Podcast #4- The Hugo Novels

Our new podcast is live, just in time for us to load our bikes up and head to Wiscon! This episode, we talk about some more science fiction & fantasy theater in Chicago, then launch into a brief discussion of all 6 Hugo novels on the 2017 shortlist.

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• 0- Introduction & What We've Been Reading (Hugo Nominations & C.J. Cherryh's Rimrunners)
• 4:00- Upcoming Events
• 6:18- What we're looking forward to at Wiscon & BikeCon
• 10:55- Theatrical Discussion: Lifeline's A Wrinkle in Time, Edge of Orion's Illyria, and a bit more discussion of New Millennium's The Incredible Hank and Otherworld's The Rogue Aviator
• 16:27- Hugo overview & voting mechanics
• 20:51- Novel discussion!
• Ada Palmer's Too Like The Lightning
• N.K. Jemisin's The Obelisk Gate
• Cixin Liu's Death's End
• Charlie Jane Ander's All the Birds in the Sky
• Becky Chamber's A Closed and Common Orbit
• Yoon Ha Lee's Ninefox Gambit
• 43:51- Overall Hugo thoughts
• 53:52- Credits

(Extended show notes after we return from Wiscon!)

Thanks to our events reader this episode, Chelsea Fiddyment from Unreal.

Our music is provided by Pelafina. Check them out on Facebook and Bandcamp!

Hope you like the show! Questions, comments? Sound off in the comments, or drop us a line at positronchicago@gmail.com.

Positron Podcast #1!

Hey Positron readers!

As part of the ineluctable expansion of the noösphere, we're starting a podcast, and the first episode is live!


Download the podcast directly (MP3)

This episode, we talk about:

• Some Upcoming Events
• Otherworld Theatre's A Princess of Mars (which we also just wrote a review of)
• What we've been reading: Matt Kindt's comix and Mark Fisher's The Weird and the Eerie
•  Most of our discussion focuses on Ada Palmer's Too Like the Lightning and Seven Surrenders.
• We mention Palmer's recent talk with David Perry in Hyde Park. Check out the Seminary Co-op & 57th St. Books if you haven't already, they have lots of great events.
• We mention the Chicago Review of Books' guide to non-Amazon local bookstores.
• Huge thanks to Pelafina for providing music! Check out their Facebook for upcoming shows, and Pelafina.Bandcamp.com to listen.

Comments? Questions? Drop us a comment below, or email positronchicago@gmail.com.

Thanks for listening! This is our first podcast, so I know we have lots to learn and improve on, but I hope you enjoy!

Think Galactic- Too Like The Lightning

For the March meeting of Think Galactic, we discussed Too Like the Lightning (2016) by Ada Palmer.

Too Like The Lightning's been getting a lot of attention (we reviewed it pretty glowingly just a few months ago), with the added bonus that Dr. Palmer is Chicago-based, teaching history at the University of Chicago. She'd actually given a talk at 57th Street Books the day before our meeting, speaking about Too Like The Lightning and its just-released sequel, and a couple of us were able to make that.

In brief! Too Like the Lightning is set in the 25th century, with a few big science-fictional ideas (flying cars, non-geographic political bodies) and jammed to the gills with sociological & philosophical ideas, including doing some really cool things with gender and narrative style.

We really dug this! It was a small group, however, due to unexpected schedule conflicts, and we may be working in some brief Palmer discussion at our April meeting—so I'll keep the notes below extremely brief! Spoilers unlikely but possible:

Review- Too Like the Lightning

Usually, when people describe a work as ambitious, it's a kind of unintentionally back-handed compliment: its successes aren't substantial enough to comment on, but we'll award it consolation points for the scope of its intentions. One hears it of concept albums, of political agendas that are laudable but unlikely; one uses it for novels whose elevator pitch is in the clouds, even if the execution stumbles badly.

And then, occasionally, one happens on a work that achieves its lofty goals, whose very scope is its prime recommendation. Here, we may use "ambitious" as unqualified praise, as a straightforward descriptor.

And such a work is Ada Palmer's "Too Like The Lightning", her first novel, released earlier this year.

Possible spoilers below: