Bandwidth came out six years ago this month. On launch day it hit #2 on Kindle and currently averages 4/5 stars on the basis of a mind-boggling 5,223 Amazon reviews. And the beautiful thing is that people are still discovering it for the first time.
Thank you—you are the best readers any writer could hope for.
And now, a book I love that you might too:
Moonbound by Robin Sloan is a wildly imaginative adventure that will pique your curiosity, subvert your expectations, and stoke your desire to find out what happens next. There are dragons made of code. There are wizards who engineer genes. Scholars swim in pools of high-dimensional math and beavers construct intricate arguments out of woven reeds. There is a boy. There is a sword in a stone. None of these things are quite what you think they are, and discovering the manifold hidden connections is tremendous fun. There’s nothing quite like a good story well told. Moonbound is one of those. I wish I could read it again for the first time.
N.B.: Moonbound comes out June 11th. In addition to being a gifted writer, Robin is a friend of mine, and I was lucky enough to read an advance copy. If you preorder and forward your confirmation email to preorder@robinsloan.com, he will mail you a copy of a limited-edition zine made to complement the novel.
Things worth sharing:
Neil Gaiman on impostor syndrome: “Maybe there weren’t any grown-ups, only people who had worked hard and also got lucky and were slightly out of their depth, all of us doing the best job we could, which is all we can really hope for.”
Do you still listen to CDs? During our recent move to Pacifica, I discovered five copies of the Breach audiobook on CD that the publisher sent me when it came out. I will send one copy to each of the first five readers who reply to this email with their mailing address. Ready… set… go!
Refreshingly pragmatic example of a professional writer using AI to improve his work—nothing revolutionary, just a serious craftsman finding uses for a moderately helpful new tool.
It’s well documented that people enjoy wine more when they know the story behind it, so I’m surprised by how many amazing creators and product teams treat story as an afterthought rather than integral to user experience. For example, many talented authors outsource responsibility for the copy you see on the dust jacket and Amazon page to their publisher's marketing team, but I obsessively iterate that copy because I know it will be many readers' first experience of the book—Chapter 0.
Kevin Kelly on the long-term consequences of early design decisions.
Good advice from C.S. Lewis: “Write about what really interests you, whether it is real things or imaginary things, and nothing else.”
Nicola Griffith, Hild: “There was no power like a sharp and subtle mind weaving others’ hopes and fears and hungers into a dream they wanted to hear. Always know what they want to hear—not just what everyone knew they wanted to hear but what they didn’t even dare name to themselves. Show them the pattern. Give them permission to do what they wanted all along.”
Writing is a great way to figure out what you think about something. When I encounter a particularly fascinating and thorny question, I write a novel to figure out my take.
Interview exploring the ideas behind Bandwidth: “Planes are computers we fly in. Stoves are computers we cook on. Buildings are computers we inhabit. Nearly every manufactured object has a chip in it, and we deploy sensors to make everything that isn’t already a computer machine-readable. In doing so, we are building a digital shadow world, an imperfect and evolving reflection of the physical world we walk around in every day.”
Thanks for reading. We all find our next favorite book because someone we trust recommends it. So when you fall in love with a story, tell your friends. Culture is a collective project in which we all have a stake and a voice.
Best, Eliot
Eliot Peper is the author of Foundry, Reap3r, Veil, Breach, Borderless, Bandwidth, Neon Fever Dream, Cumulus, Exit Strategy, Power Play, and Version 1.0. He also consults on special projects.
“Real and urgent… a thoughtful meditation on the ethics of power among those who broker it. Peper manages a great deal of complexity without sacrificing clarity or pace, and I read it all in a single fascinated sitting.”
-The New York Times Book Review on Bandwidth