3 book recommendations from Eliot Peper
Wow, all I can say is thank you. My very first short story, True Blue, hit #1 in its Amazon category when it came out on Kindle last month. It explores the absurdity of discrimination, the importance of being true to yourself, and the power of standing up instead of standing by. It's been an honor to receive so many emails from people who connect the story to personal struggles they've had to overcome in their own lives. If you read True Blue, pay it forward by leaving a review and sharing it with your friends. It's thanks to your grassroots enthusiasm and support that it hit #1.
One of the things that inspired me to write True Blue was reading Children of the New World by Alexander Weinstein. I recommended this short story collection in a previous edition of this newsletter, "Akin to a literary Black Mirror, each story powerfully illustrates how technology impacts our lives and forces us to confront what it means to be human. In dissecting the future, Weinstein reveals hidden truths about the present."
I was lucky enough to interview Weinstein for the latest edition of Scout's Incoming Transmission series. He shares how he identifies and analyzes the ways technology is changing our lives, what makes the best speculative short stories so powerful, and what we can do to prepare ourselves for a world of accelerating change. There are so many insights packed into this interview. Enjoy.
And now, books I love that you might too:
Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer is a vibrant, sparkling science fiction story that's so damn smart it almost hurts. Palmer conjures a rich, multilayered vision of the future that feels all too plausible, inspires wonder and dread simultaneously, and wrestles with timeless philosophical questions. This is a world to get lost in, and one you won't forget.
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri is a short story collection that brought me to the brink of tears over and over again. Lahiri has a special knack for capturing the precise texture, heft, and tone of the hidden moments in our most intimate inner lives. Within a few sentences, I felt like the characters were longtime friends with whom I was having a deeply felt heart-to-heart. Each story culminates in powerful catharses that forced me to remember the sweet and painful brevity of our time on this planet.
Magellan by Stefan Zweig is a compelling and thought provoking biography of the famous explorer who first circumnavigated the world. While some biographies get caught up in the details and drag on for far too long, this slim volume gets straight to the point and does a phenomenal job not just telling Magellan's story, but framing why that story is such an important one to tell. The book is packed with exciting anecdotes, surprising historical tidbits, and insights into the price of ambition. Zweig is the best biographer I've ever read and I plan to read everything he's written.
Bonus recommendation: Saying Goodbye to Yang by Alexander Weinstein is a science fiction short story that explores the moral hazards of robot adoption and how technology is changing our families. It ran alongside the above-mentioned interview and is a fine example of what to expect from Children of the New World.
In other news, Cumulus just launched as a digital serial on Bound complete with exclusive illustrations and extras. Bound is a new mobile app that combines serialized prose, art, and audio with community features. The app is available for free in the iOS App Store and you can download it right here. Cumulus takes place in a world that we seem to be barreling into. Tech consolidation, ambient AI, crumbling public institutions, escalating economic inequality, persistent surveillance, these are all things that have migrated from science fiction into reality. Bound's platform will bring that world to life, enriching the narrative with original art and extras. If you've read Cumulus, you'll get a kick out of the redacted emails from Graham's Agency operations, scandalous news articles documenting Huian's rise, and even Lilly's Lancer profile. It's been a delight seeing how deep their sourcebook goes, and I can't wait for folks to access it. Bound is leveraging the malleability of digital media to build something new and unique, an example of what the future of storytelling might look like. Check it out and let me know what you think.
If you enjoy this newsletter and want to support it, forward this email to a friend. I love sharing amazing stories that explore the intersection of technology and culture. The goal of this newsletter is to recommend books, both fiction and nonfiction, that crackle and fizz with big ideas, keep us turning pages deep into the night, challenge our assumptions, help us find meaning in a changing world, and make us think, feel, and ask hard questions. In an age of digital abundance, quality is the new scarcity. The right book at the right time can change your life.
I also pull back the curtain on my creative process. When I'm not reading books, I'm writing them. If you're interested, you can find my books right here. They've been praised by Businessweek, Popular Science, TechCrunch, io9, and Ars Technica. I'd love to hear what you think if you give them a read.
Cheers, Eliot
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