The Functional Nerds Podcast

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, author of Glorious Fiends and Where You Linger. About Glorious Fiends: When infamous hot mess vampire Roxanne resurrects her deceased best friends, she’s confronted by a dream-dwelling Guardian of the Underworld, who demands that she replace them in his afterlife with three equally nefarious creatures—or he’ll drag her there instead. Reunited with Medusa and Mx. Hyde, Roxanne and her macabre girl gang must become monster hunters themselves and fight for the future of their friendship. About Where You Linger: Bones of extinct species wander a campground, stalking a group of friends in love with the same woman. The object of their affection seeks solace with a couple in a world with rain that kills. A woman moves away from her repressed home town, only to transform into a man-eating monster when she returns. A robot assassin avenges women ruined by capitalism. Journey to the liminal space with acclaimed author Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam where interconnected stories span from past to future among the dead and the living. About Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam: Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam’s fiction has appeared in over 90 magazines and anthologies. She’s been nominated for a Nebula Award, and her debut novella and story collection released in 2022. This week’s picks: * Bonnie #1: Don’t Worry Darling * Bonnie #2: Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure – (Video Game) * Tracy: Stranger Things 4 (Netflix) * Patrick #1: Lou (Netflix) * Patrick #2: The Sound of 007 (Prime) Links: * Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam on Twitter * Tracy Townsend on Twitter * Patrick Hester on Twitter * The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2022 Patrick Hester

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Erin M. Evans, author of EMPIRE OF EXILES. About EMPIRE OF EXILES: Twenty-seven years ago, a Duke with a grudge led a ruthless coup against the empire of Semilla, killing thousands. He failed. The Duke was executed, a terrifyingly powerful sorcerer was imprisoned, and an unwilling princess disappeared. The empire moved on. Now, when Quill, an apprentice scribe, arrives in the capital city, he believes he’s on a simple errand for another pompous noble: fetch ancient artifacts from the magical Imperial Archives. He’s always found his apprenticeship to a lawman to be dull work. But these aren’t just any artifacts — these are the instruments of revolution, the banners under which the Duke lead his coup. Just as the artifacts are unearthed, the city is shaken by a brutal murder that seems to have been caused by a weapon not seen since the days of rebellion. With Quill being the main witness to the murder, and no one in power believing his story, he must join the Archivists — a young mage, a seasoned archivist, and a disillusioned detective — to solve the truth of the attack. And what they uncover will be the key to saving the empire – or destroying it again. About Erin M. Evans: Erin M. Evans is the author of seven Forgotten Realms novels for Wizards of the Coast, including the 2011 Scribe Award winner Brimstone Angels. She is a content designer for Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms and a cast member of the D&D actual play Dungeon Scrawlers. Erin lives in the Seattle area with her husband and sons. Her latest series, Books of the Usurper, begins with Exile of Empires, coming November 2022 from Orbit. This week’s picks: * Erin: Write or Die 3 * Tracy: Patchwork (Game) * Patrick #1: Welcome to Wrexham (FX) * Patrick #2: Andor (Disney+) Links: * Erin M. Evans on Twitter * Tracy Townsend on Twitter * Patrick Hester on Twitter * The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2022 Patrick Hester

