3 book recommendations for June, 2021
Last month, Hasgeek selected Veil and the Analog Series for their official Book Club, and I joined them for a Zoom discussion about the ideas woven through the novels and the creative process behind them (you can watch the recording here).
It was a blast to connect with Indian fans, and the conversation was particularly fun because T.G. Shenoy, one of the hosts, had previously published thought-provoking reviews of Bandwidth and Breach in his renowned Factor Daily science-fiction column.
I’m surprised and delighted by the generous reception these novels have received overseas. Bandwidth has sold well in India and Veil has earned great reviews from the papers-of-record in Belgium, Germany, and Austria. There is zero marketing for the books in these countries, so all of this is mysteriously bubbling up from organic word-of-mouth. Thank you for spreading the word!
And now, books I love that you might too:
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir follows an unlikely astronaut on a desperate mission to save the solar system from a spacefaring bacteria that eats sunlight. This is an immensely entertaining adventure that will teach you more real science than you learned in high school. Never has a book so deserved the moniker science fiction.
Draft No. 4 by John McPhee is a book about writing written by a master of the craft. Not only is McPhee one of the most rightly celebrated nonfiction storytellers of his generation, he is also a famously effective writing teacher. These field notes collate his most important lessons learned.
Finite and Infinite Games by James P. Carse probes the differences between games we play to win and games we play to keep playing. This surprisingly profound dichotomy sheds fresh light on geopolitics, sex, business, screenwriting, and so many other fields of human imagination and endeavor. Carse doesn’t just offer insight, but inspires you to seek out new insights of your own.
Bonus recommendation: I interviewed Blake Crouch about writing Summer Frost—his near-future short story in which a game NPC evolves into an autonomous AI. We discuss craft, research, and working with N.K. Jemisin, Amor Towles, Veronica Roth, Paul Tremblay, and Andy Weir.
In other news:
“The Future” is not the end of a deterministic trend, but contingent and always subject to reinvention. It is a story we tell ourselves about ourselves, a shared dream to be realized through shared effort, a horizon of infinite possibilities limited only by our vision. Share on Twitter.
I talked to Brad Feld about applying Nietzsche’s ideas to making art and building businesses: “He is provocative. He is blunt. He is clever. His aphorisms have incredible depth. As we dug deeper, so much of what he said was relevant to entrepreneurship. He wasn’t giving answers but providing context for intense contemplation.”
Because Veil opens with an unprecedented heat wave that kills 20 million, I’ve been hearing from a lot of readers in the Pacific Northwest this week. Stay safe out there, and remember: “There is no such thing as a natural disaster. There are only human disasters revealed by nature.”
Kevin Kelly on writing The Inevitable: “Science fiction is under-appreciated for its vast influence on science itself, and even on culture. Hundreds of thousands of engineers are working on projects today because they saw some product in a science fiction story that they want to make real.”
I learned to surf because it was fun. Then I fell into the trap of taking it seriously. Over time, pursuing mastery leached the fun out of it, so I surfed less often, undermining both my progress and intrinsic joy. Now I surf only for fun. Play is underrated. Share on Twitter.
Last month, I also Zoomed into a company book club to discuss Veil. In lieu of an honorarium, they made a donation to Chapter 510—a truly awesome literacy program serving Oakland youth that I’m proud to support. If your organization wants to do something similar, hit me up.
In the exemplary Transfer Orbit newsletter, Andrew Liptak explores what it might mean for labs, companies, and nonprofits to hire storytellers-in-residence. I’ve done numerous commissioned projects in this vein that were tremendously fun and impactful. It’s an area brimming with untapped opportunities.
ICYMI: Danny Crichton interviewed me for TechCrunch about writing speculative fiction.
A story’s first (and arguably only) job is to make you want to find out what happens next. Every sentence needs to make you want to read the next sentence—building momentum as the story flings itself toward a surprising and inevitable end. Share on Twitter.
If you enjoy this newsletter and want to support it, become a paid subscriber and tell your friends. Every month, I 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 grow. In an age of digital abundance, quality is the new scarcity. The right book at the right time can change your life.
When I'm not reading books, I'm writing them. If you savor the promise and peril of new worlds opening up, if you prefer hard questions to easy answers, if you seek adventures that will transport you and leave you changed, then you're the kind of person I write for. You can find my novels right here. Bon voyage, fellow traveler.
Cheers, Eliot
Eliot Peper is the author of Veil, Breach, Borderless, Bandwidth, Neon Fever Dream, Cumulus, Exit Strategy, Power Play, and Version 1.0. He publishes a blog, tweets more than he probably should, and lives in Oakland, CA.
"Veil is the tale we need to confront climate change. Peper deftly explores one of the most controversial ideas on the climate agenda—solar geoengineering—and its geopolitical quandaries—raising tough questions and showing why we require new forms of governance to answer them."
-Janos Pasztor, executive director of the Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative and former UN assistant secretary-general for climate change, on Veil
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