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Project Hail Mary Part I (REPOST)

We go all the way back to episode 17, in honor of the release of the major motion picture, starring Ryan Gosling as Ryland Grace. Our part 1 was originally titled Bromancing the Stone Carapace, perhaps the single greatest podcast title in history.

Many many many many writers take on “hard” science fiction, and get lost in the science, leaving behind such niceties as plot, character development, human insight, or deep emotional stakes. Somehow, Andy Weir imagines a thrilling and scientifically plausible adventure, that’s really just about friendship in space. Amidst the ammonia, burritos, and penis blood, sits a tale that brings both Dukes and Bagg to occasional tears. So much so that Bagg wonders if this is the “perfect novel” for our time.

Episode 99: More Robot Friends!: Isaac Asimov’s ‘Robot Visions’ Part 1 with Justin Reich.

Isaac Asimov doesn’t PERFECTLY predict today’s era of anxiety and excitement around AI. But he does pretty well for somebody writing eighty years ago. In this 1990 collection of Asimov’s classic robot stories, we see corporations trying to make money while navigating human anxiety around robots, and humans trying to determine whether robots should have… Continue reading Episode 99: More Robot Friends!: Isaac Asimov’s ‘Robot Visions’ Part 1 with Justin Reich.

Episode 98: ‘Minor League Stew,’ or John Feinstein’s Where Nobody Knows Your Name, Part II

The second half of Feinstein’s book of minor league baseball stories and characters feels very much like the first half. The reporting is extensive, and Feinstein has a knack for the well described scene, brief characterization, and finding the drama in the everyday. In spite of those virtues, the book continues to overwhelm the reader… Continue reading Episode 98: ‘Minor League Stew,’ or John Feinstein’s Where Nobody Knows Your Name, Part II

Episode 97: “Baseball’s Ballast,” or John Feinstein’s Where Nobody Knows Your Name: Life in The Minor Leagues of Baseball

John Feinstein’s baseball writing is as sharp as ever, the anecdotes of Where Nobody Knows Your Name: Life in the Minor Leagues of Baseball portraying a desperate but determined subculture of professional baseball. The many characters of Feinstein’s book hunger to make it to the bigs, whether they are past their prime, approaching that point, or beginning to suspect that their prime won’t be good enough for that callup. It’s a heartbreaking and affecting yarn, but does some of the impact fade into a forest of similar stories?

Episode 96: “The Clustercus,” or David Halberstam’s The Amateurs, Part II

In the second half of Halberstam’s nonfiction account of the 1984 sculling Olympic trials, we go to the Olympics, to see how Biglow, Lewis, Wood, et al fare at the world’s most famous sports event. 5 major characters each have big stakes, and while the actual events cluster together, Halberstam keeps the reader focused on the drama. The results are predictably mixed, and one wonders if the work these Olympians go through is worth it.

Structurally, the second half of the book remains tight, perhaps even tighter than the first half, and all of the loose ends, questions, and promises of the first half are fulfilled in the second half. It’s not entirely atisfying, but neither, as we learn, is amateur athletics in a low-glamor sport.

Episode 95: “Don’t Catch Crabs,” or David Halbertstam’s The Amateurs, Part I

We continue Bagg’s “Revenge of the Jock-Nerds” series (the last series of Season Three!), with David Halberstam’s The Amateurs, which tells the story of four men competing for the single solo sculling spot on the 1984 Olympic team. Halberstam, who usually worked on more popular sports and in bigger political arenas, offers a nuanced glimpse into the small, hermetic, oral world of American rowing, where athletes compete in a sport where “the rewards cannot justify the efforts.”

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Episode 94: “Chewing Glass” or Tim Krabbe’s The Rider

Tim Krabbe’s novel is barely a novel. It is a thinly veiled autobiogrpahical essay, with fictional details and composite characters, allowing the author to navigate his story just to one side of the fiction/nonfiction divide. The lads ponder why it does not fall into the “bike porn” genre, and why the images of teeth and glass continually emerge.