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome GennaRose Nethercott, author of Thistlefoot. About Thistlefoot: The Yaga siblings—Bellatine, a young woodworker, and Isaac, a wayfaring street performer and con artist—have been estranged since childhood, separated both by resentment and by wide miles of American highway. But when they learn that they are to receive an inheritance, the siblings agree to meet—only to discover that their bequest isn’t land or money, but something far stranger: a sentient house on chicken legs. Thistlefoot, as the house is called, has arrived from the Yagas’ ancestral home outside Kyiv—but not alone. A sinister figure known only as the Longshadow Man has tracked it to American shores, bearing with him violent secrets from the past: fiery memories that have hidden in Isaac and Bellatine’s blood for generations. As the Yaga siblings embark with Thistlefoot on a final cross-country tour of their family’s traveling theater show, the Longshadow Man follows in relentless pursuit, seeding destruction in his wake. Ultimately, time, magic, and legacy must collide—erupting in a powerful conflagration to determine who gets to remember the past and craft a new future. About GennaRose Nethercott: GENNAROSE NETHERCOTT is the author of the novel THISTLEFOOT (Knopf Anchor/PRH 2022) and The Lumberjack’s Dove (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2018), selected by Louise Glück as a winner of the National Poetry Series. Her other recent projects include the narrative song collection Modern Ballads, and Lianna Fled the Cranberry Bog: A Story in Cootie Catchers (Ninepin Press 2019). A Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellow, her work has appeared in BOMB Magazine, The Massachusetts Review, The American Scholar, PANK, and elsewhere, and she has been a writer-in-residence at the Vermont Studio Center, Art Farm Nebraska, and the Shakespeare & Company bookstore in Paris. Nethercott tours nationally and internationally performing from her works (often with a hand-cranked shadow show in tow) and composing poems-to-order for strangers on a 1952 Hermes Rocket typewriter. She is the founder of the Traveling Poetry Emporium, a team of poets-for-hire, and is an Associate Producer at Grim and Mild, where she conducts supernatural and historical research for the podcast Lore. She lives in the woodlands of Vermont, beside an old cemetery. This week’s picks: * GennaRose #1: Over the Garden Wall * GennaRose #2: Alex the Cider Donut Reviewer * Tracy: Ask Baba Yaga: Otherworldly Advice for Everyday Troubles by Taisia Kitaiskaia * Patrick: The Imperfects (Netflix) Links: * GennaRose Nethercott on Twitter * Tracy Townsend on Twitter * Patrick Hester on Twitter * The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2022 Patrick Hester

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Mur Lafferty, author of STATION ETERNITY. About STATION ETERNITY: Amateur detective Mallory Viridian’s talent for solving murders ruined her life on Earth and drove her to live on an alien space station, but her problems still follow her in this witty, self-aware novel that puts a speculative spin on murder mysteries, from the Hugo-nominated author of Six Wakes. From idyllic small towns to claustrophobic urban landscapes, Mallory Viridian is constantly embroiled in murder cases that only she has the insight to solve. But outside of a classic mystery novel, being surrounded by death doesn’t make you a charming amateur detective, it makes you a suspect and a social pariah. So when Mallory gets the opportunity to take refuge on a sentient space station, she thinks she has the solution. Surely the murders will stop if her only company is alien beings. At first her new existence is peacefully quiet…and markedly devoid of homicide. But when the station agrees to allow additional human guests, Mallory knows the break from her peculiar reality is over. After the first Earth shuttle arrives, and aliens and humans alike begin to die, the station is thrown into peril. Stuck smack-dab in the middle of an extraterrestrial whodunit, and wondering how in the world this keeps happening to her anyway, Mallory has to solve the crime—and fast—or the list of victims could grow to include everyone on board… About Mur Lafferty: Mur Lafferty is a podcaster and writer from Durham, NC. She made her name with podcasting (I Should Be Writing, The Angry Robot Podcast, and Escape Pod, the premier SF podcast magazine) and has written for magazines, roleplaying games, and audio and video podcasts. She’s the author of I Should Be Writing, Six Wakes, The Shambling Guides, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Station Eternity and part of the team that writes Bookburners. Mur is a Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick award finalist/nominee. She won the 2018 Best Fancast Hugo Award for her Podcast Ditch Digers, the Astounding Award for Best New Writer (Formerly Campbell Award), the Manly Wade Wellman Award (2014 & 2015) for The Shambling Guides 1 & 2, and was the Inaugural inductee into the Podcast Academy Hall of Fame. Her nonfiction essays have appeared in Knights of the Dinner Table, and on the podcast The Dragon Page. She lives in Durham, NC, with her husband, a college student, and a dog who threatens to love them to death. This week’s picks: * Mur: The Locked Tomb Series (Gideon the Ninth, Harrow the Ninth and Nona the Ninth) by Tamsyn Muir * Tracy: How To Invent Everything by RYAN NORTH * Patrick: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power – Prime Links: * Mur Lafferty on Twitter * Tracy Townsend on Twitter * Patrick Hester on Twitter

