Spectology: The Science Fiction Book Club Podcast

We got your hot takes right here, folks! Matt's back for a super-quick wrap-up of our series on The New & Improved Romie Futch by Julia Elliott. 

Matt reveals his favorite scenes from the book, we go down some rabbit holes talking about taxidermy and halloween costumes, and discuss about why growth as an adult is so difficult & important. We also mention the phrase "Soft Apocalypse" a bunch, which comes from the phenomenal book by that title by Will McIntosh. And manage to keep it under 30 minutes!

Next week we'll be back with another long episode, discussing Nick Harkaway's Gnomon with fantasy author Max Gladstone!

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As always, we'd love to hear from you! Tweet us at @spectologypod, submit the episode at r/printSF, or email us at spectologypod@gmail.com with your thoughts about the book.

Many thanks to Dubby J and Noah Bradley for doing our music and art.

We're back for our post-read episode of The New and Improved Romie Futch. This time, our friend Brittney O'Duffy dropped by to give her thoughts on the novel. She and Adrian discuss education as a gateway between socio-economic class in America, the use of the male gaze in Romie Futch, marketing analytics & the surviellance state, recontextualize the "millenials are killing X" think-pieces, and much much more. Sadly, Matt couldn't be with us this time, but he and Adrian will have a short wrap-up episode next week. 

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As always, we'd love to hear from you! Tweet us at @spectologypod, submit the episode at r/printSF, or email us at spectologypod@gmail.com with your thoughts about the book.

Many thanks to Dubby J and Noah Bradley for doing our music and art.

What is a spoiler? Why do we care about them? How do different people react to them? Do fan communities police spoilers too much? If a spoiler makes you like something more, is it really a spoiler? 

This week, Matt and Adrian talk about their own reading habits and how they think about "spoilers" both in their own reading, and when interacting with others. 

This episode is part of a new series we're calling "In Conversation", shorter episodes where we talk about one topic in the SFF world. Sometimes we'll have a guest, and sometimes it'll just be us. 

We always love hearing from listeners, but for these In Conversation episodes we're particularly keen to start a conversation! So please let us know what you think. Tweet us at @spectologypod, submit the episode at r/printSF, or email us at spectologypod@gmail.com with your thoughts about the topic.

Many thanks to Dubby J and Noah Bradley for doing our music and art.

July's book is The New and Improved Romie Futch, by Julia Elliott. Julia is an English and Women's & Gender Studies professor at the University of South Carolina, as well as an accalimed short story writer. Her first novel, Romie Futch follows the titular character, Roman, as he goes from schlubby taxidermist in rural South Carolina to a brain-enhansed schlubby taxidermist in rural South Carolina. 

In this spoiler-free, pre-read episode, Adrian & Matt give you the book facts, as well as discussing rural life in modern America, how education acts as a gateway between social classes, and masculinity in science fiction. We also touch on the genre of "weird fiction" and discuss the different influences on Romie Futch, from Faulkner to Lovecraft to Le Guin.

Some of the books & articles we mention:

- Adrian's short article Six SF Books to Read in the Age of Trump, where he talks about Romie Futch in #5.
- NYT Review of Romie Futch
- Tin House Magazine ("Candy" has a story by Julia, and "Summer Reading" features the last story by Ursula K. Le Guin)
- William Faulkner (southern gothic)
- The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin
- Three Moments of an Explosion, stories by China Miéville
- Ice by Anna Kavan
- The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier

In addition, you should check out the last episode we recorded, the interview with Tobias Buckell. A lot of that discussion will be relevant towards Romie Futch—we talk about climate change, economics of rural places in American, and more. 

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As always, we'd love to hear from you! Tweet us at @spectologypod, submit the episode at r/printSF, or email us at spectologypod@gmail.com with your thoughts about the book.

Many thanks to Dubby J and Noah Bradley for doing our music and art.

Do we have a great episode for you today oh boy! 

As a coda to our series on Binti and Afrofuturism, we invited Caribbean SF author Tobias Buckell to teach us about science fiction from the islands. Tobias has a patreon at patreon.com/tobiasbuckell, which you should check out if you enjoy this episode, and find him on twitter at @tobiasbuckell.

We mention a lot of books, stories and more in this episode. Links are below or at our website, spectology.com, if they don't show up in your podcatcher.

Three Stories Tobias had us read before the discussion:
- Toy Planes by Tobias S. Buckell
- The Glass Bottle Trick by Nalo Hopkinson
- Redemption in Indigo (excerpt) by Karen Lord

Two other stories of Tobias' that we discuss:
- Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance
- Shoggoths in Traffic

Two reviews of his work that explain Tobias' caribbean themes well:
- Space Rastas by Lisa Allen-Agostini (review of Raggamuffin)
- The Shock of the New Normal by Nisi Shawl (review of Hurricane Fever)

Other Caribbean authors & books:
- An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
- The Black God's Drums (pre-order) by P. Djèlí Clark
- Karen Lord, including the anthology New Worlds, Old Ways
- Brandon O'Brien's twitter and short stories
- Lex Talionis by RAS Garcia
- Nalo Hopkinson
- Gemsigns by Stephanie Saulter
- Buffalo Soldier by Maurice Broaddus
- And also check out CaribbeanSF.com for more of Tobias' recommendations.

Finally, some non-fiction works that have influenced Tobias' work:
- The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report
- US Navy Climate Change Roadmap
- Women in Grenadian History, 1783-1983 by Nicole Laurine Phillip (as presented at the USVI Lit Fest)

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Finally, we announced our next book: The New and Improved Romie Futch by Julia Eliott. Stay tuned for our pre-read discussion on that next week.

As always, we'd love to hear from you! Tweet us at @spectologypod, submit the episode at r/printSF, or email us at spectologypod@gmail.com with your thoughts about the book.

Many thanks to Dubby J and Noah Bradley for doing our music and art. And a big thanks again to Tobias for chatting with us, make sure to hit up his Patreon for original SF stories each month.