Thumbing Through Yesterday

The Call of the Wild, by Jack London, launches our 6th year of podcasting. A favorite of Tom's since childhood, Tony hasn't revisited this adventure in decades. How will it hold up? Join us as we follow Buck's adventured (and misadventures) as circumstance and evolution put him back where he belongs, in the wild. TTYpodcast.com Thumbingthroughyesterday.com

Douglas Adams' The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul wraps up our 5th year of podcasts. Tony's choice, but beloved by both of us, we revisit Dirk Gently as he pits himself against ancient gods, amoral lawyers, a very annoyed eagle, and his cleaning lady. This is Adams at his peak! Join us as we revisit this cherished favorite. TTYpodcast.com Thumbingthroughyesterday.com

American Gods by Neil Gaiman didn't just win awards... When it dropped, it completely dominated the speculative fiction world by sweeping the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and Bram Stoker Awards. A favorite of Tom's, Tony maintains that it's far from Gaiman's best. How does this genre-bending scifi/fantasy/horror champion hold up? Let's find out!

Stranger in a Strange Land is perhaps R.A. Heinlein's most iconic novel. It's the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human baby born on Mars, raised by Martians, and returned to Earth as a young man. Possessed of superhuman abilities and a completely alien worldview, Smith struggles to understand our bizarre customs. Revisiting this after so many years was quite an experience for both Ton...

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes is a classic of science fiction. What happens when Charlie Gordon, a man with an intellectual disability, receives experimental surgery that grants him extraordinary intelligence? And what happens if it doesn't last? Flowers for Algernon exists in two forms, the original short story and an expanded novel. We cover both versions, exploring what each version...

Contact is the only science fiction novel by Pulitzer Prize winner and renowned science communicator Carl Sagan. Through Ellie Arroway, a radio astronomer who discovers a radio signal from an extraterrestrial intelligence, Sagan draws us into humanity’s effort to decipher a message that could change everything. How does Sagan's scientific background translate into science fiction? Join us and...

Redshirts by John Scalzi is Tom's pick this time around. Although we both agree that Scalzi has written better, this is a fun book, more than a parody, that tickles Tom's sense of nostalgia. What happens when the red shirts became self-aware of their role? Can they find a way to fight back? Scalzi explores this with a depth and meta-awareness that really transcends simple satire. Every die...

Tony has repeatedly claimed that Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang is "the best collection of single-author shorts ever." We decided to put that claim to the test! Chiang has an amazing collection here, replete with Big Ideas, each of which gets explored in depth. All eight stories are remarkable, and neither of us could decide on a single favorite. Maybe you can help us choo...

The Adolescence of P-1 by Thomas J. Ryan is Tom's pick. This was a hard book to find! It's a fantastic early look at the idea of a sentient AI, and the first ever written at a time when such a thing was plausible. Ryan effectively invents the idea of a computer virus years before the term was ever used, and his exploration of the costs and consequences of sharing our world with an emergent...

A Bride's Story by Kaoru Mori is Tony's choice this time, and our first venture into manga. We read the first two volumes, and to say the artwork is breathtaking is an understatement. The story is delightful, the characters are charming, and the whole experience is something special. Join us as we journey into this remarkable tale. TTYpodcast.com ThumbingThroughYesterday.com

Reave the Just and Other Tales by Stephen R. Donaldson is Tom's pick. Donaldson has given us two collections of "short" stories so far, this being the 2nd. The book gathers 8 novellas, mostly fantasy, that showcase Donaldson's range and formidable worldbuilding. Not that either is in doubt! Join us as we explore the volume that won the World Fantasy Award for Best Collection in 2...

The Cardturner by Louis Sachar is Tony's pick this week and continues his recent theme of stories with unexpected turns. A first read for Tom, the story follows 17-year-old Alton Richards as he assists his blind uncle in competetive bridge tournaments. There's a lot of family intrigue, some incredibly exciting bridge play, and a surprising helping of the supernatural involved. TTYpodcast.c...

