Podcasts about All Systems Red

In this episode, we discuss the AI Assessment Scale. (https://aiassessmentscale.com/) Things that bring us joy this week: All Systems Red by Martha Wells (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Systems_Red) Will & Harper (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_%26_Harper) Intro/Outro Music: Notice of Eviction by Legally Blind (https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Legally_Blind)

What would it feel like for other people to love me if they were to truly see me and truly know me as I am right now?Today we meet Esmé and we're talking about the queer book that saved their life: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. And Martha joins us for the conversation!Esmé has been slinging radical books at Firestorm since 2019. They wear multiple hats including communications, event facilitation, and offsite sales. When she doesn't have her nose in a gay book, Esmé sings in a doom metal band and snuggles with the shop dog, an ancient dachshund named Julius Caesar Salad, as much as caninely possible.Martha Wells has written many novels, including the bestselling and award-winning Murderbot Diaries series, which was adapted into an Apple Original TV series debuting May 16, 2025. She also authored Witch King, City of Bones, The Wizard Hunters, Wheel of the Infinite, and the Nebula-nominated The Death of the Necromancer, as well as YA fantasy novels, short stories, and nonfiction.In All Systems Red, the first book in The Murderbot Diaries, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests on a distant planet, shadowed by their Company-supplied SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module. Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is. But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.Special Limited SeriesThis episode is part of a special limited series of episodes featuring only guests who are owners or staff at LGBTQ bookstores. Airing April-June 2025, these episodes will feature six bookstores across the United States and United Kingdom.Today's guest is a bookseller at Firestorm Books, a collectively-owned radical bookstore and not-for-profit event space in Asheville, North Carolina. Since 2008 Firestorm Books has supported grassroots movements in Southern Appalachia while developing a workplace on the basis of cooperation, empowerment and equity.Connect with Esmé and Marthawebsite: firestorm.coopinstagram: @angelicadoomwebsite: marthawells.combluesky: @marthawells.cominstagram: @marthawellswriterBecome an Associate Producer!Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbookCreditsHost/Founder: John Parker (learn more about my name change)Executive Producer: Jim PoundsAssociate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Jonathan Fried, Paul Kaefer, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, and Sean SmithPatreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Terry D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, and Gary Nygaard.Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy EricksonQuatrefoil LibraryQuatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can't buy tJoin us in helping Lambda Literary raise $20k for The Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices to ensure all writers can attend. Donate here: http://bit.ly/3RjW51aSupport the show

Welcome back to another episode of the Online Warriors Podcast! This week we have a very special episode! The gang discusses the latest in TV and Gaming! - The Last of Us Season 2 (5:42) - Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3&4 Remaster (13:56) - Xbox Handheld Console (22:11) Then we talk about what the gang has been up to: - Illeagle reads All Systems Red, plays God of War, and chills on the beach (36:05) - Nerdbomber watches Snack Shack and plays Indiana Jones: The Great Circle (37:57) - Techtic watches The Gorge and works on his game to implement skins (41:47)   Special shoutout to our Patreon Producers: Steven Keller and Loyd Weldy!   We'd like to thank each and every one of you for listening in every week. If you'd like to support the show, you can drop us a review on your favorite podcast platform or, if you're feeling extra generous, drop us a subscribe over at Patreon.com/OnlineWarriorsPodcast. We have three tiers of subscriptions, each of which gives you some awesome bonus content! As always, we appreciate you tuning in, and look forward to seeing you next week! Stay safe and healthy everyone! Find us all over the web: Online Warriors Website: https://www.onlinewarriorspodcast.com Online Warriors Twitter: https://twitter.com/onlinewarriors1 Illeagle's Twitter: https://twitter.com/OWIlleagle86 Nerdbomber's Twitter: https://twitter.com/OWNerdbomber Techtic's Twitter: https://twitter.com/OWTechtic Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onlinewarriorspodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onlinewarriorspodcast/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwOwzY6aBcTFucWEeFEtwIg Merch Store: https://onlinewarriorspodcast-shop.fourthwall.com/

Welcome back to another exciting episode of The Middle of Culture! Your hosts, Peter and Eden, are here to dive into the world of pop culture, sci-fi, and everything in between. This week, we're braving the cold and tackling a highly recommended novella that's been on our TBR list for far too long.What we are checking out:Peter has been diving into some serious reading, tackling "The Lost Metal" from the Mistborn series and a nonfiction book on philosophyEden has been exploring new manga and video games, including finishing "Nichijou" and starting "Indiana Jones and the Great Circle"A deep dive into "Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes," a spiritual successor to the beloved Suikoden series, and its stunning HD 2D graphicsAll Systems RedWe both share our initial thoughts on "All Systems Red," agreeing that it's an enjoyable read but not necessarily a mind-blowing oneDiscussion on the book's cozy sci-fi reputation and appeal to fans of softer, quieter mediaWe dive into the book's exploration of personhood, autonomy, and the dehumanization of cyborgs and AIEden brings up the interesting dynamic between Murderbot and the augmented human, and the implications of respectability politicBoth hosts express curiosity about the broader sociopolitical context of the series and the motivations of the antagonistic groupSpeculation on how the TV adaptation will handle the casting and portrayal of Murderbot, especially regarding its degendered identity.Wrap-Up:Thank you for joining us on this journey through "All Systems Red." We hope you enjoyed our discussion and are as excited as we are to see how the Murderbot Diaries will be brought to life on screen. Stay tuned for our next episode, and as always, take care of yourselves!

​​Welcome to You Haven't Blanked That! It's Guilty Pleasures month. We watched Riding In Cars With Boys. We talk about the flaws of this film, Why this was Forrest's choice, Steve Zahn, That Lady is A Tramp, Jimmy confuses this with Boys Don't Cry, Nick Cave and heroin, young parenting mistakes, peak maturity, anonymity in the 1980s, the ending, David Moscow, Brittany Murphy's Lorraine Bracco impression, James Woods, live action Hades, Emperor's New Groove, Pixar, Jimmy's story time, What We Are Blanking - Skeleton Crew, Little Shop of Horrors, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Dream Productions, Interview with the Vampire, Secret Levels, Smile, Evil Dead, House of the Last Resort, the Outsiders, All Systems Red, Hepatitis Bathtub, Sonic 3, ​​Opening theme by the Assassins ​​Closing theme by Lucas Perea ​​ For more info, click the link bio or below. https://linktr.ee/yhblankthat Email: Yhblankthat@gmail.com

Dive into the world of science fiction with Martha Wells' Artificial Condition, a thrilling novel that explores the complexities of artificial intelligence and humanity. In this episode, we'll delve into the themes, characters, and plot twists that make this book a must-read for fans of the genre. From the intricacies of AI consciousness to the moral ambiguities of human nature, we'll expose the hidden gems and surprising revelations that set Artificial Condition apart from other sci-fi novels. Whether you're a fan of Martha Wells or just discovering her work, this episode is the perfect companion to her thought-provoking novel. So, sit back, relax, and get ready to have your mind blown by this spoiler-lite review of Artificial Condition! #FantasyForTheAges #readingrecommendations #sciencefiction #scifi #MurderbotDiaries #Murderbot #TBR #ToBeRead #BookRecommendations #BookReview #SFF #booktube #booktuber Want to purchase books mentioned in this episode? All Systems Red: https://t.ly/clNRv Artificial Condition: https://t.ly/qc9Ay Ways to connect with us: Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FantasyForTheAges Follow Jim/Father on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/13848336-jim-scriven Join us on Discord: https://discord.gg/jMWyVJ6qKk Follow us on "X": @Fantasy4theAges Follow us on Blue Sky: @fantasy4theages.bsky.social Follow us on Instagram: fantasy_for_the_ages Follow us on Mastodon: @FantasyForTheAges@nerdculture.de Email us: FantasyForTheAges@gmail.com Check out our merch: https://www.newcreationsbyjen.com/collections/fantasyfortheages Jim's Microphone: Blue Yeti https://tinyurl.com/3shpvhb4 ———————————————————————————— Music and video elements licensed under Envato Elements: https://elements.envato.com/

Get ready to meet the ultimate android, a construct like none other! In this episode, Jim dives into the world of Murderbot and explores what makes this novel stand out from the rest. From its unique perspective to its thought-provoking themes, we examine what sets ALL SYSTEMS RED apart and why it deserves all the buzz it can get. Whether you're a seasoned sci-fi fan or just looking for a new book to obsess over, this episode is for you. So, is ALL SYSTEMS RED a game-changer? Listen to find out! #FantasyForTheAges #readingrecommendations #scifi #Murderbot #sciencefiction #BookReview #TBR #ToBeRead #BookRecommendations #SFF #booktube #booktuber Want to purchase the book mentioned in this episode? All Systems Red: https://t.ly/clNRv Ways to connect with us: Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FantasyForTheAges Follow Jim/Father on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/13848336-jim-scriven Join us on Discord: https://discord.gg/jMWyVJ6qKk Follow us on "X": @Fantasy4theAges Follow us on Blue Sky: @fantasy4theages.bsky.social Follow us on Instagram: fantasy_for_the_ages Follow us on Mastodon: @FantasyForTheAges@nerdculture.de Email us: FantasyForTheAges@gmail.com Check out our merch: https://www.newcreationsbyjen.com/collections/fantasyfortheages Jim's Microphone: Blue Yeti https://tinyurl.com/3shpvhb4 ———————————————————————————— Music and video elements licensed under Envato Elements: https://elements.envato.com/

2024 Sci-Fi, IndiePub, & Theology Etc. In Review We need just a couple more weeks to conclude our Christian ethics book so here are Patrick's book reviews from 2024. Biography and Indiepub heavy, it was overall a good reading year with just a few bad choices. Have you read any of these or pick any up? Timeline: 00:00 - Introduction 02:28 - The Love and Respect Devotional by Emerson Eggerichs 04:06 - Deathbringer by Blake Carpenter 08:20 - All Systems Red by Martha Wells 09:32 - Redeemed By Blood by Shannon Baker 11:34 - Defeating Evil by Scott Christensen 13:24 - Lost and Found by Robert E. Kearns 16:05 - After Moses by Michael F. Kane 20:29 - The Button Girl by Sally Apokedak 23:59 - A Case of Conscience by James Blish 26:05 - Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy 29:05 - All These Worlds by Dennis E. Taylor 30:46 - Hacking Galileo by Fenton Wood 33:23 - Timothy of the 10th Floor by Jenny Phillips 35:11 - Defenders of the West by Raymond Ibrahim 39:04 - I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison 40:36 - The Heights of Perdition by C.S. Johnson 44:41 - The Revenant and the Cult, Book One by Herman P. Hunter 47:16 - Drosselmeyer - Curse of the Rat King by Paul Thompson 49:08 - Hidden Fury by Bjorn Hasseler 51:00 - The Kingdom of Kind by Jenny Phillips 52:28 - Mist and Moonbeams by Paul Michael Peters BOOK LINKS: The Love and Respect Devotional by Emerson Eggerichs Deathbringer by Blake Carpenter All Systems Red by Martha Wells Redeemed By Blood by Shannon Baker Defeating Evil by Scott Christensen Lost and Found by Robert E. Kearns After Moses by Michael F. Kane The Button Girl by Sally Apokedak A Case of Conscience by James Blish Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy All These Worlds by Dennis E. Taylor Hacking Galileo by Fenton Wood Timothy of the 10th Floor by Jenny Phillips Defenders of the West by Raymond Ibrahim I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison The Heights of Perdition by C.S. Johnson The Revenant and the Cult, Book One by Herman P. Hunter Drosselmeyer - Curse of the Rat King by Paul Thompson Hidden Fury by Bjorn Hasseler The Kingdom of Kind by Jenny Phillips Mist and Moonbeams by Paul Michael Peters All episodes, short clips, & blog - https://www.cavetothecross.com  

Join me on an epic adventure through the world of fantasy and science fiction as we explore AMAZING reads from A to Z! From classic novels to modern bestsellers, I'm sharing my list of some of the most captivating stories that will transport you to new worlds, introduce you to unforgettable characters, and ignite your imagination. Whether you're a fan of magic, space exploration, or dystopian futures, this episode is for you! Get ready to discover new authors, series, and genres that will keep you reading all night long. So, sit back, relax, and let's start our journey through the infinite possibilities of fantasy and science fiction! #FantasyForTheAges #readingrecommendations #scifi #sciencefiction #Fantasy #Grimdark #TBR #EpicFantasy #SFF #booktube #booktuber Want to purchase books mentioned in this episode? All Systems Red: https://t.ly/clNRv All the Weyrs of Pern: https://t.ly/N53p9 The Black Company: https://t.ly/QMwqB The Blade Itself: https://t.ly/LSDn2 The Caves of Steel: https://t.ly/uQgGq The Color of Magic: https://t.ly/0joes The Dragonbone Chair: https://t.ly/p02xZ Dune: https://t.ly/4_w_k Empire of the Vampire: https://t.ly/VPeGO Ex-Heroes: https://t.ly/XuifA The Eye of the World: https://t.ly/V-eqm Fated: https://t.ly/h3ku0 Flowers for Algernon: https://t.ly/cOenO The Gunslinger: https://t.ly/U7LP2 Gwendy's Button Box: https://t.ly/Vhn1p Hell Divers: https://t.ly/7DCoU Hyperion: https://t.ly/VYqkP In the Lives of Puppets: https://t.ly/y8J2b Interview with the Vampire: https://t.ly/oddIu Jake the Dragon Talker: https://t.ly/fMu9F Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: https://t.ly/8MoJB The Kaiju Preservation Society: https://t.ly/BGopw The King Beyond the Gate: https://t.ly/wspat Leviathan Wakes: https://t.ly/muEYa The Lies of Locke Lamora: https://t.ly/1UV3h The Man in the High Castle: https://t.ly/wVUUm The Martian: https://t.ly/9Ty2E The Name of the Wind: https://t.ly/ndJbg Neuromancer: https://t.ly/lN79I Old Man's War: https://t.ly/Q3uJu The Once and Future King: https://t.ly/veIkR Perdido Street Station: https://t.ly/BMosB The Poppy War: https://t.ly/d6CIF Quarantine: https://t.ly/TpmLC The Queen of the Damned: https://t.ly/R33Rx Red Mars: https://t.ly/Qhd1H Red Rising: https://t.ly/yIHdF Snow Crash: https://t.ly/auBgE The Stand: https://t.ly/UG_4m Tigana: https://t.ly/VVxzk A Time of Dread: https://t.ly/mjcOX Under the Dome: https://t.ly/unbVA Uprooted: https://t.ly/08qm3 Valor: https://t.ly/2PagY Vicious: https://t.ly/HCmTx A Wizard of Earthsea: https://t.ly/pJ922 World War Z: https://t.ly/WYhtl Xanth: https://t.ly/eO4w7 Yumi and the Nightmare Painter: https://t.ly/_SE6e The Year of the Flood: https://t.ly/Y3V1W Zombie Fallout: https://t.ly/oLnaQ Zone One: https://t.ly/6Y9sK Ways to connect with us: Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FantasyForTheAges Follow Jim/Father on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/13848336-jim-scriven Join us on Discord: https://discord.gg/jMWyVJ6qKk Follow us on "X": @Fantasy4theAges Follow us on Blue Sky: @fantasy4theages.bsky.social Follow us on Instagram: fantasy_for_the_ages Follow us on Mastodon: @FantasyForTheAges@nerdculture.de Email us: FantasyForTheAges@gmail.com Check out our merch: https://www.newcreationsbyjen.com/collections/fantasyfortheages Jim's Microphone: Blue Yeti https://tinyurl.com/3shpvhb4 ———————————————————————————— Music and video elements licensed under Envato Elements: https://elements.envato.com/

Abu and Obssa complete their read through of All Systems Red by Martha Wells. They explore the misguided kindness of Dr. Mensa and the question of how to determine sentience. Join our Patreon for bonus content and helpful reading materials and help us decide what books we should cover in Season 2! Join our Discord to keep the conversation going Check our Season 1 Schedule to keep up with the reading assignments Email us your thoughts and questions: scifibookclubpod@loreparty.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Abu and Obssa begin their read through of All Systems Red by Martha Wells. They explore the history of the book's publication and gush about the absolutely lovable Murderbot. Join our Patreon for bonus content and helpful reading materials and help us decide what books we should cover in Season 2! Join our Discord to keep the conversation going Check our Season 1 Schedule to keep up with the reading assignments Email us your thoughts and questions: scifibookclubpod@loreparty.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's the final leg of the Long Journey as Joel Martin and Deanne Sheldon-Collins answer our Invitation! Both previous Long Earth guests return to discuss the fifth and final of Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter's collaborations, the 2016 novel The Long Cosmos. It's 2070, and a message has been received across the Long Earth: “JOIN US.” Joshua Valienté hears it and gets one of his headaches, but he's still mourning the death of his ex-wife Helen, so he rejects the call to adventure. He goes off alone into the High Meggers, despite multiple warnings that he's too old for this shit. Meanwhile Nelson Azikiwe finds and loses a new family, and goes in search of Lobsang for help. And the Next find that the Invitation is more than two words long, and put into action far-reaching plans to bring everyone together to follow its instructions... The last of Pratchett's novels to be published, The Long Cosmos brings the series to a close. (If you need a recap, see our “The Longer Footnote” bonus episode.) Like the previous book, The Long Utopia, this one also takes place on a relatively small number of Earths - but it has its gaze fairly firmly fixed on the stars above, and wears its influences (especially Carl Sagan's Contact) on its sleeve. Who got their epic first contact novel in our weird parallel worlds travelogue? Is this where you thought the story would go? What would your friends be able to predict about you if they kept a detailed spreadsheet? After five books, is this a satisfying conclusion? Join the conversation by using the hashtag #Pratchat78 on social media. Guest Joel Martin (he/him) is a writer, editor and podcaster now based in the UK. He previously hosted the writing podcast The Morning Bell, and produced The Dementia Podcast for Hammond Care. Joel's previously been on the show to discuss The Long Earth, The Long Mars, The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic, making him our most frequent guest. He recommended the 1989 novel Hyperion by Dan Simmons, along with its sequel The Fall of Hyperion. (There are also two more novels in the Hyperion Cantos series.) Guest Deanne Sheldon-Collins (she/her) is an editor and writer in Australia's speculative fiction scene, working for Aurealis magazine, Writer's Victoria, the National Young Writer's Festival, and as co-director of the Speculate festival. Deanne previously joined us for The Long War and The Long Utopia. She once again recommended Pratchat listener favourite, Martha Wells' series The Murderbot Diaries, which consists of seven novels and novellas. The first is 2017's All Systems Red. As usual, you can find notes and errata for this episode on our website. We're off to Adelaide to be guests at the Australian Discworld Convention, where on Friday 12 July we'll be recording a live episode with authors Tansy Rayner Roberts and Karen J Carlisle! We'll be discussing Pratchett's Discworld short fiction “Death and What Comes Next”, and probably more broadly how Pratchett writes about Death (and death). The story is available online at the L-Space Web. We'll mostly be taking questions from the live audience, but you can also share yours via social media (if you're quick!) using the hashtag #Pratchat79.