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Alix E. Harrow, author of A Mirror Mended. About A Mirror Mended: Zinnia Gray, professional fairy-tale fixer and lapsed Sleeping Beauty is over rescuing snoring princesses. Once you’ve rescued a dozen damsels and burned fifty spindles, once you’ve gotten drunk with twenty good fairies and made out with one too many members of the royal family, you start to wish some of these girls would just get a grip and try solving their own narrative issues. Just when Zinnia’s beginning to think she can’t handle one more princess, she glances into a mirror and sees another face looking back at her: the shockingly gorgeous face of evil, asking for her help. Because there’s more than one person trapped in a story they didn’t choose. Snow White’s Evil Queen has found out how her story ends and she’s desperate for a better ending. She wants Zinnia to help her before it’s too late for everyone. Will Zinnia accept the Queen’s poisonous request, and save them both from the hot iron shoes that wait for them, or will she try another path? About Alix E. Harrow: A former academic and adjunct, Alix E. Harrow is a NYT-bestselling and Hugo-award winning writer living in Virginia with her husband and their two semi-feral kids. She is the author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January, The Once and Future Witches, and various short fiction. This week’s picks: * Alix #1: Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R. F Kuang * Alix #2: Prey (Hulu) * Tracy: 5-Minute Mystery The Museum of Everything Game, for Adults and Kids Ages 8 and up, by SpinMaster * Patrick #1: The Princess (Hulu) * Patrick #2: Sandman (Netflix) Links: * Alix E. Harrow on Twitter * Tracy Townsend on Twitter * Patrick Hester on Twitter * The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2022 Patrick Hester

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Valerie Valdes, author of FAULT TOLERANCE. About FAULT TOLERANCE: Nothing wrecks Captain Eva Innocente’s vacation plans quite like an anonymous threat to vaporize billions of people. Hundreds of monoliths have suddenly materialized in space, broadcasting the same looped message: surrender or be exterminated. Is the universe being epically spammed? Surrender to whom? Exterminated when? And how is Eva, commander of a beat-up cargo ship, supposed to prevent it? As panic spreads, a mystery message sends Eva to find answers, in a system that hasn’t been explored in all of recorded history. With the crew of La Sirena Negra, a score of psychic cats, a feline-phobic robot, and a superweapon she has no clue how to use, Eva prepares to battle the unknown. But first, she has to defeat the known: mercenary Tito Santiago, whose idea of a clean fight is a shower before kill time. His mission is to ensure Eva doesn’t succeed at hers. If anything goes wrong, the universe is doomed. But if everything goes according to Eva’s plans—wait, when does that ever happen? About Valerie Valdes: Valerie Valdes’s short fiction and poetry has been featured in Uncanny Magazine, Time Travel Short Stories and Nightmare Magazine. Her debut novel Chilling Effect was published by Harper Voyager in September 2019 and Orbit UK in February 2020, with starred reviews in Kirkus Reviews and Library Journal. It was also named one of Library Journal’s best SF/fantasy novels of 2019, and was shortlisted for the 2021 Arthur C. Clarke Award. The sequel, Prime Deceptions, was published in September 2020, and the third book in the trilogy, Fault Tolerance, is forthcoming in August 2022. Valerie is co-editor of Escape Pod, and currently works as a freelance writer and copy editor. She attended the University of Miami, where she majored in English literature with minors in creative writing and motion pictures. She is a graduate of Viable Paradise and has taught classes and given lectures for Clarion West and Georgia State University, among others. Valerie has served as a Municipal Liaison for National Novel Writing Month since 2005. In her spare time, she enjoys playing video games, watching cartoons and learning to sword fight. She lives in Georgia with her husband, children and cats. Valerie is represented by Quressa Robinson at Folio Lit. This week’s picks: * Valerie #1: Ms. Marvel (Disney+) * Valerie #2: Guardians of the Galaxy Game (PS4) * Valerie #3: Laser Squid Goes House Hunting (EscapePod 850) * Valerie #4: Cheesecake * Patrick: Motherland: Fort Salem Season 3 (Hulu/Freeform) Links: * Valerie Valdes on Twitter * Tracy Townsend on Twitter * Patrick Hester on Twitter *

