Steven R.Boyett and Josh Mohr; Click image for audio link.
Steven R. Boyett and Josh Mohr
One of the best aspects of putting together the Agony Column Live shows is the cross-talk between writers who have not met, but are very well-suited to one another. This was particularly the case with Josh Mohr and Steven R. Boyett, though they might at first seem to be work in very different styles.
Mohr is a sort of hyper-realist; his work is scathing, uncompromising, hilarious and uncomfortable. 'The Termite Parade' and now 'Damascus' are part of an informal trilogy, and every time he reads he brings a great passion and a fantastic vision to his books. When you hear Josh read live, you can feel the intensity of the words, and you get the feeling that it would sound that way even if he were reading a grocery list. Of course if he were reading a grocery list, it would certainly be the most distressing, upsetting and memorable grocery list that ever went in your ears. To be honest, I hope he writes one soon.
Steven R. Boyett writes some of the best speculative fiction you will be privileged to read. His latest, 'Mortality Bridge' is ... well, I'm not going to say any more about, because his reading says it better. Steven and Josh are both performers, and the readings really knock the ball out of the park.
12-28-11:A 2011 Interview with David Goyer and Michael Cassutt
Click either image for audio link.
"Our approach was: 'OK, what happens next?'"
Having spoken with David Goyer and Michael Cassut on the phone about their superb collaboration, 'Heaven's Shadow,' I managed the improbable; to speak to the two of them in person. It was, as are all in-person interviews, a revelation. And that's appropriate, given the subject of their novel.
Putting these two men in the same room is something of a feat. The energy they bring is palpable, and at time verges on dangerous. It's certainly infectious, and I'm trysting that reader who missed out on the first phone interview and on the initial release of this novel will run, not walk to give it a good look. 'Heaven's Shadow' is an outstanding piece of science fiction. It's exciting and grittily realistic, but also has the right proportion of awe.
You can hear how the collaboration works when you hear them dig into the questions and conversation we had. Cassutt and Goyer each bring their own unique talents to the work, but they also do something that makes it more; their collaboration is seamless and synthetic. Together, they manage to do something that neither of them could do alone. Their own work is superb; 'Heaven's Shadow,' however, is a very different kind of superb. From conversations with astronauts to conversations with alien intelligences, 'Heaven's Shadow,' shows the mark of each writer as if they were by one writer.
Readers who are looking for a great debut, or simply a great classic science fiction reading experience need look no farther. Listeners who want to hear how it all started, or simply be entertained by two writers who know books and movies inside out, can start their journey by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
12-27-11 UPDATE:Podcast Update: Time to Read, Episode 24: Robert K. Massie, 'Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman'
Click image for audio link.
Here's the twenty-fourth episode of my new series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. The podcasts/radio broadcasts will be of books worth your valuable reading time. I'll try to keep the reports under four minutes, for a radio-friendly format. If you want to run them on your show or podcast, let me know.
My hope is that in under four minutes I can offer readers a concise review and an opportunity to hear the author read from or speak about the work. I'm hoping to offer a new one every week.
An interview about 'The Ecstasy of Influence: Nonfictions, Etc.' with Jonathan Lethem is, for this book reviewer, something between therapy and a session with one of those gurus you see in cartoons sitting on a mountaintop, dispensing the wisdom of the ancients.
Informative, but a bit on the intimidating side, seeing as to how you're talking to a gentleman paid highly and handsomely, who is actually asked to review books by the world's premiere editors and publications. You can find them in 'The Ecstasy of Influence: Nonfictions, Etc.'
It helped then, that I've spoken with Lethem before, and that the thesis of his book, the sweet surprise center, is an argument that I tend to agree with and have been seen bandied about for the last few years now. It's the cornerstone of what makes the Internet so powerful.
I suppose, and I realize this as I type up this interview, that my ten-year stint working for the world premiere manufacturer of electronic samplers might have some part in this as well. And ten years before that, I was walking around with a Sony recording Walkman, taping car-radio snippets to run over primitive synthesizer sequences; I mean like, forty notes, which was the max you could get in a Sequential Circuits Pro One. Remix culture is part and parcel of my background.
05-16-12: Commentary : Mark Sundeen Pays Out 'The Man Who Quit Money' : Over the Edges
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2012 Interview with Mark Sundeen and Daniel Suelo : "What would happen if we actually practiced this stuff?"-Daniel Suelo
05-15-12: Commentary : Archive Review: Clive Barker 'Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War' : Impure Life
05-08-12: Commentary : Archive Review: Clive Barker 'Abarat' : Reading in Color
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2012 Phone Interview with Mark Sundeen : "...over the years, I had heard through my friends that he had stopped using money and was living in a cave..."
04-30-12: Commentary : Christopher Moore Follows 'Sacré Bleu' : A Story in Color
Agony Column Podcast News Report: A 2012 Interview with Christopher Moore : "...it often isn't efficient to tell a story in chronological order..."
04-27-12: Commentary : Lisa Lutz on 'Trail of the Spellmans' : Meta-Fiction is Fun
Agony Column Podcast News Report: SF in SF from February 11, 2012 : Panel Discussion Moderated by Terry Bisson and Interviews with Rudy Rucker, K. W. Jeter, and Jay Lake
04-26-12: Commentary : Archive Review: Emmanuel Carrere 'The Adversary' : The Enemy Within
04-23-12: Commentary : T. M. Luhrman Listens 'When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship With God' : Science and the Supernaturaly
04-18-12: Commentary : Gregg Jones Stirs Through 'Honor in the Dust: Theodore Roosevelt, War in the Philippines and the Rise and Fall of America's Imperial Dreams' : A Dream Of Today From Yesterday
Agony Column Podcast News Report: A 2012 Interview with Gregg Jones : "The Philippinos would welcome us with open arms and greet us as liberators."
04-17-12: Commentary : Archive Review: Caleb Carr 'The Alienist' : Subterranean History
04-16-12: Commentary : Richard Zacks Visits 'Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt's Doomed Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York' :The Wild, Wild East
Agony Column Podcast News Report: A 2012 Interview with Richard Zacks : "Roosevelt and Riis were out looking, and if they did find a cop, he was talking to a streetwalker."
