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StarShipSofa No 449 Hugo Nominee Part 2 Hao Jingfang and Ken Liu

August 24, 2016 by Jeremy Szal

Week 2 of Hugo Nominees

This story is nominated for Best Novelette

Main Fiction: “Folding Beijing” by Hao Jingfang, translated by Ken Liu

Originally appeared in Uncanny Magazine

In 2002, Hao Jingfang was awarded First Prize in the New Concept Writing Competition. She gained her undergraduate degree from Tsinghua University’s Department of Physics and her PhD from the same university in Economics and Management in 2012. Her fiction has appeared in various publications, including Mengya, Science Fiction World, and ZUI Found. She has published two full–length novels, Wandering Maearth and Return to Charon; a book of cultural essays, Europe in Time; and the short story collection, Star Travellers. Her fiction has appeared before in English translation in Lightspeed.

Ken Liu (kenliu.name) is an author and translator of speculative fiction, as well as a lawyer and programmer. A winner of the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Awards, he has been published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov’s, Analog, Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, and Strange Horizons, among other places. He lives with his family near Boston, Massachusetts.

Ken’s debut novel, The Grace of Kings, the first in a silkpunk epic fantasy series, was published by Saga Press, Simon & Schuster’s new genre fiction imprint, in April 2015. Saga also published a collection of his short stories later in the year.

Fact: Looking Back At Genre History by Dr Amy H. Sturgis

Narrated by: Katherine Inskip

Katherine weighs galaxies for a living, and builds worlds in her spare time. She is addicted to chocolate and Japanese logic puzzles.

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Categories: Podcast | Tags: aliens, Chinese SF, dystopian, Hao Jingfang, hugo nominated, Ken Liu, nature, novelette, S. R. Algernon, short fiction, world sf

StarShipSofa No 425 Bruce Sterling and Jill Heinerth

March 2, 2016 by Jeremy Szal

Coming Up…

Interview: Cave diver Jill Heinerth explores hidden underground waterways running through our planet.

jill555

OASIS 28

Main Fiction: “Black Swan” by Bruce Sterling

Originally published in Interzone, reprinted in Years Best SF 15.

Bruce Sterling, author, journalist, editor, and critic, was born in 1954. Best known for his ten science fiction novels, he also writes short stories, book reviews, design criticism, opinion columns, and introductions for books ranging from Ernst Juenger to Jules Verne. His nonfiction works include THE HACKER CRACKDOWN: LAW AND DISORDER ON THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER (1992), TOMORROW NOW: ENVISIONING THE NEXT FIFTY YEARS (2003), and SHAPING THINGS (2005).

He is a contributing editor of WIRED magazine and writes a weblog. During 2005, he was the “Visionary in Residence” at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. In 2008 he was the Guest Curator for the Share Festival of Digital Art and Culture in Torino, Italy, and the Visionary in Residence at the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam. In 2011 he returned to Art Center as “Visionary in Residence” to run a special project on Augmented Reality. He has appeared in ABC’s Nightline, BBC’s The Late Show, CBC’s Morningside, on MTV and TechTV, and in Time, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Fortune, Nature, I.D., Metropolis, Technology Review, Der Spiegel, La Stampa, La Repubblica, and many other venues

Narrated by: Paul Cram

Paul Cram’s young-with-a-touch-of-gravel voice is a bit newer to the world of audio than it is to other acting forms. Listening fans will hopefully be excited by several upcoming audio book titles in the next year being voiced by him. You can listen to his audio books that are currently available right now through Amazon, iTunes, and Audible.

Cram was most recently seen on set for the feature film WILSON opposite Woody Harrelson, and the indie film ANNIVERSARY shot in Maine, USA by movie director Jim Cole.

When not on a movie set or in a recording booth, Paul can be found deep-frying chicken wings with his sister in her kitchen, or quarreling about pop-culture with his little brother around one the 10,000 lakes of Minnesota. You can find his website Paul Cram Actor or IMDB.

Also, be sure to sign up for Paul’s monthly newsletter loaded with contest prizes, movie releases, and of course audio book narration details as they become available.

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