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Rena Mason and Vince Liaguno, co-editors of Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology. About Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology: Offering new stories from some of the biggest names in horror as well as some of the hottest up-and-coming talents, Other Terrors will provide the ultimate reading experience for horror fans who want to examine fear of “the other.” Be they of a different culture, a different background, a different sexual orientation or gender identity, a different belief system, or a different skin color, some people simply aren’t part of the community’s majority—and are perceived as scary. Humans are almost instinctively inclined to fear what’s different, and there are a multitude of individuals who have spent far too long on the outside looking in. And the thing about the outside is . . . it’s much larger than you think. In Other Terrors, horror writers from a multitude of underrepresented backgrounds have created stories of everyday people, places, and things where something shifts, striking a deeper, much more primal, chord of fear. Are our eyes playing tricks on us, or is there something truly sinister lurking under the surface of what we thought we knew? And who among us is really the other, after all? CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE: Tananarive Due, Jennifer McMahon, S.A. Cosby, Stephen Graham Jones, Alma Katsu, Michael Thomas Ford, Ann Dávila Cardinal, Christina Sng, Denise Dumars, Usman T. Malik, Annie Neugebauer, Gabino Iglesias, Hailey Piper, Nathan Carson, Shanna Heath, Tracy Cross, Linda D. Addison, Maxwell I. Gold, Larissa Glasser, Eugen Bacon, Holly Lyn Walrath, Jonathan Lees, M. E. Bronstein, Michael H. Hanson About Rena Mason: Rena Mason is an American dark speculative fiction author of Thai-Chinese descent, and the Bram Stoker Award® winning author of The Evolutionist and “The Devil’s Throat”, as well as a 2014 Stage 32 / The Blood List Search for New Blood Quarter-Finalist. She is a member of the Horror Writers Association, Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association, the Public Safety Writers Association, and the International Screenwriters’ Association.? An avid scuba diver, she has traveled the world and enjoys incorporating the experiences into her stories. She currently resides on a lakefront in the Great Lakes State of Michigan. About Vince Liaguno: Vince Liaguno is an award-winning writer, anthologist and editor, and an occasional poet. Vince won the prestigious Bram Stoker Award for UNSPEAKABLE HORROR: FROM THE SHADOWS OF THE CLOSET (Dark Scribe Press 2008), an anthology of queer horror fiction, which he co-edited with Chad Helder. His debut novel, 2006’s THE LITERARY SIX, was a tribute to the slasher films of the 80s and won an Independent Publisher Award (IPPY) for Horror and was named a finalist in ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year Awards in the Gay/Lesbian Fiction category. Vince began writing professionally in 2005 for AUTOGRAPH, a national print magazine for enthusiasts of the titular hobby, where he remained an active contributor through 2009. In 2007, he launched DARK SCRIBE MAGAZINE, where he has remained Editor-in-Chief since the virtual magazine’s inception. His many profiles, interviews,