The Cat Who Walks Through Walls by Robert Heinlein is Tom's pick this week. A Heinlein that, perhaps, has not held up as well as we would have liked. Tom picked it because it’s about as close as Heinlein ever came to writing a sequel to The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. TTYpodcast.com Thumbingthroughyesterday.com

I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells is Tony's pick, and a first read for Tom. What happens when John Cleaver, a troubled teen determined not to yield to his dark impulses, stumbles across a serial killer operating in his neighborhood? Let's just say that this one takes a pretty radical left turn partway through! TTYpodcast.com ThumbingThroughYesterday.com

Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold is a fun, standalone adventure set in her Vorkosigan Saga universe. It's a story of corporate greed, shady ethics, genetic engineering, and a little moral piracy. A first read for Tony, Tom was delighted to revisit this one! TTYpodcast.com ThumbingThroughYesterday.com

William Gibson's Burning Chrome is a collection of his early cyberpunk short stories, and a favorite of Tony's. Or is it? Does this book, and its revolutionary vision of a tech-impregnated future, survive the passage of the decades? Regardless, there are some gems in its pages. TTYpodcast.com Thumbingthroughyesterday.com

Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle is one of Tom's favorites. In it, Tim Hamner, an amateur astronomer, discovers a new comet! How exciting! Until his comet, "the hammer," actually hits Earth. The story turns survivalist, and then post-apocalyptic. With a wide range of characters and myriad intertwined storylines, Lucifer's Hammer is both a fun and complex...

Lost Boys by Orson Scott Card is Tony's pick, and a first-read for Tom. This is one of those quietly unsettling novels that sneaks up on you. It starts out grounded, domestic, almost ordinary — a young family trying to navigate work, school, faith, and a son who doesn’t quite fit in. But as the pages turn, a slow, uneasy strangeness settles over everything, and the story becomes something far...

Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke is pure, distilled classic science fiction — wide-eyed wonder, cool-headed astronauts, and mysteries big enough to swallow a planet. This one looms large in both Tom and Tony’s memories as the benchmark for hard sci-fi done right. A giant alien cylinder drifts into our solar system. Humanity pokes its nose inside. What we find is both awe-inspiring and madd...

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton is a favorite of both Tom and Tony, and a real page-turner. Dinosaurs run amok in the 20th century... what's not to love? Join as as we scale the heights and plumb the depths of this fantastic story, and of course, poke fun at the things the film definitely got wrong. TTYpodcast.com Thumbingthroughyesterday.com

Conan the Barbarian is Robert E. Howard’s iconic swordslinger, the gold standard of sword-and-sorcery heroes. It’s hard to imagine a more quintessentially pulpy world than the one where Conan makes his living with steely thews, panther-like reflexes, and a well-documented appreciation for fair-skinned women in diaphanous gowns. Young Tom kept these books on his shelf—dog-eared, tattered, and worn...

Among Others by Jo Walton is Tony's pick for this episode. This is the first Walton we've featured, which seems like a terrible oversight. What happens when you're a 15-year-old who lost your twin sister while stopping your insane witch mother from taking over the world? You run away, end up in a boarding school, and lose yourself in science fiction novels. At least, while the fairies...

In Conquest Born is the first novel by C.S.Friedman, one of Tom's favorite authors, and marks her fantastic appearance in the realm of published sci-fi. There are so many Big Ideas crammed into this book that it's hard to give a meaningful summary, but suffice to say it's mighty fine space opera.

Marooned in Realtime is Tony's pick, and wraps up our Vinge Binge for now. A first read for Tom, this is a direct sequel to The Peace War, set a mere 50 million years after those events. TTYpodcast.com Thumbingthroughyesterday.com

At the Mountains of Madness by HP Lovecraft is Tom's choice this time. Mountains is perhaps the most objective look into Lovecraft's universe of cosmic horror. When an Antarctic expedition from Miskatonic University discovers the remains of a sprawling alien civilization from pre-Cambrian times, what horrors will be unearthed? It's best we hope never to find out! TTYpodcast.com Thumbin...