Spectology: The Science Fiction Book Club Podcast

Interview w/ the Hugo Administrator, Will Frank, on how & why to get involved with the Hugos

Tue, 08 Dec 2020 00:17:56 -0400

Today Adrian is joined by Will Frank, this year's Hugo Awards Administrator, to talk all things Hugos. We discuss why you might want to nominate and vote for the Hugos, how exactly to get membership to do so (anyone can do it!), the special Video Game award, and why recent events that might have turned some people off will hopefully not be repeated this year.

I was really happy Will came on, and found it really fascinating to learn about how the Hugos actually work behind the scene, and the people like Will who actually count votes and work hard to make the Hugos happen. I appreciate him taking some challenging questions from me about past Hugos and how things are improving. I also was really happy to learn about how to volunteer in the Hugos, something I hadn't considered as an option before but is open to everyone.

This came about through Olav at the wonderful Hugo Book Club blog after hearing my In Conversation: How & Why to Vote for the Hugo Awards episode, so many thanks to them for putting this together. Finally, this is our first episode after a long hiatus! More are to come very soon, Matt is back in the recording studio and we'll be doing our podcast finale & wrap-up over the next month or so, along with some returning guests.

Links: Worldcon for general & historical Hugo information: https://www.worldcon.org DisCon III for nominating & voting, and attending memberships: https://discon3.org Volunteering: https://discon3.org/get-involved/volunteer/ Memberships: https://discon3.org/membership/membership-information/

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As always, we'd love to hear from you! Chat with us on twitter at @spectologypod, send us an email at mailbox@spectology.com, or submit the episode to r/printSF on reddit. We'll reply, and shout you out in the next podcast when we talk about your comment.

And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

Announcement: Spectology "series finale" and the future of the podcast

Thu, 22 Oct 2020 23:43:08 -0300

Soo.... we've had a hard time keeping to a regular schedule recently, so Matt, Bee, & I (Adrian) have been discussing what we want the podcast to look like in the future.

In this episode, I just talk openly about those thoughts, our plan through the end of the year, and how the podcast might change come 2021. I may write up a longer thing later, but right now I just wanted to get this out in audio format & solicit feedback from everyone on what you might like to see & hear, and also ask for any notes you have for Matt which I can embarrass him on air with at some point before the end of the year.

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

To find links to all the books we've read, check us out on Bookshop.

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

28.2: Do You Dream of Terra-Two? post-read: Belief, Depression, and Courage in Sociological Hard SF

Fri, 16 Oct 2020 00:01:00 -0300

Bee is back (although Estelle could not join us due to IRL events) to discuss Temi Oh's wonderful debut novel, Do You Dream of Terra-Two? (https://bookshop.org/a/1159/9781534437401). With hints of Dark Eden, Semiosis, and Unkindness of Ghosts, this novel tackles the lives on a group of young people who are sent off to colonize a new world. It's probably the best book I've read this year, and one of the best we've read on this podcast. I do hope you enjoy us talking about belief, depression, building relationships, and why you're right not to trust adults in this episode. And please pick up & read this novel if you haven't yet, you won't regret it. (One note: we forgot the content warnings at the top, so be aware that there are frank discussions of depression, suicide, eating disorders, isolation, bullying, and more in this episode.)

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Make sure to follow Bee at their twitter & patreon.

And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

To find links to all the books we've read, check us out on Bookshop.

Many thanks to Dubby J our music.

Digital Book Tour: Kathleen Jennings on Flyaway: Small Towns, Fairytales, and Linguistics

Tue, 29 Sep 2020 00:15:01 -0300

This week Bee is joined by writer & artist Kathleen Jennings to talk about her book Flyaway.

Flyaway is a fairy tale-influenced (or structured?) Australian Gothic novel (or novella?). Small town landscapes and linguistics, productive misinterpretations of fairy tales, Kurt Vonnegut, and what it's like to write a strict first-person novel with a slew of other voices in it are some of the topics discussed.

* Kathleen's website: https://www.kathleenjennings.com/

* Flyaway on Kindle: https://amzn.to/3n21V6Q

* Flyaway on Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/1159/9781250260499

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Make sure to follow Bee at their twitter & patreon.

And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

To find links to all the books we've read, check us out on Bookshop.

Many thanks to Dubby J our music.

Digital Book Tour: Somaiya Daud on Mirage & Court of Lions: Body doubles, court politics, and historical science fantasy.

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 09:34:20 -0300

This week, Adrian is joined by Somaiya Daud to discuss her new book, Court of Lions, the 2nd in the Mirage Duology (https://bookshop.org/a/1159/9781250126450). Somaiya and Adrian discuss genre mash-ups, body doubles, court politics, the legacy of French colonialism on Moroccan culture, the lack of beautiful dresses in the newest Star Wars trilogy, and how our cats are handling quarantine. I had a wonderful time talking to her and am absolutely loving Mirage, the first book in this duology, so I hope you listen, pick up her books, and enjoy!

* Mirage on bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/1159/9781250126436

* Court of Lions on bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/1159/9781250126450

* The Mirage Duology on Kindle: https://amzn.to/3khFfxl

* A Phoenix First Must Burn: https://bookshop.org/a/1159/9781984835659

* Somaiya on Twitter (https://twitter.com/somaiyadaud) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/somaiiiya/)

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

To find links to all the books we've read, check us out on Bookshop.

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

28.1: Do You Dream of Terra-Two pre-read w/ Bee & Estelle: Alternate History, Destiny, and Space Travel

Tue, 08 Sep 2020 21:02:31 -0300

This month Adrian is joined by Bee & Estelle to talk about Do You Dream of Terra-Two? by new British author Temi Oh (https://bookshop.org/a/1159/9781534437401). Bee of course is from the Spectology podcast, where they run our Digital Book Tour. And Estelle runs the phenomenal Abolish Time zine on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abolish_time/ . You can also find an interview Bee did with Estelle at their blog: https://uninterpretative.blogspot.com/2019/09/talking-about-new-society-requires.html

Do You Dream of Terra-Two? tells the story of a group of teenagers who, in an alternate history where rocketry was developed earlier & for longer, are selected to go on a life-long mission to Terra-Two, an Earthlike planet found orbiting a nearby star. Bee & Estelle both call it one of their favorite novels ever, likening it to something by Butler or Le Guin.

I hope you enjoy the episode and the book! It was a pleasure recording with everyone. And we should have the post-read out towards the end of the month.

* Do You Dream of Terra-Two? on Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/a/1159/9781534437401

* Do You Dream of Terra-Two? on Kindle: https://amzn.to/3jZBkVP

* The Assets & Androids episode I mention: https://androidsandassets.ca/a-memory-called-canada/

* Bee's patreon: https://www.patreon.com/benladen

* Estelle's patreon: https://www.patreon.com/abolishtime

* Abolish Time: https://www.instagram.com/abolish_time/

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Make sure to follow Bee at their twitter & patreon.

And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

To find links to all the books we've read, check us out on Bookshop.

Many thanks to Dubby J our music.

27.2: The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull post-read w/ Lydia: Colonial Power in SF and Rural & Island Culture.

Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:01:00 -0300

Lydia joins us again as we discuss The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull!

We absolutely loved this novel, which details the life of island inhabitants living under a passively repressive regime of extra-terrestrials, who are here on Earth for unspecified reasons. There is resistance, there are people who want to work with the aliens, there are people who don't care. Their lives each gets looked at in depth. It's a beautiful book and one worth reading, and we have a really fun conversation, which I hope you will enjoy too!

* The Lesson on bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/a/1159/9781094081298 * The Lesson on Amazon: https://amzn.to/31gXsTN

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

To find links to all the books we've read, check us out on Bookshop.

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

Digital Book Tour: WM Akers on Westside Saints, detective novels, RPGs, and sequels

Tue, 18 Aug 2020 00:01:00 -0300

This week we're joined by WM Akers to promote his new novel, Westside Saints (https://bookshop.org/a/1159/9780062854049). Bee and WM talk Westside Saints (and its predecessor, Westside), an alternate history detective novel about a woman who solves "tiny mysteries" until they get much bigger. They also talk about how tabletop RPG design reflects and influences novel writing, the uprising in Philadelphia (Lakay Nou has since been renamed Camp JTD and is still regularly facing evictions), the scope of sequels, and more. * Westside Saints on bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/1159/9780062854049

* Westside Saints on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2CECqq0

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Make sure to follow Bee at their twitter & patreon.

And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

To find links to all the books we've read, check us out on Bookshop.

Many thanks to Dubby J our music.

Digital Book Tour: Nick Mamatas on Move Under Ground, a novel of Beat literary figures fighting Lovecraftian monsters

Thu, 13 Aug 2020 08:57:49 -0300

Today Bee is joined by Nick Mamatas, Bram Stoker award-winning editor & author of the just-re-released novel Move Under Ground. (https://bookshop.org/a/1159/9780486841861) Bee & Nick talk about writing modern Lovecraftian stories & his looming influence, the joy of reading referential stories, and typographic style as a carrier of meaning. The audio is a bit rough in this one, apologies! Nick was a pleasure to have on the pod though, and we're glad we were able to work through those audio issues. * Move Under Ground on Amazon * Move Under Ground on Bookshop

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Make sure to follow Bee at their twitter & patreon.

And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

To find links to all the books we've read, check us out on Bookshop.

Many thanks to Dubby J our music.

27.1: The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull pre-read w/ Lydia: Alien invasion and a history of capitalism & colonialism.

Tue, 04 Aug 2020 01:15:20 -0300

We're back? We're back. Mostly. This month Matt is still out, and Adrian is joined by Lydia, a childhood friend of his from Homer, Alaska, to talk about the post-colonial alien invasion story The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull (https://bookshop.org/a/1159/9781094081298). It's about life on the US Virgin Islands after an alien spaceship takes up home on St. Thomas, bringing both technology and violence with them. This episode was recorded nearly a month ago, and while we hadn't finished the book then, I can report from the future that it's super-great!

Lydia and I talk about life growing up in rural places, the history of European colonial rule & its ties to capitalism, and of course go on a few tangents along the way. We hope you enjoy! And please do pick up this book, it's short and effecting and probably unlike any other book you've read recently.

* The Lesson on bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/a/1159/9781094081298 * The Lesson on Amazon: https://amzn.to/31gXsTN * A Brief History of the Corporation: https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2011/06/08/a-brief-history-of-the-corporation-1600-to-2100/

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

To find links to all the books we've read, check us out on Bookshop.

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

Digital Book Tour: Nino Cipri on Finna, a story of parallel universes as found in low-wage furniture stores

Tue, 30 Jun 2020 00:01:00 -0300

Sometimes a book comes along that is both so unlike anything that came before it, but also so vital & perfectly voiced that once reading it, it's impossible to imagine a world where that book hasn't always existed. Nino Cipri's novella Finna (bookshop or ebook) is one such book. It's a story about life under late capitalism, about that eerie feeling you get whenever you get lost in one of those large Swedish furniture stores, about navigating awkward post-breakup feelings, and about labor. Bee interviews Nino about the book, their writing process, and labor organizing. It's a wonderful conversation, and I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I have. * Nino's twitter: https://twitter.com/ninocipri

* Nino's newsletter, Cool Story, Bro

* And their website: https://ninocipri.com

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Make sure to follow Bee at their twitter & patreon.

And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

To find links to all the books we've read, check us out on Bookshop.

Many thanks to Dubby J our music.

Digital Book Tour: SA Jones on The Fortress, a book about restorative justice inside an all-women society

Tue, 23 Jun 2020 15:21:32 -0300

For our fourth Digital Book Tour episode, Adrian is joined by Serje Jones, whose new book The Fortress (https://bookshop.org/a/1159/9781645660026) has been published by our friends at Erewhon books. Serje & Adrian discuss restorative justice, writing trans-inclusive feminist science fiction, and feeling emotions in the body instead of in the mind. She also performs two readings from the book. As a personal asside, I think this is the best novel I've read so far this year, and I really hope folks enjoy this episode & pick up the book. It's a startling, difficult, and radical look at another possible world.

Description from Erewhon:

Jonathon Bridge has a corner office in a top-tier software firm, tailored suits, and an impeccable pedigree. He has a fascinating wife, Adalia; a child on the way; and a string of pretty young interns as lovers on the side. He’s a man who’s going places. His world is our world: the same chaos and sprawl, haves and have-nots, men and women, skyscrapers and billboards. But it also exists alongside a vast, self-sustaining city-state called The Fortress where the indigenous inhabitants—the Vaik, a society run and populated exclusively by women—live in isolation.

