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.
08-21-15: Agony Column Podcast News Report : Senator Claire McCaskill is 'Plenty Ladylike' : Internalizing Determination to Overcome Sexism [Incudes Time to Read EP 211: Claire McCaskill, Plenty Ladylike, plus A 2015 Interview with Senator Claire McCaskill]
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Emily Schultz Unleashes 'The Blondes' : A Cure by Color [Incudes Time to Read EP 210: Emily Schultz, The Blondes, plus A 2015 Interview with Emily Schultz]
07-05-15: Commentary : Dr. Michael Gazzaniga Tells Tales from Both Sides of the Brain : A Life in Neuroscience Reveals the Life of Science
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Michael Gazzaniga : "We made the first observation and BAM there was the disconnection effect..."
04-21-15: Commentary : Kazuo Ishiguro Unearths 'The Buried Giant' : The Mist of Myth and Memory
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Kazuo Ishiguro : ".... by the time I was writing this novel, the lines between what was fantasy and what was real had blurred for me..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Marc Goodman : "...every physical object around us is being transformed, one way or another, into an information technology..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 199: Marc Goodman : Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It
