Back in 2014, we read Helene Wecker’s novel “The Golem and the Jinni,” and we liked it! Little did we know that she was listening to us… and that she would end up as an Incomparable panelist! Now a sequel, “The Hidden Palace: A Novel of the Golem and the Jinni” has arrived! In this special episode, Jason and Helene discuss the first novel, how real life can intrude on a publishing schedule, the value and temptation of research, and how “The Hidden Palace” ultimately came together.

Host Jason Snell with Helene Wecker

Our Book Club returns with a new way to approach this year’s SF novel shortlist: we’re reading all the Hugo and Nebula novels in three batches. First up: “Black Sun,” “The City We Became,” and “Piranesi.” Plus: What are we reading?

Host Jason Snell with Erika Ensign, Scott McNulty and Aleen Simms

What we’re reading:

Scott: The Liar’s Dictionary (Apple, Amazon)

Erika: “Unseelie Brothers, Ltd.” by Fran Wilde

Aleen: Stephens & Mefisto and Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths; Dragon Blood Series by Lindsay Buroker

Jason: A Desolation Called Peace (Apple, Amazon) by Arkady Martine, Empress of Forever (Apple, Amazon) by Max Gladstone

After a long gap, our Book Club reconvenes, and if they can remember Micaiah Johnson’s “The Space Between Worlds,” they’ll recommend it to you. It’s a story about identity and society set across parallel worlds that are even more similar than they initially appear to be. Also, what else have we read lately? Curl up with a good book and keep an eye out for parallel-universe warlords!

Host Jason Snell with Aleen Simms, Erika Ensign, Scott McNulty and David J. Loehr

Aleen

Erika

David

Scott

Jason

It’s our annual read of the annual science fiction and fantasy shortlist, the Hugo Awards nominees! Our panelists catch up on the three books that weren’t covered in our Nebula Awards episode, and then Jason and Erika spend a little time on the short fiction nominees. And the raging debate on whether a planet is space or not continues!

Host Jason Snell with Erika Ensign, Aleen Simms, Scott McNulty and Dan Moren

Our panel’s final consensus ranking:

We’ve completed our read of this year’s six Nebula Award nominees for best science fiction/fantasy novel of the year, and have returned with our opinions! And this year was a pretty good one, with very few of our readers experiencing the pain of bad books. From space opera to portal fantasy to Mexican mythology, there are almost certainly books on this list that will strike your fancy. Also, we debate the perennial question: Are planets in space?

Host Jason Snell with Erika Ensign, Aleen Simms, Scott McNulty and Dan Moren

Our panel’s final consensus ranking:

Climb aboard your spaceship and prepare your skin to be sparkly, because we’re discussing “To Be Taught, If Fortunate,” a novella from Becky Chambers, a writer we enjoy quite a lot. This is a story about science, adventure, sacrifice, and the difficulty of being away from home for a very, very long time. An interesting crew of characters explores strange, new worlds—while trying to fit in biologically. Sometimes it goes really well, and other times it doesn’t. Also: What are we reading?

Host Jason Snell with Scott McNulty, Aleen Simms, Erika Ensign and David J. Loehr

What are we reading?

Our Book Club reconvenes to discuss “This Is How You Lose the Time War”, a beautiful novella about the relationship between two time-traveling operatives in a multiverse-wide struggle. Also, Erika keeps stuffing us full of food metaphors. Plus: What are we reading? This episode will go down like ice cream on your brain tongue.

Host Jason Snell with Erika Ensign, Scott McNulty, Aleen Simms and David J. Loehr

What Are You Reading?

Scott:

Erika:

Aleen:

David:

Jason:

Our Book Club returns with reviews of the six finalists for the Hugo Award for best science fiction/fantasy novel of the year. You’ll be thrilled by our panelists attempting to remember what happened in books they read months ago! We liked five out of the six, which is a great batting average—but oh, that sixth book. Also, we read some novellas and short stories, too! And Erika’s up for another Hugo!

Host Jason Snell with Erika Ensign, Aleen Simms and Scott McNulty

Our collective ratings this time:

Other stuff we mentioned:

Novellas: Artificial Condition, Beneath the Sugar Sky, Binti: The Night Masquerade,The Black God’s Drums, Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach, by Kelly Robson, The Tea Master and the Detective

Short Stories: The Court Magician, The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington, STET,The Tale of the Three Beautiful Raptor Sisters, and the Prince Who Was Made of Meat, A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies

and Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana: A Visual History, by Michael Witwer, Kyle Newman, Jon Peterson, Sam Witwer.

It’s time once again for our Book Club to tackle the six novels that made it to the Science Fiction Writers Association’s shortlist, the nominees for the Nebula Awards. All four of us read all six nominees and we discuss their merits (and occasionally demerits). The concept of being a Reverse Nemesis With a Twist is introduced. If you’re looking for a few books to add to your reading list, this episode will hit the spot.

Host Jason Snell with Erika Ensign, Scott McNulty and Aleen Simms

Final panelist consensus rankings (average placement in parentheses):

Clip the labels off your clothes and put on a World War II replica bomber jacket—it’s time to revisit one of our favorite novels of this century, 2003’s “Pattern Recognition” by William Gibson. It was Gibson’s first book to be set in the present day, and yet 16 years later it still feels like a work of science fiction, with a very modern story about brands and viral marketing and our desperate search to find meaning in a world that may have none. If all you’ve read of Gibson is “Neuromancer”, it’s past time that you visited the post-9/11 world of cool-finder Cayce Pollard, the mysterious internet video clips known as The Footage, the global marketing firm Blue Ant, and a series of increasingly lonely international hotel rooms.

Host Jason Snell with Lisa Schmeiser, Fred Kiesche, Antony Johnston and Monty Ashley