When Adalia discovers his indiscretions and the ugly sexual violence pervading his firm, she agrees to continue their fractured marriage only on the condition that Jonathan voluntarily offers himself to The Fortress as a supplicant and stay there for a year. Jonathon’s arrival at The Fortress begins with a recitation of the conditions of his stay: He is forbidden to ask questions, to raise his hand in anger, and to refuse sex.

Jonathon is utterly unprepared for what will happen to him over the course of the year—not only to his body, but to his mind and his heart. This absorbing, confronting, and moving novel asks questions about consent, power, love, and fulfillment. It asks what it takes for a man to change, and whether change is possible without a radical reversal of the conditions that seem normal.

Content notice: The Fortress contains references to objectification of and violence against women, pedophilia, sexual assault, submission, and toxic masculinity.

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Make sure to follow Bee at their twitter & patreon. (They didn't do this interview, but have several already recorded & others in the making.)

And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

To find links to all the books we've read, check us out on Bookshop.

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

26.2: The True Queen post-read w/ Reading the End: Inclusion in Historical Fantasy, Comfort Reads, Sisterhood, and more

Tue, 09 Jun 2020 13:29:39 -0300

Hey all, a few things: 1. This is really late. Sorry about that! It's because of: 2. The audio quality is really bad. Matt's computer essentially crashed during recording, so we had to use the back-up recording which was also screwed up by the whole situation. So it's bad, and I've done my best to make it listenable.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this episode were we talk about Zen Cho's The True Queen. It's a wonderful little book about sisterhood, magical academies, scary fairies, and issues of race & gender in Regency era England.

Please enjoy the episode! We'll be taking June off of more books to publish a few bonus episodes & book tour episodes, and then be back with a new book in July. Oh and also check out Gin Jenny on twitter, the Reading the End blog, podcast, & patreon. Really please do follow them & listen to the podcast, it's the best general book pod around.

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

To find links to all the books we've read, check us out on Bookshop.

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

Digital Book Tour: Melissa Caruso on The Obsidian Tower, a story of a young woman on the run from her own magical power

Tue, 26 May 2020 09:12:56 -0300

Bee is joined by Melissa Caruso, author of the Sword & Fire trilogy, and the upcoming Obsidian Tower, available June 2nd.

One woman will either save an entire continent or completely destroy it in a captivating epic fantasy bursting with intrigue and ambition, questioned loyalties, and broken magic.

Bee & Melissa discuss her new book, role playing & LARPing, writing buildings as characters, how the book's map was made, and as always Melissa offers a few short readings from the book.

The Obsidian Tower is out June 2nd, and Melissa is on twitter at @melisscaru.

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Make sure to follow Bee at their twitter & patreon.

And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

To find links to all the books we've read, check us out on Bookshop.

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

Digital Book Tour: Veronica Roth on Chosen Ones, a story of what happens after the "chosen ones" have saved the world

Tue, 19 May 2020 00:01:00 -0300

Bee is joined this time by Veronica Roth, bestselling author of the Divergent series, to discuss her new adult novel, Chosen Ones. Chosen Ones takes place after a group of people has saved the world from the Dark One.

After the Dark One fell, the world went back to normal . . . for everyone but them. After all, what do you do when you're the most famous people on Earth, your only education was in magical destruction, and your purpose in life is now fulfilled?

Veronica and Bee chat about researching sonar & MK Ultra, how to write characters with PTSD, and what their respective Animal Crossing islands are looking like. Veronica does a few short readings from the book, which includes found articles & textbooks from the world the character live in. Chosen Ones is out now.

Links:

* Chosen Ones on ebook

* Chosen Ones hardcover at bookshop.org

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Make sure to follow Bee at their twitter & patreon.

And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

To find links to all the books we've read, check us out on Bookshop.

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

In Conversation: Our Favorite Underrated SF Movies, with Seth Heasley of the Hugo's There podcast

Tue, 12 May 2020 00:01:00 -0300

Once again we're joined by Seth Heasley of the Hugo's There podcast (https://hugospodcast.com) to talk about science fiction films! This time, we're talking about our favorite SF movies we think are underrated in some way. Maybe they bombed at the box office, maybe critics hated them, or maybe they have just been forgotten and deserve another viewing.

What did we pick? You'll have to listen to find out! But it was a load of fun to have Seth back on, and you should check out his podcast (the episodes where Adrian or Matt guested are good places to start).

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

To find links to all the books we've read, check us out on Bookshop.

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

26.1: The True Queen pre-read w/ Reading the End: Historical Fantasy, Trash Birds, and Chaotic Quarantine Brain

Tue, 05 May 2020 01:12:39 -0300

Adrian + Matt are joined once again by our favorite podcast duo, Gin Jenny & Whiskey Jenny from the Reading the End blog & podcast. They've selected Zen Cho's Malaysian-inspired novel of magical Regency England, The True Queen. This episode is extreme Chaotic Good energy. We barely talk about the book, and do our best to talk about historical fantasy, colonialism in fantasy, and other relevant themes. But let's be real, we're all over the map. Call it quarantine brain. Mostly we talk about which birds are trash birds, Gin Jenny's entente with the spiders, which is the best Pixar movie, traumatic childhood movies, and literally just whatever comes to our minds at the time. Again, strong Chaos vibes.

But it was one of the most fun episodes we've ever recorded & re-listening to edit it was an absolute treat, so I hope you enjoy it & we will be back with the Jennys in a few weeks to actually talk about this book, which so far is absolutely amazing & you should definitely check it out.

Only one non-book link (again, buy the book! https://bookshop.org/a/1159/9780425283417), which is the board game Wingspan that Whiskey Jenny mentions.

Oh and also check out Gin Jenny on twitter, the Reading the End blog, podcast, & patreon. Really please do follow them & listen to the podcast, it's the best general book pod around.

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

To find links to all the books we've read, check us out on Bookshop.

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

Digital Book Tour: Laura Lam on Goldilocks, a scifi thriller where a group of women steal a spaceship to save humanity

Tue, 28 Apr 2020 00:01:00 -0300

Welcome to our inaugural Digital Book Tour, featuring Laura Lam, author of Goldilocks. Five women steal a space ship to save a human race beset upon by climate change, even while society doesn't believe they should be able to work due to their gender.

Our host Bee interviews Laura about genre conventions, found family, what to do when your novel becomes unexpectedly relevant, and eating algae. Laura also does a few short readings from the upcoming book.

Goldilocks is available for pre-order now, and will be released on May 5th.

Links:

* Goldilocks on bookshop.org

* Laura's Instragram, featuring live events w/ Laura

* Laura's patreon, featuring writing about crafts, writing, & more

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Make sure to follow Bee at their twitter & patreon.

And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

To find links to all the books we've read, check us out on Bookshop.

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

Announcing the Digital Book Tour, hosted by Bee

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 19:44:30 -0300

Hi everyone! We're excited to announce a project we've been working on to help tide everyone through the lockdown. Friend of the podcast & former guest Bee is joining us to interview SF authors with new books out. They will be bonus episodes happening on the main feed, but in addition to the regular book club & conversational bonus episodes that we do.

Our first one, a conversation between Bee & Laura Lam, author of the upcoming novel Goldilocks, comes out tomorrow. From there, we'll have these out irregularly, sometimes on Tuesdays & sometimes on Thursdays if we have another regular episode scheduled that week. We've got some great authors scheduled, and are looking forward to talking to them.

We hope you enjoy these! And make sure to follow Bee at their twitter & patreon, where they have all the sourdough content you could ask for.

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

To find links to all the books we've read, check us out on Bookshop.

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

25.2: The Tea Master & The Detective post-read w/ Julia Rios: Cozy Murder Mysteries in Space!

Fri, 24 Apr 2020 18:44:22 -0300

Julia Rios of the This is Why We're Like This podcast is back for our post-read discussion of Aliette de Bodard's wonderful space murder mystery novella, The Tea Master & the Detective (https://amzn.to/3aD8cOU). In this episode we discuss power structures within & outside of large organizations like unions or monasteries, the friendship between the main characters, and doing worldbuilding with non-Western cultures. It's a fun conversation, and we were so happy to have Julia on the podcast! If you haven't picked up this novella, I highly recommend the book as a nice corrective to our current crazy times.

Also, a quick note on scheduling: We've had to be a bit nimble this last month as both Matt & I adjusted to new life situations. It also turns out I published the pre-read a week early because I wasn't paying attention to the dates. So this episode is coming out on a highly unusual Friday. We'll have another bonus episode next Tuesday, and we have multiple bonus & book club episodes w/ special guests already recorded & ready to go for next month. So expect regular, frequent content from us after this, and thanks for sticking with us while the world got turned upside down!

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

To find links to all the books we've read, check us out on Bookshop.

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

In Conversation: Our Favorite Aliens in Science Fiction

Wed, 15 Apr 2020 16:00:17 -0300

A quick bonus episode this week, with Matt & Adrian discussing their favorite Aliens in science fiction and beyond. We revisit some books we've read for the pod, talk about some classics, and hit on a few under-represented gems. We hope you like it!

A bit late, sorry about that! Quarantine time is weird. I'll try to get around to listing everything we talk about later but I want to get this out first: if there's anything in particular you'd like to get a link to, let me know at @spectologypod on twitter & I'll get it to you.

We'll be back next week with our post-read of The Tea Master & The Detective with Julia Rios!

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

To find links to all the books we've read, check us out on Bookshop.

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

25.1: The Tea Master & the Detective pre-read w/ Julia Rios: Domestic Cozy Detective Fiction, in Space!

Tue, 31 Mar 2020 01:03:20 -0300

This month we're joined by special guest Julia Rios! Julia is a Hugo-award winning Editor & Podcaster, host of the This Is Why We're Like This podcast (which Matt has been a guest on!), and can be found at @OMGJulia on twitter. She edited the Machina Serial Box series, and her fiction has been featured in the Mexicanx anthology A Larger Reality.

We're reading The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard (https://amzn.to/2Jqepmr), a Homesian mystery story told by a space ship. It's a lovely, warm, cozy, and short book at a time when all those things feel in short supply. And of course, it's about some big issues that we'll talk about in the post-read. This episode, we discussed what makes a mystery story, the different sub-genres of detective fiction, and how much we like ships with personalities.

We hope you enjoy the episode & pick up the book!

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

To find links to all the books we've read, check us out on Bookshop.

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

24.2: Wittgenstein's Mistress post-read: In February reading this seemed like a good idea.

Mon, 23 Mar 2020 23:28:32 -0300

This is a somewhat personal & sometimes somber episode, recorded while the world was changing rapidly around us due to the global COVID-19 outbreak. We do our best to discuss the novel, Wittgenstein's Mistress by David Markson, although neither of us were able to finish it due to external world circumstances. It is by far our shortest post-read ever.

We forgot to do content warnings. We have really frank discussions of grief, death, isolation, and loneliness. There is a brief mention of suicide.

While this was recorded, Adrian was in quarantine due to having had extended contact with a confirmed COVID-19 case. I'm happy to report that the quarantine is up and I've been fortunate enough to suffer no symptoms, and my friend who was sick is on the mend. But it the fear and uncertainty of those circumstances color the whole episode.

We hope that this episode brings some light into your life at the moment. We'll be back next month with a warm, cozy, escapist book & a guest we've been excited to feature. We'll also be publishing some extra episodes on the feed while social distancing, more information to come on those soon.

Please stay safe, stay healthy, and remember that your health affects not only yourself, but also those around you.

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

To find links to all the books we've read, check us out on Bookshop.

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

Things We Like: Quarantine Edition! What to do, watch, and play while you're stuck inside.

Mon, 16 Mar 2020 23:47:19 -0300

Last week, anticipating this week's shutdown of major US cities, Matt & Adrian sat down to talk about the ways we're working through our own social distancing boredom for a special edition of "things we like".

What are some of the best movies, games, and other activities to spend doing when going outside has become difficult or even dangerous? Check out this episode to find out, and of course a list of most of what we mentioned is below.

And finally, please do take this seriously! If you're not already removing yourself from public spaces and gatherings, do so. Wash your hands, wear a mask if that's recommended & available in your locality, and be aware not just of your own health, but of how you might affect the health of those around you. And if you're bored, hit us up on Twitter at @spectology, we'll likely have an increased schedule of podcasting for a while, and might even do a few live online events if enough people want to hang out and chat about science fiction books!

Things we like:

* 7 Wonders Duel (iOS / Android)

* Code Names Duet

* Tabletop Simulator

* Technology Connections Juke Box

* Shenzhen I/O

* The Nand Game

* nand2tetris

* Armadillo Run (not ball)

* Little Women

* The Incredibles (also on Disney+)

* rifftrax

* Blank Check Patreon

* DuoLingo Podcasts

* Easy Languages youtube channels

* The History of Ancient Egypt lectures

* Assassin’s Creed Black Flag

* Minecraft

* Diablo III

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

To find links to all the books we've read, check us out on Bookshop.