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome R.A. Salvatore, author of Glacier’s Edge: A Novel (The Way of the Drow, 2). About Glacier’s Edge: A Novel (The Way of the Drow, 2): There’s a lot that Jarlaxle doesn’t know: is he the lone survivor of the raid on the slaad fortress, can he even find a way to get out, and beyond his immediate predicament, could he possibly escape the ice caverns and get help for his friends? However, what Jarlaxle does know is that if he plans to come back—if Catti-brie, Entreri, and Zaknafein are to have any hope of surviving—he’s going to have to bring back far more firepower. An army of aevendrow seems unlikely, so he must go home and pull together a team with great skill and unimaginable power. But how will he get home? Will such a collection of warriors and mages come to his aid? And even if he manages all that, will it be enough? For Jarlaxle has seen the slaadi’s power and their god in a most personal and terrifying way. Trapped in the ice while the world is on fire, Jarlaxle is in a race against time—and burdened with a magical secret—to save a peaceful city and his companions. And he’s running out of tricks in his bag of holding… About R.A. Salvatore: As one of the fantasy genre’s most successful authors, R.A. Salvatore enjoys an ever-expanding and tremendously loyal following. His books regularly appear on The New York Times best-seller lists and have sold more than 30,000,000 copies. Salvatore’s most recent original hardcover, The Two Swords, Book III of The Hunter’s Blade Trilogy (October 2004) debuted at # 1 on The Wall Street Journal best-seller list and at # 4 on The New York Times best-seller list. His books have been translated into numerous foreign languages including German, Italian, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Turkish, Croatian, Bulgarian, Yiddish, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Czech, and French. Salvatore’s first published novel, The Crystal Shard from TSR in 1988, became the first volume of the acclaimed Icewind Dale Trilogy and introduced an enormously popular character, the dark elf Drizzt Do’Urden. Since that time, Salvatore has published numerous novels for each of his signature multi-volume series including The Dark Elf Trilogy, Paths of Darkness, The Hunter’s Blades Trilogy, and The Cleric Quintet. His love affair with fantasy, and with literature in general, began during his sophomore year of college when he was given a copy of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings as a Christmas gift. He promptly changed his major from computer science to journalism. He received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Communications from Fitchburg State College in 1981, then returned for the degree he always cherished, the Bachelor of Arts in English. He began writing seriously in 1982, penning the manuscript that would become Echoes of the Fourth Magic. Salvatore held many jobs during those first years as a writer, finally settling in (much to our delight) to write full time in 1990. The R.A. Salvatore Collection has been established at his alma mater, Fitchburg State College in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, containing the writer’s letters, manuscripts, and other professional papers. He is in good company, as The Salvatore Collection is situated alongside The Robert Cormier Library, which celebrates the writing career of the co-alum and esteemed author of young adult books. Salvatore is an active member of his community and is on the board of trustees at the local...

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Randee Dawn, author of TUNE IN TOMORROW. About TUNE IN TOMORROW: She’s just a small town girl, with mythic-sized dreams. Starr Weatherby came to New York to become… well, a star. But after ten years and no luck, she’s offered a big role – on a show no one has ever heard of. And there’s a reason for that. It’s a “reality” show beyond the Veil, human drama, performed for the entertainment of the Fae. But as Starr shifts from astounded newcomer to rising fan favorite, she learns about the show’s dark underbelly – and mysterious disappearance of her predecessor. She’ll do whatever it takes to keep her dream job – though she might just bring down the show in the process. About Randee Dawn: Randee Dawn is an author, journalist, and lucky denizen of Brooklyn. Her first novel, the humorous pop-culture fantasy Tune in Tomorrow, will be published in August 2022 (Solaris/Rebellion). This week’s picks: * Randee: THE TWICE DROWNED SAINT by C.S.E. Cooney (A Sinister Quartet) * Tracy: Multi Biscuit Brew – Yorkshire Tea * Patrick: DB Cooper: Where are you? (Netflix) Links: * Randee Dawn on Twitter * Tracy Townsend on Twitter * Patrick Hester on Twitter * The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2022 Patrick Hester

