New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy

Stephen DysonView on AmazonStephen Dyson is the author of Otherworldly Politics: The International Relations of Star Trek, Game of Thrones, and Battlestar Galactica (Johns Hopkins University Press 2015). Dyson is associate professor of political science at the University of Connecticut. Is Tyrian Lannister a realist or a liberal? What would Mr. Spock have to say about rational choice theory? And what did Stanley Kubrick read to create Dr. Strangelove? Dyson takes on these important questions with an enjoyable exploration for how the classic theories of International Relations have been played on our television and movie screens.

Katherine AddisonView on AmazonKatherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor has earned what might be termed a fantasy Grand Slam: the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel and nominations for the Nebula, Hugo and World Fantasy awards. To make her achievement even more noteworthy, Addison, like Maia, the royal goblin at the heart of the book, is herself a fiction. The pseudonym was created by author Sarah Monette to satisfy the demands of the publishing industry. As she explains in our interview, her real name had become a "deal-breaker" after sales of the four books of her Doctrine of Labyrinths series had fallen short of expectations. Tor Books was eager to buy her tale of an innocent and virtually forgotten heir who ascends to the throne of the Elflands after the simultaneous deaths of his father and brothers, but they had one condition. "Tor said, 'We really want to take you on. We're very enthusiastic and excited, but we can't do it under your real name. You have to pick a pseudonym.' And I wanted to continue having a publishing career. So I picked a pseudonym." While the name change might have given Monette a clean slate of sorts, it's clear to me that The Goblin Emperor's success relies largely on her prodigious skills as a storyteller. But Monette modestly speculates that something else might also be at play–that people may also be drawn to an ingredient that is rare in fantasy: idealism. "So much of fantasy right now has been so influenced by George R.R. Martin–which, hey, that's excellent as it should be–but it does mean that things have been very grim and bleak and pessimistic and cynical," she says. In contrast, The Goblin Emperor "is arguing that doing the right thing will win; that is, if you try your best to be ethical and compassionate, you will come out on top." There's no question that Maia's insistence on behaving ethically is refreshing. He faces down cronyism, social inequality and racism by hewing to the values of his Goblin mother, which lead him, among other things, to regard his subjects as equals. "I wish I could say that I believed that worked all the time in the real world, but I think if we don't make up stories where it does work, it's never going to work," Monette says. I also find it refreshing that The Goblin Emperor is a stand-alone (this coming from someone who wrote a two-part series). Rest assured, however, that while Monette has no plans to revisit Maia, she remains loyal to the speculative genres. "All fiction is lies but science fiction, fantasy and horror sort of flag themselves and say 'Hey–not true. This isn't what the real world is like.' … The combination of the realistic and the openly unreal is to me something that is endlessly fascinating and that I want to do when I write and I enjoy reading when I find it."

Jane LindskoldView on AmazonAt a time when science fiction is more likely to portray ecosystems collapsing rather than flourishing, Jane Lindskold's Artemis series is an anomaly. Its eponymous planet is not an ecological disaster but rather full of so many wonders that it was once a vacation paradise for a now vanished society. Of course, like any good science fiction (or fiction, in general, for that matter) Lindskold's Artemis is full of surprises. But Lindskold takes care not to bludgeon readers with messages about the dangers of science run amok or human interference in nature. "I thought it was completely possible to tell a story without lecturing people," she says in her New Books interview. "I wanted to put together an exotic and interesting world and let people go adventuring on it with me and if along the way they figured out that ecosystems don't work if they're exploited, great but I'm not going to write lectures." Artemis is a genuine character in the story, one with an evolving consciousness that communicates regularly with one of the main characters. Lindskold has been frustrated that some reviewers have mistaken Artemis for an artificial intelligence when, in fact, she's a highly complex network made out of various forms of fungi. As Lindskold puts it, "Artemis is a living organism that happens to have a planet-sized body." Artemis Invaded, published in June, is the second book set on Artemis. The first, Artemis Awakening, came out in 2014. Whether there will be a third remains to be seen, but Lindskold is full of ideas if she gets a green light from the publisher. "I think a lot about the people on Artemis and what they are doing and would be doing, and I would find it very easy to pick up again. And one thing I've promised myself I would do is if there was a delay between the publication of Book Two and Book Three is that I would write some short stories so that the readership would have something in between." Follow host Rob Wolf on his blog or on Twitter @RobWolfBooks

