Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Summer is here and that means finally tackling your huge list of books piled up on your bedside table and filling up your Kindle. What books do we recommend for some fun reads?
NOTE: Video is incomplete due to technical difficulties.
Show Notes | Transcript
Show Notes
The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Goodreads)
Whatever (John Scalzi)
The Kaiju Preservation Society (Macmillan)
Old Man’s War (Macmillan)
Love, Death + Robots (Netflix)
Agent to the Stars (Whatever)
The Android’s Dream by John Scalzi (Goodreads)
Space Opera | Book by Catherynne M. Valente (Simon & Schuster)
Watch Rick and Morty on Adult Swim (Adult Swim)
Culture Series by Iain M. Banks (Goodreads)
Here’s SpaceX’s new Drone Ship: “A Shortfall of Gravitas” (Universe Today)
Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty (Goodreads)
Marco and the Red Granny by Mur Lafferty (Goodreads)
Reamde by Neal Stephenson (Bookshop.org)
Fall; or, Dodge in Hell (Neal Stephenson)
Seveneves (Neil Stephenson)
Windupstories.com – Fiction by Paolo Bacigalupi
Bobiverse Series by Dennis E. Taylor (Goodreads)
The Martian by Andy Weir (Goodreads)
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (Penguin Random House)
Isaac Asimov (Author of Foundation) (Goodreads)
Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke (Goodreads)
Watch Detectorists (BBC Series) (Prime Video)
Lagoon (Nnedi Okorafor)
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void (Mary Roach)
The Mission: A True Story by David W. Brown (Harper Collins)
Europa Clipper (NASA JPL)
Galaxy: The Prettiest Star by Jadzia Axelrod (DC Comics)
Transcript
(This is an automatically generated transcript)
Fraser Cain [00:01:49] Astronomy Cast Episode 647 Best Sci Fi beach reading. Welcome to Astronomy Cast, a weekly fact based journey through the cosmos where we help you understand not only what we know, but how we know what we know. I’m Fraser Cain, publisher of Universe Today. I’ve been a space and astronomy journalist for over 20 years. With me, as always, is Doctor Pamela Gay, a senior scientist for the planetary sciences dude and the director of Cosmic Quest. Hey, Pamela, how you doing?
Pamela Gay [00:02:14] I am doing well. I have almost had my PhD for 20 years. Almost.
Fraser Cain [00:02:22] That’s amazing.
Pamela Gay [00:02:24] Oh.
Fraser Cain [00:02:25] What’s the together? Some kind of anniversary? Some kind of jubilee? PhD. Jubilee?
Pamela Gay [00:02:30] No, you just get old. You just get old.
Fraser Cain [00:02:34] You can stack up the papers. Yeah, exactly. So is that I would remind you when I. When I’ve been doing my work, I wonder, like, once again, what year did you get your PhD? Because I started the Universe Today in 99.
Pamela Gay [00:02:48] I December of 2002, and it’s 2022 now, so.
Fraser Cain [00:02:52] Yeah.
Pamela Gay [00:02:53] Almost 20 years.
Fraser Cain [00:02:54] So there you go. Yeah. So there you go. That’s funny. I didn’t realize I’d assume that you’d gotten your PhD before I had started Astronomy Cast, but I’m sorry I started Universe Today, but I guess not.
Pamela Gay [00:03:04] I went through university in an absolutely average for a PhD in the US amount of time, which is ten years from start to finish. Wow. And so unless I had like skipped two years of university, which I did not. No, no, I finished in December 2002.
Fraser Cain [00:03:28] All right, let’s get into it. Summer is here. And that means finally tackling that huge list of books piled up on your bedside table and filling up your Kindle. What books do we recommend for some fun reads this summer? So we do this from from time to time. Although my reading has has dropped this year, which makes me a little bit sad. You know, I was reading up a storm last year, but I have not been reading a lot, so I won’t be able to contribute a ton of new, interesting stuff that’s filled my brain to the conversation. But I know you’ve got a big list. So what’s your goal here? You’re trying to keep it light.