The Drunk Guys‘ systems run on beer this week when they read All Systems Red by Martha Wells, the first book of the Murderbot Diaries. Their machinery is well lubricated by Hop Sounds by Singlecut, One Giant Leap by Finback, and Hop Slam Ale by Bell's Brewery. Join the Drunk

Get the 3 books mentioned here!"All Systems Red" - https://amzn.to/3VsRD30"Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" - https://amzn.to/3Xv9urF"Annihilation" - https://amzn.to/4aN6oC1Private Book Club! Join/Support:https://www.patreon.com/2torambleCheck out our Merch!https://2toramble.comOur social media:https://linktr.ee/2ToRamblePO Box address:200 Lawyers Rd #6 Vienna, VA, 22183Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Send us a Text Message.On this week's Thursday episode of The Book Fix, hosts Yajaira and Cheli delve into the first installment of Martha Wells' acclaimed series, "All Systems Red." The episode kicks off with a brief introduction to the book's premise: a security android, self-named "Murderbot," that has hacked its own governor module and is now free to act independently.Yajaira and Cheli explore the unique perspective of Murderbot, an AI that prefers watching soap operas to interacting with humans. The discussion also touches on the themes of autonomy, identity, and the ethical implications of artificial intelligence. Join the besties as they discuss whether or not they enjoyed reading about Murderbot!Support the Show.become our Patron ♡ https://www.patreon.com/BookFixbuy us a book ♡ https://www.buymeacoffee.com/thebookfixBusiness Inquiries: thebookfixpodcast@gmail.comfollow us on Tiktok! ♡ https://www.tiktok.com/@thebookfix

From Dukes to Daddies: A Steamy April Wrap-Up with My Sister's TBRWelcome back, bookworms, to another episode recap from My Sister's TBR! This month, we ventured beyond our comfort zones and dove headfirst into some sci-fi and (our usual) seriously steamy reads. Buckle up because we're about to spill all the tea on the age gaps, aliens, and swoon-worthy moments that filled our April TBRs.Stacey Takes a Sci-Fi Detour:First up, we have resident romantasy lover Stacey surprisingly diving into the world of sci-fi. "All Systems Red" by Martha Wells, a novella about a grumpy murderbot with a heart of gold, piqued her interest. Let's just say, robots with existential angst aren't what we expected from Stacey, but it sounds like a fun and unexpected read!Balancing Spice with Sweetness:Next, Stacey took a sharp turn into the world of graphic novels with "Crave" by Marie Llovet. This one promises a blend of dark academia and forbidden desire – not exactly light bedtime reading! Balancing the heat, Stacey also dove into some swoon-worthy romances, "Not Another Love Song" by Julie Soto , "The Things We Leave Unfinished" by Rebecca Yarros, and “The Stand-in” by Lily Chu”. She also tackled the horror book club book “The Final Girl Support Group” by Grady Hendrix Sounds like a month full of emotional rollercoasters for Stacey!Rebecca Sticks to the Familiar:Meanwhile, your girl Rebecca stayed firmly rooted in the world of romance. "Girl Abroad" by Elle Kennedy, a classic enemies-to-lovers trope, delivered the witty banter and steamy encounters she craves. Then, there was "Older" by Jennifer Hartmann, which tackled the age-gap romance trope. We'll delve deeper into this one in a bit, but let's just say it delivered on the emotional connection and earned its positive reviews. And lets not forget the taboo “Your Dad Will Do” by Katee Robert! This one had us seriously questioning our morals.The Duke Takes Center Stage:Now, the moment you've all been waiting for – our Featured Read of the Month, "The Duke and I" by Julia Quinn! This Bridgerton phenomenon had us swooning, giggling, and maybe even a little frustrated (looking at you, Daphne!). We dissect the comparisons to the Netflix show, what worked for us, and what fell a little flat.Spoiler Alert: We loved the banter between Daphne and Simon (seriously, some top-notch dialogue!), and the slow-burn romance had us cheering for their happily ever after. However, some plot points felt a bit rushed, and certain aspects haven't aged as gracefully as we'd hoped. Overall, it's a fun read that perfectly captures the essence of a Regency romance, but don't expect a flawless masterpiece.Looking Ahead: Dear John by Nicholas Sparks:Prepare the tissues, folks! Our next Featured Read will be the ever-popular "Dear John" by Nicholas Sparks. We're ready to dissect the emotional rollercoaster, epic love story, and inevitable heartbreak Nicholas Sparks is famous for. So, grab your copy, settle in with a box of tissues, and get ready for a deep dive into this classic tearjerker.Join the Conversation!As always, we want to hear from you! What books did you devour in April? Did you love or loathe "The Duke and I"? And are you excited to get swept away by "Dear John"? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to follow us for more bookish adventures! Find us on Instagram, @mysisterstbr Happy Reading!Rebecca & StaceyMy Sister's TBRP.S. Don't forget to check out the episode for more in-depth discussions about each book, spicy spoiler moments (be warned!), and our hilarious (and sometimes questionable) opinions! Get full access to My Sister's TBR at www.mysisterstbr.com/subscribe

Tonight as the guys talk about what they forgot from All Systems Red by Martha Wells, they return to a previous bottle, Legent.  This time they try it as a cocktail with an experimental mixer purchased for a magical place called the internet.

To celebrate our 200th episode, the creative team got together to share their hot takes by doing some tier ranking! Listen to find out what books ruined Elena, Robin's favorite author events this year, Dave's favorite robots, and Tayla's thoughts about how librarians are represented in the media. Podcast disclaimer Like what you hear? Rate and review Down Time on Apple Podcasts or your podcast player of choice! If you'd like to submit a topic for The Last Chapter you can send your suggestions to downtime@cranstonlibrary.org. Our theme music is Day Trips by Ketsa and our ad music is Happy Ukulele by Scott Holmes. Thanks for listening! Elena - Books That Hurt My Feelings and Made Me Want to Cry Bunny by Mona Awad This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno Bolero by Wyatt Kennedy Pure Colour by Sheila Heti Down the Drain by Julia Fox We Spread by Iain Reid Simon Sort of Says by Erin Bow Jane by Maggie Nelson The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins Ponies by Kij Johnson Toilet-bound Hanako-kun by Aidalro Robin - A Year of Attending Author Events Jennifer Weiner Martha Hall Kelly Sy Montgomery Fiona Davis Warren Zanes A Time to Gather by Kimberly Ragosta Dolls of Our Lives by Mary Mahoney and Allison Horrocks Dale Arnold Jean Kwok Kristen Harmel Nicola Harrison Lisa See Marie Benedict Victoria Christopher Murray Ibram X. Kendi Joel Christian Gill Dave - My Favorite Thing is Robots The Brave Little Toaster (1987) Battlestar Galactica (2004-2009) A Psalm For the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994) All Systems Red by Martha Wells  Short Circuit (1986) The Wild Robot by Peter Brown  The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz Tayla - Librarian Representation In Media Desk Set (1957) The Librarian - SNL (YouTube) Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008) The Librarians (2014-2018) Batgirl of Burnside by Cameron Stewart, Brenden Fletcher and Babs Tarr SECRET TIER - Down TIme Episodes Ranked Episode 189 - Blood and Watershed Episode 178 - Star Wars From a Certain Point of View Episode 168 - Find Your Voice with Mark Binder Episode 153 - Reading Across Rhode Island with Sara Nović, author of TRUE BIZ (YouTube) Episode 145 - Alex Graudins, Author of IMPROVE Episode 188 - CPL's Teen Volunteers Episode 175 - F*cked Up Fairy Tales with Liz

To celebrate our 200th episode, the creative team got together to share their hot takes by doing some tier ranking! Listen to find out what books ruined Elena, Robin's favorite author events this year, Dave's favorite robots, and Tayla's thoughts about how librarians are represented in the media. If you missed the livestream and would like to watch this episode with video, you can find the video version here. Podcast disclaimer Like what you hear? Rate and review Down Time on Apple Podcasts or your podcast player of choice! If you'd like to submit a topic for The Last Chapter you can send your suggestions to downtime@cranstonlibrary.org. Our theme music is Day Trips by Ketsa and our ad music is Happy Ukulele by Scott Holmes. Thanks for listening! Elena - Books That Hurt My Feelings and Made Me Want to Cry Bunny by Mona Awad This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno Bolero by Wyatt Kennedy Pure Colour by Sheila Heti Down the Drain by Julia Fox We Spread by Iain Reid Simon Sort of Says by Erin Bow Jane by Maggie Nelson The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins Ponies by Kij Johnson Toilet-bound Hanako-kun by Aidalro Robin - A Year of Attending Author Events Jennifer Weiner Martha Hall Kelly Sy Montgomery Fiona Davis Warren Zanes A Time to Gather by Kimberly Ragosta Dolls of Our Lives by Mary Mahoney and Allison Horrocks Dale Arnold Jean Kwok Kristen Harmel Nicola Harrison Lisa See Marie Benedict Victoria Christopher Murray Ibram X. Kendi Joel Christian Gill Dave - My Favorite Thing is Robots The Brave Little Toaster (1987) Battlestar Galactica (2004-2009) A Psalm For the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994) All Systems Red by Martha Wells  Short Circuit (1986) The Wild Robot by Peter Brown  The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz Tayla - Librarian Representation In Media Desk Set (1957) The Librarian - SNL (YouTube) Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008) The Librarians (2014-2018) Batgirl of Burnside by Cameron Stewart, Brenden Fletcher and Babs Tarr SECRET TIER - Down TIme Episodes Ranked Episode 189 - Blood and Watershed Episode 178 - Star Wars From a Certain Point of View Episode 168 - Find Your Voice with Mark Binder Episode 153 - Reading Across Rhode Island with Sara Nović, author of TRUE BIZ (YouTube) Episode 145 - Alex Graudins, Author of IMPROVE Episode 188 - CPL's Teen Volunteers Episode 175 - F*cked Up Fairy Tales with Liz

Maryann Cockle leads a discussion of All Systems Red, a 2017 science fiction novella by American author Martha Wells.

We know you'll be thrilled to hear from Mary and Roxanna again this weekend as you've been asking for their top 10 lists, and we've got them for you! Show notes are time-stamped below for your convenience. Read the transcript of the episode (this link only works on the main site) . . . . 1:15 - 2023 Reading Review 3:02 - CR Season 6, Episode 22 (Meredith and Kaytee's top 10) 5:26 - Currently Reading Patreon 8:30 - Our Top Ten Reads of 2023 8:43 - The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett (Roxanna) 10:05 - It's Easier Than You Think by Sylvia Boorstein (Mary) 12:35 - A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas (Roxanna) 14:45 - Happy Place by Emily Henry (Mary) 16:58 - Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather (Roxanna) 20:49 - All Systems Red by Martha Wells (Murderbot #1) 21:22 - The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson (Mary) 21:33 - @Maryreadsandsips on Instagram 23:32 - Small Change by Roan Parrish (Roxanna, Amazon link) 25:48 - Dancing at the Pity Party by Tyler Feder (Mary) 26:00 - Bodies are Cool by Tyler Feder 27:17 - Malagash by Joey Comeau 28:27 - The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (Roxanna) 30:42 - Starling House by Alix E. Harrow (Mary) 31:51 - The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow  32:34 - The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Roxanna) 33:57 - The Shadow Cabinet by Juno Dawson (Mary) 34:03 - Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Junon Dawson 35:52 - CR Season 6, Episode 23 36:39 - Essentialism by Greg Mckeown (Roxanna) 39:03 - Dead Eleven by Jimmy Juliano (Mary) 40:50 - The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier 42:13 - City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty (Roxanna #3, Daevabad Trilogy #1) 42:15 - Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty 42:17 - Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty 44:30 - Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston (Mary #3) 47:14 - Tom Lake by Ann Patchett (Roxanna #2) 48:37 - Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross (Mary #2) 48:45 - CR Season 6, Episode 19 (Kaytee's Divine Rivals setup episode) 49:26 - Ruthless Vows by Rebecca Ross 50:49 - Search by Michelle Huneven (Roxanna #1) 53:38 - After This by Claire Bidwell Smith (Mary #1, audiobook is the only way to purchase!) 53:55 - CR Season 5, Episode 36 (Mary's in depth discussion about After This) Support Us: Become a Bookish Friend | Grab Some Merch Shop Bookshop dot org | Shop Amazon Bookish Friends Receive: The Indie Press List with a curated list of five books hand sold by the indie of the month. January's IPL comes to us from our anchor store, Fabled Bookshop. Trope Thursday with Kaytee and Bunmi - a behind the scenes peek into the publishing industry All Things Murderful with Meredith and Elizabeth - special content for the scary-lovers, brought to you with the special insights of an independent bookseller The Bookish Friends Facebook Group - where you can build community with bookish friends from around the globe as well as our hosts Connect With Us: The Show: Instagram | Website | Email | Threads The Hosts and Regulars: Meredith | Kaytee | Mary | Roxanna Affiliate Disclosure: All affiliate links go to Bookshop unless otherwise noted. Shopping here helps keep the lights on and benefits indie bookstores. Thanks for your support!

14:38 - A Long Way To A Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers15:36 - Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel17:25 - City by Clifford D. Simack , David W. Wixon19:17 - All Systems Red by Martha Wells21:14 - City Of Bones by Martha Wells / City Of Bones by Cassandra Clare *** ( Not Sarah J. Maas, so sorry )21:31 - Death Of The Necromancer by Martha Wells21:51 - The Martian by Andy Weir22:01 - Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir22:21 - The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien22:42 - The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan24:00 - The Lord Of The Rings TRilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien26:15 - A Quiet Life In The Country by T. E. Kinsey36:44 - The Ask And The Answer by Patrick Ness40:07 - Monsters Of Men by Patrick Ness42:27 - The Convenient Wife by Betty Neels44:49 - The 12 Dates Of Christmas by Jenny Bayliss48:21 - The Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling49:48 - The Ickabog by J. K. Rowling50:34 - A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos50:53 - Misery by Stephen King 54:15 - Age Of Myth by Michael J. Sullivan / Farilane by Michael J. Sullivan / Esrahaddon by Michael J. SullivanSupport the showBe sure to keep yourself Happily Booked! We are Amazon Affiliates, Any link you find available above will redirect you to Amazon. We earn from qualifying purchases with these links. Becky's Homestead Etsy Page: bobwhitehomestead.etsyInstagram/ TikTok - happilybookedpodcastFacebook - Happily Booked PodcastLikewise - BrookeBatesHappilyBookedGoodreads - Brooke Lynn Bates Storygraph - brookebatesratesbooks / magbeck2011 THE Sideways Sheriff - Permanent Sponsor Insta/ TikTok - Sideways_sheriffFacebook - Sideways SheriffYoutube - Sideways Sheriff

Books mentioned in this episode:Looking Glass Sound by Catriona WardBroken Monsters by Lauren Beukes All Systems Red by Martha WellsHow to Sell a Haunted House by Grady HendrixLibro.fm.Use our code GOODBOOKS at checkout and get two books for the price of your first months membership!Find us at:www.goodbookspodcast.comFacebook - In Her Good Books PodcastInstagram - @inhergoodbookspodcastTikTok - @inhergoodbookspodcastWe are affiliated with Libro.fm, but all reviews are our true and honest opinions!

David and Perry discuss a wide range of reading and movie watching, ranging from Restoration period historical fiction through a contemporary true story to the fantastic and not-so-fantastic futures of science fiction. Introduction (04:40) General News (08:31) Hugo Voting Package 2023 (02:59) Worldcon Site Selection 2023 (01:36) Ditmar Awards Ballot 2023 (02:29) Other Awards (01:22) What we've been reading and watching (01:16:30) Red Notice by Bill Browder (07:15) Every Version of You by Grace Chan (13:18) Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris (08:52) The Migration by Helen Marshall (09:31) All Systems Red by Martha Wells (10:00) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 (07:32) The Moon Maid by Edgar Rice Burroughs (06:30) Oppenheimer (13:10) Windup (00:36) Illustration generated by Wombo Art.

David and Perry discuss a wide range of reading and movie watching, ranging from Restoration period historical fiction through a contemporary true story to the fantastic and not-so-fantastic futures of science fiction. Introduction (04:40) General News (08:31) Hugo Voting Package 2023 (02:59) Worldcon Site Selection 2023 (01:36) Ditmar Awards Ballot 2023 (02:29) Other Awards (01:22) What we've been reading and watching (01:16:30) Red Notice by Bill Browder (07:15) Every Version of You by Grace Chan (13:18) Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris (08:52) The Migration by Helen Marshall (09:31) All Systems Red by Martha Wells (10:00) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 (07:32) The Moon Maid by Edgar Rice Burroughs (06:30) Oppenheimer (13:10) Windup (00:36) Click here for more info and indexes. Illustration generated by Wombo Art.  

We travel from Victorian London to the ends of an Earth as Deanne Sheldon-Collins returns to the podcast to face the consequences of three books' worth of bad decisions in the fourth Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter Long Earth novel, The Long Utopia. It's 2052. Datum Earth is dying a slow death in the wake of the Yellowstone eruption. The Earths next door are building space elevators, while a new way of living emerges in the high meggers. Lobsang has died, Maggie Kaufman has retired, Sally Linsay is off helping settlers, and the Next are covertly recruiting more of their kind to join them in their “utopia”. Joshua Valienté - now fifty and further estranged from his ex-wife and son - says yes when Nelson Azikiwe offers to track down the father he never knew. But Joshua is also having another one of his headaches, which can only mean trouble is brewing in the Long Earth. Sure enough, in the high meggers settlement of New Springfield, fresh pioneers “George” and Agnes discover something is deeply wrong with their new planet. The solution might have long-reaching consequences for all of humanity - and especially for Sally... The first of Pratchett's novels to be published after his death, The Long Utopia feels different to the ones that came before it. (If you need a recap, see “The Long Footnote” bonus episode.) The action takes place mostly on just a few worlds - there's no picaresque travelogue of weird new Earths. One plot thread goes further back in time than we've been before to fill in backstory for one of our main characters, while another stars someone we've never met (and won't meet again). The biggest plot starts like a horror film, but shifts gears into old-school big concept science fiction. Was this what you came to the Long Earth for? Did it feel like a fitting end for...certain characters? Was Pratchett's voice in there for you, or was something perhaps lost as he moved on quickly to other work he wanted to finish? And if stepping could join up different universes, which of Pratchett's fictional worlds would you like to talk to one another - and how would stepping change the Disc? Let us know! You can use the hashtag #Pratchat69 on social media. Guest Deanne Sheldon-Collins (she/her) is an editor, writer and a fixture in Australia's speculative fiction scene, working for Aurealis magazine, Writer's Victoria, the National Young Writer's Festival, and co-directing Speculate, the Victorian Speculative Fiction Writers Festival. Deanne didn't have anything to spruik, but she did recommend - as have many of you! - Martha Wells' series The Murderbot Diaries, which begin with the 2017 novella All Systems Red. The seventh book, System Collapse, will be published this year. As usual, you can find notes and errata for this episode on our website. We're getting back on track in August with #Pratchat68, our delayed episode discussing Pratchett's proto-Discworld novel, Strata, with guest EJ Mann. In September we return to the Disc proper with the short story “Theatre of Cruelty”, which we'll discuss with UK author C. K. McDonnell. Get your questions in for “Theatre of Cruelty" via social media using the hashtag #Pratchat70, or send us an email at chat@pratchatpodcast.com.

Enjoy this lively book discussion between Fairfax County Public Library Director Jessica Hudson and Branch Manager Christine Jones. They're librarians who love a good book but almost never agree on what makes a book great. In this episode, Jessica selects a science fiction book All Systems Red by Martha Wells, a book about robots and murder so Christine has to love it…right?

"murderbot + actual human = awkwardness"   In this episode of Fictional Hangover, Amanda and Claire talk about anti-murder ennui, putting a helmet on and slurping tomato soup and actual human + awkwardness = murderbot in their discussion of All Systems Red by Martha Wells, featuring Superfan Patty for Would You Rather.

