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Four out of five Hugo-nominated novels are available for free, in electronic format — but only if you're a Hugo voter. To receive copies of Halting State by Charles Stross, Brasyl by Ian McDonald, Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer and The Last Colony by John Scalzi, you have to send an email to hugo2008@scalzi.com with proof that you're registered for Denvention, the 2008 WorldCon. Too bad only Hugo voters get to read these books electronically, since even non-attendees might want to weigh in about them online. Also too bad that Harper Collins chose not to include Michael Chabon's Yiddish Policemen's Union in the care package, although an excerpt is online here. Sadly, the omission may put Chabon at a bit of a disadvantage with the Hugo voters. [Whatever] More »
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Yesterday we talked to Jim Munroe about one of the most political science fiction novels written in the last century, and today we've cornered science fiction author Charles Stross into talking about the future of a more socio-political issue: sex. Stross is the author most recently of Halting State, a near-future MMO crime thriller, as well as gender-bending prison experiment novel Glasshouse, extropian revolutionary war novel Singularity Sky, and many others. His novels are often political in the "rulers fighting" sense as well as in the personal sense — his characters are at odds with themselves, trying to figure things out like love and sexual identity while also shooting big guns and playing with nanotech. So here's what Stross talks about when he talks about sex (and politics). More »
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