Sci-Fi Book Pod

Imagine the most important person in your life is kidnapped by your arch nemesis—what lengths would you go to to save them? That’s the heart of Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo, and in this episode of Sci‑Fi Book Pod, Space Admiral Kandas and Space Cadet Shane welcome back runner, podcaster, and Grishaverse superfan Julianna Coughlin to break it all down. We dig into how Crooked Kingdom completes...

Kaz Brekker didn't survive the Barrel by being nice. His morally gray character is exactly what makes Six of Crows so hard to put down. In this episode of Sci-Fi Book Pod, visiting dignitary Juliana Coughlin (host of Runna Podcast and Into the Fold) picked this one for us, and she came ready to talk. We dig into what makes this heist fantasy so different from your typical chosen-one story, why the...

Imagine having the power to change an alternate timeline — without touching your own. Today on Sci-Fi Book Pod, Space Admiral Kandas and Space Cadet Shane 2nd Class dive into Agency by William Gibson with a very special visiting dignitary: award-winning audiobook narrator Paul Heitsch, the voice behind countless beloved sci-fi titles. We unpack Gibson's brilliant "stub" timeline concept, the ethic...

Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress turns 60 this year and it hasn't aged the way you'd expect. Space Admiral Kandas and Shane Space Cadet Second Class welcome visiting dignitary Kevin Thompson, cyber law attorney at Levin Ginsburg and founder of the Legal and Other Professionals Sci-Fi and Fantasy Readers Book Club, to talk about a lunar revolution that feels uncomfortably familiar. We...

Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card — the companion novel to Ender's Game that most people sleep on is arguably the better book. Visiting dignitary Mahlena Rae Johnson joins Space Admiral Kandas and Space Cadet Shane 2nd Class to discuss why Bean is the real hero of the Enderverse. Bean is the kid who did the work while Ender got the credit. He was smarter than everyone in the room, nobody wanted t...

Season one of Sci-Fi Book Pod was a full-spectrum sci-fi experiment—some books soared, some crashed, and at least one “broke a lot of things.” In this Season 2 teaser, host Kandas Rodarte looks back at the most memorable moments, what worked, what didn’t, and how the show is evolving. You’ll hear about favorite and least favorite reads from season one, why Project Hail Mary still holds the top spo...

Can one act of hatred really end the world—and can compassion rewrite that future? In this episode of Sci‑Fi Book Pod, Kandas, Space Cadet Shane, and visiting dignitary Valerie Friedlander dive into Madeleine L’Engle’s A Swiftly Tilting Planet to unpack time travel, nuclear war anxiety, and what it means to be a “good ancestor.”​ Along the way, they explore generational trauma, the butterfly effec...

In this episode of Sci-Fi Book Pod, Space Admiral Kandas Rodarte is joined by sociologist and life coach Valerie Friedlander to unpack A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L’Engle. Together, we explore how this deceptively slim sci-fi novel tackles big human questions about communication, individuality, community, and what it really means to be seen. We talk about the role of teachers and mentors, why...

Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time is far more than a children's classic. It's a layered exploration of conformity, authoritarian culture, individuality, and the courage to embrace one's flaws. In this episode of Sci-Fi Book Pod, Space Admiral Kandas Rodarte and Space Cadet Shane (2nd Class) are joined by sociologist Valerie Friedlander for a deep dive into the themes that make this book enduri...

Space Admiral Kandas and Space Cadet Shane welcome visiting dignitary Patrick Lugo to discuss Steven Erikson's standalone science fiction novel "Rejoice, A Knife to the Heart." When a mysterious alien AI arrives offering humanity a utopian paradise with no war, poverty, or disease, the biggest question becomes: Can we get out of our own way? Erikson, best known for his epic ten-book Malazan fantas...

What happens when futuristic soldiers travel back to medieval England, cheat at jousting with advanced weapons, and accidentally kill the wrong people? Spoiler alert: the timeline splits, history rewrites itself, and someone has to clean up the mess before the future disappears forever. Our guest is JV Hilliard, fantasy author of The Warminster Saga series and publisher of Altered Reality Magazine...

