe to the newsletter at ReadSteven.com
Reader's Room ponders the best speculative fiction and and science for the week. This week we talk about why they brought a pistol along when going on the first spacewalk, and The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. Show links: Two Sides of the Moon by Astronaut Dave Scott and Cosmonaut Alexi Leonov (Excerpt about the first spacewalk at Air & Space Magazine . Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland Podcast: Big Picture Science on Science Fiction. Linkdump: Neural networks to name Guinea Pigs The History of 16th-Century Narcoleptic Walruses Carbon Capture plant growing veggies in Switzerland. Suggestions, comments, or subscribe to the newsletter at ReadSteven.com
Reader's Room ponders the best speculative fiction and and science for the week. This week we talk about those books that you found (or maybe they found you) at just the right time and place. Also Show links: Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat ... and Make Room! Make Room! Curtis Chen's Waypoint Kangaroo ... and it's sequel Kangroo Two Some reading on the Bag of Holding trope Linkdump: Clarkesworld Magazine's My Dear, Like the Sky and Stars and Sun by Julia K. Patt (Audio version) (If you like Clarkesworld's stuff, Subscribe or join their Pateron. The motorcycle NASA wanted to send to the moon. Bad news for the Flatwork Space Program. Suggestions, comments, or subscribe to the newsletter at ReadSteven.com
Reader's Room ponders the week's most thought-provoking speculative fiction and nonfiction. This week we talk about the transformative power of stories, Neil Gaiman's ability to use stories to evoke gods, and how great it is to pass a book forward. Show links: Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology (and American Gods) Linkdump: Tang Fei's The Person Who Saw Cestus (text and podcast at link.) Radical Ocean Futures The X-Prize Foundation's advisory council of science fiction authors Suggestions, comments, or subscribe to the newsletter at ReadSteven.com
Reader's Room ponders the week's most thought-provoking speculative fiction and nonfiction. This week we talk about the so-called rules of writing, when to break them, and Sylvain Neuvel's novel Sleeping Giants. Show links: Regarding Your Future With The Futures Planning Consortium Short fiction over at Fireside Sylvain Neuvel's Sleeping Giants Podcast: The Heart’s Cartography by Susan Jane Bigelow Linkdump: Arms you can wear under your regular arms Octavia Bulter's Patternist Books super cheap this week. Rocket Mail Exactly what it sounds like. Suggestions, comments, or subscribe to the newsletter at ReadSteven.com
Reader's Room features the week's most thought-provoking speculative fiction and nonfiction. This week I talk about alternate histories, snappy pitches, and what Sarah Gailey's new novel, River of Teeth has to do with them both. Oh, and that one time when America almost started wide-scale hippo ranching. Show links: Sarah Gailey's River of Teeth American Hippopotamus, read or listen. (A much shorter summary at Wired.) Links NASA's Personal Rescue Enclosure The MOOSE (Man Out Of Space Easiest) personal reentry device 3D printed ovaries restore reproductive functions. (In mice.) (Scientific paper.) Google's AI/Artist collaboration. (Video) Suggestions, comments, or subscribe to the newsletter: ReadSteven.com
Reader's Room features the week's most thought-provoking speculative fiction and nonfiction. This week I talk about how astronauts see Earth, when and why to quit something in the middle, and Alistair Reynold's latest. Show links: Jack Fisher's Tweet, wondering, from space. Alistair Reynolds' The Iron Tactician (Previous stories in this world are available in Zima Blue and/or The New Space Opera) Links Locus Award Finalists. Charles Stross's Atrocity Archives, on sale this week. Quantum Computing For The Mildly Curious. Suggestions, comments, or subscribe to the newsletter: ReadSteven.com
Reader's Room ponders the week's most thought-provoking speculative fiction and nonfiction. This week we talk about the influence that science fiction has on science. Show links: H. G. Wells's The World Set Free Astro Boy (AKA Mighty Atom) Tricorder X Prize Linkdump: Vernor Vinge's Fire Upon The Deep free this month. When an AI anticipates itself (video) Autonomous Robot Colonoscopies text Suggestions, comments, or subscribe to the newsletter at ReadSteven.com
Reader's Room ponders the week's most thought-provoking speculative fiction and nonfiction. This week I share a story—a memoir, really, since it's true—about waking up in another body. Linkdump: Kate Lechler'sThe Hulder’s Husband Says Don’t Flash fiction. The World's First nanocar race Japanese researchers 3D print scaffold-free ‘human mini-liver’ Suggestions, comments, or subscribe to the newsletter at ReadSteven.com
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