Our guest this episode is author Tobias S. Buckell. This interview was recorded at the most recent Dragon*Con in Atlanta GA. Tobias is the author of Crystal Rain, Ragamuffin and his most recent novel Sly Mongoose. He is an exemplar of the next generation of science fiction writer, and a writer of works that are both simultaneously rich satisfying science fiction and cracking good adventure yarns.

Quote from the show: “When someone like Charles Stross says something like ‘Maybe man isn’t meant to go to space’ I at age 29 think he might be right or might be wrong. It’s not important to the core of what I think is science fiction. Judging by our track record so far, maybe homey’s got a point.”

You can listen to the episode here, in the flash player below or you can subscribe in iTunes or directly via RSS and get every episode. If you’d like to discuss this episode, you can talk about it in the Reality Break forum.

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Tobias S. Buckell links:

• Tobias S. Buckell official site
• Tobias Buckell site at Tor Books
• Crystal Rain
• Ragamuffin
  
• Sly Mongoose
  
• Shared Worlds writing workshop

Our guest this episode is author and podcaster Mur Lafferty. This interview was recorded at the most recent Dragon*Con in Atlanta GA in front of a live audience. Mur is the author of the several novels that she has chosen to publish as podcast originals including her novel Heaven.

We mostly discuss her post-modern superhero novel Playing For Keeps which she originally published as a podiobook and which was recently republished by Swarm Press. We discuss in depth the world she built as well as the morality and ethics of superheroics.

Quote from the show: “Look at the Justice League - they have a space station! I mean, Batman is rich but seriously, who is paying for this?”

You can listen to the episode here, in the flash player below or you can subscribe in iTunes or directly via RSS and get every episode. If you’d like to discuss this episode, you can talk about it in the Reality Break forum.

Thanks for listening!

Mur Lafferty links:

• Mur Lafferty’s official site
• Playing For Keeps at Amazon
• Playing for Keeps main site
• Heaven site
• Swarm Press

Our guest this episode is author, futurist and design professor Bruce Sterling. This interview was recorded in February 1997 around the release of his novel Holy Fire. He has written ten novels, dozens of short stories, multiple books of essays on futurism and design theory, and the only book on cybercrime from one of the canonical cyberpunk writers, The Hacker Crackdown: Law And Disorder On The Electronic Frontier. He and William Gibson are widely regarded as kickstarters of the modern “steampunk” movement with their novel The Difference Engine. His most recent novel is The Zenith Angle and his next novel The Caryatids will be published next spring.

You can listen to the episode here, in the flash player below or you can subscribe in iTunes or directly via RSS and get every episode. If you’d like to discuss this episode, you can talk about it in the Reality Break forum.

Thanks for listening!

Bruce Sterling links:

• Bruce Sterling’s blog for Wired
• Bruce Sterling books at Powells.com

Reality Break will be at Dragon*Con this weekend, doing promotion and conducting interviews. We have a slot on the podcasting track to record an episode live in front of an audience. That will be Friday at 10 PM, and the scheduled guest is author Mur Lafferty. Mur is a podcaster in her own right and the author of Playing For Keeps, which is currently part of a coordinated sales campaign to get it up the Amazon.com sales charts. It is working, it was in the single digits at points yesterday.

Come by and see us Friday at 10 PM. There will be swag to give away and fun to be had. You too can be a part of it!

Update: The room we will be in is the Rockdale room in the Hilton, unless of course it changes.

Our guest this episode is speculative fiction author Kelley Eskridge. This interview was recorded in May 2007 following the release of her short story collection Dangerous Space. She has been published in such venues as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Century, Pulphouse, the anthology Sirens and Other Daemon Lovers, and Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times. Her story “Alien Jane” was adapted for television on the series Welcome to Paradox. Her debut novel Solitaire was published in 2002 and was a New York Times Notable Book, a Borders Books Original Voices selection, and was nominated for the Nebula, Endeavour and Spectrum awards.

You can listen to the episode here, in the flash player below or you can subscribe in iTunes or directly via RSS and get every episode. If you’d like to discuss this episode, you can talk about it in the Reality Break forum.

Thanks for listening!

Kelley Eskridge links:

• The official Kelley Eskridge website
• Kelley Eskridge’s blog
• The Bookslut review of Dangerous Space
• Kelley Eskridge books at Powells.com

Robert Jordan was most well known for his Wheel of Time novels, but he also wrote seven Conan novels which were collected in The Conan Chronicles and The Further Chronicles of Conan. The Wheel of Time series began with The Eye of the World and the most recently published book is the eleventh volume Knife of Dreams . The Wheel of Time series has always been published by Tor books. The twelfth and final volume of the series is scheduled to be published in 2009 and will be completed by fantasy author Brandon Sanderson.

You can listen to the episode here, in the flash player below or you can subscribe in iTunes or directly via RSS and get every episode. If you’d like to discuss this episode, you can talk about it in the Reality Break forum.

Thanks for listening!

Robert Jordan links:

• Dragonmount, a Wheel of Time community
• The Dragonmount hosted Robert Jordan blog
• Tor Book’s Robert Jordan site

Cory Doctorow is one of the co-editors of Boing Boing. He has published the novels Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Eastern Standard Tribe, and Someone Comes to Town Someone Leaves Town - all from Tor Books. He has also published the story collections a Place So Foreign from Four Walls Eight Windows and Overclocked from Thunder’s Mouth Press. IDW Publishing has put out the comic book adaptation series Cory Doctorow’s Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now, and his newest book is the young adult novel Little Brother from Tor books.

You can listen to the episode here, in the flash player below or you can subscribe in iTunes or directly via RSS and get every episode. If you’d like to discuss this episode, you can talk about it in the Reality Break forum.

Thanks for listening!

Cory Doctorow links:

• Cory Doctorow’s personal site
• Cory’s Little Brother page

Will Eisner was one of the true founders of the comic book industry. He created or co-created many Golden Age characters such as Blackhawk, Doll Man, Lady Luck and Mr. Mystic but his most enduring creation is the Spirit. Currently a feature film of the Spirit is in production, being directed by Frank Miller. Later in his career, Will Eisner pioneered the graphic novel format and in fact he coined the term to describe his 1978 book A Contract With God. He was active in graphic literature up until his death in 2005, producing such notable work as Last Day in Vietnam, The Dreamer, and The Plot.

You can listen to the episode here, in the flash player below or you can subscribe in iTunes or directly via RSS and get every episode. If you’d like to discuss this episode, you can talk about it in the Reality Break forum.

Thanks for listening!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 License.