Welcome to the latest episode of The Book Club. This episode we're discussing Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding. Retribution Falls is a steampunky, sci-fi action romp with space pirates, dog fights, double crossing no good thieves, and lots of gunfights and even sword play. It's a face paced story and in this epis... more
Scott and Steve discuss The Time Machine by H.G Wells, a classic Science Fiction story that has been adapted into other mediums, and HG Wells is also widely known for several other well known novels including The Invisible Man and perhaps most famously The War of the Worlds. Scott and Steve discuss the author and h... more
Welcome to the first book club of 2013! Our next selection is 'The Time Machine' by H. G. Wells. The book is out of copyright so it should be very cheap to buy, or free if you've gone digital. In the episode we talk to author Anne Lyle about her novel The Alchemist of Souls. A historical fantasy novel set in an alt... more
Scott and Steve are joined by debut author, Laura Lam, to discuss The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. The response to the book from listeners and all three hosts was varied, but on the whole it seemed positive. In this episode we discuss the characters, the story, areas we all struggled with, influences and... more
Scott and Steve are joined by Dion from the Scrolls podcast to discuss Old Man's War by John Scalzi. Everyone who took part both on the show and on the Good Reads forum liked the book so it's a positive episode all round! They discuss both the plot and some of the philosophical questions that it raises. Our next boo... more
In this episode of The Book Club Scott and Steve talk about 'The Once and Future King' by T.H. White. This is the classic retelling of the Arthurian myth that is mentioned in such genre sources as X-Men and Babylon 5. Our next book club selection is 'Old Man's War' by John Scalzi. We'll be talking about the book on ... more
Scott and Steve discuss Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear, the hard sci-fi novel that narrowly missed out on this year's Clarke Award. They both find the book a bit of a struggle but touch upon some of the highs and lows they experienced when reading it. In stark contrast is the next book club selection, 'The Once and Fut... more
In this episode of the Book Club we talk about Rendevous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke. Scott starts with an apology because despite suggesting it he mistook it for a different one! We talk about the innovation and great ideas in the book but despite being a classic it certainly has its flaws. Our next book club ... more
This is a special live episode of the book club recorded on Saturday 18th February 2012 as part of the launch of Geek News Radio. We discuss The Emperor's Knife by Mazarkis Williams from Jo Fletcher books and receive instant feedback and comments from the listening audience via twitter and the chat room. The episod... more
In this episode of the book club we talk about Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Scott and Steve discuss the main themes of the book and focus on aspects of the story including the Battle School, Ender's transformation, manipulation, his siblings and also the comic book adaptation by Marvel Comics. The book has been op... more
In this episode of the book club we discuss Horns by Joe Hill. The book follows the transformation of Ig whilst exploring his past and the murder of Merrin for which he was blamed, but never convicted.Our next book club selection is Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. We will be discussing the book on Monday 28th Novem... more
In this episode of the book club we talk about Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick - inspiration for the movie Blade Runner. Scott and Steve discuss the major themes of the book, including empathy, emotions and humanity. Despite feeling relatively lukewarm about the book it raises a number of int... more
In this special episode while Scott is away, Steve is joined by a guest co-host, Stacey Whittle from the podcast Small Press, Big Mouth. Both Stacey and Steve are enormous fans of the Dresden Files novels by Jim Butcher. Just ahead of the release of latest book in the series, Ghost Story, they look back across the... more
In this episode of the Book Club we speak to Lauren Beukes about her Arthur C. Clarke Award winning novel, Zoo City, from Angry Robot books. Scott and Steve discuss her writing process, the Clarke Award, Zoo City and its influences and how her career has changed since winning the award.The next book club selection is t... more
In this episode we talk about the classic science novel Dune by Frank Herbert. We discuss the story, characters and themes and we also announce the next book club selection. We put the next book to the vote and gave the listeners the choice of six books which are the Arthur C. Clarke Award shortlist. I am very pleased ... more
This episode is focused on the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction. Scott and Steve speak to Tom Hunter, the Award Director, about how he got into reading SF and how he became involved with the award itself. They also talk about the perception of the genre and the evolution of the award over the years. 2011 mark... more
Welcome to the book club. This episode we're discussing the superhero anthology Masked edited by Lou Anders. Featuring short stories by, amongst others Paul Cornell, Gail Simone. Stephen Baxter, Mike Carey, Peter David and Kim Newman. We talk about the book in general and the idea of switching the superhero genre in... more
Lou Anders is the Editorial Director of Pyr Books, but he also edited the Masked anthology for the Gallery imprint of Simon and Schuster, which is our current book club selection. In this special episode we spoke to Lou about his love of comics, how he got involved in publishing and how the Masked anthology came togeth... more
In this episode of the book club Steve and Scott tackle the classic 'I Am Legend' by Richard Matheson. First published in 1954 and directly influencing four movies (The Last Man on Earth, The Omega Man, I Am Legend and I Am Omega). A post-apocalyptic tale of loneliness, vampires and a famous ending that none of the s... more
Join Steve and Scott as they talk about their current book club selection, Eastern Standard Tribe by Cory Doctorow. Set in the near future the book is a novel that Doctorow also uses to put forwards some of his ideas about the future of technology and sharing of culture.Our next book club selection, to be discussed ar... more
In this episode we discuss our current book club selection - Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein. The book was first published in 1961 and we discuss our impressions of the book and also include comments and feedback from listeners. We also talk about the author and his background, the era in which the book w... more
In this episode we speak to China Mieville about our current book club selection, The City and The City. Amongst other things we discuss his influences, the genesis of the book, and the awards he recently received for this novel, including the Arthur C. Clarke award. We also speak briefly about his latest book Kraken w... more
This episode Scott and Steve discuss The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov, with comments and feedback from listeners. The book is only about 200 pages long and yet it generated a lot of discussion on the forum. As well as talking about the murder mystery aspect of the story, we look at the themes and many ideas, tech... more
This episode is the book club we discuss the recent selection, Empire in Black and Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky and announce our next selection. Before that Scott and Steve get into some News and Reviews, talking about the ending of some TV shows, the return of some old favourites and the arrival of a couple of new o... more
After some news and reviews we get into our discussion of the current book club selection, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. This seems to be a book that has divided opinions, and a few listeners found it difficult to get into, but there are a lot of interesting themes to discuss which we dive into. With feed... more