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome nine-time Hugo Award winner Lynne Marie Thomas, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Uncanny Magazine, Year 9: To Fifty … and Beyond!. About Uncanny Magazine, Year 9: To Fifty … and Beyond!: Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas have run Kickstarters for the five-time Hugo Award-winning Uncanny Magazine Years One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, and Eight. We promised to bring you stunning cover art, passionate science fiction and fantasy fiction and poetry, gorgeous prose, and provocative nonfiction by writers from every conceivable background. Not to mention a fantastic award-winning podcast featuring exclusive content. Through the hard work of our exceptional staff and contributors, Uncanny Magazine delivered on that promise every single year. Stories from Uncanny Magazine have been finalists or winners of Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy Awards! The Space Unicorn Ranger Corps, our name for the Uncanny Magazine community, made it possible for our remarkable staff and contributors to create this wonderful art for all of our readers via the web or as eBooks. THANK YOU, SPACE UNICORNS FOR YOUR SUPPORT! If you’ve been looking for an opportunity to join or re-up with the Space Unicorn Ranger Corps, now’s your chance! We need your help to continue this mission for another year. This is your magazine, Space Unicorns! Let’s make Year Nine happen! Though Uncanny continues to have multiple ways to support us, we still need the help of the Space Unicorn Kickstarter community to keep bringing you this amazing content. YOUR support specifically makes it possible for us to make our fiction freely available on our website. We have put together a fabulous lineup of solicited contributors for Year Nine! About Lynne Marie Thomas: Nine-time Hugo Award winner Lynne M. Thomas is the Head of the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the former Curator of Rare Books and Special Collections at Northern Illinois University, where she was responsible for popular culture special collections that include the literary papers of nearly 70 SF/F authors. Lynne is the six-time Hugo and Parsec Award-winning co-publisher and co-editor-in-chief of Uncanny Magazine with her husband, Michael Damian Thomas. In this editorial role, they have also been finalists three times for the World Fantasy Award and finalists three times for the Locus Award. She was the co-editor of the Hugo Award-winning Chicks Dig Time Lords (2010) with Tara O’Shea, Whedonistas: A Celebration of the Worlds of Joss Whedon by the Women Who Love Them (2011) with Deborah Stanish, and the Hugo Award-nominated Chicks Dig Comics (2012) with Sigrid Ellis, all published by Mad Norwegian Press. Along with the Geek Girl Chronicles book series, Lynne was the former Editor-in-Chief (2011-2013) of the Hugo Award-nominated (2012 & 2013) Apex Magazine, an online professional prose and poetry magazine of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and mash-ups of all three. She moderated the Hugo Award-winning SF Squeecast, a monthly podcast (with Elizabeth Bear, Paul Cornell, Seanan McGuire, Michael Damian Thomas, and Catherynne M. Valente) in which a group of SF/F professionals get excited about stuff they like, and contributes to the Parsec Award-winning Verity!

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Ryan Van Loan, author of THE MEMORY IN THE BLOOD. About THE MEMORY IN THE BLOOD: When her quest to destroy the Gods began, Buc was a child of the streets. Now she is a woman of steel, shaped by gaining and losing power, tempered by love and betrayal, and honed to a fine edge by grief and her desire for vengeance. A perilous, clandestine mission to a hidden library uncovers information that is key to destroying both the Dead Gods and their enemy, the Goddess Ciris. Ciris’s creation, Sin, who lives inside Buc, gives her superhuman abilities and tempts her with hints of even greater power. With that power, she could achieve almost anything?end the religious war tearing her world apart, remake society at a stroke?but the price would be the betrayal of everything she has fought for . . . and the man she loved would still be dead. In the middle of this murderous, magical maelstrom, a coded message smuggled out of the heart of the Dead Gods’ cathedral reveals that the Dead Gods intend to destroy Ciris?and much of the world with her. This. Will. Not. Stand. If Buc has to destroy all Gods, eat the rich, and break the world’s economy to save the people, she will do it. Even if it costs her everything. About Ryan Van Loan: Ryan Van Loan is an up and coming Science Fiction and Fantasy author. He started reading his Grandfather’s Reader’s Digest when he was four years old. Soon after, he read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer before eventually discovering science fiction and fantasy through the works of Robin McKinley, Robert Jordan, Stephen King and many more. He moved around a lot in his childhood from Montana to Georgia to Puerto Rico before finally ending up in Pennsylvania. Ryan served six years as a Sergeant in the United States Army Infantry (PA National Guard) where he served on the front lines of Afghanistan. All of that travel got into his blood and Ryan has traveled around the world with his wife, wandering Caribbean island haunts, exploring the palaces and cathedrals of Europe, and hiking with elephants in the rain forests of Southeast Asia. When he’s not traveling Ryan enjoys hiking, soccer (football), tabletop gaming, weightlifting (with his personal best coming from deadlifting three times his body weight), and all things culinary. Ryan’s debut novel, The Sin in the Steel (Tor Books), Book One in the Fall of the Gods series came out on July 21, 2020. Today, Ryan lives in northeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two dogs where he’s hard at work on his next novel. This week’s picks: * Ryan: All Creatures Great and Small (PBS) * Tracy: Lords of Waterdeep (Game) * Patrick: The Old Man (FX) Links: * Ryan Van Loan on Twitter * Tracy Townsend on Twitter * Patrick Hester on Twitter * The Functional Nerds Patreon Page

