The Functional Nerds Podcast

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Mary Robinette Kowal , author of The Martian Contingency . About The Martian Contingency : Years after a meteorite strike obliterated Washington, D.C.?triggering an extinction-level global warming event? Earth’s survivors have started an international effort to establish homes on space stations and the Moon. The next step – Mars. Elma York, the L...

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Brandon Crilly , author of Serpentine Scenarios: Five New Adventures for B.O.A. . About Serpentine Scenarios: Five New Adventures for B.O.A. : The Bureau of Agents (B.O.A.) follows a simple mandate: Priority One: Remain unseen. Or, at minimum, don’t get caught. Priority Two: Accomplish the mission. Priority Three: Promote snake advocacy. (I mean,...

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Jim C. Hines , author of Kitemaster . About Kitemaster : Nial Sarnin is twenty-one years old, far too young to have lost her beloved husband Jika. One year after Jika’s death, Nial is preparing to fly a kite sewn from the shirt Jika wore at their wedding, to carry his spirit to the stars and beyond. Instead, Nial finds herself launched on a...

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome James J. Butcher , author of Cold Iron Task . About Cold Iron Task : Grimshaw Griswald Grimsby may have one case under his belt, but he’s still a novice Auditor in Boston’s Department of Unorthodox Affairs. And he’s already made mistakes. Desperate to repair his fraying friendships, he doesn’t ask too many questions when a mysterious patron offer...

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Tochi Onyebuchi , author of Harmattan Season . About Harmattan Season : Veteran and private eye Boubacar doesn’t need much?least of all trouble?but trouble always seems to find him. Work has dried up, and he’d rather be left alone to deal with his bills as the Harmattan rolls in to coat the city in dust, but Bouba is a down on his luck deux fois,...

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Catriona Silvey , author of LOVE AND OTHER PARADOXES . About LOVE AND OTHER PARADOXES : Cambridge University, 2005: Student Joe Greene scribbles verses in the margins of his notebook, dreaming of a future where his words will echo through the ages, all while doubting it could ever happen. Then, the future quite literally finds him—in the form of...

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Allison Epstein , author of Fagin the Thief . About Fagin the Thief : Long before Oliver Twist stumbled onto the scene, Jacob Fagin was scratching out a life for himself in the dark alleys of nineteenth-century London. Born in the Jewish enclave of Stepney shortly after his father was executed as a thief, Jacob and his open-minded mother, Leah, a...

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome John Scalzi , author of WHEN THE MOON HITS YOUR EYE . About WHEN THE MOON HITS YOUR EYE : The moon has turned into cheese. Now humanity has to deal with it. For some it’s an opportunity. For others it’s a moment to question their faith: In God, in science, in everything. Still others try to keep the world running in the face of absurdity and unce...

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome L.J. Cohen , author of Litany for a Broken World . About Litany for a Broken World : A young girl’s disastrous first foray through the multiverse cleaves her from her family and abandons her in a homeless encampment, adrift in a world and a body not her own. A doctor struggling with grief volunteers for the annual Boston homeless census and...

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Michael Nayak , author of SYMBIOTE . About SYMBIOTE : As World War III rages, the scientists in Antarctica are thankful for the isolation – until a group of Chinese scientists arrive at the American research base. In their truck is a dead body, the first murder in Antarctica. The potential for a geopolitical firestorm is great, and, with no clear jurisdiction,...

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Kat Kourbeti and Michael Ireland from Strange Horizons to talk about the new podcast project celebrating 25 years of the magazine: S.H.@25 . S.H.@25 Links: Arkady Martine’s SH@25 episode, featuring her soundscaped poem The John Scalzi interview Ootheca by Mário Coelho (with the cockroaches for teeth) Alhaji Jerry by ML Kejera (with musical interludes by the aut...

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Jack Campbell , author of Destiny’s Way Book 2 of The Doomed Earth Duology . About Destiny’s Way : Lieutenant Selene Genji is hurled into the past to try and save a world that doesn’t want her in this action-packed adventure from New York Times bestselling author Jack Campbell. Earth was destroyed on June 12, 2180. Lieutenant Selene Genji watched it...

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Lauren J. A. Bear , author of MOTHER OF ROME . About MOTHER OF ROME : The names Romulus and Remus may be immortalized in map and stone and chronicle, but their mother exists only as a preface to her sons’ journey, the princess turned oath-breaking priestess, condemned to death alongside her children. But she did not die; she survived. And so does her story. Bea...