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

24.1: Wittgenstein's Mistress pre-read: Philosophical Science Fiction & being lonely at the end of the world

Tue, 03 Mar 2020 00:01:00 -0400

This March, Spectology brings you a discussion on the little-known but largely influential novel by David Markson, Wittgenstein's Mistress (https://bookshop.org/a/1159/9781564782113). Written from the perspective of the last woman on Earth, it's a sad and clever novel about loss, the Western cannon, the meaning of art, and the importance of other people in creating our identies.

In this episode, we discuss the philosophy underlying the novel. Who is Wittgenstein, and how do his ideas about the philosophy of language underly the project of this novel? How do Bertrand Russel, Kurt Gödel, & Søren Kierkegaard fit into this puzzle? And what other novelists have been influenced by Markson?

It's a discussion worthy of Adrian's 2nd annual "self-indulgent pick", and we hope you'll enjoy being along for the ride.

One note: this novel isn't available on ebook or audio book. It's still in print in paperback, so if possible please try finding it at a local book store! Baring that, it's available through Amazon, or the new bookshop.org online sellers: https://bookshop.org/a/1159/9781564782113

Also, here is the interview with Markson we reference several times: https://www.bookslut.com/features/2005_07_005963.php

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

To find links to all the books we've read, check us out on Bookshop.

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

23.2: The Ghost Network post-read w/ Ben Roswell: Celebrity, Internet Culture, Architecture, and Secret Utopias

Thu, 27 Feb 2020 12:01:51 -0400

We've finally done it! Sorry for the late episode, a few real life considerations got in the way of editing. We're joined again by Ben Roswell (@roswellwrites on twitter & roswellian.itch.io) to discuss Catie Disabato's postmodern novel of celebrity & architectural cults, The Ghost Network (https://amzn.to/2VtAhVc).

We all had a lot of thoughts on this book, and for any given one two of us agreed and a third didn't, in various combinations, like a big fun podcast triangle! It was a lovely conversation, about a great book to discuss with others.

Stuff we mentioned:

* Fight Truck: https://pantamalion.itch.io/fight-truck

* Trash Theory on FKA Twigs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oXADE5bzZI

* Roxane Gay on Janelle Monáe: https://www.thecut.com/2020/02/janelle-monae-afrofuture.html

* Lady Gaga Isn't Done Shape-Shifting Yet by Rachel Symes: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/03/magazine/lady-gaga-movie-star-is-born.html

* The Wikipedia page on Selena (cw domestic violence): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selena

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

In Conversation: 2019 Recap, Book Stats, & Reader Questions

Tue, 11 Feb 2020 00:01:00 -0400

Matt & Adrian sit down for a chat looking back at 2019—which books ended up being our favorites, which episodes did we like, and how did we do in terms of diversity of authors, genres, and guests?

A big thanks to everyone who has stuck with us for two years now! Or who have just begun listening—we hope you'll stick around.

In addition, we were asked by a listener on Twitter (@spectologypod) to talk a bit about our favorite fantasy books, so we do that at the end. Here's a list of everything we mention (amazon links are affiliates):

* Bear Daughter by Judith Berman (now back in print!)

* The Steerswoman series by Rosemary Kirstein

* The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie

* Finna by Nino Cipri

* The Deep by Rivers Solomon

* The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley

* The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip

* The Dying Earth (now published as Marizan the Magician) by Jack Vance

* The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolf

* Lord Dunsany

* Arthur Machen

* The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers

* The Cradle series by Will Wight

* Jade City by Fonda Lee

* The Tensorate series by JY Yang

* Monkey (an abridged translation of Journey to the West) by Arthur Whaley

* The Worm of Ouroboros by E.R. Eddison

* The Ghormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake

* The Nightland by William Hope Hodgson

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

23.1: The Ghost Network pre-read w/ Ben Roswell: Experimental Narratives, Storytelling Games, and Postmodern Literature

Tue, 04 Feb 2020 00:01:00 -0400

New month, new book, new guest! This week we welcome Ben Roswell (@roswellwrites on Twitter) to discuss The Ghost Network by Catie Disabato (https://amzn.to/2uXSeA2). The novel takes the form of a fictitious non-fiction book about the disappearance of a young pop star & her entourage who tries to find her amongst hidden underground spaces in Chicago.

In this episode, we discuss other experimental narratives, from role-playing games to postmodern novels like House of Leaves or Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.

Works mentioned (as always, links at spectology.com if they don't show up for you, and all Amazon links are affliates):

* Ben's Itch.io, where you can find his games mentioned

* Ben's new serialized fantasy novel

* Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Suzanna Clarke

* House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

* Fire on the Velvet Horizon by Patrick Stuart & Scrap Princess

* Hardboiled Wonderland & the End of the World by Haruki Murakami

* Rupetta by N.A. Sulway (also episodes 9.1 & 9.2 of this podcast)

* Fight Truck (the unplayable? LARP)

* Especially Heinous: 272 Views of Law & Order SVU by Carmen Maria Machado

* Ben's essay on Jeff VanderMeer's blog

If I missed anything, tweet @spectologypod and I'll drum up the link for you.

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

22.2: A Memory Called Empire post-read: Matters of Taste, Culture Shock, and Historical Worldbuilding

Tue, 28 Jan 2020 00:01:00 -0400

Well, we've finally found a book we disagree on! While Matt loved A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (https://amzn.to/2GrJJzC), Adrian was more cool on it. In this episode we discuss our disagreements, which largely come down to matters of taste in the aesthetics of stories we enjoy. We also get at some of the tough questions about empire & cultural hegemony posed by the book, and discuss wether we think the book fully explored these issues. We also talk plenty about the historical worldbuilding & other elements that we both enjoyed.

It's a different episode than most, in that we disagreed, it's actually the second time we recorded the post-read (we weren't happy with the way the first session came out), and we recored in person together in Adrian's NYC apartment.

There's a long list of other books / media we talk about at the end of the episode and I've tried to capture them all here. As always, links at spectology.com if they don't show up in your podcatcher, and any Amazon links are affiliates.

* East Goes West by Kang Younghill

* 1587: A Year of No Significance by Ray Huang

* Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay

* Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner

* Foreigner by CJ Cherryh

* Treason by the Book by Jonathan Spence

* Seeing Like a State by James C. Scott

* An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon (episodes 20.1 & 20.2)

* Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee (episodes 6.1 & 6.2)

* Byzantophilia in the Letters of Grigor Magistros? by AnnaLinden Weller

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

In Conversation: How & Why to Vote for the Hugo Awards

Thu, 23 Jan 2020 13:25:26 -0400

Really short bonus/emergency episode today. Adrian is on his own and off-script, giving you the insider scoop on how to nominate & vote in the Hugo Awards, as well as why you might want to. Short answer: go to https://members.conzealand.nz/memberships and sign up for the "Supporting Membership". This will allow you to vote on the 2020 Hugo Awards, and nominate works for the 2021 Hugo Awards next year. For more general information, check out the Hugos website https://www.thehugoawards.org/i-want-to-vote/ which offers evergreen information on how to sign up for a membership any given year (it changes).

This is something I'm passionate about, but if it's not your scene that's OK! But I hope you'll give me the chance to make the case that voting in the Hugo Awards is worthwhile.

We'll be back next week with our regular programing, in this case the Memory Called Empire post-read.

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

22.1: A Memory Called Empire pre-read: Martine's academic work, historical ambassadors, and what it means to be a member of an empire

Tue, 14 Jan 2020 00:01:00 -0400

It's the future baby! 2020 arrives with a bang as we discuss Arkady Martine's Byzantine-flavored space opera political thriller, A Memory Called Empire (https://amzn.to/2RdH5Ct). The story follows a young woman from an independent mining station who must travel to the central world of the Empire which surrounds it and act as ambassador. This comes as a recommendation from several readers & friends of the podcast.

In this episode, we discuss several historical figures who served analogous roles to that of the main character. The first, Grigor Magistros, is the subject of an [academic article written by Martine under the name AnnaLinden Weller. We also talk about S. W. Laden La, Tisquantum, and Kang Younghill, and Gendün Chöphel. Not sure who these fascinating historical cultural emissaries were? Listen to find out!

Other works mentioned:

* Byzantophilia in the Letters of Grigor Magistros? by AnnaLinden Weller (no longer paywalled thanks to the author!)

* East Goes West by Younghill Kang

* A Man of the Frontier: SW Laden La by Nicholas & Deki Rhodes

* 1491 by Charles Mann (where the Tisquantum story as we tell it comes from)

* Grains of Gold: Tales of a Cosmopolitan Traveler by Gendün Chöphel

(Links in the shownotes at spectology.com if they don't show up in your podcatcher. Any Amazon links are affiliates.)

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

18.3: Stanley Chan discusses Chinese Science Fiction, the process of translating his novel Waste Tide, and trends in technology.

Tue, 07 Jan 2020 00:01:00 -0400

Happy New Year, Spectologists!

Late in 2019, Matt sat down with Chen Qiufan / Stanley Chan, the author of Waste Tide, to discuss the book, the process of translating & editing it for an American audience, the importance of prose in genre fiction, how science fiction & startup culture interact in China, some of his favorite upcoming authors, and much much more.

The conversation took place in English, although the conversation took place while Stanley was calling from the Hong Kong airport between flights so the audio is a bit more rough than usual. However, the conversation they had should more than make up for that.

If you enjoy this interview, make sure to check out our episodes on Stanley's book (18.1 & 18.2), as well as our discussion of the mentioned Ning Ken essay on the Ultra Unreal. You can find many of Stanley's stories at Clarkesworld, and follow Clarkesworld generally for many other translated Chinese SF stories.

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

21.4: Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand w/ Bee: Radical visions of Identity, Class, and Gender

Sun, 29 Dec 2019 11:17:20 -0400

For our final book in our "classics" series, we read Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, a novel by Samuel R. Delany (https://amzn.to/2tTUHL5). This episode we're joined by Bee Gabriel (@benladen on twitter & patreon.com/benladen), an old friend of the podcast & one of Adrian's favorite cultural critics.

This novel was an absolute joy to read & to talk about. Our discussion ranges the gamut, and our recording session went an hour over schedule because we all had so much we wanted to talk about! How gendered language affects the way we look at the world & self-identify. The ethics of eating meat. The ethics of cross-class romantic relationships. How fucking good a writer Delany is. And what is exactly a Cultural Fugue?

Some links to things mentioned (as always, links at spectology.com if they don't show up in you podcatcher):

* Bee's patreon cooking & cultural criticism blog

* Bee's public blog, Uninterpretative

* The Playdate pop-up gaming event

* Bee's music & yearly compilations

* Kids These Days by Malcolm Harris (briefly referred to as "Malcolm's book")

* Gay New York by George Chauncey

Thanks so much to everyone who has been involved with Spectology for another great year! We'll be back in 2020 with more books, guests, interviews, bonus episodes, etc.. We've had a great time & hope everyone else has too.

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

21.3: Ice by Anna Kavan post-read with Charlotte Geater: Experimental & Postmodern Fiction, and Death Meditations

Tue, 24 Dec 2019 00:01:00 -0400

A doozy of a book, and one where we start off the episode not agreeing on how we liked it! Charlotte Geater (@tambourine on twitter and creator of wonderful bot-based poetry) joins us again after her Rupetta episodes last December to discuss the 1960s underground classic, Ice by Anna Kavan (https://amzn.to/2PRGTth). We discuss death, addiction, patriarchy, experimental fiction, and whether there are any easy allegories in this novel (answer: no). Adrian comes to terms with not having enjoyed reading the novel—but being glad he read it.

This is a very brutal book, and if you're going to read it you might want to check out our content warnings at the 12m27s mark.

Charlotte recommended a number of stories, books, and novels to go along with Ice. Links to them all are collected below. Go to Spectology.com if the links don't show up on your podcatcher.

* Excerpt of Sofia Samatar's novella, Fallow

* Descriptions of Jane Gaskell's unfortunately out of print novels

* Ann Quin's recently republished first novel, Berg

* "The Debutant", a story by Leonora Carrington

* Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry by BS Johnson

* Sylvia Townsend Warner's The Kingdoms of Elfin

* Comet in Moominland by Tove Jansson

* The Weird Tales podcast reads Lord Dunsany

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

21.2: Childhood's End post-read w/ Seth Heasley: Religion, Psionics, and Big Ideas in Science Fiction

Tue, 17 Dec 2019 00:01:00 -0400

Seth Heasley of the Hugos There podcast (https://hugospodcast.com) joins us to discuss Arthur C. Clarke's 1950s classic, Childhood's End (https://amzn.to/2srqLWa).

