Last week I sat down for an interview with Rick Kleffel at KQED in San Francisco. He's put the whole interview — a long one! — up in his Trashotron podcast feed. We talked about Homeland and other things. Rick, as always, was a very astute interviewer. — Read the rest
Wired security reporter Andy Greenberg's latest book is Sandworm (previously), a true-life technothriller that tells the stories of the cybersecurity experts who analyzed and attributed as series of ghastly cyberwar attacks that brought down parts of the Ukrainian power grid, and then escaped the attackers' control and spread all over the world.
Christopher Brown (previously) is the guest on this week's Agony Column podcast with Rick Kleffel (MP3) (previously), discussing his outstanding legal thriller/sf climate change dystopia Rule of Capture.
Earlier this month, I reviewed Richard Kadrey's new novel "The Grand Dark" for the LA Times; as I wrote, "His latest is "The Grand Dark," a noir, diesel punk book set in a Weimar world of war trauma, debauchery, cabaret and looming disaster — and it's superb."
Veteran reviewer/interviewer Rick Kleffel (previously) has just posted a long podcast interview (MP3) with Neal Stephenson, discussing his latest novel, Fall; or, Dodge in Hell ("a science fiction novel with a fantasy novel stuck inside of it").
Tim Wu's book The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads (review) was one of the best books I read in 2016; on Rick Kleffel's Narrative Species podcast, Wu discusses the book (MP3) covering depth that he couldn't fit between the covers.
Rick Kleffel sends us his latest podcast (MP3), "A conversation with one of the authors of a wonderful and strange book; science-fiction thought experiments ('robot versus baby') informed by social psychology experiments of fascinating design, part ethics, philosophy, neuroscience, the minds of god and the dead and machines… authentically mind-boggling. — Read the rest
Rick Kleffel talks to William MacAskill, the core of Effective Altruism, discussing EA and his book about it. It's much more pragmatic and entirely reasonable, not about extreme statistics and speculations."
Rick Kleffel sends his latest Bookotron podcast: "Neal Stephenson discusses (MP3) the challenges of turning orbital dynamics into pulse-pounding fiction … and his latest novel Seveneves." (Image: Bob Lee, CC-BY)
Rick Kleffel sez, "I spoke with Kazuo Ishiguro about his new book, The Buried Giant, and his means of using the literary toolkit of the fantastic to excavate the human psyche. It proved to be great fun. "
Rick Kleffel: An Argument that books can change the world and nine from 2014 have the potential to do so; including Karen Armstrong, Roz Chast, Cory Doctorow, Richard Ford, William Gibson, Jake Halpern, Michael Katakis, Thomas Piketty,and Lawrence Wright.
Rick Kleffel writes, "I spoke with Paolo Bacigalupi (MP3) and A. S. (Amy) King (MP3 about SF, YA and comparing their different methods of composition (MP3) with predictably entertaining and smart results."
Rick Kleffel from the Agony Column podcast interviews Lauren Beukes — author of Broken Monsters (see this week's review) — in fascinating detail, "Lauren Beukes discusses Broken Monsters, The Shining Girls, the supernatural and the all-too-natural, as well as the Internet and why her latest is not a criticism thereof."
Matt Taibbi is touring the States with his new book, The Divide, which is on my must-read list right after I finish Capital in the 21st Century. Rick Kleffel caught up with him for his San Francisco NPR show and posted the interview, along with his notes (which includes links to his previous interviews with Taibbi). — Read the rest
Science fiction radio-host and podcaster Rick Kleffel writes, "Lucius Shepard was one of my guiding lights for reading; he worked in all the spaces I loved best. Here's a link to my one conversation with him [MP3], back in 2005. — Read the rest
Rick Kleffel writes, "I sat down in my living room with Jeff VanderMeer to talk about his latest novel Annihilation, and the Southern Reach trilogy it begins. We took a break, then came back for round 2, discussing how he edit those giant anthologies with his wife Ann, and more generally, the new publishing landscape." — Read the rest
Rick Kleffel just posted his interview with Jonathan Lethem (MP3) about Lethem's new novel, Dissident Gardens, his latest New York City novel. It's about a Sunnyside Gardens family whose matriarch, Rose Zimmer, is being drummed out of the Communist Party. — Read the rest
Rick Kleffel interviewed Ian Tregillis, author of the amazing alternate history Milkweed books, about Nazi X-Men fighting a secret war against British warlocks. Tregillis describes the process by which he came up with the premise, and especially — and most interestingly — how he came up with his brilliant treatment for Gretl, a precognitive villain who is pretty much evil personified (MP3).
Rick Kleffel sez, "We'll miss Richard Matheson… he introduced me to the sort of stories he wrote when I was arguably too young to read them. I found an old paperback of The Shores of Space on my parents' shelves and hid behind the couch to read the terrifying stories. — Read the rest
Rick Kleffel says:
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Richard Kadrey read from Devil Said Bang at SF in SF and afterwards I spoke with him about the novel. He told me that he originally wanted to write some hard-edged noir like Jim Thompson or Richard Stark with a supernatural aspect.