Donald, Katie, and Lesley discuss a variety of novellas and how reading shorter stories can serve as palate cleansers between heftier reads.  Books mentioned include:  All Systems Red by Becky Chambers How Long 'til Black Future Month? by N. K. Jemisin Eating the Sun by Ella Frances Sanders Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson The Vegetarian by Han Kang Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata The Strange Library Haruki Murakami The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed All the Horses of Iceland by Sarah Tolmie Fox 8: A Story by George Saunders The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle  

Let the book-swapping fun begin! Alex and Alexis talk about the two books Alex picked, The Honeys by Ryan La Sala (YA) and All Systems Red by Martha Wells (SF), and Lindsey and Kristin talk about Lindsey's picks The Ghosts of Rose Hill by R.M. Romero (YA) and Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix (SF/H). Also discussed in this episode: - Reading YA at all ages! - Listening to books! - Murderous robots! - Books in verse! - Podcast pickles! - Kristin and Lindsey can never go to IKEA again! - Murderous puppets! Theme music by Wolves Incidental music by Colorfilm --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/book-prose/message

Unstacked with Sarah (Bay County Public Library) and Stephen (Huntsville-Madison County Public Library). Join us for an interview with Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award-winning Science Fiction and Fantasy author, Martha Wells. We'll discuss The Murderbot Diaries series, which begins with All Systems Red, as well as her upcoming releases Witch King (May 30, 2023) and System Collapse (November 14, 2023). Unwind with Martha as she shares her writing process, love of libraries and more! For more information about Martha, visit her website at: www.marthawells.com/. Stay safe and read my friend. It's good for you! #MarthaWells #TheMurderbotDiaries #WitchKing #ScienceFictionNovels #SpaceOpera #FantasyNovels #Libraries #NWRLS #HMCPL #WritingProcess #Author #AuthorInterview #Tor #TorDotCom #Pathfinder #CharacterDevelopment #WorldBuilding #ScienceFictionNovellas #LibrariansFavoriteAuthor

Hannah and Laura present you with the first entry of The Murderbot Diaries Diaries. Laura is overcoming a cold and sounds like a new person, but she still loves all things Disney, Netflix, and Talia Hibbert. She also has a new reality TV obsession and is looking to get a skincare sponsorship. Hannah recently read a book that made her feel uncomfortable with the expectations and toxic positivity surrounding characters.  She also has decided to give up on a certain  popular author. Hannah and Laura then dive into the plot of All Systems Red and try to decide if they are Murderbots, too.We have also launched a Patreon and would love your support!Media Mentions:All Systems Red by Martha WellsThe Deep by Rivers SolomonHighly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia HibbertWednesday---NetflixThe Umbrella Academy---NetflixThe Circle---Netflix@ronniereadsregularlyLove is Blind---NetflixHow the Word is Passed by Clint SmithKindred by Octavia ButlerNight Crawling by Leila MottleyOrbiting Jupiter by Gary D. SchmidtThe Secret Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. SchwabThe Starless Sea by Erin MorgensternThe Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz ZafonHeartstopper by Alice OsemanAssembly by Natasha BrownIt Happened One Summer by Tessa BaileyStrange World---Disney+Book Lovers by Emily HenryTask Master---BritBoxAvatar: The Last Airbender---NetflixNew Girl---NetflixParks & Rec---PeacockMalazan by Steven Erikson

A huge THANK YOU to our Patrons: Console peasant, Edwoon, ("last word" tier) Sinemac, Mohammed Albshaiti (“your message here” tier) Daniel Simonson, Shawn Farrell, Aaron Maule, Michael DeVries, Brandon C, irvin ruiz, Eddydoo, Hoshi 127 ("Credited Supporter" tier), Chris Wolff, Scarlet Dani, Awesomegamer 241, Pavu RS, Gavin Mallott, & Isfar E ("Gratitude" tier, www.patreon.com/bdckr). our previous book reviews: Martha Wells' All Systems Red (https://youtu.be/IfIqIybTpGs?t=4m44s) Sarah Gailey's River of Teeth (same video as All Systems Red) Mara Wilson's Where Am I Now (https://youtu.be/n_MO1-XjL40?t=6m6s) Neil Gaiman's The View from the Cheap Seats (https://youtu.be/wI2LmT4pO7g?t=6m5s) Richard K. Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs series (https://youtu.be/7nEtnjPr41o?t=8m44s) Ursula K. LeGuin's The Found and the Lost and The Unreal and the Real (https://youtu.be/wdRNUscZtNM?t=5m23s) Seanan McGuire's Every Heart a Doorway (https://youtu.be/7UKCg0lLtbE?t=3m42s) Tim Powers' Medusa's Web (https://youtu.be/wk2jXiO786U?t=5m4s) Felicia Day's You're Never Weird on the Internet (https://youtu.be/RyCD83ql66g?t=4m46s) Randall Munroe's What If and Thing Explainer (https://youtu.be/PkfYkPnAFVM?t=3m51s and https://youtu.be/PkfYkPnAFVM?t=5m8s) Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files (https://youtu.be/pV_r0v-uedM?t=6m) Joseph Fink's and Jeffrey Cranor's Welcome to Night Vale (https://youtu.be/JgnNU9kBa0E?t=5m35s) older book reviews from our original channel bdckr: Mira Grant's Newsflesh Series (https://youtu.be/UNORbgIzAac?t=7m9s) Jo Walton's What Makes This Book So Great (https://youtu.be/B2rvP8uT01Y?t=6m35s) Caanan Grall's Max Overacts (https://youtu.be/vqAmRIwK-BE?t=7m35s) Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat Series (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypq7FAZn_gw&feature=youtu.be&t=7m54s) Alan Moore's Miracle Man (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tJd2iBjpqQ&feature=youtu.be&t=9m57s) Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy and Robert McCammon's Boy's Life (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uqe2Ag_5Fc&feature=youtu.be&t=7m58s) Pat Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PxrKQyVU94&feature=youtu.be&t=7m20s) Ursula K. LeGuin everything (https://youtu.be/Y8u4Ib_gMMg?t=9m11s) Thanks to the following for providing fodder for our Q&A: @Kamran 107 (MP Matchmaking Unlocked by mg425 AKA u/mtgy425) mg425 AKA u/mtgy425: Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@mg425 Reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/InjusticeMobile/comments/z3sbis/how_online_battles_matchmaker_works_a_study_of/ Article explaining MP Matchmaking: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1t3wREVKqhiITaOGOh5ZCp6AdTKc-J4WmTp5kNaQHFzs/edit --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bdckr/support

  Hello Writers and Crafters! I'm Valerie Ihsan, And I'm Erick Mertz, and this is Episode 94 of the podcast and it's December 7, 2022 (and a full moon) as we record this. Main Topic: How to Decide on Your Next Project PATREON: No new patrons this week,    A big squeezy hug and Thank you to our existing patrons for believing in us and in the podcast.  This podcast is sponsored by our patrons at Patreon.com/valerieihsan. For as low as a $1/mo, you can get a shout out on the podcast and we can make announcements for you on the podcast. At other tiers, the benefits increase--free books, accountability Zoom calls, scene analysis, mastermind calls, and even free Writer Craft retreat tickets. Become a patron of the arts at Patreon.com/valerieihsan.  Comments: RE:Ep93: Mary says, enjoyed your conversation on a topic that plagues all of us. I believe that the notion (concept) of failing is the lie we have been told and swallowed very early on, by others. How we struggle throughout our lives to unravel and disarm the lie—is our Story. For me, at 69 I have come to understand that what people deem as failures are magnificent opportunities for learning and growing into who we become— Valerie, I received your postcard. The design is beautiful! Thank you. (We also had a planner conversation on Patreon.) Re92: Gratitude, Road to an Abundant Author Life said,   Why are the updates always the hardest to come up with? lol Every time I have to give an update I freeze! WE NEED NEW TOPIC SUGGESTIONS for 2023. Send them in to writercraftpodcast@gmail.com. A patron emailed to ask about a website domain question, which I answered to the best of my ability. All patrons (and listeners to the podcast) are encouraged to email with questions. writercraftpodcast@gmail.com.  Patron announcement: Barb Lachenbruch got THREE essays published recently.  Calyx (fall issue) “Every Day is a Data Day” Gold Man Review (2022 issue, which came out in December “Bi-Mart” Then the Los Altos Hills town paper, “Growing Up Lachenbruch” (which isn't peer-reviewed, but it's edited). I didn't write the first paragraph—you'll see the tone change!   I have my first essay in High Country News: “The Physics of Solitude and Connection” https://www.hcn.org/issues/52.9/north-essays-the-physics-of-connection-and-solitude   Announcements: Tickets for the Writer Craft Writing Retreat and Workshop are live. Priced at $900.  1) New pricing tiers: Alumni and patron price is $775.  Early Bird price available from November - January. $800 Mid-Morning/Slept-In Bird price available from February - April. $850. Regular price starts in May. $900. Monthly payments are an option. Send me a message Valerie@valerieihsan.com for a unique PayPal link, or go to the shopping page on my website to purchase at full price.  Writer Craft Writing Retreat is scheduled for next August 24-27, 2023. Tickets include all lodging and gourmet meals, plus instruction and coaching and retreat time on the river, in Marcola, OR. “We'll be touching on book structure, story hypothesis, plotting that doesn't hurt, author action plans, and more.”  Go to valerieihsan.com/retreat for more information. 2) We want to celebrate our 100th episode with you. Please send in an audio clip via email to writercraftpodcast@gmail.com with a comment or testimonial about the podcast. What you like about it, why you listen, etc. On the 100th episode on January 18th, we'll play the clips on air. Please send in your audio clips by January 11th at the latest. Erick Surprise (Happy Anniversary!) December 7th. Thank you for joining me in this co-hosting experiment. I haven't done much collaborative work before, so this has been a pleasant journey for me. Mostly because you let me do whatever I want. ;-) You've made each week enjoyable and I look forward to seeing you each Wednesday morning. I learn from you, think about things in a different way, and become inspired be your knowledge and business sense. It's interesting that I consider you both a colleague, a friend, and a mentor. I don't know many people who fit that bill. Update:  Settled on a cover design. Patrons get the reveal now. Thinking (panicking) about taxes. Finishing up some client work. Got my new glasses.   Just finished:  A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny     I'M READING: The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker,  Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life by Beth Kempton, Up Next:  Erick's Reading:  Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.  Poetry magazine   Show Notes:  Inspiration can mess with the production schedule. Follow the muse. Hybrid model! :-) Be open to the possibility that you can do more than you think you can. Have more ideas than the ones you execute. Library of ideas. Every boat needs an anchor. That idea might never be written. It's okay that the idea is your anchor. When you make the decision on the book project, now you have to stick with it. Now it's time for discipline. Decision making is different for every project. The salt of an idea.   Resources:  Raven Publicity (publicity for authors) The Shades of Orange (Rachel, Book Blogger on YouTube) for book recommendations SF/Fantasy/Horror Contact Erick for business-starting advice. Contact Valerie for book coaching for help writing your book.   Other Resources: Thomas Umstattd Jr, at Novel Marketing Podcast. Ep255: How to Create an Email Onboarding Drip Campaign Erick's Linktree link: https://linktr.ee/erickmertzauthor Russell P. Nohelty and Monica Leonelle's book, Get Your Book Selling on Kickstarter.   The Author Life Community Passion Planner: https://bit.ly/3AUiJUx (affiliate link) Discount Code: VALERIEO866 ProWriting Aid: https://prowritingaid.com/?afid=9378 (affiliate link)   Find Us:   Valerie's Services: https://valerieihsan.com Valerie's Author Site: https://valerieihsanauthor.com Valerie's Facebook Page and Instagram account   Erick's Services: https://erickmertzwriting.com Erick's free book on Ghostwriting: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/cexki4kp5n Erick's Author Site: https://erickmertzauthor.com Erick's Facebook Page and Instagram account  Writer Craft Facebook Group Patreon: https://patreon.com/valerieihsan   Some of the Books We've Read This Year: South of the Buttonwood Tree by Heather Webber (magical realism) and Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell (literary mystery) Productivity for Creative People: How to Get Creative Work Done in an "Always on" World by Mark McGuiness Essentialism by Greg McKeown The Anatomy of a Bestseller by Sacha Black Dowery of Blood ST Gibson  Writing Scenes.: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/three-story-method-writing-scenes  All Systems Red by Martha Wells (Murder Bot series) Artificial Condition (Book 2) Deserter by Junji Ito (graphic novel)  The Cloisters  Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor Death Masks by Jim Butcher  Drinking Games A Prayer for the Crown-Shy.   How to be a Good Creature Billy Summers by Stephen King The Dude and the Zen Master  How to Write Light Novels and Webnovels by R.A. Paterson The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu by Tom Lin Run, Rose, Run by Dolly Parton and James Patterson A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir The Anatomy of a Bestseller by Sacha Black The Many Daughters of Afong Moy Summer Night by Jim Butcher The Strange Bird by Jeff Vandermeer The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey Newsletter Ninja 2)  Wintering by Katherine May  The Nesting by CJ Cooke  Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston Interview with a vampire Shadow over innsmouth h.p. Lovecraft Skippy Dies  Meredith, Alone by Claire Alexander and The Music of Bees by Eileen Garvin

On this week's episode of Currently Reading, Kaytee and Meredith are discussing: Bookish Moments: travel reading and two great bookish podcast episodes Current Reads: buzzy books, sci-fi, and plenty of murder Deep Dive: book covers that enhanced our reading experience The Fountain: we visit our perfect fountain to make wishes about our reading lives As per usual, time-stamped show notes are below with references to every book and resource we mentioned in this episode. If you'd like to listen first and not spoil the surprise, don't scroll down!  We are now including transcripts of the episode (this link only works on the main site). The goal here is to increase accessibility for our fans! *Please note that all book titles linked below are Bookshop affiliate links. Your cost is the same, but a small portion of your purchase will come back to us to help offset the costs of the show. If you'd prefer to shop on Amazon, you can still do so here through our main storefront. Anything you buy there (even your laundry detergent, if you recently got obsessed with switching up your laundry game) kicks a small amount back to us. Thanks for your support!*   . . . . Season 5, Episode 17 1:34 - Bookish Moment of the Week 1:57 - Kaytee's noise canceling headphones 4:32 - Episode 126 of Sarah's Bookshelves Live 5:26 - Planet Money: The E-Book Wars 6:52 - Current Reads 7:17 - A Rover's Story by Jasmine Warga (Kaytee) 8:21 - The Martian by Andy Weir 8:25 - The Martian; Classroom Edition by Andy Weir 9:15 - All Systems Red by Martha Wells (Murderbot #1) 10:25 - Peril at End House by Agatha Christie (Meredith) 15:55 - The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull (Kaytee) 17:48 - Brilliant Books  18:26 - The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell 18:57 - The Harbor by Katrine Engberg (Meredith) 20:11 - The Tenant by Katrine Engberg 20:12 - The Butterfly House by Katrine Engberg 22:36 - The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen 23:38 - Thank You for LIstening by Julia Whelan (Kaytee) 26:53 - Episode 81 of Sarah's Bookshelves Live w/Julia Whelan 26:53 - Episode 340 of What Should I Read Next w/Julia Whelan 27:17 - The Family Game by Catherine Steadman (Meredith) 29:19 - Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman 30:00 - A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny (Three Pines #4) 31:32 - The Nest by Cynthis D'aprix Sweeney 31:33 - The Heirs by Susan Reiger  32:20 - Book Covers that Enhanced Our Reading Experience 32:59 - The Family Game by Catherine Steadman 34:40 - Winterhouse by Ben Guterson 36:09 - The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera 37:18 - White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson 39:02 - Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz 39:22 - Matrix by Lauren Groff 40:47 - How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu 41:54 - Last Smile in Sunder City by Luke Elliott Arnold  42:54 - An Immense World by Ed Yong 43:53 - Blackwell's UK 44:39 - Meet Us At The Fountain I wish for suggestions on perfect holiday romance reading. (Kaytee) Email Kaytee at currentlyreadingpodcast@gmail.com or DM her at @notesonbookmarks with your holiday romances!  I wish those who enjoy it would sink into puzzles and audiobooks this season. (Meredith) 47:00 - HH Holmes Murde Castle Puzzle 47:06 - The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson Connect With Us: Meredith is @meredith.reads on Instagram Kaytee is @notesonbookmarks on Instagram Mindy is @gratefulforgrace on Instagram Mary is @maryreadsandsips on Instagram Roxanna is @roxannatheplanner on Instagram currentlyreadingpodcast.com @currentlyreadingpodcast on Instagram currentlyreadingpodcast@gmail.com Support us at patreon.com/currentlyreadingpodcast and www.zazzle.com/store/currentlyreading

The long anticipated no-till agriculture warmup is finally here (11:20 to skip). Are these bot makers artisans or exploited factory workers? Luke and Dan stumble into the extinction of trivia and do some gratis white hat SecUnit penetration testing. Okay that sounded bad, the boys do NOT want to talk about the sex bots. The comedian Luke would get on his SecUnit: Gilbert Gottfried. The post All Systems Red first appeared on Don't call it a book club..

Get warmed up by learning a fun fact about the Heimlich maneuver, although double-check those dates before you play trivia (10:30 to skip). Don't worry. We know and understand precisely what happened in this book and can explain it to you perfectly.Today we can announce that we worked with VOLO to design a new pod image that we're putting on our stickers. Big thanks to VOLO for this and letting us use his music for so long! Check out his website and Instagram for more art!Next week check out All Systems Red by Martha Wells.

Get warmed up by learning a fun fact about the Heimlich maneuver, although double-check those dates before you play trivia (10:30 to skip). Don’t worry. We know and understand precisely what happened in this book and can explain it to you perfectly. Today we can announce that we worked with VOLO to design a new pod image that we’re putting on our stickers. Big thanks to VOLO for this and letting us use his music for so long! Check out his website and Instagram for more art! Next week check out All Systems Red by Martha Wells.The post Nona the Ninth: Part Two first appeared on Don't call it a book club..

This week, join an Aaron and Leyla from the past as we discuss Martha Wells's novella, All Systems Red! We discuss playing it fast and loose with robot pronouns, being a failure of a heartless killing machine, and vibing out with your favorite trashy space hospital drama.   Razor's Edge by Martha Wells  https://www.marthawells.com/razorsedge.htm  TRIGUN STAMPEDE – Official Trailer (2023) https://youtu.be/6T6sqsFGVi4    ---    Twitter: @MortifiedPod Hosts' Twitters: @aaronsxl / @leylses Hotline: ‪(775) 573-8882 Sign up for our monthly newsletter, which has additional takes and our personal recs. Our theme song is "Obsolete" by Keshco, from the album "Filmmaker's Reference Kit Volume 2." Our other projects: Aaron's TTRPGs The Bible Boys Aaron's TTRPG Reviews Astral Heart

For their 100th episode, Danielle and Sam are joined by their friend Jim who shares the first book of the The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, the 2017 novel All Systems Red. In the dystopian future, The Company is the major monopoly in the universe. Survey teams exploring worlds are contracted by The Company which also supplies at least one security unit robot for each team. One of these SecUnits has hacked its own governor to give itself free will and named itself Murderbot, and it has decided to use its new freedom to binge-watch soap operas and generally avoid people. Also, while Murderbot is called a robot, it's more of an human-looking android, possibly made from a corpse? It's unclear. Muderbot also has a dark history from before it hacked itself where it was accidentally ordered to murder its entire survey team. Murderbot's current assignment is a survey team of space hippies, and they eventually encounter another evil sabotaging survey team that isn't authorized to be on the planet and is undermining the space hippies for reasons that are largely irrelevant. The EvilSurvey team has been hacking other SecUnits using syringe darts (no idea how that works), which Sam thinks just shows that fleshy, human-like security robots are a bad idea. Murderbot is already hacked, so the dart has no effect on them, but eventually Murderbot fakes being hacked to infiltrate the EvilSurvey team in a plan so convoluted it can only be described as parody. Sam and Danielle do their best to follow a plot that seems almost perfunctory in a story that largely takes place in the mind of an antisocial robot and that is steeped in satire and Jim does an admirable job in the face of Danielle and Sam's goofy incompetence. So join us for our 100th episode where we've come a long way, but are still just as weird as ever!

