A short episode to tide you over this week! We discuss Arther C. Clarke's The Star (pdf), comparing and constrating it to The Sparrow. Full spoilers for both the story (it's only 4 pages, you should read it!) and The Sparrow.
This is a relatively clean episode that's mostly about how and why people lose their faith and whether science fiction generally does a good job at handling this question.
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In addition, we realized that our links to related works aren't showing up in all podcatchers. Here are the links from the last episode, if you're looking for more recommendations that (we think) are better than The Sparrow
- Monolingual Fieldwork by Daniel Everett (a linguist learns Hmong)
- Do Elephants Have Souls? by Caitrin Keiper for the New Atlantis
- Alien intelligence: the extraordinary minds of octopuses and other cephalopods by Elle Hunt
- The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
- 1491 and 1493 by Charles Mann
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As always, we'd love to hear from you! Tweet us at @spectologypod, submit the episode at r/printSF, or email us at spectologypod@gmail.com with your thoughts about the book.
Many thanks to Dubby J and Noah Bradley for doing our music and art.
Interview w/ the Hugo Administrator, Will Frank, on how & why to get involved with the Hugos
Announcement: Spectology "series finale" and the future of the podcast
28.2: Do You Dream of Terra-Two? post-read: Belief, Depression, and Courage in Sociological Hard SF
Digital Book Tour: Kathleen Jennings on Flyaway: Small Towns, Fairytales, and Linguistics
Digital Book Tour: Somaiya Daud on Mirage & Court of Lions: Body doubles, court politics, and historical science fantasy.
28.1: Do You Dream of Terra-Two pre-read w/ Bee & Estelle: Alternate History, Destiny, and Space Travel
27.2: The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull post-read w/ Lydia: Colonial Power in SF and Rural & Island Culture.
Digital Book Tour: WM Akers on Westside Saints, detective novels, RPGs, and sequels
Digital Book Tour: Nick Mamatas on Move Under Ground, a novel of Beat literary figures fighting Lovecraftian monsters
27.1: The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull pre-read w/ Lydia: Alien invasion and a history of capitalism & colonialism.
Digital Book Tour: Nino Cipri on Finna, a story of parallel universes as found in low-wage furniture stores
Digital Book Tour: SA Jones on The Fortress, a book about restorative justice inside an all-women society
26.2: The True Queen post-read w/ Reading the End: Inclusion in Historical Fantasy, Comfort Reads, Sisterhood, and more
Digital Book Tour: Melissa Caruso on The Obsidian Tower, a story of a young woman on the run from her own magical power
Digital Book Tour: Veronica Roth on Chosen Ones, a story of what happens after the "chosen ones" have saved the world
In Conversation: Our Favorite Underrated SF Movies, with Seth Heasley of the Hugo's There podcast
26.1: The True Queen pre-read w/ Reading the End: Historical Fantasy, Trash Birds, and Chaotic Quarantine Brain
Digital Book Tour: Laura Lam on Goldilocks, a scifi thriller where a group of women steal a spaceship to save humanity
Announcing the Digital Book Tour, hosted by Bee
25.2: The Tea Master & The Detective post-read w/ Julia Rios: Cozy Murder Mysteries in Space!
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