Saturday, July 16, 2011

Steven Gould

Steven Gould is the author of Jumper, Wildside, Helm, Blind Waves, Reflex, and Jumper: Griffin’s Story, as well as many short stories. He is the recipient of the Hal Clement Young Adult Award for Science Fiction and has been nominated for both the Hugo and the Nebula Awards.

Gould's new novel is 7th Sigma.

Late last month I asked him what he was reading. His reply:
At this point, (in the last quarter of writing a novel--currently writing the next Jumper novel Impulse.) I am usually rereading. Often I'm looking for a vibe, or tone, or feeling. Lately, it's been nearly everything written by Martha Wells. In particularly, I'm rereading her latest book The Cloud Roads.

She is a fantasy writer but there is something science fictional about her world building. Cloud Roads has this odd multi-race (and by race, I suppose I mean multi-species world ranging from variety of humanoid forms to bug-like hive creatures and primarily two races that shift from "groundling" to a flying form. All of these species are sentient and the cultural interactions are fascinating. (There are non-sentient species around, too.)

I've also recently reread her trilogy, The Fall of Ile-Rien ( The Wizard Hunters, The Ships of Air, and The Gate of Gods.) It's a real pity these three books didn't come out before the current steampunk craze, but fans of steampunk should seek out the e-books. This trilogy is set in the same world as her first novel The Element of Fire and her Nebula award nominated novel The Death of the Necromancer, but where Element is a cavalier period novel, and Necromancer is Victorian, I'd call Fall World War I in historical setting (when it isn't something completely else as they travel between dimensions.)
Visit Steven Gould's website.

--Marshal Zeringue