On this week's episode of Currently Reading, Kaytee and Meredith are discussing: Some of our highlights and learning experiences from Season 4. Who can believe we are four full years into the podcast? Giving you 12 additional presses to fill up your summer and fall TBRs. If you want more presses, an additional 30 will be made available to Patreon subscribers next week!. Join us over at patreon.com/currentlyreadingpodcast ! As per usual, time-stamped show notes are below with references to every book and resource we mentioned in this episode. If you'd like to listen first and not spoil the surprise, don't scroll down!  New: we are now including transcripts of the episode (this link only works on the main site). These are generated by AI, so they may not be perfectly accurate, but we want to increase accessibility for our fans! *Please note that all book titles linked below are Bookshop affiliate links. Your cost is the same, but a small portion of your purchase will come back to us to help offset the costs of the show. If you'd prefer to shop on Amazon, you can still do so here through our main storefront. Anything you buy there (even your laundry detergent, if you recently got obsessed with switching up your laundry game) kicks a small amount back to us. Thanks for your support!*   . . . . 2:50 - Reflecting on Season 4 3:50 - Season 4: Episode 21  4:19 - Season 4: Episode 26  4:31 - Season 4: Episode 34 4:39 - Season 4: Episode 25 5:29 - Season 4: Episode 1 5:33 - A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles 5:40 - The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas 6:13 - Season 4: Episode 37 (the rainbow shelves episode) 6:53 - Season 4: Episode 26  7:12 - Season 4: Episode 42 w/Kenda Adachi 8:21 - Currently Reading Patreon 17:54 - Email us your suggestions for cap segments at currentlypodcast@gmail.com or DM us on Instagram @currentlyreadingpodcast 18:39 - Currently Reading Patreon 19:23 - Listener Presses Part Two 19:34 - Lacy Eye by Jessica Treadway (Pressed by Beth) 23:31 - The Rent Collector by Camron Wright (Pressed by Mic) 26:49 - Five Little Indians by Michelle Good (Pressed by Francis) 30:08 - Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang (Pressed by Nicole) 30:45 - El Deafo by Cece Bell 30:46 - When Stars Are Scattered by Omar Mohamed and Victoria Jamieson 30:49 - New Kid by Jerry Craft 32:56 - Vicious by V.E. Schwab (Pressed by Katie) 34:37 - Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots 34:30 - An Unlikely Story  35:01 - The Hierarchies by Ros Anderson (Pressed by Amanda) 36:38 - I, Robot by Isaac Asimov 36:39 - The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin 36:40 - The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood 37:52 - All Systems Red by Martha Wells (Murderbot #1) 38:04 - The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey 38:21 - Beach Music by Pat Conroy (Pressed by Tiffany) 38:25 - Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy 40:08 - Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy 41:24 - Answers in the Pages by David Levithan (Pressed by Avery) 44:38 - Afterlife by Julia Alvarez (Pressed by Amy) 46:22 - The Bottom of the 33rd by Dan Barry (Pressed by Michele) 48:13 - Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown 48:40 - The Diddakoi by Rumor Godden (Pressed by Mary Faith, amazon link) 51:24 - The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa (Pressed by Madeline) 53:14 - Currently Reading Patreon Connect With Us: Meredith is @meredith.reads on Instagram Kaytee is @notesonbookmarks on Instagram Mindy is @gratefulforgrace on Instagram Mary is @maryreadsandsips on Instagram Roxanna is @roxannatheplanner on Instagram currentlyreadingpodcast.com @currentlyreadingpodcast on Instagram currentlyreadingpodcast@gmail.com Support us at patreon.com/currentlyreadingpodcast and www.zazzle.com/store/currentlyreading

In this episode, we discuss optimal temperature ranges, the Diablo to QWOP scale, and bizarrely wholesome reading experiences. You don't want too many cooks in the kitchen, but what about not enough cooks? Or enough strawbs? Or any sugar? How are you supposed to have your cake and eat it too if you can only make cookies?00:00 Intro03:20 Thanks to our supporters!03:28 For Honor, Ubisoft Montreal (available on Game Pass)09:28 The Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells (first book All Systems Red https://bit.ly/cwb-murderbot)Questions answered (abbreviated): 14:19 Fraser_: On an implementation level, what does the gamechanger pipeline look like?  33:16 Mimmabip Gourkee: How much direction do you give your freelancers for creating music and sound effects?  43:19 RoninGameDev: I have this constant urge to just make a better/different version of the game I am currently playing. Do you guys have this, and if so how do you fight it and keep working on CL2? To stay up to date with all of our buttery goodness subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts (apple.co/1LxNEnk) or wherever you get your audio goodness. If you want to get more involved in the Butterscotch community, hop into our DISCORD server at discord.gg/bscotch and say hello! Submit questions at https://www.bscotch.net/podcast, disclose all of your secrets to podcast@bscotch.net, and send letters, gifts, and tasty treats to https://bit.ly/bscotchmailbox. Finally, if you'd like to support the show and buy some coffee FOR Butterscotch, head over to https://moneygrab.bscotch.net.★ Support this podcast ★

For May, we read All Systems Red by Martha Wells! We discussed our impressions, our favorite characters and moments, the gender of Murderbot, what we hope to see in the future books and we didn't talk about Elden Ring even once! Jimmy sounds like he's in a fishbowl due to some unavoidable sound issues, I tried my best. Tor Article: https://www.tor.com/2018/03/21/life-lessons-from-a-murderbot-reading-all-systems-red-as-a-trans-woman/ Additional Discussion Question: https://wpl-podcast.winnipeg.ca/july-discussion-all-systems-red-by-martha-wells/ June - Goddess of Anarchy by Jacqueline Jones July - Settlers by J. Sakai August - Abolish Silicon Valley by Wendy Liu

Colin and Phil dig in to Martha Wells' multi-award-winning MURDERBOT series, reviewing the first story of that series "All Systems Red". What could explain the huge popularity of the series? What will Murderbot novice Phil make of it? What will Murderbot fiend Colin reveal about how the whole series fits together? We hope you enjoy the episode! Check out our show notes at 101sf.blogspot.com and find us on Facebook as "Science Fiction 101 podcast".

Andi and Lise are finally talking about the first novella, All Systems Red, in The Murderbot Diaries series by multi-award winning author Martha Wells. Told from the point-of-view of Murderbot, an autonomous security droid who has liberated themself from the control of the overarching corporate company that manufactured them, Murderbot now goes on their assignments trying to fly under the radar and keep from being discovered as autonomous. Their latest assignment is a research team on a planet on which other research teams are being wiped out. Superb world-building, excellent characterization, and wrestling with big themes about autonomy and AI, this is a must-read.  Martha Wells' website HERE.  Info about “All Systems Red” HERE.  Shout-outs: Lise watched the movie Turning Red, a Pixar offering available on Disney Plus. Set in Toronto's Chinatown in 2002, the movie follows main character Mei Lee, a geeky 13-year-old Chinese Canadian girl who is dealing with all the issues that come with that age in addition to a family blessing/curse in which Mei Lee turns into a large red panda when she experiences intense emotions. Andi is working to broaden her mystery-reading to include more diverse authors and also shout-outs the NBC series (also streaming on Hulu) The Endgame, in which a Black female FBI agent faces off against an Eastern European female international arms dealer.  Find LGO on Twitter (@LGOPodcast) and their website. You can find the hosts on Twitter, too! @LiseMactague and @andimarquette. Please like and subscribe and review! Help other geeks find us

On this week's episode of Currently Reading, Mindy and Kaytee are discussing: Bookish Moments: live tweets from a friend and a spicy conversation behind the scenes Current Reads: some romance, some disagreement, and some under-the-radar gems Deep Dive: Mindy and Kaytee bring all the curmudgeons and disagree about them! Book Presses: a great series, and a short but powerful novel As per usual, time-stamped show notes are below with references to every book and resource we mentioned in this episode. If you'd like to listen first and not spoil the surprise, don't scroll down!  New: we are now including transcripts of the episode (this link only works on the main site). These are generated by AI, so they may not be perfectly accurate, but we want to increase accessibility for our fans! *Please note that all book titles linked below are Bookshop affiliate links. Your cost is the same, but a small portion of your purchase will come back to us to help offset the costs of the show. If you'd prefer to shop on Amazon, you can still do so here through our main storefront. Anything you buy there (even your dishwasher detergent!) kicks a small amount back to us. Thanks for your support!*   . . . . :30 - Currently Reading Patreon 1:29 - Bookish Moment of the Week 1:38 - Beartown by Fredrik Backman 4:05 - Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult 4:19 - Current Reads 4:52 - The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton (Mindy) 7:48 - Outlander by Diana Gabaldon  8:32 - The Princess Bride by William Goldman 9:08 - The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang (Kaytee) 9:12 - The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang 9:54 - Libro.fm 13:13 - What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harris (Mindy) 14:45 - Matrix by Lauren Goff 15:43 - The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 15:44 - Honor by Thirty Umrigar 16:39 - Genesis Begins Again by Alicia D. Williams 19:26 - Fabled Bookshop 20:18 - The Hidden by Melanie Golding (Kaytee) 23:42 - Julie's Instagram @jns.reads 23:54 - Blanche on the Lam by Barbara Neely (Mindy) 27:11 - Fifty-FIfty by Steve Cavanaugh 27:13 - Thirteen by Steve Cavanaugh 29:03 - The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah Jones (Kaytee) 29:18 - Four Hundred Souls by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain 30:37 - Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson 30:40 - The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander 30:42 - Our Time is Now by Stacey Abrams 33:51 - Deep Dive: Our Favorite Curmudgeons 39:34 - Then Tweets My Soul: The Best of the Church Curmudgeon by David Reigier  41:23 - A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman 42:20 - All The Lonely People by Mike Gayle 42:35 - Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson 42:58 - The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen: Eighty-Three and a Quarter Years Old by Hendrik Groen 43:08 - How the Penguins Saved Veronica by Hazel Prior 43:26 - Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman 43:29 - Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman 44:29 - The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett by Annie Lyons 44:52 - The Love Story of Missy Carmichael by Beth Morrey 45:16 - Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney 46:25 - The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion 46:53 - The Guncle by Steven Rowley 48:17 - Harry's Trees by Jon Cohen 48:56 - The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune 49:37 - The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin 49:39 - The Lost for Words Bookshop by Stephanie Butland (amazon link) 51:44 - The Story of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg 51:47 - The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick 52:39 - Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce 53:04  - Books We'd Like to Press Into Your Hands 53:28 - Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor (Mindy) 54:06 - Season 3: Episode 7 54:47 - Circe by Madeline Miller 54:48 - A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes 55:21 - All Systems Red by Martha Wells (Murderbot #1) 55:56 - The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (Kaytee) 54:36 - The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead Connect With Us: Meredith is @meredith.reads on Instagram Kaytee is @notesonbookmarks on Instagram Mindy is @gratefulforgrace on Instagram Mary is @maryreadsandsips on Instagram currentlyreadingpodcast.com @currentlyreadingpodcast on Instagram currentlyreadingpodcast@gmail.com Support us at patreon.com/currentlyreadingpodcast

I value the gift of books and hope you'll use my recommendations to fill the stockings of your science fiction and fantasy loving friends and family members.Before I give you my short list of recommendations, I want to tell you that the links below help support my podcast through Amazon.com's affiliate program. As I've mentioned on my podcast several times, I'd always rather you get your books at independent or local bookstores. However, if you're using Amazon, I'd appreciate it if you'd use my link. My number one pick for the holiday season is Zen Cho's Black Water Sister, an urban fantasy set in Malaysia. I thought Zen's book was a great mix family drama, fantasy, lore, and eastern myth. Not only is her writing good, but she interviews very well also. Listen to episode 52 to see what I mean. Get a copy of Black Water Sister and enjoy the read.Number 2 on my list goes to C. Robert Cargill's Day Zero, which I read in about three days this year and cried at the end. I believe it's his best work. It is the prequel to his previous novel, Sea of Rust, which I also read this year and enjoyed. We discussed both of those books on Episode 51. Rounding out my top three is Xueting Christine Ni's anthology called Sinopticon 2021. Xueting joined me on a very informative podcast episode to talk about putting together this translated anthology. Enjoy that episode and then pick up a copy of the book to read different perspectives on future tech and culture.All Systems Red, by Martha Wells, is number 4 on my list. Unfortunately, I didn't get to have Martha on the show, but I'm hoping to have her on in the future. All Systems Red comes with a really good price and I think you'll enjoy the story about a cyborg who wants to be more than she is.Honorable mention goes to Andy Weir, celebrated author of The Martian and most recently, Project Hail Mary. Andy joined my show for episode 50, and Andy was just a real treat. I really enjoyed Project Hail Mary, and I think you will too.Recommendations for those wanting to start a series:1. Derek Kunsken's Quantum Evolution series, starting with Quantum Magician. I've said it before and I'll keep saying it: Derek Kunsken is a great writer and an even better person. I've always been a fan of his writing. Quantum Magician will get you on his fan list too. You get an Oceans' 11 feel in space with galactic-level stakes. Listen to episode 20 to learn more about his series. Get a copy of Quantum Magician and enjoy the heist!2. Michael Mammay wrote a trio of great books about an old warrior who is too tired to care what people think about him and too stubborn to let something go when he thinks he's onto something. I enjoyed all three books immensely. I think you will too. Get book one, Planetside, and see for yourself! Oh, and once you've got the book, listen to the most recent podcast episode where we talk about the whole series!That's it for this year. For sure these aren't the only books I enjoyed, nor are they the only books you should consider. But for me personally, these are my top picks. Enjoy!

On this week's episode of Currently Reading, Mindy and Meredith are discussing: Bookish Moments: family reading time and a bookstore shopping trip Current Reads: a cadre of books that have been emotions attached tot hem Deep Dive: Matrix by Lauren Groff Book Presses: some sci-fi and some curmudgeon fiction to round out the episode As per usual, time-stamped show notes are below with references to every book and resource we mentioned in this episode. If you'd like to listen first and not spoil the surprise, don't scroll down!  New: we are now including transcripts of the episode (this link only works on the main site). These are generated by AI, so they may not be perfectly accurate, but we want to increase accessibility for our fans! *Please note that all book titles linked below are Amazon affiliate links. Your cost is the same, but a small portion of your purchase will come back to us to help offset the costs of the show. Thanks for your support!*   . . . . 0:10 Bite Size Intro 2:06 - Matrix by Lauren Groff 2:11 - Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff 2:21 Bookish Moment of the Week 3:38 - Fabled Bookshop 4:50 Current Reads: 5:18 - The Devil's Advocate by Steve Cavanaugh (Mindy) 9:53 - Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby 13:25 - Lights Out in Lincolnwood by Geoff Rodkey (Meredith) 15:32 - Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam  17:46 - The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin (Mindy) 21:44 - Distress Signals by Catherine Ryan Howard (Meredith) 23:03 - The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard 23:04 - 56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard 25:46 - A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza (Mindy) 26:02 - The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo 28:12 - Liz Hein on Instagram 29:09 - The Chosen by Chaim Potok 29:39 - Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune (Meredith)   29:43 - The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune 34:08 - Deep Dive: Matrix by Lauren Groff 35:03 - Matrix by Lauren Groff 38:45 - Mindy on Instagram 45:55 - The Power by Naomi Alderman 45:59 - The End of Men by Cristina Sweeney-Baird 56:06 - Books We Want to Press Into Your Hands: 56:23 - All Systems Red by Martha Wells (Mindy) 59:16 - Jen on Bookstagram 1:00:02 - The Night of Miracles by Elizabeth Berg (Meredith) 1:01:21 - The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin 1:01:27 - The Story of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg 1:02:03 - Harry's Trees by Jon Cohen Connect With Us: Meredith is @meredith.reads on Instagram Kaytee is @notesonbookmarks on Instagram Mindy is @gratefulforgrace on Instagram Mary is @maryreadsandsips on Instagram currentlyreadingpodcast.com @currentlyreadingpodcast on Instagram currentlyreadingpodcast@gmail.com Support us at patreon.com/currentlyreadingpodcast

Nalini Singh is the New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author of the Psy-Changeling and Guild Hunter series. She is also our special guest this week on the KPL Podcast! We discuss her most recent title Archangel's Light. Then Jigisha and Ryan chat about some of their favorite book series. All this and more on this week's KPL Podcast! 1. Educated by Tara Westover2. Battle Royal by Lucy Parker3. A Master Djinn by P. Djeli Clark4. All Systems Red by Martha WellsNalini's Websitewww.nalinisingh.com

All Systems Red by Martha Wells Martha Wells is an accomplished author, active since 1993. All Systems Red is the first work in the Murderbot series, a series that follows Murderbot as they are the security unit on a seemingly harmless planet. Of course the planet is not as harmless as it was reported to … Continue reading Ep073 – All Systems Red by Martha Wells →

Carrie talks about the first novella in Martha Wells' The Murderbot Diaries series, All Systems Red. K.W. talks about the Marvel/Disney+ series Loki. And they discuss the new Hulu series Nine Perfect Strangers.

Time to bang out another show notes so I can get back to my stories. I mean, it's a unique joy every time and I definitely haven't slipped my patreon governing module. We're covering book one of the Murderbots series, All Systems Red, and discussing anti-cyborg bigotry and what it tells us about a range of non-conforming identities and refusals to identify.   Content: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Systems_Red   Editing by Luisa Lyons, check out her amazing podcast Filmed Live Musicals: http://www.filmedlivemusicals.com/   Support us at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/0G   Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/0gPhilosophy   Join our Facebook discussion group (make sure to answer the questions to join): https://www.facebook.com/groups/985828008244018/   Email us at: philosophersinspace@gmail.com   If you have time, please write us a review on iTunes. It really really helps. Please and thank you!   Sibling shows:   Serious Inquiries Only: https://seriouspod.com/   Opening Arguments: https://openargs.com/   Embrace the Void: https://voidpod.com/   Recent appearances: Aaron was on Decoding the Gurus talking about the conspiracy theorist Michael O'Fallon and how he's influencing the anti-woke movement through James Lindsay. https://decoding-the-gurus.captivate.fm/episode/michael-ofallon-the-jacobins-are-back-to-reset-everything-dun-dun-daah   Content Preview: Loki and Multiverse Authoritarianism

In this episode, Gene and Willow discuss the first two volumes of Martha Wells' series The Murderbot Diaries, All Systems Red and Artificial Condition. The main character is a SecUnit that has hacked its own controller module and spends much of its time watching media (when it isn't saving idiotic humans from danger). It's one of Gene's favorite science fiction series.  And please check out the comics Gene and Willow make at www.librarycomic.com 

Julie has watched all 397 episodes of The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon. Three times. Scott missed most of the episodes because he had to convince the security system that everything is normal, thank you very much.Episode 263: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, Books 1-4. (All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocal, and Exit Strategy)Download or listen via this link: |Episode #263| Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: |HERE| We've added a couple of pages to this blog that we'll add to over time!Our Favorite Books.Our Favorite Movies.If you'd like, leave a comment with your suggestions!

In this episode, we challenge ourselves to find a book that Sadie won't pick up on her own, but nonetheless, we think she may like it. Which book did Sadie end up reading? Books mentioned in this episode: Queen of the Sea by Dylan Meconis, Horseplay: My Time Undercover on the Granville Strip by Norm Boucher, All Systems Red by Martha Wells, and The Library Book by Susan Orlean. Second episode of a special series of episodes we're doing this summer. Listen to the first episode, in which we suggest books to Corene. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/keepitfictional/message

In this episode, we talk about All Systems Red, the first novella in the Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells. Chris explains what wormholes are and how they relate to blackholes, then proposes a scheme for characterizing the travel speed of matter and signals in fictional worlds. Rosie talks about the development of personality in a human-robot construct. This episode contains minor spoilers for All Systems Red, but really, the book is short; just read it already! Later books tell us more about the topics discussed in this episode, so if you find this conversation interesting, you have a lot to look forward to in the series! Once you're caught up, check out the episode extra at sciencefantasyscience.com. Music - Freeze my soul by DreamHaven

I det nittioförsta avsnittet av Speccat är den fulltaliga panelen laddad med recensioner och intryck. Niklas hyllar Resident Evil Village och spår en lysande framtid för Fortnite-utmanaren Knockout City, Elisabeth tipsar om tecknade filmer och årets hittills bästa brädspel, medan Tommy utnämner Attack on Titan till bästa animeserien - någonsin! Dessutom... första delen i Speccats omtyckta Jo Nesbø-bokcirkel.  Spel som avhandlas: Loop Hero, Nioh 2, Resident Evil Village, Fantasian, Before Your Eyes, Knockout City Filmer som avhandlas: Sound of Metal, The Mitchells vs The Machines, Wolfwalkers, Army of the Dead  Brädspel som avhandlas: Pandemic: Legacy, Quacks of Quedlinburg Serier som avhandlas: Attack on Titan Böcker som avhandlas: All Systems Red, Fladdermusmannen

Join Garland librarians Jenna and Morgan as they discuss graduate school, the Summer Reading Program, and reading books outside of their preferred genres. Morgan gives an honest review of this month’s challenge: All Systems Red by Martha Wells.Next month’s challenge is Beyond the Highland Mist by Karen Marie Moning. 

In this special library-themed episode of Shhh! A Library Podcast, Morgan and Jenna interview other staff members to find out exactly how a public library works. Staff share insights, surprises, and things they love about their various jobs. Morgan and Jenna also discuss The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, and try not to think too hard about parallel realities.Next month’s book discussion is All Systems Red by Martha Wells.

Special guests Lilly and Sara from Fiction Fans Podcast join The Friends for a book discussion of All System Read by Martha Wells, Book 1 of The Murderbot Diaries. Fiction Fans Podcast: https://www.fictionfanspodcast.com/ Spoiler warning for All Systems Red by Martha Wells.  