Pamela Gay [00:04:01] I my goal is to keep it light. My goal is to bring joy. And there is such a thing as like dystopian books that still bring you joy. But, the more laughter can be encouraged, the the better it is for beach reading. Have you ever caused yourself cognitive dissonance by reading like a super serious book in entirely the wrong place?
Fraser Cain [00:04:26] No, no.
Pamela Gay [00:04:28] Good.
Fraser Cain [00:04:30] Good. I I’m sort of I’m sort of thinking like, you know, like like I’m going to have to set aside Harlan Ellison books for this conversation. Then again, like, I have no mouth here. I’m a scream. We will not be talking about that book today.
Pamela Gay [00:04:46] Exactly, exactly. Yeah. So? So I am guilty of causing cognitive dissonance by reading extremely dystopian stuff while in extremely lighthearted places. And my goal for today is to help all of you not experience that cognitive dissonance I have brought upon myself.
Fraser Cain [00:05:05] Right. So you’re not going to be reading the road while you’re lying on the beach.
Pamela Gay [00:05:09] You know.
Fraser Cain [00:05:10] Hanging out and, hanging out in a beautiful garden.
Pamela Gay [00:05:13] That that book is dark.
Fraser Cain [00:05:15] That it’s so dark. Yeah.
Pamela Gay [00:05:19] All right.
Fraser Cain [00:05:20] So it was great.
Pamela Gay [00:05:21] It was.
Fraser Cain [00:05:23] I try anything or. I mean, the closest I have is I read, World War Z and I believe and I read it, and I was, like, traveling. And so I was just like, I was. And I was listening to as an audiobook. And so I was just walking around in a city that an unfamiliar city. But I had this book on in the background and I was just hearing about as well as, like, watching people. And so I got a I got a sense of that because I was just like surrounded by people. And, and they were discussing, talking about the level of mayhem and, and, and the sort of the tactical response to the zombie hordes. It’s a great book. I really loved it, but.
Pamela Gay [00:06:04] It really.
Fraser Cain [00:06:06] Is like an excellent. I understand what you’re talking about. Yeah, yeah. All right. So what do you got then? What do you got?
Pamela Gay [00:06:10] So I mean, the place that I go for finding science fiction joy as opposed to fantasy, Neil Gaiman for fantasy, for fiction. I’m all about John Scalzi for joy and light and silliness. And he has a brand new book out called The Kaiju Preservation Society.
Fraser Cain [00:06:31] Wow.
Pamela Gay [00:06:32] And it brings in quantum mechanics, it brings in physics, it brings in nuclear physics. And it’s just human beings being human beings. And there is. Laugh out loud. Joy involved in a helicopter almost crashing. And I can’t say that sentence very often.
Fraser Cain [00:06:52] The Sir John Scalzi, he’s the one who did Old man’s war. Yes, and that’s a terrific book. One of my favorites. Yes.
Pamela Gay [00:07:01] And yours?
Fraser Cain [00:07:02] There’s a couple of sequels. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. But. And also, if you watched the new, love Death and Robots, he has, he gets a short story at the beginning of each will each season of these adorable robots that are exploring this apocalyptic wasteland by humanity, trying to understand where humanity went wrong. And that’s actually a John Scalzi short story, if you watch that. So, yeah, John’s cause he’s terrific. Oh, yeah. But I haven’t even I have not read this the the Kaiju.
Pamela Gay [00:07:37] Kaiju Preservation Society, also in his list of absolutely hilarious books is agent to the Stars and Electronic Sheep. Just go with it. They’re they’re they’re holding.
Fraser Cain [00:07:54] Hands to my list.
Pamela Gay [00:07:56] So so start there for joy and light. And another place I hear less. Less science fiction is more Eurovision. We have Kathryn. Volunteers. Space opera. Have you heard or read that? No.
