Michael and Michael tackle some voicemail feedback this week, before jumping into this week’s with the double dose of interviews:
Voicemail: Beth in San Diego comments on politics in SF and her A+ influential SF stories; Scott in Flagstaff has questions about POD publishers like Lulu; Trucker Cylon wonders what the heck we’re talking about when Mike complains about running out of time in the show; thanks for Stackpole about his works and asks him if his Star Wars books are available in unabridged audio; Cylon Trucker comments on pen name usage; Jason from The Nut Gallery enjoyed Stackpole’s anecdote about the red stripes showing up at conventions.
July 2007 is “Cover to Cover” Double Feature Month! That’s right, you’re getting two interviews in each show. This is what happens when there are too many authors to talk to and not enough weeks in the year for a weekly show.
Interview #1: Michael and Brian talk with internationally acclaimed comic book author Mike Carey about his new novel The Devil You Know. It’s a supernatural thriller, and the first book of a planned six-book series about an exorcist who’s far more detective than priest, and the dangers in the line of work he’s chosen.
Interview #2: Next up, Michael and Michael talk with Canadian science fiction author Lynda Williams about Righteous Anger, the follow up to Courtesan Prince and the shared Okal Rel universe these stories and other works of hers and other writers inhabit. She also talks about getting feedback from many places, as well as the unexpected rush of teen readers who’ve come to the books. Do you have an idea to add to the website project, or possibly something to submit to the anthologies? Ask and see what happens!
Listener Feedback: What were the books on your must read lists the past year? And keep submitting your opinions on “Lord of the Rings” compared to “The Fionavar Tapestry”.
Submitting Listener comments: If you have any suggestions or comments, please let us know!
Link: Lynda Williams
Link: EDGE Science Fiction
another packed episode.
You know, i loved the Lucifer comics alot…but i was going to skip over the novel because it sounded from the bland description in amazon to be another kind of ‘been there, done that’ book…but i think hearing the writer’s own description changed my mind alot.
Oh and i thought you should have asked lynda williams about the okal rel’s popularity world wide…i have seen alot people from different parts other then CA and USA talking about her universe, i always respected that sort of appeal across the world.
yeah that schedule looks like pure hell for micheal a stackpole…visiting some of nicest cities and ending at the nerd-paradise of comic-con…poor, tortured life of a writer!
Thank you, Raul, for your comment about the Okal Rel Universe’s international – well, footprint might be too bold a claim – toehold? I am proud to be about things that are both uniquely weird (like Vrellish society) and universal. 🙂 And bless you for telling me you have heard people talking about the Okal Rel Universe!
You guys talked about how sci-fi can cushion us from future shock and mentioned the 6 million dollar man. Discussion moved to the future of performance enhancements. Well, the future is here guys.
Bionics hasn’t worked the way the sci-fi writers envisioned it. Instead it’s as much bio-engineering our own bodies as much as it is using add-on hardware.
For example one can drill a series of small holes in the humerus and ulna (bones in your arm) near the elbow, slice open the same arm at the wrist in order to remove a tendon from it, and finally weave the extracted tendon in a figure eight loop through the holes. This operation is known as ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction or more commonly as the Tommy John procedure (named for the first MLB pitcher to elect to have the surgery.) It’s usually the only option to keep a pitching career in the majors after experiencing torn ligaments in the elbow. In the 2001-2002 season one in nine major league pitchers were sporting the distinctive scars that result from this surgery. Now, one should note that one in nine pitchers did not suffer from torn ligaments. An interesting side effect of this surgery is that the re-engineered ligament-as-tendon arrangement gives pitchers the ability to throw a harder (that is faster) pitch.
Even body-add-ons aren’t going high tech in the way of the microchip for added speed. They’re going high tech in materials. Oscar Pistorius is a double amputee. He is a world record holder in 100, 200 and 400 meter races. Instead of heavy life-like looking legs he has a pair of j shaped carbon fiber composite “blades.” Because these blades have a spring-like element to them they allow Oscar to run with greater efficiency. The spring-like nature of the blades return more energy than the human leg can. In addition these non-biological legs do not suffer from fatigue, they do not cramp, they do not tax his cardiovascular system due to consumption of fuel or oxygen, they do not add waste products such as lactic acid to the blood stream. In addition the blades are longer than the natural limbs that they are replacing, thus each stride allows Oscar to cover more ground. In a sport where records are broken in intervals measured in thousandths of a second these advantages can be significant.
For the sake of brevity I won’t even get into ocular and auditory implants.
I just wanted to mention a book that seems to me as a precusur to the science fiction of today “The Stars My Destination” this is a 50’s sci fi but it’s still a very good read almost 50 years later. And anything written by Heinlein. I grew up on the young adult Heinlein.