This is a short book about big ideas, asking what would happen if aliens came to Earth and instituted a generations-long paternalistic program to get us ready for our next stage of evolution.

We discuss the book's major influence on science fiction, from Vinge, Niven, & Stephenson, to anime like Akira, to The Three-Body Problem. We dig deep into the books politics around colonialism. And we ask what it would be like to live through a society that has everything it could want, but knows that it's no longer in charge of its own destiny.

Here's a short list of other things we discussed on the episode. Links at spectology.com if they don't show up in your podcatcher.

* Jo Walton on Childhood's End

* Adrian on Hugos There discussing The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

* All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace

* Tobias Buckell's story The Very Last Curator of What Little Remains of the Western World (patreon pay wall)

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

21.1: Classic SF pre-read: On creating cannons, and how to read problematic fiction & authors.

Tue, 03 Dec 2019 00:01:00 -0400

Welcome to a very special pre-read episode. This December, Matt, Adrian, and a series of guests are reading 3 separate works of "classic" SF and talking about them & what makes them a "classic". The works will be:

* Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke (https://amzn.to/35WGICa)

* Ice by Anna Kavan (https://amzn.to/33CEfes)

* Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delany (https://amzn.to/2RdBTAk)

Each book (& author) has had an large influence on modern SF, and we'll talk about that in those respective episodes over the course of this month.

In this episode, we dive deep into our own history of reading SF, with an eye towards the golden age. How did we get into SF, which authors did we first find that spoke to us, how did we find new authors & books, and why was so-called "classic" SF such an outsized influence on two kids growing up in the 90s and 00s?

In addition, we have a discussion on the problematic nature of a lot of these books and authors. Is it still worth reading something you like knowing what we know now about the books & the people behind them? How might different people have different answers to that question? How do we, specifically, choose books to read for this podcast? It's a difficult but hopefully enlightening conversation.

We'll be off the 2nd week of December, and then back the final 3 Tuesdays of the month with a separate episode on each of these books.

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

20.2: An Unkindness of Ghosts post-read: Slave States, Trauma, and Theocracy

Tue, 26 Nov 2019 00:01:00 -0400

[A note: the content warnings at the beginning also apply to the episode as a whole. We talk about a lot of it in depth in a way that might be uncomfortable for some listeners. This episode is probably even less appropriate for younger children than normal due to that.]

We're back having read An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon (https://amzn.to/2OMpWie), and here to talk about it in depth!

We have a pretty far-ranging conversation about the ideas in the book, from how to be a friend and ally, to when violent revolution is necessary, to discussing the large social structures of the ship & the real world. We don't disagree about much, but we manage to argue a lot anyway! And towards the end we get to answering some of the existential questions we asked of ourselves in the post-read.

Stick around for the end to hear about what we're doing in December & early 2020 as well.

Other works mentioned:

* Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes * Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky (episodes) * Semiosis by Sue Burke (episodes) * Dark Eden by Chris Beckett (episodes) * Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle (episodes) * Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

In Conversation: Fancasting Binti, Black Tom, the Culture, and Ninefox Gambit

Tue, 19 Nov 2019 00:01:00 -0400

Join us as we reflect on a few of the novels we've read for the podcast so far, and imagine what they might look like as on-screen adaptations. Matt & Adrian play executive producers, coming up with concepts for the adaptations & directors, writers, and actors who might work on them.

Time stamps for each:

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (Matt): 2m33s

The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle (Adrian): 13m05s

Player of Games (a Culture novel) by Iain M. Banks (Matt): 25m26s

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee (Adrian): 31m19s

This was a fun & somewhat silly episode, we hope you enjoy! If you have your own fancasting for these or any other books we've read, let us know by tweeting @spectologypod or emailing us at mailbox@spectology.com, we'd love to hear them.

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If you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

20.1: An Unkindness of Ghosts pre-read: Reading with privilege, using genre conventions, and truth in fiction

Mon, 11 Nov 2019 23:48:24 -0400

In what ends up being a surprisingly introspective episode of Spectology, we introduce our new book: An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon (https://amzn.to/2O0rXHa). It is a very good book about life amongst the lower classes on board a generation ship. You and should buy it and read it. Much of this episode is spent questioning whether reading fiction can actually teach us things (where "us" = readers with privilege), or whether the emotions that fiction can induce are used as a stand-in for actually doing work. Answers are not found. We also do book facts and talk about science fiction. We discuss different types of dystopian fiction & how genre tropes can be used or misused. But I'm not going to lie this one is weirdly pensive & self-reflective, even for us.

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

19.2: Zone One post-read: Depression, Surviving the Apocalypse, and New York City in fiction

Tue, 29 Oct 2019 01:01:00 -0300

Coming at you in person, Matt & Adrian sat down in the same room to record an episode about Colson Whitehead's post-apocalyptic literary novel, Zone One (https://amzn.to/2MR1hZT).

We loved this book, and had in particular have a lot to say about its relationship to other apocalyptic literary fiction, the ways the novel discusses, analogizes, and interacts with depression & PTSD, and New York City in literature and reality.

Other works mentioned:

* Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead * White Noise by Don DeLillo * Cosmopolis, dir. by David Cronenberg * 10:04 by Ben Lerner * California by Edan Lepucki * Wittgenstein's Mistress by David Markson * Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel * The New & Improved Romie Futch by Julia Elliott

(Links in the shownotes at spectology.com if they don't show up in your podcatcher. All amazon links are affiliates.)

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

Things We Like October 2019: Video Games, LARPS, and Music

Tue, 22 Oct 2019 01:01:00 -0300

Buh-buh-buh-bonus!

Matt & Adrian return for another "things we like", where we talk about things we like outside of the books we're reading on the pod. Links are below, listen to the ep. to hear more about each one! If the links don't show up, they'll be on spectology.com.

Adrian's things:

- Otherworld Adventure LARP

- Gemini Man in 120fps (here's a podcast about it)

- Schitt's Creek (on Netflix)

Matt's things:

- This War of Mine (on Steam)

- RAQIA (song "Library of Babel" is playing in the episode)

- Quanta Magazine (https://www.quantamagazine.org)

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

19.1: Zone One pre-read: Zombies, Horror, and LitFic

Wed, 09 Oct 2019 08:09:19 -0300

Sorry for the late episode this week! Real-life travel has made editing & publishing more difficult than expected. The episode's editing might be a bit rough around the edges for that as well.

However, we have a really fun episode discussing Colson Whitehead's novel Zone One, a litfic novel about a man clearing zombies out of Manhattan after the apocalypse. We discuss the history of zombie movies & books, lightly touch on the problematic cultural history of zombies (which you can hear more about in our episodes with Mendez Hodes), and spend a lot of time discussing what makes a B movie. It was a really fun episode to record, and we hope you enjoy it, outtakes and all.

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

18.2: Waste Tide post-read: social class in science fiction, translation, and the problems with cyberpunk

Tue, 01 Oct 2019 01:00:49 -0300

We're back for our post-read discussion of Waste Tide by Stanley Chan / Chen Qiufan! (https://amzn.to/2njvSFr)

We had mixed but ultimately positive feelings about this book. It's been a great experience to read and talk about—rarely does a book present such a breadth of topics for us to cover. Matt read it in Chinese while Adrian read it in English, so we discuss the mechanics of the translation in depth, as well as how even small changes can have large effects on the over-all tone of the book.

However, it've also a book that deals with very dark subject matters, and handles some of those elements better than others. Heed our content warnings on this one. We discuss the problematic elements explored by the book in depth.

Some related works & links (if the links don't show up, they will be available in the show notes at spectology.com )

Non-fiction books about living in China:

* The Corpse Walker by Liao Yiwu (https://amzn.to/2o7yBSl)

* Factory Girls by Leslie T. Chang (https://amzn.to/2msDvci)

* China Candid, edited by Sang Ye (https://amzn.to/2myPgy4)

Three links about Guiyu, the real-life inspiration behind Silicon Isle.

* https://www.greenpeace.org/eastasia/campaigns/toxics/problems/e-waste/guiyu/

* https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2112226/chinas-most-notorious-e-waste-dumping-ground-now-cleaner-poorer

* https://www.revealnews.org/article/looks-are-deceiving-in-chinese-town-that-was-us-e-waste-dumping-site/

Notice the date published & publisher for each of the above when reading, these are not without agenda.

Yaz Minsky on Cyberpunk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ8S1CV3JwA

Hedy Lamarr: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

Critical Conversations: Ning Ken's Ultra Unreal, how to define a genre, and genre gatekeeping

Tue, 24 Sep 2019 01:01:00 -0300

For today's episode, Matt & Adrian read an essay about Chinese Science Fiction by Chinese SF author Ning Ken, and talk about it. The essay, published as "Modern China is So Crazy It Needs a New Literary Genre" on LitHub (https://lithub.com/modern-china-is-so-crazy-it-needs-a-new-literary-genre/), outlines a subgenre of SF that (supposedly) doesn't exist in English, and discusses why it's so important in China.

We take the conversation far afield pretty quickly, asking what makes a genre, whether Ultra Unreal works exist in English, how relevant these works actually are in Chinese SF, and who ultimately gets to define genre. Adrian rants a little about one particular author who annoys him online when he talks about genre, and Matt has very reasoned and smart things to say about whether it's even a good idea to argue about genre in the first place.

As always, the essay is an interesting one, and we hope you'll read it in addition to listening to us argue about it. In addition, here are some other related works to the conversation:

- Follow-up essay by Josh Feola & Michael Pettis - "Folding Beijing" by Hao Jingfang - Waste Tide by Chen Qiufan (see also the 18.x episodes of this podcast) - The New & Improved Romie Futch by Julia Elliott (see also our 4.x episodes) - Sorry to Bother You, dir. Boots Riley - "Welcome to the Future Nauseous" by Venkatesh Rao

As always, links at spectology.com if they don't show up in your podcatcher.

We'll be back next week (Oct 1st) for our Waste Tide post-read, then October 8th we'll have the post-read for our horror-themed October novel.

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

18.1: Waste Tide pre-read: Chinese Language, Literary History, and Science Fiction

Tue, 10 Sep 2019 01:01:00 -0300

It's finally happening! We're diving fully into one of Matt's areas of expertise, Chinese Literature. This month we're reading Waste Tide (https://amzn.to/2N4K80g), the first novel by Chinese science fiction author Chen Qiufan (known as Stanley Chan in English), translated by Ken Liu.

The book is new to both of us, so in addition to the usual bookfacts, this episode starts with a short introduction to the sociolinguistics of the Chinese language. From there we learn about the history of modern Chinese literature w/ a focus on how speculative fiction has been received over the last century, from the earliest Chinese translations of Jules Verne to the modern resurgence of SF & Fantasy movies coming out of China, and how that relates to other literary & political movements.

Some of the works we discuss include:

* Invisible Planets, edited & translated by Ken Liu

* Chen Qiufan's stories at Clarkesworld (includes audio versions)

* Clarkesworld Podcast

* "Flower of Shazui" (set in the same world as Waste Tide)

* The Paper Menagerie & Other Stories by Ken Liu

* The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu

(Links in the shownotes at spectology.com if they don't show up in your podcatcher)

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

17.2: The Killing Moon post-read: Lucid Dreaming, Writing Compelling Villains, and Genre Blending

Tue, 27 Aug 2019 01:01:00 -0300

We've finished The Killing Moon by NK Jemisin (https://amzn.to/2L9Wdh0), and have a lot to say about it as usual!

The book forced us to ask a lot of hard questions about the moral weight of actions of all of the main characters. We spend some time in a discussion on sympathetic villains and the importance of passing judgement on actions even while being sympathetic to motivations. We also discuss our own history with dreams, lucid dreaming, waking dreaming, and meditation.

Also the moon!

Related & discussed links (available at spectology.com if they don't show up in your podcatcher):

* Waking Life by Richard Linklater

* The Dreamblood Duology by NK Jemisin (both books in 1)

* The Red Book by Carl Jung

* Tinariwen, desert folk/blues music from Northern Africa

* The Ego Tunnel by Thomas Metzinger

* Perplexities of Consciousness by Eric Schwitzgebel ("do you dream in color" studies)

* Mike Boyd (learning channel on youtube)

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We'd love to hear from you, either by chatting with us on twitter at @spectologypod, sending us an email at mailbox@spectology.com, or submitting the episode to r/printSF on reddit. We'll reply, and shout you out in the next podcast when we talk about your comment.

