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A Meal of ThornsAuthor: The Ancillary Review of Books
A critical book club from the Ancillary Review of Books. Host Jake Casella Brookins invites writers, scholars, and critics to discuss thorny works of science fiction, fantasy, and other speculative genres. Language: en Genres: Arts, Books, Fiction, Science Fiction Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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A Meal of Thorns 43- DIASPORA with Eden Kupermintz
Monday, 9 February, 2026
Greg Egan’s work exemplifies a certain kind of “hard” science fiction: not that it’s obsessed with big manly space battles, but rather that it’s using science to really dig into some complicated subjects. Eden Kupermintz, of Death // Sentence and many other cool projects, joins to discuss the scope and the scale, philosophy and physics in Diaspora. Podcasts, reviews, interviews, essays, and more at the Ancillary Review of Books. Please consider supporting ARB’s Patreon! Guest: Eden Kupermintz Title: Diaspora by Greg Egan Host: Jake Casella Brookins Music by Giselle Gabrielle Garcia Additional music: "Equatorial Complex" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License "Fluidscape" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License Artwork by Rob Patterson Opening poem by Bhartṛhari, translated by John Brough References: The Translated Hugo Initiative Brian Catling's Earwig Jeffrey Ford's The Physiognomy Jeff VanderMeer's The Strange Bird Jeremy P. Bushnell's Relentless Melt Severian (from Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun) Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves "Every text is ergodic if you want it to be." Pink Floyd's Stairway to Heaven Heavy Blog is Heavy Centroeuropa by Vicente Luis Mora, translated by Rahul Bery Dengue Boy by Michel Nieve, translated by Rahul Bery You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue, translated by Natasha Wimmer Enrigue in discussion with Maia Gil’Adí (friend of the pod) on Novel Dialogue Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation & Authority (and the Meal of Thorns episode) Dan Simmons’ Hyperion Ursula Le Guin's Ekumen (in the Hainish books) Ben Berman Ghan’s The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits & Eden's review Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men and Starmaker Greg Egan's Scale Backlisted episode on Last and First Men David Hume leptons & femtoseconds Gilles Deleuze & Jacques Derrida Immanuel Kant & correlationism Egan's Perihelion Summer Socrates & Plato & the polis solipsism Edwin A. Abbot's Flatland Zelazny, Le Guin, Dick, Asimov Peter Watts' Blindsight Becky Chambers' To Be Taught If Fortunate Egan's Morphotropic Larry Niven (e.g., Ringworld) "I know kung fu" scene in The Matrix Pragmatism, coherence, William James The Best of Greg Egan Permutation City Greg Daniel’s Upload series The Orthogonal Rocket trilogy Zendegi Karen Burnham's Modern Masters of SF book on Egan MMSF on Ballard, Bester Frederick Pohl's Gateway Poul Anderson’s Tau Zero Wells, Camille Flammarion, Flash Gordon, Star Trek & Star Wars M. John Harrison’s The Centauri Device Gareth Watkin's essay on AI & fascism John M. Ford's Web of Angels on Death // Sentence GregEgan.net
