07-28-12 UPDATE:Podcast Update: Time to Read Episode 56: Deborah Harkness, 'Shadow of Night'
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Here's the fifty-sixth episode of my new series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. The podcasts/radio broadcasts will be of books worth your valuable reading time. I'll try to keep the reports under four minutes, for a radio-friendly format. If you want to run them on your show or podcast, let me know.
My hope is that in under four minutes I can offer readers a concise review and an opportunity to hear the author read from or speak about the work. I'm hoping to offer a new one every week.
The fifty-sixth episode is a look at Deborah Harkness, 'Shadow of Night.'
Robert J. Sawyer is a master of proof and consequences. He can prove that something exists by sheer dint of his imagination and the prose power he brings to back it up. Then, he demonstrates the consequences, in terms of how the products of his imagination, carefully researched, impact the human characters he creates. The first impact is a toe-tapping plot that keeps you engaged as a reader pretty much until you finish the book.
His latest book is 'Triggers,' a near future SF thriller. I'll let him set it up as he does so well in his reading at SF in SF last month. But I will comment that he ventures into the sort of territory that could very well land him on the bestseller list, again. He's also one hell of a reader of his own work. I can imagine him in a Robert E. Howard moment, talking his way through the work in much the same manner as he reads it. This man is filled with the sort of enthusiasm with which he infects his readers.
Interviews with Rachel Swirsky and Robert J. Sawyer
SF in SF is quite often like a little mastercalss in writing and this was clearly the case on June 16 when Rachel Swirsky took over the short story duties while Robert J. Sawyer talked about how he creates novels like 'Flashforward' and 'Triggers.' This is even more evident when I sat down to talk with them.
Rachel and I got straight to the point with how she crafted the entertaining voice in her story, "Death and the All-Night Donut Shop." But that's not typical of everything she does so we went much father afield.
Sawyer and I talked about his ability to craft novels that take a single Big Idea and spin it a million different directions. You can hear how he is able to keep up his incredibly prolific rate of writing by the level of energy in his voice. For a guy who has a TV series to his credit, and a number of bestselling, acclaimed novels, he's one of the most easygoing writers I've talked to.
07-23-12 UPDATE:Podcast Update:Time to Read Episode 55: Carlos Ruiz Zafón, 'The Prisoner of Heaven'
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Here's the fifty-fifth episode of my new series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. The podcasts/radio broadcasts will be of books worth your valuable reading time. I'll try to keep the reports under four minutes, for a radio-friendly format. If you want to run them on your show or podcast, let me know. This is last week's edition, late, as I was traveling in LA capturing some great new interviews. Expect another, on time, later this week.
My hope is that in under four minutes I can offer readers a concise review and an opportunity to hear the author read from or speak about the work. I'm hoping to offer a new one every week.
"...we create myths, we create religion, we create beliefs..."
— Carlos Ruiz Zafón
It is always a pleasure to sit down and speak with Carlos Ruiz Zafón about his latest work, yet this time was a true celebration. His latest novel, 'The Prisoner of Heaven' is so much fun to read, so packed with humor and joy that it is hard not to smile when you look back on reading it. On its own it is utterly outstanding; and yet, in the context of 'The Shadow of the Wind' and 'The Angel's Game,' it is much, much more.
All that more is a lot to chat about, but Carlos and I had a great hour to do so at KQED. It's easy to tell how excited Zafón is about this book, and it's easy to see why. 'The Shadow of the Wind' is a glorious novel of love and discovery. 'The Angel's Game' is a harrowing descent into madness, a gothic horror story that explores the darkest places of the human soul, beautifully rendered.
'The Prisoner of Heaven' is a curious novel that manages offer joy, horror, revelation and anticipation. As a writer, Zafón is just getting to see the best parts of his literary cathedral take shape. The joy is not yet over, and neither is the horror. But Zafón knows how to render his horror in a manner from which his readers may derive joy in their reading experience. Readers, take heart; here is an author who is thinking of you. These are books that are designed to be re-read, a world that can be endlessly explored.
08-21-15: Agony Column Podcast News Report : Senator Claire McCaskill is 'Plenty Ladylike' : Internalizing Determination to Overcome Sexism [Incudes Time to Read EP 211: Claire McCaskill, Plenty Ladylike, plus A 2015 Interview with Senator Claire McCaskill]
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Emily Schultz Unleashes 'The Blondes' : A Cure by Color [Incudes Time to Read EP 210: Emily Schultz, The Blondes, plus A 2015 Interview with Emily Schultz]
07-05-15: Commentary : Dr. Michael Gazzaniga Tells Tales from Both Sides of the Brain : A Life in Neuroscience Reveals the Life of Science
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Michael Gazzaniga : "We made the first observation and BAM there was the disconnection effect..."
04-21-15: Commentary : Kazuo Ishiguro Unearths 'The Buried Giant' : The Mist of Myth and Memory
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Kazuo Ishiguro : ".... by the time I was writing this novel, the lines between what was fantasy and what was real had blurred for me..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Marc Goodman : "...every physical object around us is being transformed, one way or another, into an information technology..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 199: Marc Goodman : Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It