And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

17.1: The Killing Moon pre-read: Worldbuilding techniques in SF & Fantasy

Tue, 13 Aug 2019 02:11:17 -0300

Hey folks! Short description bc it's already very late & I'm trying to get this out. I may update this later w/ more info, check spectology.com in the next day or two if you'd like more links to all the other books we mention.

The book this month is The Killing Moon by NK Jemisin! It's a great book, potentially my favorite of hers. https://amzn.to/31DKqyr

Matt & I spend a very long time talking about worldbuilding, different ways of doing it, books we love that do it well, etc.. It's quite the pre-read. Also, we're having some technical difficulties due to travel, so the sound is listenable but not to our usual standards. We should be better next episode, & back to normal next month.

The connected short story I mentioned ("The Narcomancer") is available as a podcast here: https://podcastle.org/2010/01/05/podcastle-85-giant-episode-the-narcomancer/

NK Jemisin's worldbuilding presentation is available here: https://nkjemisin.com/2015/08/worldbuilding-101/

And finally, her patreon is: https://www.patreon.com/nkjemisin

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

Critical Conversations: "Critics: Endgame" by Soraya Roberts & the purpose of criticism in a dying world

Tue, 06 Aug 2019 01:01:00 -0300

This is the first in a new series of episodes we're calling "Critical Conversations", where we take a critical work & discuss it in-depth. This time, Matt & Adrian discuss the article "Critics: Endgame" by Soraya Roberts & published in Longreads (https://longreads.com/2019/05/03/critics-endgame/).

Roberts asks what the purpose of pop culture criticism is in 2019, when fascism is ascendant and global warming is killing the planet, particularly criticism that is itself fandom. It's a critical essay which is critical of criticism, which ends up being a vital way for us to being talking about what we do on the podcast. Is it all too meta? Maybe! But it's the kind of thing we love talking about, so maybe you'll enjoy hearing us talk about it (and if not, we'll have a new pre-read next week so stay tuned for that). A few of the resources we mention in the episode:

* "Stay in your lane" originator: https://twitter.com/prisonculture

* Matt's current favorite critic: https://andrewbatson.com & his twitter: https://twitter.com/andrewbatson

* Adrian's current favorite critic: https://uninterpretative.blogspot.com & their twitter: https://twitter.com/Benladen & their patreon: https://www.patreon.com/benladen/overview.

* Another critical work about art vs. criticism we touch on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kaTDKDaj2M & his twitter: https://twitter.com/ShadowTodd

16.2: Empress of Forever post-read: Journey to the West, Redemption, and Buddhism in Science Fiction

Tue, 30 Jul 2019 01:01:00 -0300

Through journeys and struggles, with the power of friendship, we did it! We recorded another episode, this time talking about Max Gladstone's latest solo novel, Empress of Forever (https://amzn.to/2ykpSOU).

We both really enjoyed this book, and were really happy to get to read a novel by a previous guest. We start the episode off with Matt explaining the ways in which the book is & is not a science fictional adaptation of the Chinese epic novel Journey to the West, and then spend a lot of time discussing redemption and forgiveness and how those two things work in this novel, and how they should work in an ideal world. Also, Orn! This was a fun book to read & fun episode to record (even if Adrian was a little loopy & feverish), so we hope you enjoy it.

Some of the works mentioned in the episode (links at spectology.com if they don't show up here):

* Monkey: Folk Novel of China trans. by Arthur Whaley (Matt's recommended translation of Journey to the West) * Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny * Contact by Carl Sagan * Our previous episodes on Ten Billion Days & 100 Billion Nights, Semiosis, Brown Girl in the Ring, Ninefox Gambit, Binti, & "The Star"

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

Things We Like July 2019: Anime, Music, Poetry, and Cookbooks

Tue, 23 Jul 2019 01:01:00 -0300

[This episode comes with a content warning for discussions of depression, suicide, and drug overdose. It's all relevant to the works & part of a good-natured conversation, but we wanted to mention that up front.]

This is an ongoing series we do every few months, going over some of the pop culture stuff we've liked recently. Some of it is SF adjacent, some of it isn't, but it's all good and enjoyable!

As always, if the links below don't show up in your podcatcher, they're all in the show notes spectology.com.

Matt's things:

- Yazmin Lacey, song playing in background is "90 Degrees" from the album "When the Sun Dips 90 Degrees", buy it its so good

- Haiku by Basho, 17th Century Japanese Poet: https://oaks.nvg.org/basho.html

- The last one is hard to explain, you'll just have to listen for the story

Adrian's things:

- Neon Genesis Evangelion, an anime from the 90s that was recently re-released on Netflix

- "Gen Z Music": artists mentioned include Lil Nas X, Billie Eilish, Lil Peep, & Wicca Phase Springs Eternal

- Indian(-ish), a cookbook by Priya Krishna, shout out to the Saag Feta & Aloo Gobi recipes

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We'd love to hear from you, either by chatting with us on twitter at @spectologypod, sending us an email at mailbox@spectology.com.

And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

16.1: Empress of Forever pre-read: Space Opera, Epics, & Journey to the West

Tue, 09 Jul 2019 00:41:12 -0300

What goes around comes around on the wheel of karma, so this month Matt & Adrian talking about the new novel from past guest Max Gladstone, Empress of Forever (https://amzn.to/2Jl9X94)!

We discuss a number of books, movies, TV shows, and RPGs in the general space opera subgenre. Here are some of the most relevant. If the links don't show up in your podcatcher, they will be available on the show notes at spectology.com.

- Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone - This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max - Journey to the West - Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny - Ten Billion Days & 100 Billion Nights by Ryu Mitsuse (see our 10.1 & 10.2 episodes) - Iain M Banks (see our 1.1 & 1.2 episodes on his Use of Weapons) - Gnomon by Nick Harkaway (see our 5.1 & 5.2 episodes w/ Max as a guest) - The New Space Opera & TNSO2, ed. Gardner Dozois & Jonathan Strahan - Sufficiently Advanced (RPG) - Ghibli Fest 2019 (particularly Princess Mononoke) - Neon Genesis Evangelion (on Netflix)

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We'd love to hear from you (tell us your definition of space opera!), either by chatting with us on twitter at @spectologypod, sending us an email at mailbox@spectology.com, or submitting the episode to r/printSF on reddit. We'll reply, and shout you out in the next podcast when we talk about your comment.

And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

15.3: Exhalation (collection) by Ted Chiang post-read: AI, Identity, & Metaphysics in Science Fiction

Tue, 25 Jun 2019 01:00:00 -0300

Welcome to our final episode on Ted Chiang's newest short story collection, Exhalation (https://amzn.to/2X5A0JW). Matt & Adrian start by going through all of the stories in this collection, then go really in-depth on a few specifically, just like we did with Exhalation in our last episode (https://www.spectology.com/e/152-exhalation-post-read-re-reading-stories-philosophy-of-mind-the-heat-death-of-the-universe/).

First 30 minutes: Intro, 2-3 minutes on each story, listing our favorites

29m 10s: "The Lifecycle of Software Objects": Mental & legal frameworks for how to relate to AI

1h 01m 14s: "Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom": Character development & moral thought experiments

1h 17m 02s: "Truth of Fact, Truth of Feeling": How technology changes our cognition & identity

1h 29m 04s: "The Merchant & the Alchemist's Gate": Discussing the medieval Islamic setting

1h 37m 19s: "Omphalos": Short stories as jokes, young Earth creationism

1h 42m 53s: Discussing the structure, endings, & morals of these stories

1h 48m 43s: Wrap-up & outro

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

15.2: "Exhalation" post-read: Re-reading stories, philosophy of mind, & the heat death of the universe

Tue, 18 Jun 2019 01:00:00 -0300

This week's minisode is an in-depth discussion of ONLY the title story from Ted Chiang's new collection, Exhalation (https://amzn.to/2RlWfVY). The story "Exhalation" is available for free online at Lightspeed magazine (https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/exhalation/), so we thought we'd start with this to whet everyone's appetite, and give new readers a chance to read something by Chiang to decide whether you want to pick up the full book. We dig apart Matt's experience of re-reading this story (something he rarely does), discuss the meaty themes the story presents, and offer a few other stories about the process of science. It's a fun short episode, and we hope you enjoy it & stick around for next week's full dissection of all the other stories in the collection.

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

15.1: Exhalation by Ted Chiang, pre-read: Philosophical thought experiments & short stories

Tue, 04 Jun 2019 01:41:55 -0300

Adrian & Matt are back on their own this month, reading & talking about the short story collection Exhalation, by Ted Chiang. A wonderful collection of short fiction, we've decided to do something a little bit different from the usual. With this episode we talk about the power of short-form fiction, why we love Chiang's work so much, and (starting at 43:25) ask each other a couple tough philosophical questions of the type Chiang's stories attempt to answer.

Books & movies mentioned include (links help support Spectology, go to spectology.com if they're not showing up):

- Exhalation, by Ted Chiang - Stories of Your Life & Others, by Ted Chiang - Store of the Worlds, by Robert Sheckley - The Best Stories of JG Ballard - Her Smoke Rose up Forever, by James Tiptree, Jr - Tobias Buckell's Patreon - Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy, ed. NK Jemisin - The Best SF&F of the Year series, ed. Jonathan Strahan - Interview w/ Chiang at Powel's - Interview w/ Walter Mosley at Paris Review

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

14.2: The Raven Tower post-read w/ Reading the End: 2nd Person, Language Games, and Hamlet.

Wed, 29 May 2019 01:49:54 -0300

The Demographically Similar Jenny's join us again for our post-read discussion of Ann Leckie's The Raven Tower (https://amzn.to/2EGiFvV). We liked it! We're talking about it!

We loved having them on so much, go listen to their podcast (https://readingtheend.com/thepodcast/) for more great book content. (#Content for the #Content #Gods!)

Other books mentioned on this podcast:

- The Broken Earth series by NK Jemisin (2nd person) - The Inheritance Trilogy by NK Jemisin (gods as narrators) - The Steerswoman series by Rosmary Kirstein - Mission Child by Maureen F. McHugh (non-binary main character) - Ninefox Gambit & follow-ups by Yoon Ha Lee (non-binary characters by a trans masc author)

(As always, links are at spectology.com if they don't show up in your podcatcher. And if I missed something mentioned in the episode, tweet at @spectologypod or @readingtheend and we'll find it for you.)

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

Things We Like May 2019 (feat. Reading the End): TV Shows, Art, and Fish

Tue, 21 May 2019 00:26:09 -0300

Our guests this month, the Demographically Similar Jennys from the Reading the End Podcast & Blog, join Adrian for a round of "Things We Like" to go over some of our favorite undersung pop culture items we want to share with everyone! We are a little punchy as we're in hour 3 of recording (this was recorded after our Raven Tower post-read, which will come out next week)!

Our things are:

Gin Jenny:

- Into the Spider-Verse - Batchelor Party & Here to Make Friends - Genius (comic) vol. 1 & vol. 2

Whiskey Jenny:

- Anna Atkins' Cyanotypes - Letterkenny (on Hulu in the US) - Gar & Weever fish

Adrian:

- Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (in theatres in the US) - The OA (on Netflix in the US) - The Tick (on Amazon in the US)

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For the first time ever, I forgot to call out our wonderful artists at the end: Many thanks to Dubby J and Noah Bradley for doing our music and art, go check them out!

And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

14.1: The Raven Tower pre-read w/ Reading the End: Fantasy, Genre, & Gender!

Tue, 07 May 2019 01:00:00 -0300

This month, we welcome the Demographically Similar Jennys from the wonderful & charming Reading the End Podcast to Spectology to read Ann Leckie's newest book, The Raven Tower! (https://amzn.to/2VShdjK)

The four of us discuss our past experiences reading both fantasy & science fiction, and how gender is used within those genres, as well as how it drives decisions about how to market those genres by the larger publishing industry. We couldn't have more well-read, fun, & knowledgeable guests for this discussion, so we really hope you enjoy this ep, and check out the Jennys' podcast as well. A great place to start would be Adrian's guest episode from last week: https://readingtheend.com/2019/05/01/podcast-ep-117-a-spectology-crossover-event/

Works mentioned this episode include:

* The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie * Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman * Frankenstein by Mary Shelley * The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish * The Clewiston Test by Kate Wilhelm * NK Jemisin's 2018 Hugo Award speech (video embedded in article)

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

13.3 (fixed): Chris Beckett discusses his novel Dark Eden, writing for realism over role models, and how he thinks about genre.

Tue, 23 Apr 2019 08:29:33 -0300

(Uploaded the wrong file earlier, if you have 2 versions of this episode, this is the correct one.)

