3 book recommendations for May, 2020
My new novel, Veil, is finally out in the wild and it's been incredibly moving to hear from you as you begin to explore Zia's world. Thank you.
Veil debuted as a #1 hot new release on Amazon, Seth Godin recommended Veil in "Books for Spring," OneZero ran an exclusive excerpt, I talked to BBC World Service radio about the book (the Veil segment starts at the 17-minute mark), I partnered with Goodreads on this video tour of where and how I write, Andrew Liptak interviewed me about what inspired the story, the Geekiverse ran a glowing review, I went on the Technotopia podcast to discuss the creative process behind it, Marija Gavrilov interviewed me about imagining the future, Polygon featured it on their list of the best new science-fiction books, and I shared some lessons I learned writing it over on Chuck Wendig's Terribleminds. Some lovely reviews are bubbling up through the blogosphere here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Veil is my best work yet, and if you appreciate my reading recommendations, I think you'll really dig it. So go buy yourself a copy and enjoy the ride. If you love it and want to help, post a review and tell your friends about it. Books thrive on word-of-mouth.
And now, books I love that you might too:
Burn-In by P.W. Singer and August Cole will transport you into a near-future so compelling, so rigorously imagined, that returning to your life after reading it feels like stepping back into our present through a time machine. Singer and Cole explicitly blend science fiction and technology trend analysis—nearly every fictional gadget, theme, and scene in the story is footnoted with IRL prototypes and research.
Impro by Keith Johnstone is a concise masterclass in improv from one of the 20th century's great acting teachers. Johnstone's ideas and practical exercises for developing creativity, storytelling, and imagination can be applied far beyond the stage. I found this book so useful that I'm including it as a resource in my advice for authors.
Chess Story by Stefan Zweig is an intricately constructed short novel in which two chess masters vie for supremacy in an informal series of matches onboard a ship bound for Brazil. Their distinct styles of play reveal much about the hopes, fears, dreams, and doubts that drive them, and as the match proceeds toward its conclusion, the story draws you ever deeper inside their lives—lives that contain lessons for us all.
Bonus recommendation: I just finished watching Season 3 of Halt and Catch Fire and can't recommend the series highly enough. The story follows a tight-knit group of characters at the cutting edge of the computing and networking revolutions that rippled out through the world during the '70s, '80s, and '90s. Brilliantly written, perfectly cast, and lovingly produced, this is television at its best.
In other news:
Today I'll be answering questions about writing, reading, publishing, creative process, and Veil over on Goodreads. Submit your questions here.
Brendan I. Koerner on Veil: "Beautifully captures the mix of mourning and resolve that pervades this apocalyptic moment."
Lewis Thomas on the awe-inspiring collective project of human language: "We can never let up; we scramble our way through one civilization after another, metamorphosing, sprouting tools and cities everywhere, and all the time new words keep tumbling out."
Eric Holthaus on Veil: "A wild ride through the Anthropocene, a near-future where geoengineering and climate grief clash head-on, and help unveil a path for meaning in our rapidly changing world. You're going to love this book."
Kim Stanley Robinson on how we live in a science fiction novel that we're writing together: "Often, science fiction traces the ramifications of a single postulated change; readers co-create, judging the writers’ plausibility and ingenuity, interrogating their theories of history. Doing this repeatedly is a kind of training. It can help you feel more oriented in the history we’re making now."
Brad Feld on Veil: "Near-term science fiction at its absolute best. Peper consistently makes step function leaps in imagination. Veil is so crazy relevant and timely."
Viktor Frankl on success: "Success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself."
Meg Howrey on Veil: "Peper weighs the promises—and perils—of geoengineering in this tautly paced thriller which, in its final chapters, offers an intriguing solution and that most welcome of messages: a glimmer of hope."
If you enjoy this newsletter and want to support it, tell your friends. 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, Ars Technica, and the BBC. 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 Veil, Breach, Borderless, Bandwidth, Cumulus, Neon Fever Dream, True Blue, and the Uncommon Series. Subscribe to his blog here.
"The perfect stay-at-home read to get your mind blown."
-Manu Saadia, author of Trekonomics, on Veil
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