Eugene ThackerView on AmazonEugene Thacker's wonderful Horror of Philosophy series includes three books – In the Dust of this Planet (Zero Books, 2011), Starry Speculative Corpse (Zero Books, 2015), and Tentacles Longer than Night (Zero Books, 2015) – that collectively explore the relationship between philosophy (especially as it overlaps with demonology, occultism, and mysticism) and horror (especially of the supernatural sort). Each book takes on a particular problematic using a particular form from the history of philosophy, from the quaestio, lectio, and disputatio of medieval scholarship, to shorter aphoristic prose, to productive "mis-readings" of works of horror as philosophical texts and vice versa. Taken together, the books thoughtfully model the possibilities born of a comparative scholarly approach that creates conversations among works that might not ordinarily be juxtaposed in the same work: like Nishitani, Kant, Yohji Yamamoto, and Fludd; or Argento, Dante, and Lautréamont. Though they explore topics like darkness, pessimism, vampiric cephalopods, and "black tentacular voids," these books vibrate with life and offer consistent and shining inspiration for the careful reader. Anyone interested in philosophy, theology, modern literature and cinema, literatures on life and death, the history of horror…or really, anyone at all who appreciates thoughtful writing in any form should grab them – grab all of them! – and sit somewhere comfy, and prepare to read, reflect, and enjoy. For Thacker's brand-new book Cosmic Pessimism (published by Univocal with a super-groovy black-on-black cover) go here. Thacker is co-teaching a course with Simon Critchley on "Mysticism" at the New School for Social Research this fall 2015. You can check out the description here.

Melinda SnodgrassView on AmazonWhat do the jobs of opera singer, lawyer and science fiction writer have in common? Answer: Melinda Snodgrass. The author of the just published Edge of Dawn's first ambition was to sing opera. But after studying opera in Vienna, she came to the conclusion that "I had a nice voice, [but] I didn't have a world-class voice." She then went to law school and worked for several years as a lawyer. Unfortunately, "I loved the law but I didn't love lawyers," she explains on New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Her first published books were romance novels, which taught her the "extremely valuable lesson of how to finish what you start. Because that actually is a real problem for people. They'll have brilliant ideas and write the first three chapters and they'll never finish." Her first science fiction novels, the Circuit Trilogy, drew on her knowledge of the law as she chronicled the adventures of a federal court judge riding circuit in the solar system. She also collaborated with George R.R. Martin to create the shared world series Wild Cards. It was Martin who encouraged her to write a spec script for Star Trek: The Next Generation. That spec script, inspired by the Dred Scott decision, turned into the episode The Measure of a Man, and a job as story editor for the series. Her newest contribution to science fiction is Edge of Dawn, the third book in the saga of Richard Oort, who leads a team seeking to destroy beings from an alternate dimension that use religion to create strife on earth. The trilogy is in large part a battle between science and religion. "Science is all about doubt. It's about saying, 'is this real and how can I test it?' … Religion is about the opposite thing entirely. It's about faith and acceptance of it without questioning, and I think that that can lead to very dangerous results and outcomes," Snodgrass says. The idea for the series came to her New Year's Eve in 1999. "I thought to myself, why on the dawn of the 21st century are people putting more faith in guardian angels and crystal healing power and tarot card readings than they are in medicine and chemistry and science? … Why are we seemingly going backwards and becoming more superstitious?" she says. "I cooked up this idea about these creatures encouraging us to believe in fairytales and to fear each other and hate each other on the basis of externalities like the color of our skin, or gender, religion all these different things." Follow host Rob Wolf on his blog or on Twitter @RobWolfBooks

