3 book recommendations from Eliot Peper
Big news: I have a new novel coming out May 20th, 2020.
Veil is a character-driven speculative thriller about a near-future shaped by geoengineering:
When her mother dies in a heat wave that kills twenty million, Zia León abandons a promising diplomatic career to lead humanitarian aid missions to regions ravaged by drought, wildfires, and sea level rise.
What Zia doesn't know is that clandestine forces are gathering around her in pursuit of a colossal secret: someone has hijacked the climate, and the future of human civilization is at stake.
To avoid a world war that appears more inevitable every day, Zia must build a coalition of the powerless and attempt the impossible. But success depends on facing the grief that has come to define her life, and rediscovering friendship, family, and what it means to be true to yourself while everything falls apart.
I poured my heart and soul into this book. I think it's my best work yet and I hope it offers a fun and thought-provoking diversion in these strange times. For more background, see Andrew Liptak's conversation with me about the inspirations behind the story.
Veil is available for preorder on Kindle and will launch in all formats on May 20th. Reviewers/media, email me to read an advance review copy.
And now, books I love that you might too:
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine is a lush, textured novel, somehow both taught and sprawling, about an ambassador from a remote space station who gets sucked into a political maelstrom in the capital of a galactic empire. The story grapples with imperialism, cultural exchange, high-stakes diplomacy, the politics of poetry, and the psychology of exile.
Permanent Record by Edward Snowden is an arresting memoir that takes you behind the scenes of the author's NSA whistleblowing, and will challenge you to reframe your understanding of internet politics. Snowden tells his story with striking power and clarity—a testament to the integrity and courage that issuing his warning demanded.
Ghostwritten by David Mitchell is a beautiful, strange novel with a diverse cast whose stories intersect in countless surprising ways to create a multifaceted whole that is far more than the sum of its parts. This is a book to lose yourself in as you relish ideas falling thick and colorful as autumn leaves until characters' hearts are laid bear with clear-eyed tenderness.
Bonus recommendation: "The Task Lamp" by Bruce Sterling is a haunting short story that makes today's crisis feel like a precursor to its apocalyptic future.
In other news:
From my conversation with Andrew about Veil for his excellent science fiction newsletter: "At its best, fiction transports us, and leaves us changed. This story is my small contribution to the chaotic, mesmerizing, sublime compost heap of culture."
I interviewed Oliver Morton about science writing, the relationship between science and science fiction, and the creative process behind his latest book, The Moon: "Don't see yourself as a conduit. You face one way—towards the source—when you are learning what you want to say, and the other way—towards the reader—when you are saying it. You are not a window between the reader and the source; you are drawing a picture of the source for the reader, and it is your picture."
Katie Underwood interviewed me for a Pivot Magazine feature on how business leaders are commissioning science fiction that challenges them to think differently about the future: "Science fiction doesn’t just explain how our systems and institutions might change—it forces us to imagine the depth and richness of what these futures might feel like to people, and how it will impact behavior, which in turn defines which businesses succeed, and which don't."
If your quarantine book club reads one of my novels, I’m happy to join you for a discussion via Zoom. Simply reply to this email and we’ll get it scheduled. Stay healthy out there!
If you enjoy this newsletter and want to support it, tell your friends or become a member. 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 earned praise from the New York Times Book Review, 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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Eliot Peper is the author of Breach, Borderless, Bandwidth, Cumulus, Neon Fever Dream, True Blue, and the Uncommon Series. Subscribe to his blog here.
"Wowza. Eliot totally dominates a near-term science fiction novel."
-Brad Feld, Foundry Group, on Veil
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