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Blake Crouch, author of UPGRADE. About UPGRADE: At first, Logan Ramsay isn’t sure if anything’s different. He just feels a little… sharper. Better able to concentrate. Better at multitasking. Reading a bit faster, memorizing better, needing less sleep. But before long, he can’t deny it: Something’s happening to his brain. To his body. He’s starting to see the world, and those around him—even those he loves most—in whole new ways. The truth is, Logan’s genome has been hacked. And there’s a reason he’s been targeted for this upgrade. A reason that goes back decades to the darkest part of his past, and a horrific family legacy. Worse still, what’s happening to him is just the first step in a much larger plan, one that will inflict the same changes on humanity at large—at a terrifying cost. Because of his new abilities, Logan’s the one person in the world capable of stopping what’s been set in motion. But to have a chance at winning this war, he’ll have to become something other than himself. Maybe even something other than human. And even as he’s fighting, he can’t help wondering: what if humanity’s only hope for a future really does lie in engineering our own evolution? About Blake Crouch: Blake is a bestselling novelist and screenwriter. He is the author of a dozen novels, most recently, Dark Matter, Recursion, and Upgrade, for which he is also writing the movie for Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners. His international-bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy was adapted into a television series for FOX, executive produced by M. Night Shyamalan, that was Summer 2015’s #1 show. With Chad Hodge, Crouch also created Good Behavior, the TNT show starring Michelle Dockery based on his Letty Dobesh novellas. His novel, Recursion, is currently being developed as a Netflix series by Shonda Rhimes and Matt Reeves, and Skydance is developing a film adaptation of his novella, Summer Frost, based on Crouch’s script. His novels have been translated into forty languages and his short fiction has appeared in numerous publications including Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, and Cemetery Dance. At the moment, Crouch is writing a new book and creating a nine-episode adaptation of his novel Dark Matter, for Apple TV+. Blake lives in Colorado. This week’s picks: * Blake: Almond Croissant (London) * Tracy: Queer Ducks (and Other Animals): The Natural World of Animal Sexuality by Eliot Schrefer * Patrick: For the Love of Spock (Documentary) Links: * Blake Crouch on Twitter * Tracy Townsend on Twitter * Patrick Hester on Twitter * The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2022 Patrick Hester

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Ava Reid, author of Juniper & Thorn. About Juniper & Thorn: A gruesome curse. A city in upheaval. A monster with unquenchable appetites. Marlinchen and her two sisters live with their wizard father in a city shifting from magic to industry. As Oblya’s last true witches, she and her sisters are little more than a tourist trap as they treat their clients with archaic remedies and beguile them with nostalgic charm. Marlinchen spends her days divining secrets in exchange for rubles and trying to placate her tyrannical, xenophobic father, who keeps his daughters sequestered from the outside world. But at night, Marlinchen and her sisters sneak out to enjoy the city’s amenities and revel in its thrills, particularly the recently established ballet theater, where Marlinchen meets a dancer who quickly captures her heart. As Marlinchen’s late-night trysts grow more fervent and frequent, so does the threat of her father’s rage and magic. And while Oblya flourishes with culture and bustles with enterprise, a monster lurks in its midst, borne of intolerance and resentment and suffused with old-world power. Caught between history and progress and blood and desire, Marlinchen must draw upon her own magic to keep her city safe and find her place within it. About Ava Reid: Ava Reid was born in Manhattan and raised right across the river in Hoboken, New Jersey, but currently lives in Palo Alto. She has a degree in political science from Barnard College, focusing on religion and ethnic nationalism. She is the author of The Wolf And The Woodsman, Juniper & Thorn, + A Study In Drowning (fall 2023). This week’s picks: * Ava: Outlast (Video Game) * Tracy: Regicide (Card Game) * Patrick: The Janes (HBOMax) Links: * Ava Reid on Twitter * Tracy Townsend on Twitter * Patrick Hester on Twitter * The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2022 Patrick Hester