James L. CambiasView on AmazonFor his second novel, James L. Cambias chose one of the most challenging settings for a science fiction writer: the near future. Unlike speculative fiction that leaps centuries or millennia ahead or takes place on other planets, a book about the near future presents a world that varies only incrementally from the present. The risk, of course, is that the author's vision will all-too-quickly be proven wrong. In his New Books interview, Cambias explains why he was drawn to the near future and how he navigated those tricky shoals in the writing of Corsair (Tor Books, 2015) which follows space pirates as they hunt and plunder treasure (hydrogen mined on the moon) using remote-controlled spacecraft. Cambias is certain that space piracy will come to pass. "I absolutely expect that some point that space piracy or space hacking… will become a criminal enterprise. Space hardware is just too valuable," he says. Cambias also discusses the Hieroglyph Project, which is trying to get science fiction authors to write the kind of visionary fiction that has the capacity to spark brick-and-mortar innovation. Cambias contributed to the project's collection of short stories but also penned a series of blog posts in which he declares the project a "failure." Related links: This is Cambias' second appearance on New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy. His first interview, about his book A Darkling Sea, is available here. An episode of New Books was also devoted to the Hieroglyph Project. Follow host Rob Wolf on his blog or on Twitter @RobWolfBooks

Philip K. Dick Award-winning author Ben H. Winters discusses his The Last Policeman series, featuring Frank Palace, a police detective from Concord, N.H., who is determined to keep solving crimes even as the Earth approaches its rendezvous with a planet-destroying asteroid.

Hugo Award-winner Kameron Hurley's new epic fantasy, The Mirror Empire, introduces readers to a complex universe on the brink of genocidal war. In her interview with Rob Wolf, she discusses the iterative process that resulted in a final manuscript, the importance of liberating the imagination from stereotypes and the origins of her interest in war.

Rob Wolf's conversation with author Alex London about his science fiction books Proxy and Guardian, which feature a gay protagonist and explore themes of debt and friendship.

Lydia Netzer discusses the creative process and her new novel "How to Tell Toledo from the Night Sky," a story about parents and children, logic and love, and the harmonies between astronomy and astrology.

Science fiction legend Robert Silverberg discusses "Science Fiction: 101," a collection of 13 stories that inspired him to become a writer.

"Full Fathom Five," the third and most recent novel in Max Gladstone's Craft Sequence, features dying divinities and depositions, idols and investments, priestesses and poets, offerings to gods and options for shareholders. In his interview with host Rob Wolf, Gladstone discusses his inspirations, his affinity for female protagonists, the role numbers play in the titles of his books, the risks of hidden bias in world-building fiction, and his new text-based game Choice of Deathless.

Andy WeirView on AmazonStrand a man on Mars with only a fraction of the supplies he needs to survive and what do you get? A bestseller. Andy Weir's The Martian (Crown, 2014) has been on a journey almost as remarkable as its protagonist, but instead of surviving on an airless, waterless planet, The Martian has survived the inhospitable environment known as publishing, floating near the top of bestseller lists since the moment it was published. The overall plot is easy to summarize: A manned mission to Mars is scheduled to last 31 days but is aborted in the middle of a life-threatening windstorm. The crew's botanist-engineer Mark Watney is left for dead as the crew rushes to escape. Watney spends the rest of the book figuring out how to survive while the experts at NASA spend their time figuring out if they can rescue him. Describing Watney's strategies for survival are a bit more complicated. Everything that remains from the aborted mission is fair game for Watney's imaginative repurposing. One by one, he turns the supplies and equipment that had been designed for a month-long sedentary encampment into tools to help him last hundreds of days while traveling thousands of kilometers across an airless, foodless terrain. Watney turns oxygen to water, sterile Martian dust into fertile Earth-like soil, a vehicle meant for short roving exploration into a cross-country tow-truck; these and other transformations draw on a deep knowledge of science that puts the "hard" in the genre known as hard science fiction. "I'm pretty nit-picky when it comes to science," Weir says in his New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy interview. "What bothers me is when there are blatant science errors [in science fiction]… like when someone takes off his helmet and holds his breath when he's on the surface of Mars." Just as Weir has infused real science into his fiction, his fiction has returned the favor by transforming his real life into the stuff of fantasy. The success of The Martian has allowed him to morph from a writer-hobbyist, who originally self-published The Martian with zero expectation of financial reward, into a full-time author-superstar whose book is being developed for film by Ridley Scott and Matt Damon. Follow New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy on Facebook and Rob Wolf here. Related links Here are links to some things mentioned in the interview: The Egg, a short story by Andy Weir. A Talk at Google, in which Andy Weir demonstrates a computer simulation he created to determine the precise route of the Hermes spacecraft in The Martian. The demonstration begins around 14:00.

