Michael Stackpole gives us all a brief but colorful health update, and we discuss the possible implications of the podcast version of James Patrick Kelly's "Burn" winning the Nebula Award. So while the podcast version may have won the award, it's not likely that SFWA is opening its heart to the idea of opening up nominations to any qualifying podcast.
There's also some discussion about SFWA, and what goes on behind the nominations curtain.
Voicemail: C. A. Sizemore on SF, Fiction and politics; Chris on life-changing books; Will the Computer Guy on Jim Butcher's interview; Jeremiah on life-changing books; Brian on items for the list of A+ books.
Mike, Summer and Mike list some other books that influenced them at various points in their lives, and still affect them to this day.
Listener Feedback: What books changed your life, and what books are your A+ books? Keep letting us know what your personal essential books are!
Submitting Listener comments: If you have any suggestions or comments, please let us know!
Summer: Heroes Die? Hell yeah!!
It was Stover's HD plus VanderMeer's City of Saints & Madman and Mieville's Perdido Street Station that restored my faith in Fantasy. I've given as gifts and leant out more copies of HD than I can say. I've only had one negative reaction to the book, but you can't please everyone (they just didn't like the swearing).
I'm really looking forward to the next novel. It's been far too long since Tyshalle.
Cheers.
hello!
Hey summer, i didnt hear your lifechanging book mentioned...what is it? And mike S. only mentioned non-fiction(though excellent books both). I think you have to have had at least one reading experience that qualifies in this catagory or else you would choose a easy media source for just simple entertainment...reading is effort based.
(im another dune-apostle too, btw)
Raul, the list is way too long 🙂 I don't know if I'd call all of these life-changing or not. They each had their impact in their own ways, some stronger than others, but when I first read them, the impressions they left on me were deep and rich.
Here's a small sample:
SF/F:
To Ride Pegasus and Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey
The Man Who Never Missed by Steve Perry
Dragon Prince by Melanie Rawn
Heroes Die by Matthew Woodring Stover
Non-fiction:
Ruffian: Burning from the Start by Jane Schwartz (which is coincidentally airing as an ABC Movie this coming weekend)
Specific to Writing:
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
Writing to Sell by Scott Meredith (recommended by Stover, intro by Arthur C. Clarke)
I wonder if I shouldn't just make up a list of categories with 5 books each that impacted me.
First it was politics, now it's unpleasant medical procudures. If you wanted me to stop listening, you could've just said so, guys.
Oh wow, I didn't even know my call got through. I knew Skype had cut me off but I didn't realize how much had made it.
Anyway, continuing on about Red Mars, I was going to say that it was very polticial, but it also had some hard sci-fi elements, some philopsophy, and even psychology and sociology thrown in to the mix. It's a hard read, not something I'd recomend to someone who didn't already like sci-fi.
True Story: I bought the 3rd book in that trilogy, Blue Mars, using loose change I found lying around and in between the seats at the movie theatre I worked at. 🙂
As for my Cameron comment, in my defense, I knew nothing about Avatar at that point, I was thinking about the post-Titanic Cameron who seemed a little full of himself and who wouldn't let go of that one movie that he'd already made his money off of and got his Oscar from. Now that it looks like he;'s getting back to his sci-fi roots, I no longer fear a Cameron produced and/or directed Red Mars, but since last I heard his ex-wife (the one BEFORE Linda Hamilton) has the rights...