The Sword and Laser discussion

I listened to the KCRW Bookworm podcast interview with Void Star author Zachary Mason. He was very demeaning and insulting to science fiction. Just listen to the first few minutes at least. Have you ever heard a writer so blatantly disrespect an entire genre? Yet he is out promoting his own book which is obviously science fiction. Sounds to me like a literary author who wants some of that genre money but is trying to avoid having his reputation tainted. This really bothered me. Has anyone read this book? It has some good reviews and honestly it's probably good. The guy is probably very talented. But why would someone act like this?

Havent listened to it. Book is good. Sometimes creators are dicks. Never meet one's heroes.

Listened to the intro. Yeah, he comes off as a dick. Oh well. I enjoyed the novel but given his thinking it's unlikely he'll write more SF. And despite what he wants to think, it IS SF. I would agree cyberpunk is not really a descriptor for it though it's got roots there.

my review btw: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I looked at this at the library and put it back after reading the first few pages. The description sounded derivative and the prose was equal parts pretentious and terrible.

The first paragraph is Bulwer-Lytton level of craptacular. It ought to be titled Comma Splice: The Novel.

I'm tempted to read it just so I can rip it a new anterior orifice.

I probably would have read this book if he hadn't been so pretentious, but after that I think I'll just choose an unread Gibson or Stephenson novel instead.