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Laura J. Mixon, author of UP AGAINST IT. About UP AGAINST IT: Jane Navio is the resource manager of Phoecea, an asteroid colony poised on the knife-edge of a hard vacuum of unforgiving space. A mishap has dumped megatons of water and methane out the colony’s air lock, putting the entire human population at risk. Jane discovers that the crisis may have been engineered by the Martian crime syndicate, as a means of executing a coup that will turn Phocaea into a client-state. And if that wasn’t bad enough, an AI that spawned during the emergency has gone rogue…and there’s a giant x-factor in the form of the transhumanist Viridian cult that lives in Phocaea’s bowels. Jane’s in the prime of her career?she’s only a bit over a century old?but the conflict between politics and life-support is tearing her apart. To save her colony and her career, she’s going to have to solve several mysteries at once?a challenge that will put her up against all the difficulties, contradictions, and awkward compromises entailed in the human colonization of outer space. About Laura J. Mixon: Who is Laura J. Mixon? A nerd. An environmental engineer with a master of science in sustainability management, and over 35 years of experience providing environmental and information management services to industry and government. They have done auditing and investigative work on pollution sources. They’ve designed apps and managed rollout of integrated management systems to track pollutant emissions and reduce landfill waste, and water and energy use. With game designer Chris Crawford, They co-founded a game company and worked with him to create Storytron*, an interactive storytelling tool. They believe that it, or its successors, will some day transform the nature of storytelling. (Think Baby Holodeck.) They’re also a science fiction writer: a spinner of far-flung tales—stories of interstellar travel, planetary disasters, spaceships, rogue AI’s, planet-eating machines, sentient tumors… and the people who struggle to survive on the fringes of the world. They have six books out, as well as a handful of shorter works. They’re a chronically-ill, genderqueer, bisexual, intersectional feminist and environmentalist. A motherbeast and a spouse. A nature lover and green-chile eater, who discovered science fiction at the age of eleven and never looked back. This week’s picks: * Laura: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells * Tracy: HELLBOY OMNIBUS VOLUME 1: SEED OF DESTRUCTION by Mike Mignola * Patrick: Hacks: Season 2 (HBOMax) Links: * Laura J. Mixon on Twitter * Tracy Townsend on Twitter * Patrick Hester on Twitter * The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2022 Patrick Hester

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Ian Brazee-Cannon, author of The Courtship of Georgie and Armand: A M/M fantasy gay shifter romance. About The Courtship of Georgie and Armand: A M/M fantasy gay shifter romance: This is the story of how Georgie and Armand, the shape-shifting, master mage dragons who run an interdimensional hotel, met, fought, fell in love and found themselves in an epic magic battle for the sake of all reality. It is a tale that stretches out across decades as the two meet, meet again and then a third time, linking their destinies together, developing a unique relationship that will stand up to the test of time like no other. Their love story doesn’t just break the rules of romance, it recreates them. About Ian Brazee-Cannon: Ian was a story teller from a young age, always being involved in assorted creative endeavors. He is a writer, filmmaker, game designer and podcaster. Over a dozen of his short stories have seen publication. ‘The Fifth Di…’, ‘Wondrous Web Worlds’, ‘Forgotten Worlds’, ‘Tales of the Talisman’ and various anthologies have featured his works. He has worked with Nomadic Delirium Press on supplements for the Ephemeris RPG. You can hear him discuss all manner of subjects as one of the founders and regular co-hosts on the Amateur Skeptics podcast. Dangling Carrot Films, Running Riot Productions and Ijin Studios have made use of him as a writer, director, producer and editor on their projects. In some manner of warping time, he is able to find a way to participate in other hobbies and raise two young boys. His collections of books, comic books, action figures and more dominate his office and basement. Regulars at the various Denver area sci-fi conventions will often find him involved in the programming there. This week’s picks: * Andy: Ms. Marvel (Disney+) * Tracy: The Floor is Lava (Netflix) * Patrick: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount+) Links: * Ian Brazee-Cannon on Facebook * Tracy Townsend on Twitter * Patrick Hester on Twitter * The Functional Nerds Patreon Page © 2022 Patrick Hester