This week we have a very special episode, as we're joined by Chris Beckett, author of April's book club selection Dark Eden. Chris was kind enough to call in from the UK to answer questions from Adrian, Matt, & Kevin (as asked by Adrian) about the book, his writing process, how he views political change, why his books don't have role models, his history with science fiction, and much more.

We hope you enjoy this episode! If you like it, let us know, and we'll try to do more author interviews in the future.

Many thanks to Chris Beckett for making time for us, it was an incredibly enjoyable & thoughtful conversation. Make sure to check out Chris' most recent book, Beneath the World, a Sea, which is available in hardcover & ebook in the UK and can be shipped to the US via sellers on Amazon.

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

13.2: Dark Eden post-read w/ Kevin Kelsey: From Stories to Legends to Myths to Religion.

Tue, 16 Apr 2019 00:47:28 -0300

We're once again joined by Kevin Kelsey of Heradas.com to discuss Dark Eden, by Chris Beckett (https://amzn.to/2TRcpX0). We've (re-)read this book and all loved it, and have a lot to dig into!

We talk about the political philosophy of the book. We discuss the psychological reality of the characters. Adrian rants about poverty for 5 minutes and why this book is personal for him, so that's on-brand. It's worth heeding the content warnings on this one, we talk in-depth about that stuff in the 2nd hour.

A few of the resources we mention:

- The sequels, Mother of Eden & Daughter of Eden—worth reading! - NK Jemisin's review of Dark Eden in the NY Times - Our own episodes on Semiosis - The Cold Equations by Tom Godwin - Critique of The Cold Equations by Cory Doctorow - Chris's Q&A on the SF Book Club subreddit - And if you're in the UK, pre-order Beckett's new book, Beneath the World, A Sea

(As always, links are at spectology.com if they don't show up in your podcatcher. And if I missed something mentioned in the episode, tweet at us and I'll find it for you.)

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

13.1: Dark Eden pre-read w/ Kevin Kelsey: Linguistic drift, creating myths, and rogue planets.

Tue, 02 Apr 2019 01:00:00 -0300

To celebrate having been at the podcast for one full year, Matt & Adrian are joined by Kevin Kelsey of Heradas.com as we make our most self-indulgent pick yet: Dark Eden, by Chris Beckett (https://amzn.to/2TRcpX0).

Join us for a somewhat self-reflective episode on why this is one of our favorite books, and why we think everyone should read it. It has linguistics, it has sociology, it has long time scales, it has survival in a harsh world, it has society building, it has a page-turning story, and it is probably the book we've mentioned the most on this podcast without actually reading and talking about it in its own episodes.

Kevin joins us to help us ground the conversation for folks who haven't read the book yet, and in a few weeks we'll all three dig into the rich thematic depth of this novel.

Some other works mentioned include:

- Chris's Q&A on the SF Book Club subreddit - Chris on his history being labeled disabled - NK Jemisin's review of Dark Eden in the NY Times - Review by a juror on the Arthur C. Clarke award - Our own episodes on Children of Time, Romie Futch, Gnomon, & Semiosis - Ice by Anna Kavan - The Helliconia Trilogy by Brian Aldiss - Lord of the Flies by William Golding - And if you're in the UK, pre-order Beckett's new book, Beneath the World, A Sea

(As always, links are at spectology.com if they don't show up in your podcatcher.)

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

12.2: Semiosis post-read w/ Nate Spence: Budding Utopia or Mutualist Dystopia?

Tue, 26 Mar 2019 14:18:45 -0300

Matt, Nate, & Adrian have a long, rollicking conversation about Semiosis, by Sue Burke (https://amzn.to/2JGYm6C). We all really loved the book, but also have a lot of criticism of it, and we get really in-depth on what it all means to us.

The only other books we really mention are Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovski and Dark Eden by Chris Beckett. Look for our 8.1 & 8.2 episode numbers for discussion on CoT, and look out for our episodes on Dark Eden next month!

In addition, if you want to go deeper on how ecologies aren't stable and why thinking so leads to bad utopias, the 2nd episode in the documentary All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace will be right up your alley. You might also enjoy the book Seeing Like A State by James C. Scott.

Finally, big thanks to Nate for suggesting this book and talking to us about it for over 3 hours over these two episodes. Find his videogame on Steam Early Access by searching Ectolibrium. Also thanks to Nate's wife, Amanda, for the artwork this month, she's at @@amandalamandala on Instagram.

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

Things We Like March 2019: Podcasts, TV Shows, Music, and more

Tue, 19 Mar 2019 01:00:00 -0300

This is an ongoing series we do every few months, going over some of the pop culture stuff we've liked recently. Some of it is SF adjacent, some of it isn't, but it's all good and enjoyable!

Matt's things:

- Terrace House (Japanese reality TV, available on Netflix)

- Thunder Bay (true crime podcast)

- Universal Beings by Makaya McCraven (jazz album: check out Natalie Weiner's review)

Adrian's things:

- Zelda: Breath of the Wild (video game: check out Austin Walker's review)

- Blank Check with Griffin & David (movie podcast)

- One Dapper Street (men's fashion youtube channel)

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

12.1: Semiosis pre-read w/ Nate Spence: Alaska, Survivalism, and Ecology in Science Fiction

Tue, 05 Mar 2019 00:00:00 -0400

If you like stories about Alaska, then this is the episode for you! Author, game developer, and Adrian's childhood friend Nate Spence is this month's guest, discussing the ecological survival SF novel Semiosis by Sue Burke (https://amzn.to/2TceBgh). In the novel, a small group of humans tries to colonize what seems like a wilderness planet. The novel follows their survival & evolution of their society over generations.

In this episode, we talk a lot about growing up in wilderness areas and what it's like. What's a pushki? What did Nate's dad teach him in lieu of tying his shoes? Where did Matt bleed from on his Alaska hiking trip and why? How can Adrian possibly defend hitting an owl with his car? What search terms about Alaska do we not suggest you image search? We can't promise we answer these questions, but we'll sure talk about them.

We'll also go over the usual book facts, while trying hard not to spoil what is an interesting, different, and so far very fun to read book! Also, thanks to Amanda Hart, Nate's wife, for supplying our cover artwork this month! Check out her instagram, @amandalamandala.

Resources mentioned (go to spectology.com if the links don't show up in your podcatcher):

* Nate's most recent game, Ectolibrium, on Steam Early Access * Ectolibrium discounted in the IndieGala Bundle (not pay what you want tho) * Dark Eden Trilogy by Chris Beckett * Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer * The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K Le Guin * Embassytown by China Miéville * Station 11 by Emily St. John Mandel * Article about the Russian Orthodox Old Believers in Alaska * Correction: Alaska is the 8th least white state, but has the highest percentage of indigenous people of any state

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

11.2: Brown Girl in the Ring post-read w/ Mendez Hodes: Rituals, Fear, and Community in the Apocalypse

Tue, 26 Feb 2019 10:26:39 -0400

Short description today, have a cold and just trying to get this episode out. May edit it later.

Many thanks to Mendez for coming and discussing Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson with us. Check out his website for his RPG projects, really cool stuff. https://jamesmendezhodes.com

Resources mentioned: Soft Apocalypse by Will McIntosh, Black Preppers by Bim Adwunmi, Interaction Ritual Chains by Randall Collins, & the review of IRC by Xavier Marquez. If links aren't showing up your podcatcher, go to spectology.com for them.

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

In Conversation: 2018 In Review

Tue, 12 Feb 2019 00:00:00 -0400

Join us for a fun & punchy look back at Spectology's first year in books. Matt & Adrian discuss the favorite books we read in 2018, some of our favorite episodes to record, and just generally have a good time while reflecting on what a wonderful year we had together & with you all.

Major thanks goes out to everyone who has helped us so far! Our guests in 2018: Tobias, Britt, Max, Ellie, Kevin, & Charlotte. Dubby J & Noah Bradley for providing music & art to us. Seth for hosting me on his podcast. And of course anyone who has told a friend, submitted us to reddit, tweeted about us, or just listened to some of our episodes. We're so lucky to have such awesome listeners, and we're looking forward to reading another dozen books in 2019! We've got a great list of books and authors coming up this year, I can't wait to share them all.

As always, you can find us at @spectologypod on twitter, or email us at mailbox@spectology.com. We'd love to hear your favorite moments of our from 2018!

11.1: Brown Girl in the Ring pre-read w/ Mendez Hodes: The History of African Religion in Diaspora

Tue, 05 Feb 2019 01:16:49 -0400

This month on Spectology, we're reading Brown Girl in the Ring (https://amzn.to/2G9dqqZ) by Nalo Hopkinson, a classic of Caribbean SF & Fantasy. A young mother must outwit a warlord in post-apocalyptic Toronto in order to save her community, but to do so she'll need the help of that community & its gods.

Adrian & Matt are joined by Mendez Hodes (https://jamesmendezhodes.com), a writer & cultural consultant who works on RPGs and education curricula, who has an academic background is in African Religions. Together, they discuss how African religions found their way to the Americas through the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the details of that religious practice, how to respectfully think & talk about race & non-Western religions, and why rap is the ideal translated form for the ancient Homeric epics. We also talk about science fiction books!

Some of the books & resources mentioned in this episode:

* Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson (read the book, it's great!) * Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed * Black God's Drums by P. Djeli Clarke * The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson * Xenogenesis series by Octavia Butler * Soft Apocalypse by Will McIntosh And some nonfiction resources to learn more about Western African religions in the Americas:

* Our episode with Tobias Buckell discussing Caribbean SF in depth. * Flash of the Spirit by Robert Ferris Thompson * The Serpent & the Rainbow by Wade Davis * Black Magic by Yvonne Chireau

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

10.2: Ten Billion Days & 100 Billion Nights post-read: Meditations on Death and Entropy

Tue, 29 Jan 2019 00:00:00 -0400

This week Adrian & Matt have finished this month's novel (Ten Billion Days & 100 Billion Nights) and have a whole lot to say about it! We talk about entropy, death, religion, and more. I'd write more but I'm tired so you'll just have to listen. Some critical reviews of the novel we liked & mentioned:

* Strange Horizons (https://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/articles/the-strange-horizons-book-club-ten-billion-days-and-one-hundred-billion-nights/) * Complete Review (https://www.complete-review.com/reviews/trscifi/mitsuser.htm) * Two Dudes in an Attic (https://twodudesff.wordpress.com/2012/04/22/10-billion-days-100-billion-nights/) Anime worth checking out:

* Akira * Ghost in the Shell * Princess Mononoke * The Girl Who Leapt Through Time * Neon Genesis Evangelion

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

In Conversation: SF Movie Adaptations w/ Seth Heasley

Tue, 15 Jan 2019 00:51:28 -0400

Adrian & Matt are joined by Seth Heasley of the Hugos There & Take Me to Your Reader podcasts to talk about our favorite SF movie adaptations. We each take turns picking one of our favorites, then talk about it as a group.

Which movies do we pick? What kinds of adaptations are our favorites? Which movies do we think are actually better than the book? You'll have to listen to find out.

Make sure to check out Seth's podcasts. A good place to start is his & Adrian's conversation on The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin on Hugos There (https://hugospodcast.com).

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Did we leave out any of your favorite movies? Think our picks were terrible? Think one of us clearly won? We'd love to hear from you!

Chat with us on twitter at @spectologypod, send us an email at mailbox@spectology.com, or submitting the episode to r/printSF on reddit. We'll reply, and shout you out in the next podcast when we talk about your comment.

And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

10.1: Ten Billion Days & 100 Billion Nights pre-read: Disaster communities & transmission of ideas between cultures.

Tue, 08 Jan 2019 00:00:00 -0400

Happy New Year! Matt & Adrian are back to talk about one of Matt's picks. Ten Billion Days & 100 Billion Nights by Ryu Mitsuse (https://amzn.to/2Vw3CM8) is a classic of Japanese science fiction which was just recently (2011) translated and published in English. It tells an epic story that begins at the beginning of the universe and ends at its end.

This episode, Adrian & Matt discuss Japanese science fiction in various media, how Japanese & Anglo SF influenced each other, and how disasters can create communities amongst those who live through them.

Books & movies mentioned include (links help support Spectology):

* Ten Billion Days & 100 Billion Nights by Ryu Mitsuse * Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny * Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke * The works of David Mitchell * The Master & Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov * L'incal by Jodorowksi & Moebius * Neon Genesis Evangelion * Akira

Some links for further reading: * Japanese SF: https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/japan * Top 10 SF novels of all time: https://www.sfwa.org/2011/09/top-ten-japan-all-time-best-sf-novels/ * Haikasoru (Mitsuse's publisher): https://www.haikasoru.com * Tale of the Bamboo Cutter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_the_Bamboo_Cutter * Eight Dog Chronicles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nansō_Satomi_Hakkenden

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

9.2: Rupetta post-read: Academic pursuits & feminist fantasy.

