It has a been a long minute since that last episode, but there's a good reason! The name is changing, though the content will be the same. I talk briefly about what's going on. And I offer up some good reading to tide you over until the full episodes of next season arrive. Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Rowanhorse Blackfish City by Sam Miller The Ou…

Reader's Room pulls the most fascinating writing from speculative fiction, science, and technology. In this edition we look at how two stories can simultaneously be strikingly similar and completely different. We also have a roundup of interesting science and technology, N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth books, and Rosemary Kirstein The Steerswoman serie…

Reader's Room pulls the most fascinating writing from speculative fiction, science, and technology. In this edition we talk about what happens when the wind goes out of your sails, speculative fiction from Fireside, the optimistic present from Future Crunch, and long-term thinking from The Long Now foundation. And we talk about my difficulty with n…

Reader's Room pulls the most fascinating writing from speculative fiction, science, and technology. In this edition we talk about coming to terms with things, including glitter, Shakespeare, and loss. Show links: Margaret Atwood's Hag-Seed Which is part of the Hogarth Shakespeare collection. UK exam board fined$250,000 for confusing characters from…

Reader's Room pulls the most fascinating writing from speculative fiction, science, and technology. In this edition we talk about experience on a Japanese leisure island, the unhelpfulness of book blurbs, and Nick Harkaway’s The Gone Away World. Show links: Odaiba fortresses turned leisure island in Tokyo bay. Palette Town giant, eclectic collectio…

Reader's Room covers the month's speculative fiction, science and technology. In this edition we talk about how to grow literature in the desert, the very real ways words can threaten life, as well as Kawamata Chiaki’s novel Death Sentences. Show links: Nevada's Black Mountain Institute The Believer magazine The Believer Festival BMI's City of Asyl…

Reader's Room covers the month's speculative fiction, science and technology. In this edition we talk about autonomous vehicles, and how they're still a nuisance on the road if they can't communicate with the humans around them. We also talk about what causes car crashes in professional races, using AI to keep people and sharks safe from each other…

The Reader's Room talks about speculative fiction, science, and technology. This month, we ask what kinds of changes you might make to your body to improve your work, or better reflect your beliefs. We also talk about the transhumans in Alistair Reynolds' new book, Elysium Fire, and his 2008 book The Prefect, as well as some of the people and techn…

This month we talk about the possibilities of making a single change in reality, and I get caught up on Charles Stross's Laundry Files novels. Show links: The Atrocity Archives, Stross's first Laundry Files book. The Delirium Brief, the most recent novel in the series. Laundry Files Reading Order MIT's Neuron on a chip at MIT's media site. Rab the …

Reader's Room ponders the best speculative fiction and and science for the month. This edition we look at how and why authors create specilatve worlds, and their impact on storytelling. Show links: We talk about Andy Weir's latest book, Artemis. If you have an hour, Weir did an interview about the process of creating Artemis on Conversations with T…

No essay this month. Instead, I share a new piece of short fiction that does better than the essay ever did. It explores the legal idea of personhood and what possibilities are unlocked when we apply it a little more broadly. As always, suggestions, comments are welcome. If you want to get in touch, learn more, or subscribe to the newsletter at Rea…

Reader's Room ponders the best speculative fiction and and science for the month. This month we talk about how we become attached to technology and Analee Newitz's new novel Autonomous. And there's a little piece of original flash fiction up front. Show links: Highlights of the Cassini mission. from NASA. Autonomous: A Novel by Analee Newitz The Im…

Reader's Room ponders the best speculative fiction and and science for the month. This week we talk about searching for answers in the wake of worldwide disaster and local tragedy, and N. K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy. Suggestions, comments, or subscribe to the newsletter at ReadSteven.com

Reader's Room ponders the best speculative fiction and and science for the week. This week I visit some of the same craters that the Apollo astronauts walked on fifty years ago, and we talk about making up some history just so we can mess it up later. Show links: Cinder Lakes Training Field (PDF) where the Apollo astronauts trained. S. (aka Ship of…

Reader's Room ponders the best speculative fiction and and science for the week. This week think about what makes up a journey, and Kij Johnson's novel The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe. Show links: Should robots be given copyright protection? Advice for journalists writing about (and readers reading about) artificial intelligence. Uncanny Magazine's …

Reader's Room ponders the best speculative fiction and and science for the week. This week we talk about the crazy ideas that have propelled us forward, even if we didn't know we could reach them. Show links: Elon Musk's presentation Making Humans a Multi-Planetary Species (pdf) (Available until July 5, 2017) Ordinary rockets sometimes land on farm…

Reader's Room ponders the best speculative fiction and and science for the week. This week we talk about why they brought a pistol along when going on the first spacewalk, and The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. Show links: Two Sides of the Moon by Astronaut Dave Scott and Cosmonaut Alexi Leonov (Excerpt about the first spacewalk at Air & Space Magazine …

Reader's Room ponders the best speculative fiction and and science for the week. This week we talk about those books that you found (or maybe they found you) at just the right time and place. Also Show links: Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat ... and Make Room! Make Room! Curtis Chen's Waypoint Kangaroo ... and it's sequel Kangroo Two Some readi…

Reader's Room ponders the week's most thought-provoking speculative fiction and nonfiction. This week we talk about the transformative power of stories, Neil Gaiman's ability to use stories to evoke gods, and how great it is to pass a book forward. Show links: Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology (and American Gods) Linkdump: Tang Fei's The Person Who Saw…

Reader's Room ponders the week's most thought-provoking speculative fiction and nonfiction. This week we talk about the so-called rules of writing, when to break them, and Sylvain Neuvel's novel Sleeping Giants. Show links: Regarding Your Future With The Futures Planning Consortium Short fiction over at Fireside Sylvain Neuvel's Sleeping Giants Pod…

Reader's Room features the week's most thought-provoking speculative fiction and nonfiction. This week I talk about alternate histories, snappy pitches, and what Sarah Gailey's new novel, River of Teeth has to do with them both. Oh, and that one time when America almost started wide-scale hippo ranching. Show links: Sarah Gailey's River of Teeth Am…

Reader's Room features the week's most thought-provoking speculative fiction and nonfiction. This week I talk about how astronauts see Earth, when and why to quit something in the middle, and Alistair Reynold's latest. Show links: Jack Fisher's Tweet, wondering, from space. Alistair Reynolds' The Iron Tactician (Previous stories in this world are a…

Reader's Room ponders the week's most thought-provoking speculative fiction and nonfiction. This week we talk about the influence that science fiction has on science. Show links: H. G. Wells's The World Set Free Astro Boy (AKA Mighty Atom) Tricorder X Prize Linkdump: Vernor Vinge's Fire Upon The Deep free this month. When an AI anticipates itself (…

Reader's Room ponders the week's most thought-provoking speculative fiction and nonfiction. This week I share a story—a memoir, really, since it's true—about waking up in another body. Linkdump: Kate Lechler'sThe Hulder’s Husband Says Don’t Flash fiction. The World's First nanocar race Japanese researchers 3D print scaffold-free ‘human mini-liver’ …