Marc Laidlaw’s “Underneath the Oversea”

A wondrous fairytale, wondrously read, from the storyteller of Half-Life.

The cover of Skyboat Media’s audio edition of Underneath the Oversea.

I have been a Marc Laidlaw fan since his debut novel, Dad’s Nuke — an apocalyptic, madcap dark comedy/road-trip novel that anticipated Snow Crash and its motif of an America dominated by paranoid, fortresslike gated communities.

I avidly consumed all of his subsequent novels and short stories — especially “400 Boys,” his contribution to Bruce Sterling’s seminal cyberpunk anthology Mirrorshades.

Continue reading "Marc Laidlaw’s “Underneath the Oversea”"

Pluralistic: 19 Oct 2021

Today's links

The true, Terry Pratchett-esque origins of the trillion-dollar coin: It's a feature, not a bug.
This day in history: 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016, 2020
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 19 Oct 2021"

Pluralistic: 01 Oct 2020

Today's links

Witch: Kill Bill meets Thomas Hardy.
Attack Surface on the MMT Podcast: Imagining the first days of a better world.
Private equity's profitable murder: Leonard Green, Prospect Medical Holdings, and the vast fortunes built on the dead.
The Years of Repair: A Message From the Future (II).
Block Google-Fitbit: A merger made in hell.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 01 Oct 2020"

Pluralistic: 30 May 2020

Today's links

Australia caves on "robodebt": Dialing down the automated performative cruelty by a single notch.
Locus Award shortlist: Some of my 2019 favorites made the cut.
Why I haven't written about CDA 230: Life is too short.
Bus drivers refuse to take arrested protesters to jail: And they're unionized, so they don't have to.
AI has been stagnating for a decade: "The high-water mark was set in 2009."
This day in history: 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 30 May 2020"

Pluralistic: 14 Apr 2020

Today's links

Podcast swap with Wil Wheaton: Wil and I read each others' work in our podcasts this week.
Corona-denying pastor dies of coronavirus: Governments who depend on the religious right have a conflict of interest.
Ticketmaster ends refunds for canceled events: Ever wonder what "terms subject to change without notice" really means?
Amazon fires tech workers for their warehouse worker solidarity: Threatened for speaking out on climate, fired for speaking out on warehouse conditions.
Southern states in for worst of coronavirus impact: The white gerontocracy has engineered a perfect pandemic storm.
Abolish Silicon Valley: Wendy Liu's new memoir is a case-study from the tech worker uprising.
I'm doing Podapalooza! It's a pay-what-you-can onlin podcast festival with proceeds to Give Directly.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 14 Apr 2020"