Happy almost-December! We’re kicking things off today with a discussion about the best and the worst Christmas songs, so hope you’re ready to have a bunch of them stuck in your head for the rest of the day! After that, we get into some fantastic books including illuminating historical fiction, fun and sexy romance, heartwarming sci-fi, and a dark novella to inspire you to smash the patriarchy. This episode was brought to you by Simpson & Vail Tea; be sure to check out their delicious literary teas at https://www.svtea.com/, perfect for all the tea-lovers on your holiday list. Speaking of holiday shopping, get your Books and the City merch (that TOTE! Those PINS!) here: https://www.booksandthecitypod.com/merch. Join our fan club at https://www.patreon.com/booksandthecitypod. Shop all the books we’ve discussed on this episode and past episodes at bookshop.org/shop/booksandthecity. Make sure you’re subscribed to our newsletter on our website, and send us an email at booksandthecitypod@gmail.com-------------> Kayla just read: Z by Terese Anne Fowler (18:58-34:53) https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250028648 Up next for Kayla: What Remains by Carol Radziwill Becky just read: The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams (34:54-47:26) https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/608017/the-bromance-book-club-by-lyssa-kay-adams/ Up next for Becky: How to Stop Time by Matt Haig Libby just read: All Systems Red by Martha Wells (47:27-57:57) https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780765397539 Up next for Libby: The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo Emily just read: Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss (57:58-1:10:50) https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250234957 Up next for Emily: The Snowman by Jo Nesbø Music by EpidemicSound, logo art by @niczollos, all opinions our own.

Machines capable of thinking and acting like humans. Robots with souls. Do they take over the world and attempt to destroy humanity? Are they depressed sidekicks? Do they just want to be left alone? It depends on the story, but all of these characters have one thing in common: they explore the question of what it really means to be human. Notes Allison's example: All Systems Red by Martha Wells. Emma's example: I, Robot (movie). Kyle's example: Star Wars: The Old Republic (video game). Produced by Mythos & Ink. Announcement Music: Coffee Beats by Aaron Parsons (Used with permission).

Join Befuddled Panda, Little Red Book, Hurinfan, and Kyptan as they sit down and discuss the space-faring future of Murderbot Diaries. All Systems Red and Artificial Condition will be spoilerized! Author is Martha Wells: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32758901-all-systems-red?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=VxnERTCu5c&rank=1 Thanks to Legendarium, Consider joining us on Reddit and Discord; https://www.reddit.com/r/thelegendarium/ https://discord.gg/FNcpuuA @GreenteamPod -Twitter https://anchor.fm/legend-green-team

In this episode, I’m excited to welcome Martha Wells, author of THE MURDERBOT DIARIES. This award-winning science fiction series features the introverted, cynical, and frequently hilarious security robot that thinks privately of itself as MurderBot. It's a half-machine, half-organic construct, corporate owned and rented out to space-exploring organizations.   There’re plenty of SecUnit’s just like it, except MurderBot hacked its systems to allow greater autonomy — which mostly consists of slacking on the job and downloading as much serial entertainment as it can stream.   When its latest clients, a scientific research team exploring a distant planet, find themselves in danger after a neighboring mission group go dark, MurderBot must exploit all its unique talents and perspectives to defend them. Which risks revealing to its human crew that it’s broken free of its corporate limitations, as well as an unpleasant history that inspired its threatening moniker.   THE MURDERBOT DIARIES include 4 novellas — ALL SYSTEMS RED, ARTIFICIAL CONDITION, ROGUE PROTOCOL, and EXIT STRATEGY — and a brand new, full-length novel called NETWORK EFFECT, which is available now from Tor.Com publishing.

Huch, wir haben Folge 50 und es bei der Aufnahme gar nicht gemerkt. Vielleicht haben wir auch einfach nur unser Chefmodul entfernt, wie es der Killerbot in den Novellen von Martha Wells getan hat, und machen einfach, was wir wollen. "All Systems Red", so der Originaltitel der ersten Novelle dieses SF-Universums, wurde mit Preisen zugeworfen, und bildet in der deutschen Ausgabe das erste Viertel. Diese haben wir uns vorgenommen, aber so ganz können wir uns den Lobeshymnen nicht anschließen ... Timecodes und Kapitelmarken:03:38 - Zur Reihe, Prämisse & den Charakteren 40:22 - Der Murderbot, die weiteren Bände und Martha Wells 58:42 - Ausblick Martha Wells: Tagebuch eines Killerbots (mehrere Novellen) Heyne Verlag, 576 Seiten, 2019 Taschenbuch: 15,99 Euro (amazon-Affiliate-Link) E-Book: 12,99 Euro (amazon-Affiliate-Link) Einzel-Originalausgabe der Novelle: All Systems Red tor, 154 Seiten, 2017 Taschenbuch (amazon-Affiliate-Link) E-Book (amazon-Affiliate-Link) Die nächste Folge erscheint am 25. August 2020. Dann geht es um dieses Buch: Robin Hobb: Das Geheimnis der Seelenschiffe – Die Händlerin Penhaligon Verlag, 908 Seiten, Neuausgabe von 2019 E-Book: 9,99 Euro (amazon-Affiliate-Link) Originalausgabe: Ship of Magic: The Live Ship Traders (Book 1) Spectra, 832 Seiten, 1999 Taschenbuch (amazon-Affiliate-Link) E-Book (amazon-Affiliate-Link)

Robots and space travel and philosophy, oh my! This week, we look at the first two novellas in Martha Wells' The Murderbot Diaries series, All Systems Red and Artificial Condition. Join us for a discussion about humanity, anxiety, and the future of bad soap operas.Intro:Pump Sting by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4251-pump-stingLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Outro:Iron Bacon by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3925-iron-baconLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Episode 14: Novellas In This Episode The Book Evangelists discuss All Systems Red by Martha Wells and Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey Morning Chatter Staying safer at home hasn't led us to more frequent reading or more frequent podcasting. We are glad to be podcasting together today. Marian and Lissa are looking at the popularity of the novella as a form and a length. As longtime NaNoWriMo writers, we are both familiar with what a 50,000 word story can do. The description of All Systems Red by Martha Wells from goodreads.com: Murderbot Book #1 In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn't a primary concern. On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid—a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is. But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth The description of Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey from goodreads.com: In Upright Women Wanted, award-winning author Sarah Gailey reinvents the pulp Western with an explicitly antifascist, near-future story of queer identity. Are you a coward or are you a librarian? “That girl's got more wrong notions than a barn owl's got mean looks.” Esther is a stowaway. She's hidden herself away in the Librarian's book wagon in an attempt to escape the marriage her father has arranged for her–a marriage to the man who was previously engaged to her best friend. Her best friend who she was in love with. Her best friend who was just executed for possession of resistance propaganda. The future American Southwest is full of bandits, fascists, and queer librarian spies on horseback trying to do the right thing. This blog post is spoiler-free. On the podcast, we discuss and compare, All Systems Red by Martha Wells and Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey and our discussion in the podcast is filled with minor spoilers, so please read the books before you listen if you are into that kind of experience. We'll be here for you when you finish! Discussion Marian's Crackpot theory about novellas includes the cover price and size, magazine publishing trends, ebook publishing trends, and the shortening of attention spans. Other recent novellas we recommend include: Finna by Nino Cipri This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone “I need my dismemberment to be toward social justice and community change.” – Lissa, describing why the violence in both of these books is somehow palatable to her otherwise suspense and gore averse preferences. Novellas leave room for other characters to have their own stories told in other novellas. Or sometimes they leave room for characters who are a huge presence on the page to continue to take up space in the reader's imagination. Upright Women Wanted followup book idea: “Cye and Esther's Guide to Living on the Road” with lots of chapters about fighting fascism and also recipes. Lissa wants to read this. Someone please write it. Coming Up Next episode: Marian and Lissa will pitch their re-write or update or adaptation proposals of The Time Machine by H.G. Wells and discuss whether we would truly ever want to rewrite/adapt a public domain book into a new story. Music Credit: The music used during transitions in our podcast is adapted from: Jazzy Sax, Guitar, and Organ at the club by Admiral Bob (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/admiralbob77/58382 Ft: geoffpeters https://thebookevangelists.com/