Fraser Cain [00:08:16] No. All right. Well.
Pamela Gay [00:08:18] So so the idea is that part of the way that a race proves its readiness to be part of the universes sentient races platform is through its musical competition? And so think Eurovision. But to prove you’re actually a sentient race.
Fraser Cain [00:08:45] It’s an a kind of sounds like Rick and Morty. The episode of Rick and Morty where the big heads show up and and force humanity to join the the Earth equivalent of a, you know, or the universe equivalent of Eurovision Song Contest. Show us what you got.
Pamela Gay [00:09:00] Exactly. And high jinks ensue. High jinks, of course, ensue. And and really, we need more high jinks in everything we read. So. So we don’t have to talk just about modern books. I. There are some books I know you’ve talked about in the past that bring you joy.
Fraser Cain [00:09:23] Yeah. So we’ll give it a go here with one now, which was that? I’m reading through the culture series. Yes. By by Ian Banks. And he’s a fantastic writer. And and I’ve read the first two books now. So the first one or the the, contender Polybius and and Player of Games. And Polybius is kind of different, but Player Games is absolutely a book of joy. It is this post scarcity society where this guy’s job is to design games for people, and he is invited to this other civilization to play the most complicated game that is widely considered in the entire universe. That goes on for months and and involves giant simulations and and it’s and he has to it’s as for diplomacy. Yeah. And it’s wonderful and I really, really enjoyed it. And so I highly recommend you know, like a lot of people have, you know, Elon Musk has named, drone.
Pamela Gay [00:10:33] Kind of.
Fraser Cain [00:10:33] Barges after them.
Pamela Gay [00:10:35] I, you know, of course I still love you.
Fraser Cain [00:10:37] Of course I still love you. And just read the instructions. And those come from the culture series and and it’s, you know, it’s like this idea of, like, what do you do when we don’t have to worry about where the next meal is going to come from? It turns out society will still have problems, still have issues, but they’re just different. And it’s, it’s they’re quite wonderful.
Pamela Gay [00:10:58] I would just start with the player games to start with. Book two goes. Yeah, I would love to.
Fraser Cain [00:11:03] Yeah, yeah I would I would agree with that. Like like book one, although it is in the same universe, it’s seen from outside and it’s, it’s effectively from one of the enemies of the culture. While the rest of the books are of the culture. And, and so book two is gives you a much better sense than, than book one. Book one it because it’s pretty weird. And book two is, is is less weird and a lot more straightforward and gives you the just the great feels all the way, all the way through. I really liked that. All right. What do you got?
Pamela Gay [00:11:36] You know, Mur Lafferty’s six weeks is one of those books that it isn’t all. In light. There’s a lot of also whodunit and mystery and zero gravity blood occurs. I may have been the science advisor for that, so I’m slightly biased here.
Fraser Cain [00:11:54] Oh, really? Okay.
Pamela Gay [00:11:56] But murder in general is someone that she manages to capture the voice of Gem Ax in her science fiction. That edge of. We are the generation of children who took ourselves home, made ourselves lunch. And when we bled, we cleaned it up so no one found out. She somehow captures that, spirit in her writing with. There’s just the right edge of sarcasm to absolutely everything. So if you want to, like, channel your inner breakfast club in science fiction, her writing is totally the way to go. Totally the way to go. Six way is, the science fiction aspect of her stuff. She has many other good books. My favorite novella of hers, and unfortunately, it didn’t get nearly enough critical acclaim. My favorite novella of hers is Marco and the Red granny, which includes a future where an alien race comes and befriends the Earth, and we only allow them to land on the moon, and they build up their own culture. That includes, actual gladiator matches on the moon, and a elderly granny is really good as a gladiator. And, the.
Fraser Cain [00:13:25] Gravity.
Pamela Gay [00:13:25] And the gravity. Yes. So I recommend both of those quite strongly.