Strap in for a deep dive into Frank Herbert's 1965 masterpiece Dune, the sprawling sci-fi epic that defined a genre and continues to spawn adaptations decades later. In this speculative fiction podcast episode, Space Admiral Kandas and Space Cadet Shane 2nd Class are joined by guest Adam Heeren to explore the desert planet Arrakis, where water is worth more than gold and giant sandworms rule the d...

What happens when the world's most powerful leaders secretly collude at a gender-bending brothel run by the woman who really pulls the strings? Welcome to Ada Palmer's mind-bending Too Like the Lightning, the first book in her Terra Ignota series. In this episode of our speculative fiction podcast, Space Admiral Kandas and Space Cadet Shane 2nd Class welcome Michael F. Schein—author of The Hype Ha...

In Children of Time, Adrian Tchaikovsky flips the classic sci-fi narrative: humanity's last survivors arrive on a terraformed planet, only to discover hyper-intelligent spiders thriving in a civilization built on empathy and cooperation. But can humans—driven by fear and conquest—learn to coexist with them? On this episode of Sci-Fi Book Pod, Shane and I are joined by Donovan Rittenbach, serial en...

What happens when regret, aliens, and second chances collide? In this episode of Sci-Fi Book Pod, Space Admiral Kandas and Space Cadet 2nd Class Shane dive into A Gift of Time by Jerry Merritt. When Micajah Fenton discovers a crashed time glider and a mysterious virtual woman, he's thrown into a life-do-over that challenges everything he thought he knew about fate, family, and redemption. Expect a...

What does it take to go from coward to hero — and can science and friendship really save the world? We explore the answer with former science teacher and sci-fi commentator Shereese Alexander in this deep dive into Project Hail Mary. rD6paiw9ajMz7QVImjDQ In episode 6 of Sci-Fi Book Pod, Space Admiral Kandas and Space Cadet 2nd Class Shane are joined by Shereese Alexander — host of The Sci-Fi Savag...

Can a robot teach us about being human? This week on Sci-Fi Book Pod, we're chatting about All Systems Red by Martha Wells — and the brilliance of the Murderbot character. Joining us is content strategist and sci-fi superfan Shereese Alexander, aka The Sci-Fi Savage. Together, we explore what makes Murderbot tick, how the book challenges our ideas about personhood, and whether a soap-opera-loving...

Paul Heitsch, narrator of the Omega Force series, joins Space Admiral Kandas in a bonus transmission pulled straight from the Gratitude Geek Podcast. The topic? Bobiverse, AI in storytelling, and why not every accent needs to be perfect to be powerful. This excerpt is a behind-the-scenes peek at voice acting choices, from tricky British dialects to the Russian inflection that somehow sneaks into B...

Is Humanity Worth Saving? "All These Worlds" by Dennis E. Taylor is the topic of discussion for episode 003 of Sci-Fi Book Pod. The Bobiverse is expanding—tenfold. In this episode, we confront what it means to live forever, meddle with alien civilizations, and still get dumped by someone aging in real time. (Ouch.) In "All These Worlds," digital immortality meets moral ambiguity. The Bobs are mult...

How Many Bobs Does It Take to Save Humanity? In "For We Are Many" by Dennis E. Taylor, the Bobs are back—and they're multiplying like caffeinated Tribbles! In this sci-fi book discussion on Sci-Fi Book Pod, your hosts Admiral Kandas Rodarte and Space Cadet 2nd Class Shane beam into the second book of the Bobiverse series, where dozens of cloned digital minds juggle missions to save a bickering hum...

Do You Want to Live Forever? "We Are Legion (We Are Bob)" by Dennis E. Taylor is the topic of discussion in episode 001 of Sci-Fi Book Pod, co-hosted by Kandas and Shane Rodarte. Imagine waking up a hundred years after your death—not in a new body, but as software running inside a cold, calculating computer. No body. No coffee. Just your memories, your personality, and a mission you didn't ask for...