3 book recommendations from Eliot Peper
If you subscribe to this newsletter, you know that stories are powerful. In my latest column for Medium, I explain why they are worth dying for and what I learned from my secret agent grandmother. I hope you find it as moving to read as it was to write. I'd love to hear what you think.
And now, books I love that you might too:
State Tectonics by Malka Older is a fast-paced, deeply-researched science fiction thriller that extrapolates the future of democracy and wraps up Older's exceptional Centenal Cycle. It brings critical questions of accountability, legitimacy, fairness, and governance to life and weaves them into an adventure that I couldn't tear myself away from. As a science fiction and policy nerd, this series hits my sweet spot and I've recommended each entry in this newsletter, reviewed Null States for the Chicago Review of Books, and interviewed Older here and here.
The Planet Remade by Oliver Morton is a masterpiece of serious nonfiction. Rigorously researched, richly imagined, and compellingly told, it weaves the science, philosophy, and politics of geoengineering into a thought-provoking narrative that shows how this little-known field may take the world stage in the not-too-far future. I found it utterly fascinating and thought-provoking in the extreme. No matter what you think about geoengineering or climate change, this book will deepen and complicate your perspective.
Coraline by Neil Gaiman is a dark, whimsical, and moving fairytale for all ages that follows a bored young girl who discovers a parallel dimension and must push herself to the limit to overcome its dangers and recover her loved ones. Gaiman is a masterful storyteller and this little book will transport, entrance, and surprise you with its insights into what it means to be human. I will miss Coraline, and I won't forget her.
Bonus recommendation: In a column for Harvard Business Review, I explore what a Renaissance painter can teach us about the psychological perils of leadership and how isolation can blind us to the bigger picture. Fun fact: I just heard from HBR's editorial team that this story is one of their most read and shared articles this week. Enjoy!
In other news, Publishers Weekly ran an advance review of my forthcoming novel Borderless, calling it "[A] taut cyberthriller… Clock-ticking suspense... Readers will find that this novel’s near-future scenario resonates resoundingly with present-day headlines." Galen Strickland and Sarah Lockwood published rave reviews here and here respectively. Preorder Borderless here to receive it when it comes out on October 30th. I just handed in the second revision of a new novel (coming 2019, working title: Breach). Matt Staggs interviewed me for Unbound Worlds about Bandwidth, the power of imagination, and how digital feeds shape our identities. If you're in San Francisco, I'm interviewing critically-acclaimed German author Dietmar Dath on stage at Litquake on October 13th. We'll talk about the sociological, philosophical, and cultural aspects of speculative fiction and his award-winning novel The Abolition of Species. If you're in New York City, I'm appearing on a few panels at New York Comic Con October 4-7 to discuss how science fiction grapples with politics, climate change, and the future.
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 the New York Times, Businessweek, Popular Science, Boing Boing, 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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