Fraser Cain [00:13:32] That’s really cool. What else you got?
Pamela Gay [00:13:35] So you can’t put together a list of science fiction without including Neil Stephenson. And so most goodness and light he has most of his stuff is not goodness and light people, but it all has humor. But the closest we get to goodness and light is, remedy in a misspelling of read me, and it approaches what happens when your video game economy becomes more important than your real world economy. And there’s a whole lot of other stuff involved. It’s a multinational thriller of the rich and the not trying to work it all out, and it’s a good high jinks of the near future, and I feel that it would be good beach reading and an action adventure sort of way.
Fraser Cain [00:14:39] Yeah, I mean, I’ve read most Neil Stevenson’s. That’s one that I haven’t read. And I haven’t read his new book yet, The Fall. Oh that’s it. Yeah, yeah.
Pamela Gay [00:14:50] There’s sequels. So you want to read both?
Fraser Cain [00:14:53] Oh, but is that the one about the global warming?
Pamela Gay [00:14:57] No. Okay. He he has one more, apparently, that I have not read. Okay. You need to go get that.
Fraser Cain [00:15:04] Yeah. Yeah. So he’s got a new she’s got a brand new book that that’s about global. You know, a rich philanthropist decides to personally stop global warming, but I haven’t, I haven’t read the I haven’t read it. But. And 70s is definitely apocalyptic and would not be a good book for the for the beach, although, you know, it’s it’s pretty entertaining and the and the second half of it is pretty fun and hopeful, but, but that sounds great. Yeah, I. I don’t know why I haven’t read that one because like I said, I typically gobble up every single one of Stephenson’s books.
Pamela Gay [00:15:41] Yeah, I can understand why I didn’t read and then completely forgot. The global warming one came into existence. I’m not ready to read. I’ve read a bunch of Paolo Boggle loopy global warming near-future fictions. Those are definitely things that you read in the dark of winter when you’re already crossed with the universe. Do not read Apollo Gloopy while looking for goodness and light. Yeah.
Fraser Cain [00:16:10] Please continue.
Pamela Gay [00:16:12] All right. So. So I was waiting for you to bring up Bob verse and you haven’t.
Fraser Cain [00:16:19] Well, I mean, it’s definitely not new, but I 100% agree with you that if you want some some wonderful light reading, definitely the Baba verse books, we are legion. I am Bob, I’m Bob, we are legion. And that’s actually comes from you. Like you were the one who had read them first and were raving about them. And I finally got around to reading them and just tore through them. Absolutely loved it. I can’t recommend them highly enough.
Pamela Gay [00:16:47] They are laugh out loud, hilarious, and yet dystopian all at once.
Fraser Cain [00:16:54] And in the same vein is like the like if you like The Martian and if you like Andy Weir stuff. Project Hail Mary, The Martian, just this sort of silliness, the level of, I don’t know, casual, you know, the way people talk to each other, the cracking the jokes, making references, it’s all in there. And and yet dealing with a very, you know, when you think about the sort of the existential horror that’s actually happened to the protagonist of the, of the books and then the potential threat that humanity faces. It is actually quite a light hearted book series when you when you run through it.
Pamela Gay [00:17:40] And part of the way I, I’m picking books is I don’t think, given the current state of the world, that it’s possible for new things to be created that are purely goodness and light. Because I don’t think any of us have that in us right now, but things that can face the darkness and still bring laughter are the things that speak to me at least, the most highly. And and this is where six weeks Bob offers all of these. Yeah, it’s not the happiest universe, but people still find laughter where all of that is so important. And I actually had Project Hail Mary on my list because there is definite oh, that’s so cute that occurs. And there is sarcasm and joy of the sarcastic variety. And one of my most famous, favorite extraordinarily dark moments in any story came in that story. And you can’t give anything away without saying more, but definitely Project Hail Mary. It it ends up, involving someone who was an academic, failed out of academia, as I think happens to more people than it doesn’t. And it was realized that his research was actually exactly what was needed to deal with a catastrophe. And he’s just been working as a high school teacher for the past several years. And all all of the hacker ness that comes into having to be a high school teacher, all of the bitterness of being an academic who leaves academia, and then all of the reality of the, well, this is now actually important. It meshes together in a way that’s really cool. It’s really, really cool.