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Katherine Villyard , author of IMMORTAL GIFTS . About IMMORTAL GIFTS : Prussia, 1841. Abraham only ever wanted to play violin. Hiding his Jewish status so he can study at the prestigious Berlin Academy of Music, the eager young man is delighted to find a patron who believes in him. But he’s mortified when his new friend turns him into a vampire… and...

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Cerece Rennie Murphy , author of In the Garden of Light and Shadow . About In the Garden of Light and Shadow : 4000 years ago, a rebellion in the Ever brought angels to live among us. At first, they were worshiped as gods. But that was not enough. And in their hunger for power, Evil claimed their hearts and made them demons. Lilavois St. James rose to fight the...

In a very special JUST US episode of the podcast this week, Patrick and Tracy are talking about cats, Dungeons & Dragons, Patreon, coffee, Star Wars coffee mugs, working out, black Friday, smart tvs, peopling, weddings, San Diego ComiCon, conventions, Denver’s Pop Culture Con, the holidays and gift giving, kids, family, spreadsheets, pivot tables, gift cards, restaurant menus, holiday mu...

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome R.S.A. Garcia , author of The Nightward . About The Nightward : For 500 years Gaiea’s Hand has stood as a ward against the Dark. The Age of Chaos is a faded memory. The Goddess has left Gailand and given her Blessing to the Queens to rule in her stead. Princess Viella of the court of Hamber is the Spirit of Gaiea, presumptive heir to the throne and budding wiel...

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Mike Chen , author of Marvel: What If . . . Marc Spector Was Host to Venom? (A Moon Knight & Venom Story) . About Marvel: What If . . . Marc Spector Was Host to Venom? (A Moon Knight & Venom Story) : Marc Spector is used to voices in his head. He’s used to waking up disoriented, unsure what his alters, Jake and Steven, might have been up to. He’s used t...

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Curtis C. Chen , author of TRUE BLUE KANGAROO . About TRUE BLUE KANGAROO : Welcome to the spacefaring future, where humanity travels between planets with ease and has abused that power to establish outposts in some questionable places. Take Venus, for example: a sister world to Mother Earth, similar in size and gravity, it’s also known for having a toxic...

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Two-Time Hugo Award winner Paul Weimer . About Paul Weimer : Paul Weimer is a Two-Time 2024 Hugo Award winner for Fan Writer and Fanzine (Editor). Not really a Prince of Amber, but rather, an ex-pat New Yorker living in Minnesota, Paul Weimer has been reading sci-fi and fantasy for over 40 years. An avid and enthusiastic amateur photographer, blogger and podcas...

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome John Jackson Miller , author of BATMAN: RESURRECTION . About BATMAN: RESURRECTION : The Joker is dead, but not forgotten. Gotham City is saved, but it is still not safe. By night, its new symbol of hope, Batman, continues his fight to protect the innocent and the powerless. By day, his alter ego, Bruce Wayne, wonders whether there may someday be a future beyond...

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Luis Jaramillo , author of The Witches of El Paso . About The Witches of El Paso : 1943, El Paso, Texas: teenager Nena spends her days caring for the small children of her older sisters, while longing for a life of freedom and adventure. The premonitions and fainting spells she has endured since childhood are getting worse, and Nena worries she’ll end up like t...

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Martha Wells , author of the updated and revised version of Wheel of the Infinite . About the updated and revised version of Wheel of the Infinite : A traitor and a swordsman join forces to save the world from being rewritten into devastation. Every year the image of the Wheel of the Infinite must be painstakingly remade to ensure another year of peace and harm...

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Peter F. Hamilton , author of Exodus: The Archimedes Engine . About Exodus: The Archimedes Engine : In a past age, humanity fled a dying Earth in massive ark ships. These searched the galaxy to find a new home. Then one fleet found Centauri, a dense cluster of stars teeming with habitable planets. Now, thousands of years later, Centauri’s settlers have evolved...

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Stephanie Wrobel , author of THE HITCHCOCK HOTEL . About THE HITCHCOCK HOTEL : Alfred Smettle is not your average Hitchcock fan. He is the founder, owner, and manager of The Hitchcock Hotel, a sprawling Victorian house in the White Mountains dedicated to the Master of Suspense. There, Alfred offers his guests round-the-clock film screenings, movie props and mem...