Double Duty at SF Signal: Podcast and Completist

This past week, I had two "appearances" at SF Signal. I participated in the SF Signal podcast, which was the first podcast I've ever done. You can all now her my (not so) dulcet voice opine on the three books publishing in 2014 I can't wait to read: City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett, Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey, and The Book of the Crowman by Joseph D'Lacey. Also participating in this podcast were host Patrick Hester, and panelists Jeff Patterson, Carl V. Anderson, and Derek Johnston.

My latest Completisst column was posted yesterday and features a terrific action-sf trilogy: Joel Shepherd's Cassandra Kresnov trilogy.

Joel Shepherd’s debut novel, Crossover, is firmly entrenched in the subset of science fiction – that of the SF-Femme-Fatale page-turner, to borrow a term from the back-cover blurb on the book. With this novel, Shepherd, and Cassandra “Sandy” Kresnov, joins the ranks of writers like Karen Traviss, Marienne de Pierres, and Elizabeth Bear. Shepherd’s protagonist, Cassandra Kresnov, is a defective operative from the League, looking to eschew her former country/employer. After being nearly killed by her country, she emigrates to its enemy, the Federation; specifically, the nation-state of Tanusha on the planet Callay. Kresnov differs in one major fashion from other folk: she is not human. She is a synthetic human, or artificial intelligence. This point is the core of the novel and series, and throughout the series Shepherd brings to light a wide range of arguments in the debate is an artificial intelligence a person? Can they have humanity?

Podcasts

I’ve recently begun listening to podcasts on my iPod, pretty much downloading a new podcast every day. Granted, one of those podcasts is of a daily radio show out of Philadelphia – The Preston and Steve Show so there’s something new every day, but I usually throw something else into the mix. Unsurprisingly, that ‘something else’ is more often than not, a genre podcast. Unfortunately by the time I discovered Adventures in SciFi Publishing, creator Shaun Farrell placed the podcast on hiatus.

Another very good podcast I’ve been following is The Dragon Page Cover to Cover which is led by Michael R. Mennega and Michael Stackpole.

I just started listening to Scott Sigler’s Infected, which he released as a free audiobook through iTunes. I recall a very humorous brew-ha-ha over on Jeff VanderMeer’s Ecstatic Days blog when Infected was published in hardcover.

I know I’m a little behind the curve with listening to podcasts, but I only got my iPod about a year ago, so forgive me.

So, does anybody from my millions…and millions of readers listen to any good podcasts?