Sun, 23 Dec 2018 13:28:59 -0400

Happy holidays to all you spectologists! In our final episode of 2018, Adrian & Charlotte complete their discussion of the James Tiptree, Jr. Award-winning novel Rupetta by NA Sulway (https://amzn.to/2SjgX8r). This wonderful, overlooked novel has us both ruminating about our time in university, trying to dig into the meaning of a mechanical heart, and discussing how the prose & the story reinforced each other.

Please excuse the sniffles, Adrian was a bit sick & tried to edit them all out, although I'm sure I missed a few.

Charlotte can be found online at:

* @tambourine on twitter * her DreamWidth blog: https://alwaysalready.dreamwidth.org * she recently won The White Review Poetry Prize, for poems including "bangable dudes in history"

And books we mentioned include: * Rupetta by NA Sulway * Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino * Gnomon by Nick Harkaway * The Raven Tower by Anne Leckie (pre-order)

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Spectology will be back in 2019 with new books, more guests, and lots of great #content!

Until then, we'd love to hear from you, either by chatting with us on twitter at @spectologypod, sending us an email at mailbox@spectology.com, or submitting the episode to r/printSF on reddit. We'll reply, and shout you out in the next podcast when we talk about your comment.

And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

9.1: Rupetta pre-read w/ Charlotte Geater: Folk tales & feminist histories.

Tue, 04 Dec 2018 13:57:33 -0400

This month, Adrian is joined by listener, poet, & publisher Charlotte Geater (@tambourine) to discuss Rupetta, by N.A. Sulway.

Rupetta is an under-appreciated historical SF novel about a clockwork woman & the human women through history who act as her caretakers. It won the James Tiptree, Jr. award in 2013, and was recently re-published in ebook format.

Charlotte & Adrian discuss the publishing history of the book, Sulway's other works, historiography, folk tales, and the metaphors by which we understand consciousness.

Works & links mentioned include:

* An interview with Sulway about one of the folk histories that inspired Rupetta * Another interview on other influences * The Jaquet-Droz automota in Neuchatel, Switzerland * Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang * Exhalation by Ted Chiang * Tender: Stories by Sophia Samatar * Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke * Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

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As always, we'd love to hear from you, either by chatting with us on twitter at @spectologypod, sending us an email at mailbox@spectology.com, or submitting the episode to r/printSF on reddit. We'll reply, and shout you out in the next podcast when we talk about your comment.

And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

8.2: Children of Time post-read: Evolution, Language, Consciousness, and Empathy

Tue, 27 Nov 2018 00:00:00 -0400

We've read Children of Time (https://amzn.to/2QqYKII), and boy do we have a lot to say about it! This episode we discuss the structure of the book, whether novels need strong characters, how animal consciousness might differ from our own, and how to stock a ship designed to re-seed the human race on another planet. Adrian gets to jabber on about the Baldwin Effect & octopuses, and Matt makes some sharp points about the importance of empathy. Truly this podcast represents the future liberals want.

As always, here's a list of stuff we discuss in the episode. If the links don't show up in your podcatcher, they will on spectology.com. All links are referral links.

* Startide Rising by David Brin * The Bees by Laline Paull * The White Bone by Barbara Gowdy * Watership Down by Richard Adams * The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov * Goedel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter

And finally, a few books on consciousness, language, and evolution that weren't mentioned by name, but which Adrian recommends:

* Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith (octopus researcher mentioned) * Adam's Tongue by Derek Bickerton (language evolution & the Baldwin Effect) * The Crucible of Consciousness by Zoltan Torey (language & consciousness) * The Perplexities of Consciousness by Eric Schwitzgebel (essays on the difficulty of introspecting consciousness) * The Ego Tunnel by Thomas Metzinger (laying out the ideas behind the phrase "consciousness is an illusion" for a lay audience)

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

8.1: The Children of Time pre-read: What is "Hard" Science Fiction?

Tue, 13 Nov 2018 00:57:13 -0400

This November we're reading Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Woo Adrians! This episode we discuss what the "science" in science fiction means. What other books portray science well? What does it mean to write a book about science? Should science fiction try to be "realistic"? In addition, we give you the book facts, and discuss a number of other works. Links are at spectology.com if they don't show up in your podcatcher:

* Blindsight by Peter Watts * Ursula K. Le Guin * Foreigner by CJ Cherryh * The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle * The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell (also see episodes 2.1 & 2.2 of Spectology for further discussion thereof) * The Dark Eden Trilogy by Chris Beckett * The Mars Trilogy by KSR * Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang * The Arthur C. Clarke Awards

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

Announcements: Adrian guest hosts a podcast + our November book

Tue, 06 Nov 2018 00:42:31 -0300

Two quick announcements today, since we weren't able to get our usual pre-read episode recorded in time.

The first is that our November book will be Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. This is a book neither of us has read, but won the Clarke award and has themes that we're both interested in. Should be a good time.

The second is that Adrian guest hosted on the Hugos There Podcast (https://hugospodcast.com) a few days ago to talk about Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness. It was a great conversation about one of his favorite books, so check that out if you need something to tide you over before our Children of Time pre-read drops next week.

Final bonus announcement for our Americans who read the show notes: VOTE! This is voting day, and there are a bunch of important local elections on the ballot, from your state legislators to various criminal justice ballot reforms to just your local sheriffs & judges. We live in a dystopian hellscape, but you can make it mildly better by voting. And you can listen to me talk about Le Guin while you wait on line. --- As always, we'd love to hear from you, either by chatting with us on twitter at @spectologypod, sending us an email at mailbox@spectology.com. We'll reply, and shout you out in the next podcast when we talk about your comment.

And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

7.2: The Ballad of Black Tom post-read: When is it appropriate to destroy the world?

Tue, 23 Oct 2018 18:28:47 -0300

Late but not never! Our post-read episode for Victor LaValle's The Ballad of Black Tom. We discuss the plot & many of the themes of the novel. Why do we think Black Tom such a better retelling of Lovecraft's story? What is psychological realism? Was an opportunity missed to include more immigrant characters? When are greivances such that ending the world is at least an understandable response?

Resources mentioned in the podcast. Links on www.spectology.com:

- The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle - The LA Review of Books on Lovecraft retellings - The Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemisin - Blackkklansman by Spike Lee (out today on Digital Download!) - Passing by Nella Larson

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

In Conversation: Books, Ebooks, & Audio Books; or, How Aesthetics Drive Reading Choices

Tue, 16 Oct 2018 01:00:00 -0300

In this bonus episode we welcome Kevin Kelsey, author of the Heradas.com SF Blog & longtime listener, to discuss our reading habits.

How does reading on paper differ from reading on an e-reader? Why does one of us prefer paper for non-fiction and ebooks for fiction? Who enjoys audio books the most? Which imprint has the best physical books? When is it OK to write in a book? And why does Adrian sound like a sad Cookie Monster impersonator? We discuss all of these and more in what was a hugely fun conversation.

Many thanks to Kevin for suggesting this topic & recording with us. Make sure to check out Heradas.com for some wonderful essays & reviews of SF literature.

And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

7.1: The Ballad of Black Tom pre-read: Race & the History of Horror Fiction

Tue, 02 Oct 2018 10:56:39 -0300

For October, Matt & Adrian are dipping their toes into the world of Horror, reading Victor LaValle's novella The Ballad of Black Tom. The Ballad of Black Tom is a retelling of one of HP Lovecraft's most egregiously racist short stories, "The Horror at Red Hook", from the perspective of a black man living in Harlem who gets wrapped up in NYC's magical underworld. It won or was short listed for a number of top SF, Horror, and Fantasy awards due to its compelling characters, comfortable prose, and ratcheting tension.

In this episode, we discuss our own histories reading HP Lovecraft and other Weird/Horror authors, how our perceptions of racism in these stories changed over time, and get into the history of why Lovecraft in particular became so popular.

Content warnings are due for the book & this episode. The book has some shocking racist police violence in it, and this episode we discuss Lovecraft's racism & xenophobia head-on, including reading some passages from "The Horror at Red Hook".

Resources for this episode are below. Links are available on our webpage (spectology.com) if they don't show up in your podcatcher.

- The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle - "The Horror at Red Hook" by HP Lovecraft (in the public domain) - The Weird, a short story collection by Ann & Jeff VandeerMeer - Searching for Zion by Emily Raboteau (LaValle's wife) - How to Adapt Lovecraft in the 21st Century video essay by H. Bomberguy - Pseudopod, a horror fiction podcast

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

6.2: Ninefox Gambit post-read w/ Ellie Bartels: Military Games in Science Fiction

Tue, 25 Sep 2018 23:37:49 -0300

At long last, our follow-up episode to Yoon Ha Lee's wonderful Ninefox Gambit has arrived! And Ellie is back to talk about her job & the book with us.

Unlike most post-read episodes, we start off with a longer, non-spoiler discussion with Ellie about what she does & how the US Government uses startegy war games in both education & decision-making. It's a fascinating half hour conversation, and worth listening to even if you haven't read the book.

Then of course we get into the meat of it! This episode, we talk about the details & themes of the book, and how they apply to the real world. Want to know more? You'll have to listen.

Our list of resources this time around (if the links don't show up, find them on spectology.com or our twitter, @spectologypod):

- Raven Strategem and Revenant Gun, the next two books in the series - Yoon Ha Lee's own cheat sheet for the factions in the Hexarchate - Five genre books about games recommended by Yoon Ha Lee - The twitter thread about writing SF from different bodies - Harpoon, a military strategy game available to the public - WaPo profile of Volko Runhke, a CIA game designer - Brian Train's Board Game Geek profile - The Art of Wargaming (link to the Kindle edition, other editions availalbe on amazon with a search) - A discussion of useful SF to read for military commanders - Bombshell, a great national security podcast (they sometimes talk about books!)

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

Things We Like: September 18

Tue, 18 Sep 2018 01:02:04 -0300

Welcome back friends, it's been a while! Adrian & Matt are back from our break, happy to bring you our hottest takes on what we've been enjoying recently. And next week we'll have our post-read Episode for Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee, so you should read that & listen to our last episode if you haven't yet.

This week we cover:

- MeasuredPolitics.org, Adrian's Political Action Committee - Mike Boyd's YouTube channel, where he documents his process learning random skills - Bojack Horseman, a show about a depressed actor / horse on Netflix - The Cheese & the Worms by Carlo Ginzburg - America City by Chris Beckett - Jack Ryan, a TV show on Amazon

And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

6.1: Ninefox Gambit pre-read w/ Ellie Bartels: Strategy War Games in Science Fiction

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 01:00:00 -0300

Late episode this week... but early episode this month! It's the Labor Day holiday weekend, so we wanted to post a longer episode to keep people company during all the BBQs and road trips.

This month, the book we're reading is the Locus-award winning Ninefox Gambit, by Yoon Ha Lee. We also have a wonderful guest. Ellie Bartels is a strategy & war game designer, and has long been book club pals with Adrian & Matt.

In this episode we discuss military science fiction, how science fiction and fantasy interact with each other, education game design, math, gender politics in the miliary & science fiction, and inter-departmental bureaucratic conflict. It is a really fun episode, and we have to leave some of the best parts for the spoiler discussion in a few weeks.

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Some of the works we mention & discuss include:

- The Ancillary Series by Anne Lieckie - Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey - CJ Cherryh - Shards of Honor and Barrayar (collectively refered to as Cordelia's Honor) by Lois McMaster Bujold - Honor Harrington by David Weber et al. - Blindsight by Peter Watts - Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolf - Unavoidably, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card - And last but not least, "Instruments of Destruction", the short Star Wars fanfiction about project managing the Death Star

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And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

5.2: Gnomon post-read with Max Gladstone

Tue, 21 Aug 2018 10:25:27 -0300

We're back with our post-read episode, discussing Nick Harkaway's challenging, interminable, and oh so enjoyable novel Gnomon. Spoilers all around. We also discuss postmodern fiction, writing people unlike you, and the power, both good and bad, of narrative in the modern world.

It's a long episode, but it was a hugely fun one to record! Big thanks to Max for taking so much time this month to hang out and chat with us, make sure to check out his books & the Serial Box story Bookburners.

And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

In Conversation: Things We Like This Month

Tue, 14 Aug 2018 01:00:00 -0300

Adrian & Matt are together for a short episode going over some of their favorite books, movies, video games, and podcasts of recent. We each discuss three things that we're excited to share with each other and all of you! They are:

- Making Obama, a podcast from WBEZ Chicago

- Sorry to Bother You, a movie from Boots Riley (see it in theatres!)