Episode 94: “A Swiftly Flattening Universe,” or Cixin Liu’s Death’s End, Part II

The lads wrap up Cixin Liu’s sprawling and massive Three Body Trilogy, building something that somehow seems to transcend traditional literary structures and devices. We look back at how far this particular plot has wandered from whence it came, and both Jesse and Chris are impressed at Liu’s ability to continue adding obstacles and stakes without letting the book fall apart. Still, there is a lot of plot to find a way through—does the grandness of the project match the execution?

Episode 93: “Post Humanity Blues,” or Cixin Liu’s Death’s End Part I

The final installment in Cixin Liu’s trilogy is long. And strong. We begin in the “deterrence” era, in which humans and Trisolarans enjoy a truce enforced by mutually ensured destruction. But all things must pass, and when the truce breaks, humanity gazes at the possibility of its own destruction. Death’s End is part interstellar chase, part Cold War allegory and introduces a new anti-villian, Sophon, who is perhaps Liu’s greatest creation. 

Bagg finds the characters are less realistic humans, and more ideas, but grudgingly acknowledges the ideas themselves are interesting and worth the ride. 

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Episode 92: “It’s So Dark,” or Cixin Liu’s The Dark Forest, Part II

The boys carve through the second half of Cixin Liu’s sprawling, imaginative, and haunting The Dark Forest. Bagg has questions about how much we can trust our author and the characters he uses to make his plot work, while Dukes identifies the fact that the most important “character” in this novel is humanity itself. Regardless of your opinion of this quixotic book, you cannot dispute the ambition of its author—and his ability to transform his imagination into an ever-expanding epic.

Episode 91: “All Chess Pieces, No Chess,” or Cixin Liu’s The Dark Forest, Part I

The premise of the Dark Forest, that Humanity must make a secret plan stored in our hidden thoughts to defeat an enemy that can spy on our every move, is wonderful. But the lads find the action in the first half a bit tepid, as Cixin Liu builds sets up the chess pieces we expect he’ll start knocking down in the second half of the book. There are some hot spots, and wonderful moments, including a depiction of the best group photo ever taken, but you have to read through a lot of narrative chaff to find htem.

Here is the video of a six year old watching Star Wars for the first time with his Dad. Hint, at the end, the kid says “It’s the most amazingest thing I’ve ever saw in my whole entire, whole entire, whole entire, whole entire life.” 

And here is the Hildebrandt Brothers poster art for Star Wars, using models who were not actually Carrie Fisher or Mark Hamill.

Episode 90: “An Egg Slicer Through a Supertanker,” or Cixin Liu’s The Three Body Problem, Part II

The lads host their first UMB Official Sports Update as Jesse manages to survive a weekend of ultimate frisbee before getting into the second half of Cixin Liu’s sprawling and ambitious The Three Body Problem. The UMBers revisit some of our old friends, like Neal Stephenson’s habit of setting up narrative chessboards for a long time and eventually letting the game unfold, examining if Liu’s narrative setups have plausible payoffs. They also identify some of the “hapless protagonist” effect they’ve seen before in The Diamond Age and The Arrest, and talk about Liu’s claim that his work does not allegorize IRL history and action. Despite some misgivings, Jesse is excited for his third time through the subsequent two books, and Bagg is also looking forward to discovering how the earth responds to the Trisolaran “problem.”

Review: John Scalzi’s “When the Moon Hits Your Eye”

Jesse Dukes offers a quick review of popular science fiction writer John Scalzi’s newest novel, “When the Moon Hits Your Eye”. While he initially put the book down after reading the first chapter, due to frustration with the absurd premise, on a second read, Dukes found that the book has its charms. https://media.blubrry.com/1470605/content.blubrry.com/1470605/UMB_when_the_moon_review_pod.mp3Podcast: Play in… Continue reading Review: John Scalzi’s “When the Moon Hits Your Eye”