03-02-13 UPDATE:Podcast Update: Time to Read Episode 87: Robert R. McCammon, 'I Travel by Night'
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Here's the eighty-fifth episode of my series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. Hitting the one-year mark, I'm going to make an effort to stay ahead, so that podcast listeners can get the same sort of "sneak preview" effect that radio listeners get each Friday morning.
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 eighty-fifth episode is a look at Robert R. McCammon and 'I Travel by Night.'
02-28-13:Steven Gould Interviewed at SF in SF on January 19, 2013
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"...it came out of what-if..."
—Steven Gould
Steven Gould's novels are quite crisp and clear, though they don't seem calculated. So it might not come as much of a surprise that when I sat down with him to talk about 'Impulse,' that he told me his ability to use elements of the fantastic to externalize the family problems he addresses is not conscious. One asks such questions with a bit of hesitation, hoping Gould himself will not decide to teleport to another location, one where he does not have to answer questions.
I was glad that did not happen this time around. Gould told me that he had recently spoken with Cory Doctorow, who suggested that Gould took a fairly simple approach to his fiction; he takes one concept, in this case teleportation, and goes deep, considering every permutation of every implication. It's a good observation and a classic technique of writing science fiction.
In talking with Gould about his fiction, I found the author to be very intelligent and rather soft-spoken, considering how hard-edged his stories are. But I realize that there is a certain contradiction to that perception; Gould takes a hard-science fiction approach to what might be called soft science fiction, but the real motivating force for his work is his ability to find a story that grows from his own experiences naturally.
The novels he writes and the stories he tells are of course nothing like his own life, but at the same time, they are intimately informed by his own life. This is clearly what makes his stories so damnably real, even when he's dealing in the patently unreal. To a degree, there's a Buddhist belief set at the core of these stories in Gould's ability to embrace opposing notions with the grace of story, prose and character.
02-26-13:Laura J. Mixon Interviewed at SF in SF on January 19, 2013
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"...we'd have to change ourselves..."
—Laura J. Mixon
Laura J. Mixon managed one of those head-turning performances at SF in SF on January 19, 2013, as she read from a forthcoming novel, 'Child Left Behind.' It left many in the audience, and listeners to the podcast afterwards, wanting to go out and get the book now.
As I sat down to talk with her, I had a lot of questions for this talented writer, and we managed to get a fair slice of time. Mixon talked about what many consider the basics of science fiction — giant robots and technology — and how her love of these lead her to the human side of the equation. She's an engineer when she's not writing great fiction, and she's married to Steven Gould; they have a family. The family dynamics play a critical role in her work.
Much of her work as M. J. Locke is set so far in the future that she's unmoored from concerns of the present. While this gives her a lot of freedom, it also to a degree, offers too much choice. The "blank canvas" effect works with regards to the far future as well as the artist deciding what to paint.
With close-the-present work, such as "Child Left Behind," Mixon gets to use her knowledge of current events and tech to write extrapolate in the manner of classic science fiction. Travel to other planets in our solar system is a staple, so Mixon' interest in this field was bound to find a story. We can just be glad she fond one so compelling from out of the gate.
But even in her far future books, Mixon has to pay attention to the present, and not just the technology. Our society is undergoing change as rapid as our technology, Mixon has to make sure that her societies of the future do not reflect aspects of a past that never existed.
"..he would shell somebody with one hand and then embrace them with the other..."
— Gregory Johnsen
Gregory Johnsen is immersed in the world of 'The Last Refuge: Yemen, al-Qaeda, and America's War in Arabia.' I must admit that it was only as I wrote the review of the book that I realized the part that world-building plays here. That's what enables Johnsen to turn news is story and history into a suspenseful, exciting and informative book.
For Johnsen, the book was all about the story, not just the news. As we discussed 'The Last Refuge,' the pleasures of the reading experience returned. realized that John creates the places that he describes so well that as a reader, after you've read the book, you can go back and visit the scenes in your mind. It takes a certain kind of talent to extract the story from all the data, and Johnsen and I talked about finding the story in the headlines.
Johnsen has traveled extensively in Yemen, and understands the importance of the differences between the culture there and our own culture. Moreover, he understands how the political history that you can read about helped shape the characters he wrote about.
Johnsen's talents as writer are matched by his talents as a speaker. It's one thing to write a deeply researched book, but as we spoke, I came to understand that he had internalized the research to such a deep level that he was able to call up analysis and story at the same time, and analyze his own process.
I probably could have talked to Johnsen for twice as long about this book, because there\'s a great deal of detail that is really enjoyable to read, but I wanted more to tease out the threads he uses to connect all the details. I have to say that the book is much funnier than you would expect, and we talked about the humor, which is matched, word for word, by the horror. The ineptitude of Al Qaeda is not what you read about in the paper or see on the news.
Johnsen himself has been in the news of late, writing essays for the front page of the New York Times, and we talked about the difference between writing the book and writing for the papers. When you read this book, or even, I think, listen to this interview, your vision of news from this part of the world is irrevocably altered.
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