James L. CambiasView on AmazonHistory is shaped by cultures interacting either peacefully (through trade or art, for example) or violently, through war or colonialism. There doesn't seem to be any way to avoid cultural intermixing–on Earth, at least. Science fiction is another story. The crew of Star Trek was bound by the Prime Directive, the United Federation of Planets' regulation that prohibited Starfleet personnel from interfering in the development of alien societies. James L. Cambias explores a similar idea in A Darkling Sea (Tor, 2014), but rather than accept the Prime Directive as an unexamined good, the narrative tackles the issue from a number of fresh perspectives–three perspectives, to be specific. On one side is a team of human scientists who are trying to study a sentient species under six kilometers of a freezing, alien ocean. On the other side are the Sholen, technologically superior creatures who believe it's their job to police inter-species interactions. And in the middle are the Ilmatarans, the giant crustaceans (think whale-sized lobsters) who the humans are trying to study. Is it OK for the humans and the Ilmatarans to interact? The Sholen say no, and prohibit direct contact. This means the humans can only observe the Ilmatarans from afar. Since the Ilmatarans "see" via sonar, the humans coat their vessels and diving suits in radar-proof material in the hopes of remaining virtually invisible. However, when one of the humans makes contact, all hell breaks loose. The Sholen order the humans to leave the planet; the humans refuse; and the Ilmatarans choose sides. A Darkling Sea asks important questions amidst a page-turning undersea battle: Is it inherently destructive for a technologically advanced culture (or species) to interact with a less advanced culture? When different societies mix, must some groups necessarily win and others lose? Who defines what's "advanced" and what's "less advanced"? The greatest danger of superior technology just might be the superiority complex that comes with it. In their hubristic desire to prevent inter-cultural contamination, the Sholen are unaware that they're breaking their own rules. As Cambias points out in the New Books interview: There is a logical contradiction buried in [the Sholen] attitude because they're trying to prevent advanced species from meddling with less advanced ones; that means that they, as an advanced species, have to go around meddling with less advanced species.  Also in the interview, Cambrias discusses the challenge (and fun) of inventing the Ilmatarans' complex society from scratch, how his job as a game designer has both helped and hindered his storytelling, and space piracy, a topic he plans to explore at length in his next novel, Corsair. Follow New Books in Science Fiction and Fantasy on Facebook and Rob Wolf here.

Shelbi WescottView on AmazonIt wasn't until Shelbi Wescott was deep into her career as a high school teacher that she published her first novel, Virulent: The Release (Arthur Press, 2013). The inspiration for the story came during a class for students who weren't reading at grade level. "Part of my job in that class is to get students excited about literature," she says. But one student remained disengaged despite her best efforts: I had to call him after class one day and say 'You actually have to give some of these books a shot. You might like them.' And he was like 'I bet you could even write a better book' than the one we were currently reading. And I said, 'I'll take that challenge. Sure. OK.' She handed the student a piece of paper and asked him to write down 10 things he wanted to see in the book. And then she sat down and wrote it. "That happened when he was a freshman and Virulent was published his senior year. That was a pretty exciting graduation present for him." It's a heart-warming anecdote, one that belies the apocalyptic nature of the novels it inspired. Virulent: The Release, which became the first installment of a trilogy, starts with a bioterrorism attack that kills almost everyone. The story focuses largely on a handful of survivors hiding, and subsequently trapped, in a high school that, as Ms. Wescott explains in the podcast, is remarkably similar to the one in Portland, Ore., where she teaches. The narrative also draws on her experiences as a parent, exploring to what lengths parents might go to save their own children, even if others–perhaps even billions of others–suffer as a result. On her web site, Ms. Wescott describes herself as "author, mother, teacher" but she could add "publisher," having published her books independently. In her interview, Ms. Wescott discusses her experiences as an "indie" author and the fast-evolving world of self-publishing. You can learn more about Ms. Wescott at Shelbi Wescott and Rob Wolf at http://www.robwolf.net/.