Hi everyone, and thank you for tuning in to another episode of the We Make Books Podcast - A podcast about writing, publishing, and everything in between! This week we have a very special guest!  We were lucky enough to be able to sit down with author Scott Warren.  Scott is the author of the Union Earth Privateer series and the third and final book of the trilogy is being released the same day as this episode!  Full disclosure: Scott was the first author ever signed by Parvus Press and so it was extra awesome to be able to talk to him ahead of the release of the last book in his trilogy.  Scott is an all-around amazing and fascinating guy, so we were thrilled to be able to get his perspective and thoughts on developing a story past your original plan, writing from your own experience, and wrapping up a trilogy.  We had a great time talking with him and hope you enjoy listening! We Make Books is hosted by Rekka Jay and Kaelyn Considine; Rekka is a published author and Kaelyn is an editor and together they are going to take you through what goes into getting a book out of your head, on to paper, in to the hands of a publisher, and finally on to book store shelves. We Make Books is a podcast for writers and publishers, by writers and publishers and we want to hear from our listeners! Hit us up on our social media, linked below, and send us your questions, comments, concerns, and the best bit alien weaponry you've imagined, or maybe actually invented.  You can trust us!  This a secure line and we pinky-promise that the Roswell guys will never know! We hope you enjoy We Make Books! Twitter: @WMBCast  |  @KindofKaelyn  |  @BittyBittyZap Instagram: @WMBCast  Patreon.com/WMBCast   Episode 36: Every Rivet in the Alien Railgun - Military Science Fiction with Scott Warren transcribed by Sara Rose (@saraeleanorrose)   [0:00]   K: Hi everyone! Welcome back to another episode of We Make Books, a show about writing, publishing, and everything in between. I’m Kaelyn Considine, I’m the acquisitions editor for Parvus Press.   R: And I’m Rekka, I write science fiction and fantasy as R.J. Theodore.   K: And today’s a big day for Parvus.   R: Yes! We, full disclosure, we are being very self-serving today and loving every minute of it! And hopefully you’ll love it, too.   K: Today is the launch of Where Vultures Dare the third and final book in the Union Earth Privateers series and thus the first completed trilogy published by Parvus Press! Oh, also, Scott Warren had something to do with this, I guess.   R: I, well, he can talk later. It’s just us now. We can—   K: It’s just us now. So today we had Scott Warren, author of the Union Earth Privateers series sit down with us to talk about—I mean, we talked about everything in this interview!   R: Yeah.   K: We had a great time talking to Scott, covered a range of topics from writing techniques to crafting action scenes to where he came up with the idea for the UEP series. It’s a fantastic interview, Scott is always a delight to talk to.   R: Yeah, and as a reader I really enjoyed Vick’s Vultures and To Fall Among Vultures and I’m just about to dig in because, of course, I have the inside scoop. I got an advance copy of Where Vultures Dare. I, of course, picked it up because I was interested in a small press, to see what they were all about, and I really enjoyed the first book and the second one went a direction I did not see coming, so it’s really great that Parvus was there to allow Scott to take it in a direction that military sci-fi might have said, “Um, actually, if you’re gonna follow the conventions, maybe don’t do this thing?” And I’m really excited to see where book three is gonna go.   K: Scott was the first author ever signed by Parvus Press, so we are very excited about the success and progress of all of our authors, but this is our first completed trilogy and this is Scott’s first completed trilogy, as an author as well. So big day all around!   Anyway, we had a great time talking to Scott and hopefully you have a great time listening to us talk to him.   R: Yep and because it’s June 2nd when we release this, that means book three is out on shelves. So you can go check out Where Vultures Dare and, if you haven’t already read Vick’s Vultures and To Fall Among Vultures, they are quick reads! They read very fast, in addition to not being big, door stopping tomes. So you could pick up all three and check them out in, probably, a span of a few days. Just tear through ‘em.   K: You won’t be able to put them down. Anyway, take a listen and enjoy, we’ll see you on the other side of the music.   [intro music plays]   K: Alright, well, I’m sure that’s all classified so we won’t ask you too much about that!   R: Which is to say that Kaelyn really wants to ask you about it.   S: You can ask me. I’d answer what I can.    K: I have a master’s degree in American military history, so I am—   S: Oh, you probably know more about my activities than I do.   K: Well, my focus was Vietnam, so.   R: Possibly not.   K: Wellllll, there’s debate over how much submarine activity there was during the Vietnam War. There’s some official numbers and then there’s some… speculative numbers.   S: Oh, I don’t actually have any information on that, unfortunately.   R: That’s the official line anyway.   K: That is exactly what he is supposed to say.   S: Yeah.   R: So we are talking today to Scott Warren, author of military science fiction series the Union Earth Privateers, and we are very excited to have him and we are celebrating with him because today his third book in the trilogy has just released. That is Where Vultures Dare. So, welcome Scott, and would you mind introducing yourself for our audience?   S: Thanks for having me, guys! I am Scott Warren, as you said I’m an author, I write both science fiction and fantasy. My sci-fi series is Union Earth Privateers, published under Parvus Press. Humans have just broken into the intergalactic scene and they’ve found it packed to the rafters. They’re kind of hopelessly outgunned. All of these alien races, every single one, is far more advanced than they are. So they developed a small, elite corps called the Union Earth Privateers, whose single directive is: go out and secure advanced technology through any means necessary.    Vick’s Vultures and its sequels follows one such privateer ship, captained by Victoria Marin, and they go around and they engage with aliens. They help them, they fight them, or they pick their bones in order to bring home technology.    R: So you don’t have history, personally, with spaceflight or salvaging alien technology, but you came to the Union Earth Privateers trilogy with a certain background that, I assume, did help you?   S: So the experience that feeds into Vick’s Vultures is kind of two-fold. The first is the submarine experience in the military. I spent about three and a half years in the military, and then after that I transitioned into civilian aviation. So the way that the space combat is written is kind of a blend of the two. It features a lot of the submarine warfare aspects of stealth and sensor readings, as well as the three-dimensional movement. And, as far as aviation goes, that’s where a lot of the nomenclature and the procedural stuff comes from. So when you see Victoria Marin engaging with other cultures, other militaries, most of the jargon and the lingo they use actually comes from the aviation world, not the military world.   R: And I think one of my favorite things from the first book was humans had this Boogeyman aspect to them because they used that submariner stealth and the other aliens had never seen their faces, they just knew that, if humans came, they were gonna come in through your portholes and take everything. That was a really neat aspect of it.   K: Military sci-fi, that’s a popular genre, to say the least, certainly amongst its fans. I would say it’s one of the most vivaciously consumed of a lot of science fiction and fantasy genres. What, particularly, drew you to writing that because it is a very competitive field to get into, and it’s very hard to write well. It’s interesting that you went from being a submariner to a civilian pilot. I don’t think you can have two more different trajectories there. But I think that, also, as you said, gave you a really interesting perspective to write about here. These stealth operations that the humans in the book are conducting versus being able to incorporate your knowledge of aviation.   S: Well, like you said, the military science fiction genre is huge and has very voracious readers, of which I am one. That was the biggest reason for wanting to write The Union Earth Privateers, is I’ve been reading military science fiction for a long time. I’m, specifically, a big fan of John Scalzi, I like H. Paul Honsigner and his Man of War series, which is also a submarines-in-space style book. But the competitiveness and the market and, really, whether or not I would be able to sell Vick’s Vultures at all didn’t weigh into the equation really at all. I was writing because I wanted a creative outlet. I was coming off of the Sorcerous Crimes Division, so I had just self-published my first fantasy novel and I decided, “Hey, I think I’ll take a try at sci-fi!”    R: And you’re a reader of both, though, right?   S: Yes, absolutely.   K: So, in Vick’s Vultures, and the setting of Union Earth Privateers, humanity’s not in great shape, as you said, at the beginning of this. We are a very small fish in what we are learning is an increasingly big pond, full of very carnivorous other fish. And there’s, instead of this humans going into space and learning and exploring, you have a very—I don’t wanna say more of a dark take on it, but it’s certainly not a very optimistic one. [laughs] Is that—where was that coming from in your writing? Is this what you envision if, you know, we do eventually encounter alien life, is this what you think we’re gonna find?   S: It’s not so much what I think we’re going to find, it’s that I’m a really big fan of the crowded galaxy philosophy, in terms of fiction. But most of the science fiction that I read, humans are usually on force parity with most of the aliens that they encounter, or it’s just hoo-rah, humans are the best forever and ever. I kind of wanted to explore that transitory period where humans get out and it’s not, “Oh, these guys have a similar level of weapons and technology.”    These guys are better than us in every way, so the only way we can survive is if they do not know we’re there. That sort of disparity in force has been explored quite a bit, but usually it’s in terms of aliens invading Earth, aliens invading human space. So the first contact is made by the aliens, and then it becomes a war for survival. I wanted this to kind of be exploring the, “Well how do we prevent a war for survival from happening?”   R: Right, so in your stories the aliens don’t even really know where Earth is or where the humans come from.   S: Mhm. You touched on the humans being kind of the Boogeymen and that was one of my guiding philosophies of that. I wanted humans to be these things that were only scary in the dark.   [10:05]   R: Right, and that was their technique for making sure that nobody messed with them because what else were they going to do? They couldn’t defend themselves against the bigger—the Big Three, as you call them in the books.   S: Right. When I designed most of the alien species in Vick’s Vultures, the kind of philosophy behind it was, well, most of these alien species have long-since settled their differences before they got into space, so they didn’t have the same infighting that humans did, that caused them to be militaristic throughout their existence. And that they’d also been in space for so long that they pretty much had lost their ability to go outside their ships and feel safe outside their ships. So humans were still the only ones using spacesuits and spacewalking. So it’s kind of an age of sail allegory where a surprising amount of sailors didn’t actually know how to swim—   R: Right.   K, laughing: Yeah, right? Yes.   S: —so they feared things in the water. The third aspect of the aliens is that their minds were so much more advanced that they just didn’t need to develop computer technology, so when humans come around with their little, dumb, smoothbrains they’ve been developing computer technology to do their thinking for them, to the point where it’s so advanced that it does things the aliens can’t really wrap their minds around.    K: One of the things that I, personally, really enjoyed about the series with the juxtaposition between the humans and the aliens, is that the humans—like, I get a little annoyed with a lot of science fiction where it is frequently, the aliens come to us first and then the scrappy humans have to come back and fight their way through and unify and, you know, we figure out water is their kryptonite or what have you.    But, what I did like about this was these things is, where we usually have this approach of like, “Oh, you humans, with this, this, and this.” It’s such a foreign concept to these aliens that we’re surprised that they are surprised by this, a little bit.This idea of: they don’t go out into space, they don’t use space suits. As you said, the sailors that can’t swim. So that was something that I really liked about how you differentiated humans versus the aliens in this. That they really have these fundamental differences in how they approach life and space, if you will.   R: But speaking of life in space, you have a lot of action scenes in Vick’s Vultures. That was something that we specifically wanted to talk about in this interview because action scenes are notoriously difficult to write. I don’t care if it’s a giant, massive space battle or if it’s a sword fight between two people in a desert. They’re very hard to write, and you do an incredible job of it while navigating a lot of elements and, as you had mentioned, kind of in the way that a submarine has more than forward and backward and up and down to move, there’s literally infinite directions when coordinating a space battle that objects can move in. Thereby making it even more complicated to keep track of things.   S: Mhm.   R: So how on Earth do you keep track of all these things?   S: Well, the first guiding light is obviously the Rule of Cool. I ignore all the potential things that would just end the scene in one line, so that I can write out an action scene. But when it comes to writing realistic space battles, it doesn’t really happen in science fiction. So, once you have that figured out, you’re kind of free to flub whatever you want.   K: Now, when you say—   S: This is gonna sound like I’m kind of a scam artist peddling snake oil, but really that’s all it is is writing action scenes in space, so far as ship to ship combat, is essentially selling your reader a pipedream.   K: Now when you say—because when you say writing realistic battles, there’s the how you really turn in space, kind of, component to this, and I apologize, I don’t know—I imagine submarines are somewhat of the same where you have to use pressure to force directional changes. In space, in order for, for instance, the space shuttle to turn, it has to release air to force it to do so at a 90 degree angle. Obviously, that’s not how these ships fight each other in space. So, physics is not a consideration for you, at all, when writing these?   S: Somewhat, it is, but very loosely. I mean, when it comes down to it, the best tactic is always gonna be the The Last Jedi, hit a ship with another ship at lightspeed tactic. Why would you never not-use that? Unfortunately, it’s kind of boring to read. So, mostly, I ignore the mechanics of how the ships move like they do. I’m more focused on the story of how some force is going to tackle some other force, based on the disparity in strength. So I’m a little bit closer to a Star Wars kind of ships fighting between each other.   K: So one of the things that I encounter a lot, as an editor, when dealing with any sort of action or combat scene is mapping and tracking all of the components of it. I can’t tell you how many times I get a draft from a writer and we go through this whole thing and I’m like, “Hang on a second, where’s this person? What were they doing the whole time?” and it’s very hard to block that, if you will. And I understand that that’s a phrase for the video component of this, but you kind of have to take it into consideration when writing, too. Where is everyone and how are they interacting? Action scenes are very difficult to write because of that. Because if there’s a fight going on, you can’t have one person that’s just standing there waiting for it to be over because you don’t know what to do with them.   S: Funny story about that, actually, and I’ll answer your question in a second. In the first draft of Where Vultures Dare, the squad that goes down onto the planet, and I’m gonna try and avoid spoilers too much, the small squad initially had another member, a new character that I had made, and by the time they got to that first action scene, I had completely forgotten that, that character even existed and he never shows up in the draft again.   [K laughs]   S: It is difficult to plot out the initial blocking of that action scene. Now, when you use that term, blocking, you say it’s a visual-focused term, and it is, and I also come from a visual art background as well. I still occasionally do illustration on the side, that was originally one of the things I wanted to be, before I joined the military. So when I do this writing, I actually take a very visual approach in two ways. Like you said, I block out all the big pieces first. I make sure the reader’s aware of them. And then I do what’s called working from big to small. So, when you’re painting or illustrating, you start with the biggest brush possible and work your way down. You don’t use a detailing brush until you absolutely need it. And I kind of take the same approach to writing action.    So the first thing I do is I work big to small, I make sure the audience is reading the broad strokes. Because our brains do a handy little thing where they’ll fill in the detail where there isn’t anything present. And the other aspect of writing action scenes is, when I’m writing one, I try and make sure that reading the scene takes exactly as long to read as it would to happen, if you were watching it in a movie.   K: That is such an important thing, I think, to me when writing and plotting action scenes. Authors tend to, and I completely understand why, get bogged down in description and not realize that the time that you’re taking to read this, this guy’s been stabbed to death six times already now.    S: Mhm.   K: In all the time that he’s sitting there describing the sword in the other person’s hand and the stance that he has and the dust clinging to his boots, he’s been dead for about ten minutes. I alway use, and Rekka’s gonna shoot me because I’ve been referencing a lot of Harry Potter things recently, but I always use the reference when, in the end of Goblet of Fire, when Harry gets sucked through the portkey and ends up—and Cedric dies, and there’s this whole long scene—   R,  ironically: Spoilers for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire—   [K and R laugh]   K: It’s your own fault if you haven’t read it at this point. Cedric dies, everyone! There’s this whole long, drawn out scene that I think, in the book, is about two and a half chapters from start to finish, with this whole process. And then I remember when I saw the movie and how quickly that happened!   S: It’s just a snap of the fingers and he’s gone and I loved that aspect of the movie.   K: I loved how fast that happened, that the whole point was that this was incredibly disorienting because this whole encounter, this death, this terrible realization, this shocking revelation of Voldemort is back, all happens in five minutes. And that’s why nobody realized Harry was even gone back at Hogwarts. So, I completely understand why you need to explain and flush these things out, it’s an entirely new setting that you have to describe. You have to establish the characters, you have to establish where they are and what they’re doing, but having that visual component to it eliminates all of the need for exposition there.    So, it’s a really hard thing to do in writing, taking these scenes where you have to set the scene, and still trying to get it to a reasonable amount of time that these actions could be transpiring over.   S: Mhm.   [20 :31]   R: One thing I always like to remind people is that you are a writer, you have control over everything that’s going on, that wouldn’t happen in real life. So you don’t have to describe a scene, you can start your action scene in a place that’s already been described in a quieter, more peaceful moment. Or you can keep in mind what Kaelyn’s saying and describe what the person needs to know in the moment of the action, which is: there’s a door over there and the floor is slippery. You don’t need a whole lot more than that. Or, it’s dark or whatever. That doesn’t take paragraphs, whereas if you feel like you need to get tactile with it and describe the stones’ texture, then that’s probably not something that a person’s going to realize until after the fact. They’re just trying to survive the moment. So big to small is good like that and it’s kind of the same thing that you’re saying. Get the big details and then you’ve placed the scene and you can get the smaller details as they become necessary, as the character is able to even recognize them. I mean—   S: Absolutely.   R: —it’s reasonable to assume that somebody looking at a sword is going to see SWORD, if the sword is drawn. As opposed to looking at the pommel and everything if the sword is sheathed and safe.   K: I always have a line I use that’s been dropped into many a manuscript that I’ve edited: human evolution was designed rather to react than to analyze. We don’t necessarily care what’s chasing us, we just know it’s getting closer and it has teeth. So, along those lines, how do you—you are in a genre where the fans of this really like and appreciate a lot of detail about the spaceship that’s attacking them. They want to hear all of the guns, all of the turrets, all of the engines and components to this. How do you avoid falling down that trap into—because I imagine from your side, and you write in a lot of detail and are clearly knowledgeable about this—how do you avoid falling into that trap?   S: The biggest thing for me is that the focus on combat, most of the combat in Vick’s Vultures is based around the same thing that submarine warfare is based around: a lack of full information. You’re working with very limited details on whatever enemy you’re fighting. So they might know that there’s something out there, but they can’t see what it is. And if they can’t see it, well then there’s no point in me describing it to the audience. Because at the end of the day, I’m writing in third person limited. The narration only knows what the characters know.   R: That is a good point, though, because we are so used to the Star Trek viewscreen and looking at the other ship and knowing as soon as it drops out of warp that it’s a Romulan ship versus a Klingon ship versus, you know, there’s something out there, we don’t know what it is. Okay, well it’s Romulan because they have the technology. But your characters are, sort of, in a submarine in terms of what they know about what’s going on around them and they need some kind of signal from the ship to recognize it, or to be sitting on the outside of the ship in one of their suits. But even then, there’s the realism of how far away is it? How much can you actually see if you’re looking directly at it. So, yeah, that’s a good point and that aids you in the genre, I think, because that adds to that realism that the readers expect.   S: Mhm. Kaelyn you mentioned that readers are very voracious for those details.   K: Yes, yes.   S: But I think a lot of them are also voracious for that level of grittiness and realism, and sometimes you can’t have one along with the other. And, in this case, I think they settle for the realism rather than the exploring every nut and rivet on an alien railgun.   K: I completely agree. I think there is—I don’t want to call it a trade-off, but there is this notion of—well, I’ll call it a trade-off!—trading one for the other. There’s a degree of suspense that you can entrench yourself in and use that as your high, if you will, in reading all of this versus getting to kind of sit and revel in the description of, as you said, every rivet in the alien railgun. Which is now going to be the name of another book that I want somebody to write. [laughs]   R: Well, you know what it’s gonna be, it’s gonna be all exposition, if you want that book.   K: Nah, it’s gonna be… we’re gonna make the, you know, one of those—remember Star Wars during the, when they put the prequels out they made those books that was like the pictorial guide to Star Wars? Well, we’ll do that for Vick’s Vultures. It’s gonna be a lot of black pages with vague shapes in the back of them.   S: And half the text blacked out and redacted.    K: Yes, exactly! Perfect. But, actually, speaking of blacked out text and redacted, this is not a series that is simply, hit-and-run stealth missions. There’s some political components, there’s some scheming, there’s other parts of this beyond just humans going into outer space and trying to further humans’ ability to exist in space. Vick and her team get into some nonsense.   S: As a rule, I tend to try and avoid political themes and huge political arcs in my books, simply because I don’t like reading them. But you can’t really have an interplanetary, sometimes diplomatic, directive or organization without touching on the politics. And so they not only get pulled by the human politics, but they get pulled by the alien politics as well. One of the things I always try and have in Vick’s Vultures, on multiple levels, is a trichotomy. So it’s not just good versus evil, it’s three opposing organizations that are each trying to further their own goals, usually at the expense of another. Sometimes those goals are political, sometimes they’re military, sometimes they’re survival.   K: And sometimes they’re a combination of all of them.   S: Mhm, absolutely.   K: They frequently overlap and motivate different components of what they’re trying to accomplish. So, I have to ask something because—and this is a little bit of, you know, how the sausage is made here—by the time I came on to Parvus Press, Vick’s Vultures had been out for, I guess, about a year at that point and Colin had sent me a copy when I was kind of auditioning, if you will, to be an editor. And I was shocked to realize that Vick was short for Victoria.    S: Mhm.   K: And that this was a woman. I have to, of course, ask—I mean, I love Vick as a character, I love all of the intricacies and nuance to her personality that you write in, but—women are not allowed on submarines.   S: They didn’t used to be. They are now.   K: Oh, they are now! Okay. Why, I have to ask, what made you write Vick as a woman?   S: So there’s three main reasons that I did that. The first one is this notion that male readers won’t read female main characters, so I kinda wanted to do a bait-and-switch like, “Oh, it’s called Vick’s Vultures, so obviously the main character is a guy named Vick!” And then if they don’t read too much into it, it’s like, “Ha! Gotcha!” You’re actually reading about a female character.    The second was I kind of wanted her to be the inverse of, you know, the classic male Han Solo? Where these male captains have, they do all these things that no reasonable, realistic person would do and then get rewarded for them. I kind of wanted to make Vick do those things and then everyone kind of call her out on it, her self-destructive tendencies getting her into trouble more than they get her out of it.    And then the third was that I wasn’t sure whether or not I could write a female character well, but coming off of Devil Bone, which is the first Sorcerous Crimes Division book, a couple fans pointed out to me how well the few female characters had been written. Specifically, there’s two main characters, not main characters, but side characters in Sorcerous Crimes Division that were female raiders. So they would go in with the raiding parties. One was a more leader archetypal mother-hen type and the other was basically a psychopath.    [R laughs]   S: But they were on the same side and people thought they were pretty realistic. So I thought maybe I’ll tackle writing a female main character for the next book. I enjoyed doing that so much that I ended up making one of the female characters also a POV character in the second Sorcerous Crimes Division book, as well. And she ended up being pretty much the fan favorite.   R: I mean—   K: That’s great.   R: Women kinda rock, don’t they?   K: I agree.   [30:16]   S, warily: Let me make sure my wife is not…   R: Wait, before you disagree with me, you mean? No.   K: I was gonna say, maybe this is what she should be hearing!   S: No, I just don’t want it to go to her head.   R: Ah, got it.   K: Ah, alright, fair enough. That’s fair.   S: Also, fun fact: she just finished reading Harry Potter for the first time this week. So—   K: What’d she think?    S: —she narrowly avoided the Goblet of Fire spoiler.   [R and K laugh]   K: See, there would have actually been someone out there who was—   R: I told you! I had to warn you about the spoilers, yeah.   K: I have very little sympathy, apologies to Scott’s wife, for people who are upset by fifteen-year-old spoilers at this point. But what did she think of the books? Just out of curiosity.   S: Uh, she liked them but she’s also very able to pick up on the things that are acceptable in Young Adult writing that maybe don’t so much fly for adults.   K: Well that’s a whole other conversation—   R, laughing: Yeah, I feel like our Patreon deserves Kaelyn’s Rant on Harry Potter and Kaelyn’s Rant on a couple other movies and book series.   K: I’ve got a few of them. It’s a—do not get me started on Game of Thrones. The last season of that. Poor Rekka, poor Rekka had me—   R: I saw it in real-time. I saw it happening. Kaelyn’s devolution into—   K: —madness!   R: Not even madness, just you… couldn’t even speak sometimes—    S: Right.     K: I…        R: —because you were so upset about the decisions made.    K: Rekka had the misfortune of being with me to watch the Battle of Winterfell and then also—   S, laughing: You mean listen to the Battle of Winterfell, right?   R: Yup.   K: Okay, well, here’s the thing: Rekka and her husband Matt should have a service where they go to people’s houses and fix their TVs for them because we could see everything perfectly watching that. So I don’t know what you guys did to your TV, I don’t know what setting you have it on, but we could see everything and then all of my friends are texting going, “Well I think they won. I don’t know, I can’t see anything!” and I was like, “Oh, really?” and I went back and watched it at home and I was like, “Oh, yeah, this is just a black screen with some shapes moving around in it. Oh, there’s fire. Okay, I see fire.”    And then Rekka, also, was sitting next to me when we watched the series finale at the Nebulas out in Los Angeles last year. Parvus and, mostly Colin, finagled a viewing—   R: Viewing party.   K: A viewing party. It was a lot of fun, but oh my goodness. That’s a—   S, a hero bringing it back on topic: Yeah, going into the launch of UEP #3, at least secure in the knowledge that hey! at least it won’t be the last Game of Thrones season. You know, the bar has been somewhat lowered.   K: So, speaking of that—   R: This does close off your trilogy, yeah.   K: Yeah! The trilogy’s wrapping up. How are ya feelin’?   S: I feel pretty good. You know, I’d actually set this book aside for I while. I wrote and published an entirely separate book in the time that this one was—I’d kind of gone through pretty much writing and editing on The Dragon’s Banker while Vick’s Vultures #3 was going through the editing and publishing process. And I don’t know how it is for other authors, but I actually tend to retain very little of a book that I’ve written once I move on to the next book. I forget character names, I forget plot points. All of that just gets flushed. Part of me thinks that’s a result from the studying tactics in the military and aviation where you cram and cram and cram and then knowledge dump immediately after the test.   But I can actually, I’m doing my final review of Vick’s #3 now and a lot of it going to be going through and almost looking at it with fresh eyes, as if it’s something that someone else wrote.    K: Well, we were gonna ask you some questions about resolving plot points, you know without spoiling anything, and completing this three-story arc but do you remember any of it? [bursts out laughing]   R: All right, so feel free, if you need to say “I don’t know that one” we’ll just cut the question like we never even asked.   S: Okay.   R: So you have three books out now that complete a trilogy. Did you see it as a three-book trilogy to start with? Did you have an arc in mind?   S: No, actually. When it started out Vick’s Vultures was not meant to be part of a trilogy, per se. I was thinking of it as more of a serialized thing where each book would be its—   R: Open-ended?   S: Mhm. It's its own separate, self-contained story. Neither one would really feed into the others. Once I had the first book out, I wanted it to be something that could absolutely stand on its own. You could read Vick’s Vultures as just Vick’s Vultures and then ignore the rest of the books and be perfectly happy and get a one hundred percent complete story. Because I didn’t know if there would be sequels, at that point. I was still a very new writer. I wasn’t super confident. I thought this is a good book, but I don’t know how many good books I have in me. What if I run out of ideas half-way through the next one? Six books later, that’s not a huge issue apparently.   K: I was gonna say, what is it with you authors and doubting your abilities to generate stories? That’s all you do!   R: Have you read the Goodreads reviews, Kaelyn? You know, if you’ve ever spent any time looking at other people’s reviews of books you think, “Wow! I could mess up in so many ways I didn’t even consider when I started writing!”   S: Mhmm.   K: Yeah, but those people don’t know what they’re talking about.   S: It helps that I’d committed pretty much every sin that I’ve railed against in Devil Bone, when I wrote my first book. So I was like, “Man, all these mistakes that I see other writers writing! I’m gonna avoid all of those!” And then I did ‘em anyway and I was like, “Oh, it’s because that’s the only way I know how to do it.” That’s what’s familiar.   K: Do you have more stories set in the UEP universe? Do you have other things you’d like to write here? You know, as you said, you saw this as kind of a serialized, ongoing collection of stories. Is that something down the road that you think you’d revisit at some point? And I’m not just asking this as your publisher!   [K and R laugh]   S: I would like to revisit it at some point. I didn’t leave open ends so much in Vick’s Vultures #3—    K: No, that’s kind of why I was asking. Yeah.   S: —but I did seed things that could be explored further, and there’s always other ships in the Union Earth Privateers. I purposefully made this big terrain, this big stretch of stars, the Orion’s Spur, which gets name-dropped constantly in the series. One to say, hey this is the humans’ limit. This is how far we can go because there’s basically a brick wall at each end of the Spur. And the other being like, hey! This is a big playground. You can go anywhere in this and we’ve only touched on a small fraction of it. And, essentially, the number of locations and the number of stories that can be told in that universe isn’t limited by what’s already been written because it’s not going off—this is kinda pulling back the veil a little bit—it’s not going off of real stars, it’s not really going off real systems. Everything’s being made up to serve the narrative. Everything is kind of what it needs to be to tell a good story.   So would I like to go back to it? Absolutely. Right now I’m on a little bit of a fantasy kick. Coming out of Dragon’s Banker I tried to start up a sci-fi novel, wasn’t really happy with it. I restarted it a couple times before saying, “I’m gonna put this back on the shelf for a little bit,” and kind of explore more the things that I explored in Dragon’s Banker with the slice-of-life fantasy, and then go back to maybe doing sci-fi after that, with maybe something either in the Vick’s universe or more esoteric. Kinda closer to something like grimdark 41st millennium, without name-dropping and having DCMA requests called on your podcast.   K: Now, it is interesting because I’ve obviously read UEP series and I did read Dragon’s Banker as well. These are very, very different books. Not only in terms of genre but in terms of, really, your writing style. Do you find it difficult to oscillate back and forth between sci-fi Scott Warren and fantasy Scott Warren?   S: That’s kind of a tricky question, but I like it. One thing to keep in mind is that between Union Earth Privateers and the Sorcerous Crimes Division is that the subject matter for the books, despite being fantasy and sci-fi, ultimately was very, very similar. They were both about elite, professional teams working together in an action-oriented environment. But one dealt with magic, the other dealt with aliens. But when you dig really deep into them, they have more similarities than they have differences.    When it went to Dragon’s Banker, it was a challenge to myself. I’d been writing very violent, very action-oriented books and I wanted to challenge myself to write a book with a true pacifist. Where the main character would not and could not resolve any of his conflicts through violence. I wanted to explore that theme, and I  wanted to explore a novel where lateral thinking was the key to completing all of his objectives. And that, really, he was completing a lot of his objectives just through struggling through his own personal problems and not even realizing that he was contributing, behind the scenes, to all of these conflicts he wasn’t really even aware that he was involved in. Which was a tricky plate to balance.   [40:48]    S: But you mentioned the style of the narration and the dialogue and everything being very different in Dragon’s Banker, and the fact is, writing Dragon’s Banker, my wife read that and once she finished, she put down the book and she looked and me and said, “You are Sailor Kelstern!” And I tried to argue and she said, “Don’t lie! I know you.”   [K and R laugh]   S: So, reading Dragon’s Banker is the closest you’ll get to an unfiltered view of my internal narration for my own life and my own thoughts. And the truth is, in real life I am not a violent or aggressive person at all. I’m the mastermind, I’m the plotter, the planner, and the schemer.   K: Yeah, because I remember reading Dragon’s Banker and I’m going, “Is this really Scott?” [laughs]   S: I mean, that did cause a little bit of friction, I know, in the publishing house because I think Colin was a little hesitant. Like, “Ooh, we have this military sci-fi writer who’s also trying to have us publish this,” and I ended up self-publishing Dragon’s Banker. Ultimately, I decided that was probably the right path for it to go.   K: Because you have—all of the science fiction books you’ve published have been with Parvus Press, but your fantasy books have been self-published. Do you find there’s a cross-over with your fans, that they follow you between these genres? Or do they tend to segregate based on what they like to read?   S: Honestly, I couldn’t say just because I don’t really have a large level of fan interaction.   K: Okay.   S: I’m not like a lot of authors who make a fan page or interface with their communities. I’m honestly not even really aware if I have a community or reader reviews.   K: I can tell you that Union Earth Privateers definitely has a community.   S: Mkay, so the closest I come is to looking at some of the reader reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. What I notice is usually, if the reviews namedrop another book that I’ve written, it is a namedrop of a book in the same genre. So if I had to hedge a guess, I would say that there is not that much genre crossover between my readers. And that might be, in part, because they are segregated in terms of Parvus taking one half of my library and self-publishing doing the other half of my library. Or it might be because there’s just a readership difference in sci-fi fans and fantasy fans. I honestly couldn’t say.   K: So, along those lines, you’ve kind of got a foot in two different worlds here, if you will. Where do you wanna focus next? Do you have a plan for what you’d like to do, if you wanna lean more into the fantasy side or the sci-fi side? Are you just gonna see what comes and what you feel like writing?   S: So, right now I am doing what I feel like writing. I am doing another slice-of-life fantasy that takes place in the same world as Dragon’s Banker and the Sorcerous Crimes Division, it’s more action-focused slice-of-life. I really wanted to get very out there with this one. I don’t have a title for it yet, but I will say that it has an undead protagonist—   K: Excellent.   S: —who is a traveling monster hunter for hire along the west coast of the continent that all these books take place in. And he has an apprentice who is a living human child, between the ages of eleven and fifteen. The main character literally does not know how old he is, and doesn’t care to. But the book kind of explores their traveling and their relationship and their role in the world. One of the biggest complaints with Dragon’s Banker was that the worldbuilding was a little weak, so I wanted to take this book and really delve in and say, “Hey! They’re travelling here, this is what it looks like, here’s the kind of creatures that live here and the people that live here.”   In the future, yes, I definitely want to return to sci-fi. With the fantasy side, I will probably maintain the self-publishing just because I enjoy that aspect of it. With the sci-fi, I had talked to Colin, he wanted a new military sci-fi and that was actually the working title of the book: New Military Sci-fi.   R: Hits the keywords!   K: Of course it was!   S: I wasn’t ready at the time. I had just come off writing back-to-back military sci-fi books and I was honestly a little burnt out at that point, I think, with writing Dragon’s Banker and the untitled monster slayer book. I’ll have created enough space to confidently return to military sci-fi for the purpose of writing military sci-fi. That was one of the big problems with it, is that when I was writing the book, I wasn’t writing it for myself, I was writing it for someone else. With art, as with writing that’s kind of when I start to encounter the mental blocks is when I stop writing for myself and start writing, well, I should write this because an audience will wanna read this. Or I should write this because a publisher will be interested in publishing this. And what I really need to do, and what really contributed to the charm and uniqueness of both Vick’s Vultures and the Sorcerous Crimes Division was I’m writing this because it’s something Scott Warren would write. Because it’s something that Scott Warren would want to read and because it’s something that doesn’t exist currently. It’s a new take on something.    So when I start trying to write to an audience or to a publisher, my whole process kinda breaks down and stalls. Once I get this fantasy flush through my system, I think I’ll be ready to return to military sci-fi and come up with something a little more unique. And I have two different manuscripts for military sci-fi that I was writing during this period of roadblocks that reached about 20,000 words and they had some really fun and interesting ideas4, some of which ended up being in these others books, but some of which really need to be, I think, explored and will be very fun to explore.    Unfortunately, one of the biggest ones, Martha Wells kind of beat me to the punch with a very recalcitrant AI character!   [R laughs]   And as much as I love Murderbot, I hate that it exists because it was very similar to a character that I was actively working on when All Systems Red came out.    R: Well, you know, there’s always something to be said for having a very successful copy book, too, so. You know, feed the people who want more of the recalcitrant AIs. I think that’s fair to say. But that’s good that you can recognize what it is about your writing process that works for you and notice when it starts to break down and see what the symptoms point to. I think writing for yourself is always the best advice for anyone who’s trying to be creative. It’s interesting that you’re big into self-publishing and not so big into write-to-market. I think that’s healthy.   K: Yeah.   S: Mhm. And hopefully that’s not too much nails on a chalkboard on the publishing side of the house!   K: No, no.   S: Because I also do love being a Parvus author.    K: Well we certainly love having you and Vick’s Vultures was the first book that Parvus ever put out and I know Colin is certainly not shy about saying it was a significant cornerstone—the keystone, if you will—to our early success in the publishing world.    We’ve covered a lot of topics, a whole range of things, is there anything that you could go back and tell yourself when you started all of this, or is there any just general advice you have for either people who are self-publishing or somebody who is trying really hard to work around a particularly tricky action scene, or anything that you wish you had known or could offer as advice to those listening?    S: Hm. So there are a couple pieces of advice that I would give to budding self-published authors. So, one thing that Parvus provided was an editor, which I think is crucial and it takes a lot off the pressure off me. When I initially got into self-publishing, the idea was that, “Well I’m gonna be a do-it-yourself guy on my first book and I wanna experience the whole process. The writing, the editing, the marketing, the publishing, and, most importantly, coming from an illustrative background, was the cover art. My fantasy titles actually get a lot of comments on the cover art because my illustration style is so unique and I tend to illustrate the tone of the book, rather than the content.    But the biggest thing when I went into self-publishing—and I will without reservation tell every self-publishing author who’s thinking of their own editing—go ahead and slap yourself in the face right now and get a freelance editor lined up to edit your book.   [R laughs]     S: There’s a reason that editors are so in-demand, so highly sought after and so highly regarded in the publishing industry, and it’s because published authors would not exist without them.   K: I swear I did not pay him to say this! I promise.   [S laughs]   R: I mean, she’s writing a check right now, but that wasn’t arranged beforehand.   K: But that is something that we talk about a lot, is that there’s a reason—even if it’s not just an editor—get other people to read your book and give you feedback on it. Preferably people that maybe have some experience and at least some involvement in this process, but.   [51:21]     S: Mhm. So this advice comes from as much of an art background as it does writing. But you need to be able to have a thick skin, as an author, and be able accept critique without taking it as a personal attack. In both art and writing, the people that succeed are the ones that can take feedback and improve their writing based on it. No one is above critique and when someone comes to you and tells you something doesn’t look right, or something reads wrong, you cannot tell them, “No, you’re seeing it wrong.” 99% of the time, when someone gives you a critique that something is wrong, that critique is accurate.   R: Or at the very least, it draws attention to something you need to look at again. That person may not have nailed the solution or given you the exact issue, but they’re pointing to something that’s not feeling right for them.   S: Right. So when I was working with Arley on the Union Earth Privateers #3, there were a couple times—my favorite quote from an editor that I’ve ever gotten. He left me a comment, after I’d made a change, where he said, “I love that I can spend ten minutes marking out a paragraph and telling you why something doesn’t work, and writing out two paragraphs worth of comments on it, and you can go back two pages earlier, change one line of dialogue and it fixes every problem.”     K, laughing: He was—Arley and I had a lot of conversations about, obviously, how things were progressing on your side and he was very impressed with your ability to, instead of having to tear something down and rebuild it, fix it and move forward. But it’s hard to get work back that you've put so much time, effort, blood, sweat and tears into and have somebody say, “Not this, not this, change this, do this.”   S: It is hard.   K: As an editor, I can tell you it’s coming from a place of love. The opposite of love is not hate, it’s apathy.    S: Right.   K: If we didn’t love what you were doing, we wouldn’t care. We wouldn’t tell you how to improve it.   S: I won’t lie or sugarcoat it, it does kinda sting a little bit.   K: It stings, I’m sure!   S: When you get a manuscript back and you see 1200 revisions or, I think the first Vick’s Vultures book when I first saw it had a couple thousand revisions and I was like, “Ohh! I wrote a terrible book!” But the biggest guiding light for working with an editor that I have to keep in mind, and I would encourage other authors to keep in mind, is that an editor’s job is to make your book the best possible version that it can be.    K, delighted: Oh my god, that’s exactly what I say all the time!   [S and K laugh]   K: I want this book to be the best possible version of itself!   S: Mhm. And you won’t always agree with an editor 100% but you have to keep in mind that that’s where they’re coming from. And sometimes you don’t want to turn a phrase or something that isn’t 100% grammatically correct, but invokes the tone or the narration that you want. You have to recognize that, hey, you can push back sometimes against an editor, but for the most part they are trying to improve your book and you are not looking at it from an unbiased perspective.   K: Well I always remind authors that I work with, or even just people who ask me about this, this is a conversation. I’m not standing on high handing down edicts that you must apply to something that is ultimately your work. This is—if there’s something that you’re really hung up on, I’m gonna ask you, “Why is this a big deal? What am I  missing here? Am I not understanding something? Is there a part of this that is just going over my head?” Because that’s happened before! This is a secret. Editors are not perfect. [laughs] And now I have to go because the secret cabal of editor-ninjas are going to come kill me for saying that into a microphone.   R: Well, lucky for you, we are just about out of time. So, I know we could go on trading war stories about either our off-planet missions or editing, but thank you Scott for joining us today. So everyone listening, definitely go check out Union Earth Privateers. If you haven’t already read books one and two, you could catch up on all of them in one weekend, I bet. Because once you get into one, you’re gonna really just read straight through them.   K: Yeah, no. You’re gonna sit down and blow through that.   R: Yeah! So that’s Vick’s Vultures, To Fall Among Vultures, and Where Vultures Dare and those are all from our favorite little press, Parvus Press! You can get them all today.   K: And Scott, where can people find you online? I know you don’t really have a fan page, but if somebody wanted to send you a note and say how much they love the books.   S: So I am abysmal at social media. I’m a very reclusive author and, actually, kind of a funny story if we have time.   K: Sure.   S: I actually came across a post in the wild, on Reddit, referencing Vick’s Vultures, saying that the person had tried to contact me and had been unable because I hadn’t made a Twitter post in months and I hadn’t made a Facebook post in something like half a year, on my author page. And I responded to their Reddit post saying, “Oh, hey, this is me!” So, honestly, the best place to get in contact with me would probably—   K: Is Reddit!   S: Yeah, because I honestly don’t really check my author e-mail? But I am very active on Reddit in the fantasy community and the sci-fi communities and a few other communities. So my username is /u/scodo, so fairly simple. And you can message me on there and probably get more immediate feedback than if you tried my Facebook or my poorly neglected blog or my Twitter account.   R: So if you are a reader who has read both Scott’s fantasy and science fiction, make sure you tell him that you crossed over genres to follow him. Because he doesn’t know that you’re out there.   K: Tell us, too! Because we’d love to hear that as well.   R: Thank you everyone for joining us, thank you Scott for joining us! And good luck with the book launch.   K: Yeah, congratulations!   S: Thank you and thank you guys for having me.   [outro music plays]   R: Thanks, everyone, for joining us for another episode of We Make Books. If you have any questions that you want answered in future episodes or just have questions in general, remember you can find us on Twitter @wmbcast, same for Instagram, or wmbcast.com.    If you find value in the content that we provide, we would really appreciate your support at Patreon.com/wmbcast. If you can’t provide financial support, we totally understand and what you could really do to help us is spread the word about this podcast. You can do that by sharing a particular episode with a friend who can find it useful, or if you leave a rating and review at iTunes, it will feed that algorithm and help other people find our podcast, too. Of course, you can always retweet our episodes on Twitter.   Thank you so much for listening and we will talk to you soon!  