- Japanese Style Originator, available on Netflix

- Chrono Trigger, available on Steam, iOS, Android, etc

- The Invisible Valley by Su Wei, trans. Austin Woerner, Small Beer Press

- The Reading the End Bookcast, a podcast from the demographically similar Jennys

As always, we post these links and more at our twitter account, @spectologypod. We'd love to hear from you, either by chatting with us on twitter or sending us an email at mailbox@spectology.com. We'll reply, and shout you out in the next podcast when we talk about your comment.

And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

5.1: Pre-read for Gnomon, by Nick Harkaway, with guest Max Gladstone

Tue, 07 Aug 2018 09:09:01 -0300

We're back with the #content plants crave. Joining us this week is special guest Max Gladstone, SF & fantasy author extraordinaire. But he's not here to talk about his own work, the Craft Sequence, oh no. Max wanted to discuss the phenomenal, long, daunting, nuanced, and mysterious Gnomon, by estemed author in his own right Nick Harkaway.

The discussion this week is spoiler-free, and acts as an introduction to the book and the ideas in it. We had a long and wide-ranging conversation with Max about Nick Harkaway's literary background (his father is also a famous author), which other books of his we've read, and other books in the SF genre that are similar to Gnomon in some way. On the thematic side, we spoke about experimental & postmodern fiction, the surveillance state and it's effect on our lives, what calling something "social construct" actually means, what the leading cause of death in America is, how our phones act as magic items, and what it means to read a videogame.

In a few weeks, we'll have our "post-read" conversation, which will feature heavy spoilers as we discuss the book in-depth. Pick up the book (amzn.to/2MszFb4) and read it with us!

Some works that we mentioned in the podcast (our website, spectology.com, has the links if they don't show up in your podcatcher):

- Malka Older's Infomacracy - Samuel Delany's Dhalgren - David Markson's Wittgenstein's Mistress - Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson - The Play Report of a D&D campaign Adrian ran - The interview with Harkaway Adrian references - Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson - Our previous episode with Tobias Buckell - The Power Broker by Robert Caro - David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest - Not mentioned, but Adrian meant to: The Broken Earth by NK Jemisin

As always, we post these links and more at our twitter account, @spectologypod. We'd love to hear from you, either by chatting with us on twitter, sending us an email at mailbox@spectology.com, or submitting the episode to r/printSF on reddit. We'll reply, and shout you out in the next podcast when we talk about your comment.

And if you like the episode, subscribe at spectology.com or whever you listen to podcasts, and share it with your friends!

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

4.3: Matt's back for our Romie Futch wrap-up!

Tue, 31 Jul 2018 01:00:00 -0300

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 mailbox@spectology.com with your thoughts about the book.

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

4.2: The New & Improved Romie Futch post-read w/ Britt O'Duffy

Tue, 24 Jul 2018 01:32:39 -0300

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 mailbox@spectology.com with your thoughts about the book.

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

In Conversation: Matt & Adrian talk "Spoilers"

Tue, 17 Jul 2018 01:00:00 -0300

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 mailbox@spectology.com with your thoughts about the topic.

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

4.1: The New & Improved Romie Futch pre-read

Tue, 10 Jul 2018 01:00:00 -0300

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 mailbox@spectology.com with your thoughts about the book.

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

3.BONUS: Talking Caribbean SF with Tobias Buckell + July book announcement

Tue, 03 Jul 2018 01:00:00 -0300

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 mailbox@spectology.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.

3.4: Binti: The Night Masquerade post-read

Tue, 26 Jun 2018 01:57:00 -0300

Woo! Here it is, the final episode in our Binit mini-series. We get to wrap it up with a book neither of us have read before, and bring it full circle talking about Afrofuturism, university, technology, and what "herratige" really means.

Links to buy the Binti novella's and support the pod are:

- Binti - Binti: Home - Binti: The Night Masquerade

Next week we're taking a break, but will have a short announcement of our next book! Then we'll be right back into it with the pre- and post-reads, as well as a few mini episodes, this time with guests!

As always, we'd love to hear from you! Tweet us at @spectologypod, submit the episode at r/printSF, or email us at mailbox@spectology.com with your thoughts about the book. In particular, check out our twitter this month, where we've been posting a lot of great Afrofuturist art, music, and other resources.

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

3.3: Binti: Home post-read

Tue, 19 Jun 2018 01:00:00 -0300

We read and discuss the second installment in the Binti trilogy. In this book, Binti: Home, Binti comes back to Earth to go on a Himba woman's pilgrimage, and has to deal with a family who doesn't understand her decisions and a homeland that is hostile to her new friend, the Meduse Okwu.

We continue our discussions of different ways to relate to the idea of technology, whether rural life is necessarily "primitive" and whether that's a useful word in any context, and how Binti's journey is relatable to both of us. We're also doing a bit of an experiment with our structure, walking through the book's entire plot. Let us know if you like it!

We also mention this review of Binti: Home at NPR by Amal El-Mohtar.

Links to buy the Binti novella's and support the pod are:

- Binti - Binti: Home - Binti: The Night Masquerade

We'll be back on June 26th to discuss the last Binti novella!

As always, we'd love to hear from you! Tweet us at @spectologypod, submit the episode at r/printSF, or email us at mailbox@spectology.com with your thoughts about the book. In particular, check out our twitter this month, where we'll be posting a lot of great Afrofuturist art, music, and other resources.

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

3.2: Binti post-read

Tue, 12 Jun 2018 01:00:00 -0300

Welcome to our first post-read episode this month, for the first novella in the Binti Trilogy: "Binti".

In this episode, Adrian connects his childhood growing up in rural Alaska to Binti's background, Matt talks about why he loves the moral landscape of the novella, we discuss the essence of technology, and we both answer whether we'd rather be Meduse or a shrimp-ship.

Content warning for some discussion of the violence in the book, as well as spoilers for only the first Binti novella.

As always, we'd love to hear from you! Tweet us at @spectologypod, submit the episode at r/printSF, or email us at mailbox@spectology.com with your thoughts about the book. In particular, check out our twitter this month, where we'll be posting a lot of great Afrofuturist art, music, and other resources.

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

3.1: The Binti Trilogy pre-read

Tue, 05 Jun 2018 01:00:00 -0300

A new month, a new book! Or in this case, series of books. The Binti Trilogy is a set of short novellas by Nnedi Okorafor. Together they are about the same size as a novel (and about the cost). They tell the story of a young woman in Western Africa who gets an invitation to the best university in the galaxy, and leaves everything she knows to attend. However, these aren't your typical chosen one or fish out of water school stories, and they take a lot of unexpected twists and turns along the way.

We loved the first two novellas when we read them, and so we're excited to get to re-read and finish the whole trilogy, especially after the diappointment of our last book! In this spoiler-free episode, Adrian and Matt discuss the musical and literary roots of Afrofuturism, Adrian's experience going from a rural town to a major university, and why we love these books so much. Instead of doing one post-read episode this month, we're going to be doing a shorter post-read episode week for a successive novella. The novellas and our schedule are:

- Binti (June 12) - Binti: Home (June 19) - Binti: The Night Masquerade (June 26)

And some of the other works we mention include:

- Afrofuturism by Ytasha L. Womack (highly recommended intro) - Sun Ra & His Archestra - A Love Supreme by John Coltrane - Harnessed the Storm by Drexciya - ATLiens by OutKast - Blazing Arrow by Blackalicious - Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe (album / movie) - Bloodchild and Lillith's Brood by Octavia Butler - Dhalgren and Nova by Sam Delany - The Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemisin - Black Panther by Ryan Coogler (soundtrack by Kendrick Lamar)

As always, we'd love to hear from you! Tweet us at @spectologypod, submit the episode at r/printSF, or email us at mailbox@spectology.com with your thoughts about the book. In particular, check out our twitter this month, where we'll be posting a lot of great Afrofuturist art, music, and other resources.

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

2.3: The Sparrow vs. The Star (Minisode)

Tue, 29 May 2018 01:00:00 -0300

A short episode to tide you over this week! We discuss Arther C. Clarke's The Star (pdf), comparing and constrating it to The Sparrow. Full spoilers for both the story (it's only 4 pages, you should read it!) and The Sparrow.

This is a relatively clean episode that's mostly about how and why people lose their faith and whether science fiction generally does a good job at handling this question.

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In addition, we realized that our links to related works aren't showing up in all podcatchers. Here are the links from the last episode, if you're looking for more recommendations that (we think) are better than The Sparrow

- Monolingual Fieldwork by Daniel Everett (a linguist learns Hmong) - Do Elephants Have Souls? by Caitrin Keiper for the New Atlantis - Alien intelligence: the extraordinary minds of octopuses and other cephalopods by Elle Hunt - The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber - 1491 and 1493 by Charles Mann

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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 mailbox@spectology.com with your thoughts about the book.

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

2.2: The Sparrow Post-Read

Tue, 22 May 2018 01:00:00 -0300

Now that everyone's had time to read it, it's time to talk about The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell in detail. Did we like the book? Were the characters compelling? Did the end work for us? Was it an effective alegorical exploration of the Columbian contact with the Americas? And why are the answers to all these questions "no"?

This book featured a lot of graphic imagery, so be aware we have in-depth discussions of rape, torture, and isolation in this episode.

If you'd like to skip the discussion of the plot and jump right to our deeper discussion of the themes, then jump from about 15:05 to 52:40. We wanted folks who haven't read the book recently, or don't intend to read it, to be able to understand the plot and enjoy the rest of the episode, but not everyone will want a recounting of the novel they just read.

During the course of the novel we mentioned a few articles, videos, and books, including:

Monolingual Fieldwork by Daniel Everett (a linguist learns Hmong)
Do Elephants Have Souls? by Caitrin Keiper for the New Atlantis
Alien intelligence: the extraordinary minds of octopuses and other cephalopods by Elle Hunt
The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
1491 and 1493 by Charles Mann

Next week we'll be discussing Arthur C. Clarke's short story "The Star" (pdf) in the context of The Sparrow to compare and contrast them.

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

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

2.1: The Sparrow Pre-Read

Tue, 01 May 2018 01:00:00 -0300

We're excited to announce that in May, we're reading The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell!

In this spoiler free, pre-read episode, Adrian and Matt discuss religion in science fiction. How do different books handle religion in the future? Does science fiction have an antagonistic relationship with religion? What are some of our favorite works of SF that feature religion? There's a diversion into Adrian's fundamentalist upbringing and his path to agnosticism. And what does a prog rock album based on future Jesuits sound like?

Some of the books we talk about this episode are:

The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights by Ryu Mitsuse
Dark Eden by Chris Beckett
Underground Railroud by Colson Whitehead
Contact by Carl Sagan
Broken Spears by Miguel Leon-Portilla

And make sure to check out The Sparrow album by the prog rock band Metaphor for your reading soundtrack.

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

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

1.2: Use of Weapons Post-Read

Tue, 24 Apr 2018 01:00:00 -0300

Join us for our in-depth discussion of Use of Weapons by Iain M Banks. Content warning for violence, torture, and spoilers.

Come for the rousing discussion on the place of violencein utopia, stay for the long-winded arguments over whether free will exists and how to define AI. How does Use of Weapons stack up to the rest of the Culture books? How do we feel about tech moguls obsession with the Culture? Listen to find out.

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

Minisode 2: Things We Like & Reader Mail

Tue, 17 Apr 2018 01:00:00 -0300

This week, we're responding to questions and comments from our listeners, and talking about some of the things we found most enjoyable this month.

Learn how frequently we plan to update, our plans for future books, what albums we're listening to, and who our favorite Fab 5 member is.

We also take the time to appologize for a mistake we made in our Use of Weapons pre-read.

If you'd like your comments to be included in future shows, follow us at @spectologypod on twitter, or email us at mailbox@spectology.com.

As always, many thanks to Dubby J and Noah Bradley for doing our music and art.

1.1: Use of Weapons Pre-Read

Tue, 03 Apr 2018 01:00:00 -0300

This month we're reading Use of Weapons by Iain M Banks.

In our innagural pre-read episode, we discuss the Space Opera and Mil SciFi subgenres, Iain M. Banks' socialism, how his Culture novels work, and our relationship to his work.

This is our first episode! There are a few sound issues, which we have already worked out for future eps.

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

Minisode 1: Intro to Spectology

Sun, 01 Apr 2018 21:23:56 -0300

Welcome to our podcast!

Each month, Adrian and Matt will pick a science fiction book and read it. Learn about our history with SF, why we're doing our podcast, and what our plans are in this introduction episode.

As always, music is by Dubby J, and art by Noah Bradley.