Each month we choose a speculative fiction book, read it, and talk about the ideas & themes it explores.
Episodes
Tuesday Jun 30, 2020
Tuesday Jun 30, 2020
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.
As always, we'd love to hear from you! Chat with us on twitter at @spectologypod, send us an email at spectologypod@gmail.com, or submit the episode to r/printSF on reddit. We'll reply, and shout you out in the next podcast if 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!
To find links to all the books we've read, check us out on Bookshop.
Many thanks to Dubby J our music.
Tuesday Jun 23, 2020
Tuesday Jun 23, 2020
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.)
As always, we'd love to hear from you! Chat with us on twitter at @spectologypod, send us an email at spectologypod@gmail.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!
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.
Tuesday Jun 09, 2020
Tuesday Jun 09, 2020
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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As always, we'd love to hear from you! Chat with us on twitter at @spectologypod, send us an email at spectologypod@gmail.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!
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.
Tuesday May 26, 2020
Tuesday May 26, 2020
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.
As always, we'd love to hear from you! Chat with us on twitter at @spectologypod, send us an email at spectologypod@gmail.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!
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.
Tuesday May 19, 2020
Tuesday May 19, 2020
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.
As always, we'd love to hear from you! Chat with us on twitter at @spectologypod, send us an email at spectologypod@gmail.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!
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.
Tuesday May 12, 2020
Tuesday May 12, 2020
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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As always, we'd love to hear from you! Chat with us on twitter at @spectologypod, send us an email at spectologypod@gmail.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!
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.
Tuesday May 05, 2020
Tuesday May 05, 2020
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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As always, we'd love to hear from you! Chat with us on twitter at @spectologypod, send us an email at spectologypod@gmail.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!
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.
Tuesday Apr 28, 2020
Tuesday Apr 28, 2020
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:
* 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.
As always, we'd love to hear from you! Chat with us on twitter at @spectologypod, send us an email at spectologypod@gmail.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!
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.
Monday Apr 27, 2020
Monday Apr 27, 2020
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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As always, we'd love to hear from you! Chat with us on twitter at @spectologypod, send us an email at spectologypod@gmail.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!
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.
Friday Apr 24, 2020
Friday Apr 24, 2020
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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As always, we'd love to hear from you! Chat with us on twitter at @spectologypod, send us an email at spectologypod@gmail.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!
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.