Pandora's Star
Books make great gifts. They are simple artifacts: bundles of paper inscribed with squiggly shapes. But those little shapes can reanimate the wisdom of the dead, they can invite you inside another person’s heart of hearts, they can meet you where you are and bring you somewhere new, they can contain entire worlds.
Sure, some books sit unread for years after the wrapping paper is torn away. Some might be picked up by a curious friend before the original recipient gets around to it. But books are patient. They are there for you whenever you are ready for them. And when the right person encounters the right book at the right time, it can alter the course of their life.
That is why books make great gifts: in reading them, you become someone new.
I’m biased, but Foundry is the perfect gift for the beautiful nerds in your life. Spies. Secrets. Semiconductors. Big ideas. Weird digressions. Short chapters. A story you won’t be able to put down even when the gate agent announces your long-delayed flight is finally boarding. I mean, it’s got everything I could possibly want, because when I write a novel, I put everything I want inside it. And if your lucky recipient likes a personal touch, you can order a signed copy directly from me and I’ll make it out to them.
For a more extensive literary gift guide, check out the best books I read in 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, and 2018. May every opening line make you want to know what happens next and every closing line leave you satisfied.
And now, a book I love that you might too:
Pandora’s Star by Peter F. Hamilton is an epic tale of intrigue and adventure set in a future where humans have stitched together hundreds of habitable planets with a network of wormholes, extended lifespans indefinitely with artificial rejuvenation, and yet still struggle to overcome that most stubborn of troublesome habits: human nature. Yes, there are characters and plot, but what makes this novel special is its cascade of thought-experiments that stack and shuffle and refract into an imagined society that acts as an uncanny mirror for the one we happen to live in.
Things worth sharing:
Over on Chuck Wendig’s blog, I wrote about what I learned writing Foundry: “Reflecting on his time at Pixar, Ed Catmull says that the team would face a catastrophe during the production of every single movie. Initially, they tried to put processes in place to prevent the same thing from happening on the next film. But no matter what they did, the next film would bring a new kind of catastrophe. So instead of trying to avoid catastrophes, they focused on building a team that could respond to them with grace and efficacy.”
I went on the Amplifying Cognition podcast to talk about writing science fiction that riffs on reality, the surprising power of caring more, and building habits that unlock creativity.
Fun fact about the Analog Series: I wrote Bandwidth as a standalone novel. The publisher surprised me with the offer of a three book deal. I agreed on the condition that each book would have a standalone story, a different protagonist, and that I had no idea what they'd be about. As they came out, it was special to read reviews like this one that treat them as in(ter)dependent works.
Despite their tremendous scale and complexity, the algorithms that construct our feeds rarely deliver what I want to read next, so, over on Matter, I curated some of my all-time favorite reads from across the internet.
Speaking of algorithms, in Zachary Mason's underrated sci-fi novel Void Star, there's an "AI whisperer" character whose job it is to try to translate between humans and powerful but enigmatic AIs in a dynamic that calls to mind the Oracle at Delphi mediating the Greeks and the Olympian pantheon—a metaphor that’s getting more valuable by the minute.
Coral reefs are cities of bone—layer upon layer of skeletons forming the infrastructure for thriving marine ecosystems.
My oma was a secret agent in the Dutch resistance. She smuggled supplies, ferried information, and rescued dozens of people from the Nazis, all with two young children at home and my Jewish opa hiding in a concealed compartment above a wardrobe. She would approve this message.
Short Foundry excerpt for anyone curious about the INSANE science behind the chip powering the phone/computer you’re reading this sentence on right now.
If you write books, it's useful to remember that few people read books, and, of those that do, few of them read more than one book per year (the season's buzzy bestseller), and, of those that do, few of them read your kind of book, and, of those that do, few of them will hear about your book, and, of those that do, few of them will read your book. Books are niche. If you want to reach everyone, use social media. But if you want to forge deep, lasting connections with the right people, write books.
Can you not see the gleam on my eye, the fire in my heart, the storm in my soul? Can you not see the light that fills me, that makes me cousin to redwoods, that will fade all too soon? Can you not see that there is but one thing to do: make the most of this life we’ve been given?
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.
“This book will devour your free time. It will ruin your sleep. It will infiltrate your mind. It will steal your heart. Buy it. Read it. You can thank me later.”
-David Cohen, founder of Techstars, on Foundry