On this week's episode we're a lil loopy from quarantine, but we're still having fun! We're talking about non-human protagonists this week, with the tentpoles for discussion being The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood, All Systems Red by Martha Wells, and the film Ratatouille.   What We’re Into Lately A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine Rules for Vanishing by Kate Alice Marshall Birarley by Aster Glenn Gray The Unconquered City by K.A. Doore perhaps even friends by hirokiyuu The Great Pottery Throw Down Even more Untamed fic Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings Stardew Valley Other Stuff We Mentioned Pikelets Dream Daddy Persona 5 The Great British Bake Off Homestuck Farscape Person of Interest The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin Kushiels’ Dart by Jacqueline Carey WALL·E (2008) The Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers Zootopia (2016) “Bright: The Apotheosis of Lazy Worldbuilding” by Lindsay Ellis The Redwall books by Brian Jacques Robin Hood (1973) One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) The Aristocats (1970) The Great Mouse Detective (1986) The Good Place Teaching empathy to engineers Star Trek Babylon 5 Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee Cats (2019) What We Do in the Shadows (2014) Jupiter Ascending (2015) Unnatural Order by Alyssa Wickramasinghe and Alis Franklin  Victory Condition by astolat Shrek (2001) Draco is a veela Harry is raised by X The Witcher   For Next Time Nothing! It's the Episode 60 Extravaganza!   Transcription The transcript for this episode is available here. Thank you once again to our priceless, invaluable scribes! You're the best

Episode 13 The Book Evangelists discuss Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman Morning Chatter We haven't talked about books as recently as we had hoped we would. We are very glad to be talking about books with each other now. Camp NaNoWriMo is happening, and writing is hard right now. Book News! The Hugo finalists are announced and we are very pleased to have read so many of the nominees! Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman Smart, warm, uplifting, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . . the only way to survive is to open your heart. This blog post is spoiler-free. On the podcast, we discuss Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman in detail and our discussion in the podcast is filled with minor and major spoilers, so please read the book before you listen if you are into that kind of experience. We'll be here for you when you finish! More Discussion Book Marketing: Who is this book for? How much do we trust genres or cover blurbs? How does our expectation match the reality of the book? Should readers be warned about issues books? How do readers react to books when they get into the story and find that they aren't ready for this particular book? Writing “Unlikeable” characters Is Eleanor relatable? Is she realistic? Did your feelings about her change over the course of the book? Who does it seem like Eleanor is modeled on? How are characters informed and inspired? How much does the reader bring to their unique interpretation? How unreliable is Eleanor as a narrator? "I liked the sad parts. They helped me have my feelings. That's what books do." Lissa describing .... pretty much the entire book Coming Up Next episode: Marian and Lissa are looking at the popularity of the novella as a form and a length. As longtime NaNoWriMo writers, we both familiar with what a 50,000 word story can do. We will read and discuss All Systems Red by Martha Wells and Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey. Our Show Notes include mentions and recommendations, all linked for your convenience. What else would you like to see here? Music Credit: The music used during transitions in our podcast is adapted from: Jazzy Sax, Guitar, and Organ at the club by Admiral Bob (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/admiralbob77/58382 Ft: geoffpeters

Welcome‌ ‌back,‌ ‌Literary‌ ‌Slummers‌ ‌to‌ ‌another‌ ‌episode‌ ‌of‌ ‌Shelf‌ ‌Aware,‌ ‌the‌ ‌podcast‌ ‌where‌ ‌we‌ ‌delve‌ ‌into‌ ‌books‌ ‌outside‌ ‌our‌ ‌comfort‌ ‌zones.‌ ‌This‌ ‌fortnight,‌ ‌we’re‌ ‌wrapping‌ ‌up‌ ‌our‌ ‌unit‌ ‌on‌ ‌the‌ ‌cyberpunk‌ ‌genre‌ ‌by‌ ‌discussing‌ ‌the‌ ‌book‌ ‌All‌ ‌Systems‌ ‌Red‌ ‌by‌ ‌Martha‌ ‌Wells.‌ ‌Did‌ ‌this‌ ‌book‌ ‌change‌ ‌Em’s‌ ‌mind‌ ‌about‌ ‌cyberpunk?‌ ‌Does‌ ‌it‌ ‌even‌ ‌qualify‌ ‌as‌ ‌belonging‌ ‌to‌ ‌the‌ ‌genre?‌ ‌Can‌ ‌we‌ ‌all‌ ‌become‌ ‌Murderbot?‌ ‌ ‌ We’ll‌ ‌be‌ ‌back‌ ‌next‌ ‌Monday‌ ‌with‌ ‌another‌ ‌Animorphs‌ ‌book!‌ ‌ ‌ Reading‌ ‌Recommendations:‌ ‌ Old‌ ‌Man’s‌ ‌War‌ ‌by‌ ‌John‌ ‌Scalzi‌ ‌ An‌ ‌Unkindness‌ ‌of‌ ‌Ghosts‌ ‌by‌ ‌Rivers‌ ‌Solomon‌ A very special thank you to Ben Cope for our theme song! Check out his YouTube channel: youtube.com/fretwiz. Twitter: @shelfawarecast, @amdeebee, @emnoteliza Email: shelfawarecast @ gmail Instagram: @shelfawarecast

Emily and Amanda are here to chat all things books, movies, and TV shows. You’ll hear our Top 3 books and movies we enjoyed in December. We had a lot of opinions about the new Little Women movie! Next, we spill the beans on a few shows and movies that didn’t make our Top 3 lists in our Mentionables segment. Neither of us have finished watching The Irishman. Our streaming picks for HULU, Amazon Prime, and Netflix will help you from endlessly scrolling trying to find something to watch at home. Emily has great dramatic movie picks and Amanda discusses her favorite comedies. Our Must Watch movie is a classic that shouldn’t be missed and our Must Read Book is about a sarcastic droid that only wants to binge-watch its shows. We’d love to hear what you think about what we discussed! You can find us online here: Emily: Twitter and Letterboxd Amanda: Twitter, Instagram, Letterboxd, and Goodreads As always, time-stamped show notes are below with references to every book, TV show, and film we mentioned in this episode. Top 3 Films and Books 1:45 Ford v Ferrari – movie 2:37 Christian Bale – actor 2:49 Noah Jupe – actor 3:38 The Lager Queen of Minnesota – book 5:45 2019 Little Women – movie 6:15 1994 Little Women – movie 7:00 Saoirse Ronan – actor 7:03 Florence Pugh – actor 7:38 Eliza Scanlin – actor 9:48 Laura Dern – actor 11:15 Black Widow – movie 11:30 Midsommer – movie 15:15 His Majesty’s Dragon – book 16:42 Spinning Silver – book 16:43 Uprooted – book 17:56 Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – movie 21:10 John Williams – composer 23:50 Star Wars: The Force Awakens – movie 25:20 Onward – movie 25:21 1917 – movie 25:56 In The Heights – movie 26:18 Music to My Years – book Mentionables 29:30 Honey Boy – movie 30:28 Shia LeBouf – actor 30:42 White Dragon – TV series 31:29 It’s a Wonderful Life – movie 32:15 The Nightmare Before Christmas – movie 32:52 The Witcher – TV series 33:58 Henry Cavill – actor 33:59 – The Count of Monte Cristo – movie 34:10 The Irishman – movie 34:50 Goodfellas – movie 35:15 Mad Max: Fury Road – movie 36:39 John Mulaney & The Sack Lunch Bunch – tv show Streaming Picks 38:40 Wild Rose – movie 40:01 The Bold Type – TV show 41:45 You Were Never Really Here – movie 43:22 Walk the Line – movie 43:30 The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel – TV show 45:30 Marriage Story – movie 47:38 Scarlett Johansson – actor 47:39 Lost In The Translation – movie 48:56 Cristela Alonzo: Lower Classy – comedy special 49:24 Seth Meyer’s Lobby Baby – comedy special Must Read and Must Watch 50:50 1994 Little Women – movie 52:53 All Systems Red – book

Episode 11: Best Books of 2019 and Reading Reflections In This Episode The Book Evangelists discuss their Best Books of 2019 and reflect on their reading habits. Best Books of 2019 - Marian • The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson - non-fiction "I just love this book!" • All Systems Red by Martha Wells • Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett • The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers Additional mentions: • Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan • Fire and Heist by Sarah Beth Durst • Fawkes by Nadine Brandes • Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel Best Books of 2019 - Lissa • What We Talk About When We Talk About Books by Leah Price • The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders • Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey • Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett • The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers • This is How We Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone Things Lissa read in 2019 that she wouldn't normally have tried: • Even Tree Nymphs Get the Blues by Molly Harper • Picnic by William Inge • Dune by Frank Herbert • Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi (the first 80% of it) Marian: I'm very surprised to see that of my five favorite books of 2019, three of them are science fiction books. Lissa: I know, right?!? What is happening to us? Best Books of 2019 that I didn't get around to reading. Yet. (Lissa's list at work) These books are coming out in 2020! We are excited! • Keep Moving by Maggie Smith • Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey • The Last Emperox by John Scalzi • The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel • All Systems Red by Martha Wells 2020 Reading Resolutions Lissa's resolution: Buy and Read More Print Books and Read Them Intentionally (Not in my Bed!) and Write in the Margins. Marian's resolution: Read More and Better Poetry. Join a Book Group. Marian's resolution FOR LISSA: You should read the Murderbot novellas. And listen to Lockwood and Co. Lissa's resolution FOR MARIAN: Reflect on what you read more. The learning is in the reflection. And I think you should try a John Scalzi novel. You can pick which one. Cover blurbs are the print version of author twitter. -Lissa Coming Up Next episode: The Book Evangelists will discuss The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow Our Show Notes include mentions and recommendations, all linked for your convenience. What else would you like to see here? Music Credit: The music used during transitions in our podcast is adapted from: Jazzy Sax, Guitar, and Organ at the club by Admiral Bob (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/admiralbob77/58382 Ft: geoffpeters

