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Jabberwocky Audio Theater is joining other writers and artists for a Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Book Bundle Giveaway now through –TODAY– July 12th.

For this past week, I also took the opportunity to talk about science fiction and fantasy books that have influenced me through the years, including a few that aren’t in the bundle, Here’s the list:

• The Expanse (Leviathan Wakes is in the Bundle)
• Dune (in the Bundle)
• The Chronicles of Narnia (not in the Bundle)
• The Chronicles of Prydain (not in the Bundle)
• Short Story Anthologies (not in the Bundle)
• The Foundation Series (Foundation is in the Bundle)
• The Doomsday Book (not in the Bundle)
• The Dispossessed (not in the Bundle)
• The Sparrow (not in the Bundle)

Now, you’ll notice I covered several books that aren’t in the Bundle. That’s because we all had suggestions and I lot of the other writers and artists suggested works that I would love to read. So, I definitely hope one of you reading this now wins the book bundle, but if not, there’s a bunch of selections to check out at your local library. Remember, the giveaway ends later today!

~Bjorn Munson, Jabberwocky Audio Theater

Jabberwocky Audio Theater is joining other writers and artists for a Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Book Bundle Giveaway now through July 12th.

I’m also taking the opportunity to talk about science fiction and fantasy books that have influenced me through the years, including a few that aren’t in the bundle (I’ve covered about all of the ones that are).

Yesterday, I talked about The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. Le Guin. It’s a book that has worldbuilding, sure. It has interesting characters, certainly. But it really makes one think when it comes to how differently people may think and how cultures can be formed around those lines.

As you might imagine, my background in anthropology means I was all into that (and arguably I became interested in anthropology, in part, because of such stories).

So it probably comes as no surprise that one of my favorite science fiction books is written by an anthropologist: The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. It’s a novel about first contact where you know, from the very beginning, things went horribly, horribly wrong. The story bounces between the lead up to the expedition to the debriefing of the sole survivor. Because it’s weighty and well-researched and philosophical, the usual gang of snobs were desperate for it not to be “science fiction” because they (gasp) enjoyed it too much. I won’t link to the Wikipedia article itself, because it reveals why it’s called The Sparrow and, for me, the reveal of why the book is called that is one of its best moments. And the novel is full of great moments, in part because of the characters: wonderfully ingenious, emotional, imperfect characters.

While The Sparrow isn’t part of this book bundle, it’s easy to track down a copy, possibly at your local library. For the book bundle itself, remember, it ends tomorrow, July 12th.

~ Bjorn Munson, Jabberwocky Audio Theater

Jabberwocky Audio Theater is joining other writers and artists for a Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Book Bundle Giveaway now through this Friday, July 12th.

I’m also taking the opportunity to talk about science fiction and fantasy books that have influenced me through the years, including a few that aren’t in the bundle (I’ve covered about all of the ones that are).

So, yesterday, I talked about The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis and how it blends worldbuilding (albeit mainly the past world) along with insights in human nature. I know I’m not the only one who loves how science fiction can use its settings and fantastical conceits (e.g. faster-than-light travel, time travel, telepathy) to explore and comment on the human condition (sometimes with non-human characters).

A lot of the settings allow one to create societies that are different, yet recognizable and therefore allow you to find no end of “what if?” scenarios. That’s a great lead in to The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. Le Guin. Le Guin manages to make one ponder human nature, desires, and ways of thinking by giving you just the right amount of writing that your brain eagerly fills in the cracks. The novel also plays with time to a great degree, popping between the two planets of the narrative in an artful way. And it gives us the ansible, which does for faster-than-light communications what the warp drive does for starships. (A form of ansible is used in the universe of Rogue Tyger).

Again, The Dispossessed is not in this particular book bundle, but there’s a bunch of wonderful novels that follow in its thought-provoking footsteps. The giveaway ends on Friday, July 12th.

~Bjorn Munson, Jabberwocky Audio Theater

Jabberwocky Audio Theater is joining other writers and artists for a Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Book Bundle Giveaway now through July 12th.

I’m also taking the opportunity to talk about science fiction and fantasy books that have influenced me through the years, including a few that aren’t in the bundle. Several of the ones I pitched are in… and several that I’d love to read myself are in.

Yesterday, I mentioned the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov, which is in the bundle. Asimov is phenomenal when it comes to worldbuilding, but sometimes his characters are not as fully realized. So, when I heard multiple talk about the worldbuilding AND the characters in The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, I knew I had to check it out.

Now, in fairness, the worldbuilding on display is that of past history as opposed to alien worlds, the early 14th century to be precise. However, it’s just as involving as one of first contact, as the novel explores human nature; fear, greed, cowardice, and heroism.

Again, while The Doomsday Book is not part of this bundle, there’s a whole bunch of cool stuff in there, but you’ll need to enter by this Friday, July 12th.

~Bjorn Munson, Jabberwocky Audio Theater

Jabberwocky Audio Theater is joining other writers and artists for a Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Book Bundle Giveaway now through July 12th.

I’m also taking the opportunity to talk about science fiction and fantasy books that have influenced me through the years, including a few that aren’t in the bundle. Several of the ones I pitched are in… and several that I’d love to read myself are in. One of the former is the beginning of the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov.

Asimov was considered to be one of the most influential science fiction writers of his lifetime and his impact remains today, I think in great part due to his strength in worldbuilding. The Foundation series, which he started in 1951 and then expanded on for more than 30 years, is a wonderful example of it.

At the fall of the Galactic Empire, the mathematician Hari Seldon devises the science of Psychohistory, an amalgam of history, sociology, and statistics that essentially can predict the future. The notion of this amazingly accurate methodology seemed abstract and almost magical l when I first read the series 20 years ago. Now, in the face of the big data mined by the Google, Facebook, and related tech overlords, it seems all too possible: like Person of Interest on a galactic scale.

In any case, part of the joy in reading the series, especially the first novel, was that it almost was, in many ways, an anthology of related stories set in the same universe, and all written to illustrate a grand sweep of history and human motivation.

Thinking of how he wrote empires rising and falling and power ebbing and flowing absolutely played into the fictitious chronology I created for the setting of Rogue Tyger and the Imperium, which is relatively young, only in its fifth century. There are no psychohistorians in this empire however (though something similar will make an appearance in season four) and I found a way to pay tribute to Foundation in the last serial of season two currently running.

In the meantime, Foundation is part of the aforementioned book bundle, so you’re interested, go ahead and enter before the giveaway ends of Friday, July 12th.

~Bjorn Munson, Jabberwocky Audio Theater