Fraser Cain [00:19:43] That’s awesome. Have you got any more suggestions that you’ve been reading of?
Pamela Gay [00:19:47] Of course I do. But tell me more books that you love and you guys like.
Fraser Cain [00:19:52] Well, I, I actually don’t have a lot. I mean, I mean, maybe this is more about me, but as I sort of think about the books that come to mind, I’m like, no, that doesn’t meet Pamela’s criteria. No, that doesn’t meet Pamela’s criteria. I love dystopian, I like a sad story, which is which is funny because I am such an optimistic, enthusiastic person. But I really enjoy reading books where everything just goes to hell and, and not necessarily gets resolved in a happy way. So I am. I am of no help here. You know, I mean, there’s like, there’s some really classic books that I, that I. Love. But but. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think about a lot of the, like, the Larry Niven stuff that I’ve read in the past, I really like. And, you know, always go back to Isaac Asimov and, and keep chipping away at some of that stuff, be it the Foundation series, the robot series, childhoods and, you know, yeah, I love childhood, Childhood’s End, you know, but again, that’s like the destruction of all humanity. Like, like each one of them is, is has a fairly bleak outcome. And yet, you know, Carl and I talk about this like, when we watch TV shows, there’s sometimes we just love TV shows that have the stakes are so low. But it’s not the, you know, it’s not like there’s like one of our favorite shows is The Detectorists, which is about some metal detectors in, in England. And the stakes are that they’re trying to find ancient Roman gold. And there are some people who come at night and plunder these sites to, to sell the stuff on the black market, and, and that is the that’s the stakes is that I’m trying to catch these people.
Pamela Gay [00:21:40] Okay.
Fraser Cain [00:21:41] So so yeah, unfortunately, as I run through my mental list of the books, I’m sure I’ve got ones that I can pull up that are that are happy and light reading. But mostly I want to hear people, you know, mostly I want to hear how everything is just going to go to hell.
Pamela Gay [00:22:00] Okay, okay.
Fraser Cain [00:22:01] So please.
Pamela Gay [00:22:02] Along those lines, but still has some of the funniest things I’ve ever read. Nutty Oak offers lagoon. It’s it’s placed in, Legos. It involves aliens. It involves a spider trying to cross a street that has a spirit. And that’s all I’m going to say along that. But that spider scene stayed with me. So. Okay, we we we have now determined. Do you love your dystopia? And that is fine.
Fraser Cain [00:22:36] I do.
Pamela Gay [00:22:36] Yeah. What what about some some nonfiction of joy, like Mary Roach is packing for Mars again? The sarcasm, the silliness, the joy.
Fraser Cain [00:22:47] So the so the book that brought me a ton of joy. So it’s called The Mission, and it was written by David Brown, and it’s about the Europa Clipper mission. And this came out about a year ago, and it was just wonderful. That same kind of, of lighthearted levity talking about, just how all the trials and tribulations that, that people had to go through to bring the Europa Clipper mission into fruition. And it was it was just so great. Like the the read it, the the writing is so good and you’re just carried along through the story. And, and I definitely love I mean, what I love about this is that there are like we just see the final product. We just see, okay, the Europa Clipper has finished its its integration phase, and now it’s in its testing phase. And then it’s about to be launched and it’s going to fly to Jupiter, blah, blah, blah. But it is an incredibly complicated, sophisticated piece of equipment that has had this long journey making its way through NASA and all of the, you know, like it has an instrument on board, this laser, this, this laser, or it has a radar altimeter on board that is incredibly power hungry. And you can just imagine what it took to get this thing into the system, not to mention how they had a lander foisted on to them. So, it’s a terrific book. If you want to hear the backstory of the Europa Clipper mission. And obviously we don’t know the the future of it, but boy, was the just the story of getting that mission. I enjoy talking about, you know, the sausage getting made. I love to hear the behind the scenes of how some of these really wonderful missions came to be over time.