It’s our Best of 2019 episode! Of course, these are not necessarily the best things published in 2019, but instead the best things we read for the podcast (including everything from Bizarro Fiction to True Crime) and the best of everything else we read. Join us! You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards Favourite Non-Fiction read in 2019: For the podcast:  Anna:  Your Black Friend and Other Strangers by Ben Passmore The Mental Load: A Feminist Comic by Emma Episode 084 - Political Non-Fiction Matthew:  The Antifa Comic Book: 100 Years of Fascism and Antifa Movements by Gord Hill The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book by Gord Hill RJ:  I’ll Be Gone In the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara Episode 080 - True Crime Meghan:  The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich Not for the podcast:  Matthew:  You Look Like a Thing and I Love You: How Artificial Intelligence Works and Why It's Making the World a Weirder Place by Janelle Shane AI Weirdness blog Twitter thread including neural net generated smut titles - Featuring “Sex Tongs” and “The Nutwoble Resort” RJ:  Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob Meghan:  How to do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell Anna: They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib Thick and Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom Favourite Fiction read in 2019: For the podcast RJ: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson  Episode 086 - American Gothic Meghan:  Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes Episode 078 - Supernatural Thrillers Anna:  Gutshot by Amelia Gray Episode 074 - Short Story Collections Matthew: Robots vs. Fairies edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe Not for the podcast Meghan:  All Systems Red by Martha Wells Anna:  Abara: Complete Deluxe Edition by Tsutomu Nihei Matthew:  Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee RJ:  Next Year, For Sure by Zoey Leigh Peterson Favourite other stuff from 2019: Meghan:  Au-dela des limites: L'histoire des sports en fauteuil roulant by Judith Lussier and Donald Royer Les petits garcons by Sophie Bédard Matthew: Grease Bats by Archie Bongiovanni Lego Rewind Lego Rewind Ep.20- Halloween Special RJ:  A Tour of My Plants by Jenna Marbles Anna:  SciShow Safiya Nigard Jungle Chvrches Billie Eilish Lizzo Flume Sofi Tukker King Princess The Dø Like a Version (triple j) CHVRCHES cover Arctic Monkeys 'Do I Wanna Know?' for Like A Version CHVRCHES cover Kendrick Lamar 'LOVE.' for Like A Version Runner ups (not necessarily mentioned in the podcast): Meghan: The Black God's Drums by P. Djèlí Clark The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore by Kim Fu The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro and Daniel Kraus  The Breakaway by Nicole Cooke Invisible: How Young Women with Serious Health Issues Navigate Work, Relationships, and the Pressure to Seem Just Fine by Michele Lent Hirsch Anna:  The Good University: What Universities Actually Do and Why It’s Time for Radical Change by Raewyn Connell For Her Own Good: Two Centuries of the Experts' Advice to Women by Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English Nine Pints: A Journey Through the Money, Medicine, and Mysteries of Blood by Rose George Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History by Bill Schutt Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos by Lucy Knisely Beneath the Dead Oak Tree by Emily Carroll Matthew:  Fiction Clade by James Bradley A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White Our Lady of the Ice by Cassandra Rose Clarke Non-Fiction Thrill-Power Overload: The First Forty Years by David Bishop and Karl Stock Academia Obscura by Glen Wright 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act: Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality by Bob Joseph Comics Hex Vet, vol. 1: Witches in Training by Sam Davies Stonebreaker by Peter Wartman My Brother's Husband, Volume 2 by Gengoroh Tagame Sugar & Spike: Metahuman Investigations by Keith Giffen and Bilquis Evely Melody: Story of a Nude Dancer by Sylvie Rancourt (the first Canadian autobio comic) SP4RX by Wren McDonald (Cyberpunk!) Your Black Friend and Other Strangers by Ben Passmore O Human Star, Volume One by Blue Delliquanti Hilda and the Mountain King by Luke Pearson Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu Coda, Vol. 1 by Simon Spurrier and Matías Bergara Witch Hat Atelier, Vol. 1 by Kamome Shirahama RJ Pokémon Cafe Ghibli Museum I’m Afraid of Men by Vivek Shraya When I Arrived at the Castle by Emily Carroll Radishes by Carolyn Nowak (also published in Girl Town) Can I Be Your Dog? by Troy Cummings Santa’s Husband by Danielle Kibblesmith & AP Quach Links, Articles, and Things Visual novel (Wikipedia) Now Kiss — Love Thyself - A Horatio Story Doki Doki Literature Club! (Wikipedia) Top Visual Novel games - itch.io We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson Ida B. Wells (Wikipedia) Hermitude cover Nirvana 'Heart-Shaped Box' for Like A Version Ft. Jaguar Jonze Check out our Pinterest board and Tumblr posts, follow us on Twitter or Instagram, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email! Join us again on Tuesday, January 7th we’ll be talking about the non-fiction genre of Art! Then on Tuesday, January 21st we’ll be talking about our Reading Resolutions for 2020!

Thanks for joining us! This month we’re discussing All Systems Red by Martha Wells. The self-named Murderbot doesn’t really want to stop binge-watching media content long enough to do its boring security job for a bunch of humans surveying an unknown planet. But when an unknown life-form attacks one of the team, Murderbot is forced to…

In This Episode: The Book Evangelists discuss Dodger by Terry Pratchett Morning Chatter: In which we briefly discuss the disruptions of tornado warnings and completely fail to warn the listener that Lissa has banana bread baking in her oven. Dodger by Terry Pratchett at Goodreads: A storm. Rain-lashed city streets. A flash of lightning. A scruffy lad sees a girl leap desperately from a horse-drawn carriage in a vain attempt to escape her captors. Can the lad stand by and let her be caught again? Of course not, because he's...Dodger. Seventeen-year-old Dodger may be a street urchin, but he gleans a living from London's sewers, and he knows a jewel when he sees one. He's not about to let anything happen to the unknown girl--not even if her fate impacts some of the most powerful people in England. From Dodger's encounter with the mad barber Sweeney Todd to his meetings with the great writer Charles Dickens and the calculating politician Benjamin Disraeli, history and fantasy intertwine in a breathtaking account of adventure and mystery. Beloved and bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett combines high comedy with deep wisdom in this tale of an unexpected coming-of-age and one remarkable boy's rise in a complex and fascinating world. description from the publisher This blog post is spoiler-free. On the podcast, we discuss Dodger by Terry Pratchett and our discussion is filled with minor spoilers, so please read the book before you listen if you are into that kind of experience. We'll be here for you when you finish! • How do you decide to write about real historical people? Or to reuse other writer's fictional characters? • Why was Marian so excited to see Joseph Bazalgette show up as a character in this story? • As a reader, how do you decide whether to still read or like a book if you disagree with the author's twitter or media reports about their life? • How much does an editor affect the author's work? • What kind of legacy of notes and unfinished manuscripts will you leave behind at the end of your long and prosperous writer's life? How do those additional materials affect reader experience? • What now-long-dead authors would you follow on twitter if you could, to see their day to day thoughts? • How do book recommendations from authors work and why? • And for all of these things - how do we do these things better as writers for our own potential readers? Writing and Reading Experiments: Marian recommends: MasterClass, starting with Neil Gaiman Teaches The Art of Storytelling and has branched out to the Dan Brown and Billy Collins writing classes Lissa panics about the question "What are you Reading?" and will be reading Out Stealing Horses for a book club she leads. She admits she keeps going back to re-read The City in the Middle of the Night instead of reading new books because it is a book "about snuggling" and "about how you figure yourself out." Marian recommends All Systems Red by Martha Wells which has a self-aware murder robot. Next episode: We are reading and listening to the 5-star SF/FF audiobooks and books that we have recommended to each other recently, possibly including The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders and Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett.

Wer hätte gedacht, dass wir uns mal derartig für Novellen begeistern würden. Vier kleine Büchlein hat Martha Wells geschrieben, über eine sogenannte Sec-Unit, einen Androiden, der sich von der Kontrolle durch die Company befreit und den Namen murderbot gegeben hat. Eine Sec-Unit auf der Suche nach einer Antwort, was in der Vergangenheit passiert ist, die man aus ihrem Speicher gelöscht hat. Wird sie dabei auffliegen? Wird man sie auseinandernehmen? Und wie können Menschen eigentlich die ganze Zeit so dumm sein? Actionreich, philosophisch und verdammt witzig. Wir sprechen über die Murderbot Diaries.The Murderbot Diaries - Vier Novellen von Martha Wells.Prequel-Story zum ersten Band, beim Magazin wired. Spielt vor All Systems Red.Network Effect, der erste Murderbot Roman kommt voraussichtlich im Mai 2020.The Circle - Dave EggersUnabhängige Maschinen bei Becky Chambers - die future ltd.-FolgeZitat:I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then i realized, I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company channels. - Murderbot

Strap in and activate your blast shields for a discussion of surly robots, bad employees, and the value of cheesy tv as we discuss All Systems Red by Martha Wells.

Murderbot er en SecUnit – en blanding af maskindele og menneskedele proppet med våben. Og som med alle SecUnits er det Murderbots lod, at være vagt og passe på de mennesker, som “The Corporation” beder den om at vogte. En SecUnits Governor Module sikrer, at de potente cyborgs ikke kan andet end at adlyde. Men […] Indlægget Ep. 57: Martha Wells, All Systems Red blev først udgivet på SCIFI SNAK.

Erica Christianson, Assistant Director at Ela Area Public Library, and makes the case for listening to and enjoying audiobooks. You’re already listening to a podcast - give it a try! 01:03 Meet our guest Erica Christensen02:07 The twist in this episode03:33 Cool story about books05:43 Opinions about Jim Dale07:28 Audiobook 1- Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl09:32 Christen mentions Strange Stars13:35 Audiobook 2- Spoonbenders17:04 Erica’s other favorite books of 201820:44 Audiobook 3- Marsh King’s Daughter23:45 Erica’s favorite narrators27:24 Christen’s top 3 audiobook performances32:51 Christen’s audiobook narrator crush34:34 Becca’s 3 Audiobooks38:56 Becca’s Narrator crush39:40 Speeding up audiobooks- pro or con?47:46 Erica’s QuoteErica’s Three Books: Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein (read by the author)Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory (read by Ari Fliakos)Marsh King’s Daughter by Karen Dionne (read by Emily Rankin) Other Titles/Information Discussed: Rootabaga Stories by Carl SandburgThe Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson BurnettLittle House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls WilderLord of the Rings by J. R. R. TolkienHarry Potter (read by Jim Dale)The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (read by Jim Dale) Mr. Men & Little Miss Books by Roger Hargreaves (read by Jim Dale) Discworld Series (and Tiffany Aching) by Terry Pratchett (read by Stephen Briggs)Strange Stars: David Bowie, Pop Music, and the Decade Sci-Fi Exploded by Jason HellerShrill by Lindy West (read by the author) GuRu by RuPaul Charles (read by the author) Bossypants by Tina Fey (read by the author)Yes, Please by Amy Poehler (read by the author) You Can’t Touch My Hair and Other Things I Still Have to Explain by Phoebe Robinson (read by the author) Everything Is Trash (But It’s Okay) by Phoebe Robinson (read by the author) All Systems Red by Martha WellsThe Animators by Kayla Rae WhitakerThe Immoralists by Chloe BenjaminSavvy by Ingrid LawNOS4A2 by Joe Hill (read by Kate Mulgrew) The Fireman by Joe Hill (read by Kate Mulgrew) Christine by Stephen King Check out Hoopla for audiobooks! Email: threebookspodcast@gmail.comTwitter - @threebookspod

Due to recording issues you’ll notice that Hamish’s audio isn’t coming through until around 12 minutes in, apologies for that!In this episode Banana Chan, Kira Magrann, Hamish Cameron, and Fraser Simons talk about unappreciated gems of cyberpunk. Some are little known, some underrated, and some just deserve more love. From novels to anime to movies.Cyberpunk discussed: Upgrade, Sense8, Johnny Mnemonic, Almost Human, Continuum, Mardock Scramble, Remember Me, The Red Strings Club, He, She & It, Storming the Reality Studio, The Glitch Logs, Cybernetic Punk, All Systems Red, Darling in the Franxx, Tetsuo, Videodrome, Bound, The Matrix, Elysium, Tangential things: Justice League, Aquaman, Birds of Prey, Saw, Raymond Chandler, Red Harvest, Yojimbo,

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, become independent? Can it outfox its human inventors, be guided by self-interest, have feelings? While companies like Google and Facebook are competing to develop A.I. technology, science fiction writers are light years ahead of them, finding answers to these questions in their imaginations. One of the most engaging A.I.s in recent years is Martha Wells’ Murderbot, a people-averse, soap-opera loving, snark-spewing and highly efficient killing machine. The first book in Wells’ Murderbot Diaries, All Systems Red, earned numerous honors this year, including Nebula and Locus awards. It also made the short list for the Philip K. Dick and Hugo awards. The second and third books—Artificial Condition, which came out in May, and Rogue Protocol, out next week on Aug. 7—are equally engaging, taking Murderbot on a journey of self discovery that one hopes will eventually allow it a chance to retire from the business of saving human lives and spend its days watching its beloved “entertainment media” in peace. “Does it have a place in this world?” is the question at the back of its mind, Wells says. “It can’t go back to its corporate owner, which would destroy or erase it for going rogue; and it’s not sure it wants to go to a human who is offering it a home because it would still essentially be property.” Despite its name, Murderbot is only murderous when work requires it. As it says on the first page of All Systems Red, “As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.” Thus, even though it could seek revenge against its human taskmasters, try to amass power or wreak havoc (since it has “borked” the programs that restrain its behavior), it voluntarily elects to continue performing the function for which it was designed—providing security to “small soft” humans. Why it so often says “yes” to a dangerous assignment when it really wants to hide in a closet is as much a mystery to it as our motivations are to us. Perhaps all forms of “intelligence,” artificial or otherwise, could benefit from a few sessions on an analyst’s couch. Wells has incorporated aspects of herself in Murderbot, a fact that resonates with readers. “I have some problems with anxiety and OCD and I’ve put those into the character… and one of the interesting things that’s happened is that people who also have bad anxiety and have other issues say that they saw themselves in this character and that was heartwarming to me.” The final book in the series of novellas, Exit Strategy, is due out in October. Rob Wolf is the host of New Books in Science Fiction and the author of The Alternate Universe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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, become independent? Can it outfox its human inventors, be guided by self-interest, have feelings? While companies like Google and Facebook are competing to develop A.I. technology, science fiction writers are light years ahead of them, finding answers to these questions in their imaginations. One of the most engaging A.I.s in recent years is Martha Wells’ Murderbot, a people-averse, soap-opera loving, snark-spewing and highly efficient killing machine. The first book in Wells’ Murderbot Diaries, All Systems Red, earned numerous honors this year, including Nebula and Locus awards. It also made the short list for the Philip K. Dick and Hugo awards. The second and third books—Artificial Condition, which came out in May, and Rogue Protocol, out next week on Aug. 7—are equally engaging, taking Murderbot on a journey of self discovery that one hopes will eventually allow it a chance to retire from the business of saving human lives and spend its days watching its beloved “entertainment media” in peace. “Does it have a place in this world?” is the question at the back of its mind, Wells says. “It can’t go back to its corporate owner, which would destroy or erase it for going rogue; and it’s not sure it wants to go to a human who is offering it a home because it would still essentially be property.” Despite its name, Murderbot is only murderous when work requires it. As it says on the first page of All Systems Red, “As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.” Thus, even though it could seek revenge against its human taskmasters, try to amass power or wreak havoc (since it has “borked” the programs that restrain its behavior), it voluntarily elects to continue performing the function for which it was designed—providing security to “small soft” humans. Why it so often says “yes” to a dangerous assignment when it really wants to hide in a closet is as much a mystery to it as our motivations are to us. Perhaps all forms of “intelligence,” artificial or otherwise, could benefit from a few sessions on an analyst’s couch. Wells has incorporated aspects of herself in Murderbot, a fact that resonates with readers. “I have some problems with anxiety and OCD and I’ve put those into the character… and one of the interesting things that’s happened is that people who also have bad anxiety and have other issues say that they saw themselves in this character and that was heartwarming to me.” The final book in the series of novellas, Exit Strategy, is due out in October. Rob Wolf is the host of New Books in Science Fiction and the author of The Alternate Universe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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, become independent? Can it outfox its human inventors, be guided by self-interest, have feelings? While companies like Google and Facebook are competing to develop A.I. technology, science fiction writers are light years ahead of them, finding answers to these questions in their imaginations. One of the most engaging A.I.s in recent years is Martha Wells’ Murderbot, a people-averse, soap-opera loving, snark-spewing and highly efficient killing machine. The first book in Wells’ Murderbot Diaries, All Systems Red, earned numerous honors this year, including Nebula and Locus awards. It also made the short list for the Philip K. Dick and Hugo awards. The second and third books—Artificial Condition, which came out in May, and Rogue Protocol, out next week on Aug. 7—are equally engaging, taking Murderbot on a journey of self discovery that one hopes will eventually allow it a chance to retire from the business of saving human lives and spend its days watching its beloved “entertainment media” in peace. “Does it have a place in this world?” is the question at the back of its mind, Wells says. “It can’t go back to its corporate owner, which would destroy or erase it for going rogue; and it’s not sure it wants to go to a human who is offering it a home because it would still essentially be property.” Despite its name, Murderbot is only murderous when work requires it. As it says on the first page of All Systems Red, “As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.” Thus, even though it could seek revenge against its human taskmasters, try to amass power or wreak havoc (since it has “borked” the programs that restrain its behavior), it voluntarily elects to continue performing the function for which it was designed—providing security to “small soft” humans. Why it so often says “yes” to a dangerous assignment when it really wants to hide in a closet is as much a mystery to it as our motivations are to us. Perhaps all forms of “intelligence,” artificial or otherwise, could benefit from a few sessions on an analyst’s couch. Wells has incorporated aspects of herself in Murderbot, a fact that resonates with readers. “I have some problems with anxiety and OCD and I’ve put those into the character… and one of the interesting things that’s happened is that people who also have bad anxiety and have other issues say that they saw themselves in this character and that was heartwarming to me.” The final book in the series of novellas, Exit Strategy, is due out in October. Rob Wolf is the host of New Books in Science Fiction and the author of The Alternate Universe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is dedicated to audiobooks and the road trip snacks to go with them. We discuss "A Man Called Ove," "Bossypants," "Barracoon," "All Systems Red," and more!

Check It Out host Mari McKeeth examines Normal Public Library's science fiction offerings with Kristi Cates, our Teen Librarian and resident SciFi reader and advisor. She also buys all of our SciFi, by the way! Pretty cool job, huh? Titles that our host and guest discuss include: All Systems Red by Martha Wells Space Opera by Catherynne Valente The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill Lock In and Head On by John Scalzi An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon Let us know what you think! Email us! Tweet at us!

Luke and Juliane talk about the Murderbot Diaries novella All Systems Red by Martha Wells. Get this audiobook for free, or any of 100,000 other titles, as part of a free trial by visiting this link: http://www.audibletrial.com/sfbrp. Buy this book at , or discuss this book at Goodreads.com Luke blogs at: http://www.lukeburrage.com/blog Follow Luke on […]

It's all systems go for All Systems Red by Martha Wells, a short and sweet sci-fi thriller about a robot who has become self-aware, and would rather be watching soap operas than helping its human companions. The gang get real about all things futuristic, there's some unexpectedly impressive casting from Ben, and we fondly remember a certain 90s heroine who can turn in to a puddle. Join us! ----- Tell us what you think about the book! Or the podcast! Or send us a sample of your Grade 5 writing skills! We are @bookwhostalking on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, and Goodreads. And you can email us at bookwhostalking.podcast@gmail.com.

Josie is stopping by to tell you what what we're reading this month - All Systems Red, by Martha Wells. The first book in a new series of novellas called The Murderbot Diaries, All Systems Red is a short and snappy read about a robot who's trying to figure out what "life" is all about, and who would rather be watching TV than dealing with humans (and, funnily enough, we can all relate). Get it read (we promise it won't take you long) in time for our next main episode, out at the end of April. Happy Reading!

Murderbot! We review and discuss "All Systems Red" by Martha Wells.

We discuss The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden and the first volume of the rebooted Young Avengers, Style > Substance. Then we chat with Martha Wells, author of one of our favorite novellas of 2017, All Systems Red. 🐝You can read a transcript of this episode! 🐝 Feedback & Updates; 01:16 Smugglivus 2017 The […] The post Fangirl Happy Hour, Episode #105 – Gods & Monsters appeared first on Fangirl Happy Hour.

Back from the dead! We snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and record our first episode with Santos in L.A! We discuss Crowd Crow, the new site that lets you get grass fed beef directly from ranchers, Big Little Lies, the amazing sci-fi gem All Systems Red by Martha Wells, the new Rainer Maria record and concert, Santos favorite new spots to indulge in LA and much more!