Book Club (from The Incomparable Mothership)

Is Patrick Rothfuss’s “The Wise Man’s Fear” a rich fantasy novel about storytelling and myth-making, or is it a collection of good story elements scattered across an overlong plot? Could it be both? Ninjas! Off-camera shipwrecks! Board games! Sexism! Off-camera courtroom drama! Discursions within digressions within framing sequences! Join us as we discuss yet another 1000-page fantasy novel, the s...

We discuss “A Dance With Dragons,” the latest 1000-page installment in George R.R. Martin’s bestselling “Song of Ice and Fire” fantasy series. Is this series going to end well? Which parts of this book were good, and which just treaded water? Would adding Klingons have helped? Why are trees the Westeros equivalent of security cameras? These are the sorts of questions you ask deep in the middle of...

Everybody wants to rule the world, er, the kingdom of Westeros. As the “Game of Thrones” series continues on HBO, we discuss the source material: George R.R. Martin’s bestselling “Song of Ice and Fire” books. If you haven’t read the books, you will be spoiled! We’ll post the climactic resolution of this podcast in about five years, so invest your time wisely. Host Jason Snell with Dan Moren, Scott...

Based on the best-selling novel! Inspired by HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” in this episode we discuss the translation of books to the screen. Should movies be faithful to the book? Is it better if filmmmakers take liberties? And what books do we wish would be made into movies? If you don’t want to listen to this episode, just buy the novelization. Host Jason Snell with Dan Moren, John Siracusa and Scot...

Stories by science-fiction writer Ted Chiang, including the anthology “The Story of Your Life and Others.” Plus, enough recommendations to get you through every bathroom break and bus ride for the next three years. Host Jason Snell with Glenn Fleishman, Lisa Schmeiser and Scott McNulty.

A hero with an unpronounceable name, magic that doesn’t actually do much, cardboard female characters, a story where nothing really happens, and the first and inconclusive part of a longer series? Sounds like an acclaimed fantasy novel to us! “The Name of the Wind” on this week’s Incomparable Podcast. Host Dan Moren with John Siracusa and Scott McNulty.

Turn on your perpetual-motion machine, man your Zeppelin, and fly away for our next edition of the Incomparable Book Club. We discuss "The Dream of Perpetual Motion" by Dexter Palmer, as well as answer the question, "What are you reading?" Host Jason Snell with Glenn Fleishman and Scott McNulty.

Dive through a wormhole to defend the honor of the Imperium! We discuss Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan series of novels, which we really can’t recommend highly enough. It’s swashbuckling Sci-Fi adventure with some great characters and a big canvas. And you can read most of them for free! Host Jason Snell with Dan Moren, Scott McNulty and Serenity Caldwell.

Hop in your time machine and listen to our latest Book Club installment—and then be sure to travel back and prevent the podcast from having ever been recorded, because time travel is tricky like that. We discuss “How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe” and other time travel books we have liked. Host Jason Snell with Glenn Fleishman and Scott McNulty.

Three Hugo winners enter our Book Club. “Spin” by Robert Charles Wilson, “Hyperion” by Dan Simmons, and “The Yiddish Policeman’s Union” by Michael Chabon. Also: Why sequels suck. And we’ll work you like a ham! Host Jason Snell with Dan Moren, Glenn Fleishman, Greg Knauss and Scott McNulty.

Our Book Club reconvenes, to discuss Nick Harkaway, Cherie Priest, William Gibson, favorite prose stylists (Shakespeare? Please!), and multiple Shatners. Also in this episode, we introduce listeners to two new inanimate-yet-Incomparable characters: the Spoiler Horn and its good friend, the All-Clear Bell. Host Jason Snell with Dan Moren, Scott McNulty and Serenity Caldwell.

In the very first episode ever of The Incomparable, recorded before we even knew what we were going to be called, we talk about a whole bunch of novels, including China Mieville’s “The City and The City,” Paolo Bacigalupi’s “The Windup Girl,” and Cory Doctorow’s “For the Win.” We mispronounce some of their names, float an idea for books that burn themselves, and ask the most important question a r...