Pamela Gay [00:24:39] That that is excellent. And and before we wrap this up, I just want to sneak in one comic book or graphic novel, depending on how you wish to refer to it. It’s thick. Jadzia Axelrod has come out with a new book, titled Galaxy The Prettiest Star, which I read expecting zero science of any good in it. But it’s set in a town with a radio telescope that actually plays a role in the story, and they get all of the science of what it’s like to live in a town with a radio telescope completely right. It’s pivotal to the plot. And then there’s just periodically these absolutely beautiful descriptions of various things in astronomy. And the science is completely right.
Fraser Cain [00:25:30] Wow.
Pamela Gay [00:25:31] And so I was just absolutely. Startled by the science that snuck into this story. That was not anything I expected to find any science in. And so I now just tell myself this title is describing a quasar that was mistaken as a star and turns out to be a galaxy. That is not reality. But that’s my headcanon.
Fraser Cain [00:25:52] Right. That’s fantastic. Awesome. All right. Well, I hope you all got some recommendations here, and I hope you guys are able to have an enjoyable summer. This isn’t our last episode of the season. We’ve got one more next week, right?
Pamela Gay [00:26:09] No. We go through until the day after James Webb Space Telescope comes out with its result.
Fraser Cain [00:26:17] Right. Okay. Okay. Okay. So we’ve got we’ve got like, probably three more episodes. Okay. All right. Well thanks Pamela. We’ll see you next week.
Pamela Gay [00:26:23] Thank you, Fraser, and thank you so much to all of the folks out there who make this show possible. This week I would like to thank Benjamin Mueller, Don Mundus, Dean McDaniel, Alan Moon, Janelle Duncan, Michael Regan, Scott Briggs, Michelle Cullen, Ninja Neck and a saurus, Benjamin Carrier, Matt Rucker, Bruce Amazon, Frodo. Tannenbaum, Jim McKeon, moose and dear J, Alex. Alexander, son. Mark, Steven Razzak, Mark H. Whittock, Dwight Leake, Cher. Kim, Philip Grand, Abraham. Cottrell, Brant Quran Up G-Force 184. Planetary. Shawn. Matt. The mysterious. Mark. Father. Prax. Cami. Raytheon. Rachel. Fry. Karthick. Becca. Trauma. Kimberly. Raich, Glenn. McDavid, Andrew. Stevenson, Dustin. Ralph, Bart. Flaherty, and Steven Coffee. If you would like to be part of the amazing group that makes sure our show gets published, all of our episodes go out and is probably going to be buying me a replacement cable for my camera or camera. Yeah, yeah. Please go check everything out at Patreon.com slash astronomy cast.
Fraser Cain [00:27:42] Thanks, everyone. See this.
Pamela Gay [00:27:43] Week. Bye bye. Astronomy cast is a joint product of the Universe Today and the Planetary Science Institute. Astronomy cast is released under a Creative Commons Attribution license. So love it, share it, and remix it. But please credit it to our hosts, Fraser Cain and Doctor Pamela Gang. You can get more information on today’s show topic on our website. Astronomy. Cars.com. This episode was brought to you. Thanks to our generous patrons on Patreon. If you want to help keep the show going, please consider joining our community at Patreon.com Slash Astronomy Cast. Not only do you help us pay our producers a fair wage, you will also get special access to content right in your inbox and invites to online events. We are so grateful to all of you who have joined our Patreon community already. Anyways, keep looking up. This has been Astronomy Cast.