Jabberwocky Audio Theater is joining other writers and artists for a Summer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Book Bundle Giveaway now through this Friday, July 12th.

I’m also taking the opportunity to talk about science fiction and fantasy books that have influenced me through the years, including a few that aren’t in the bundle. (I’ve covered about all of the ones that are.)

So, yesterday, I talked about The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis and how it blends worldbuilding (albeit mainly the past world) along with insights into human nature. I know I’m not the only one who loves how science fiction can use its settings and fantastical conceits (e.g., faster-than-light travel, time travel, telepathy) to explore and comment on the human condition (sometimes with non-human characters).

A lot of the settings allow one to create societies that are different, yet recognizable and therefore allow you to find no end of “what if? scenarios. That’s a great lead in to The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. Le Guin. Le Guin manages to make one ponder human nature, desires, and ways of thinking by giving you just the right amount of writing that your brain eagerly fills in the cracks. The novel also plays with time to a great degree, popping between the two planets of the narrative in an artful way. And it gives us the ansible, which does for faster-than-light communications what the warp drive does for starships. (A form of ansible is used in the universe of Rogue Tyger).

Again, The Dispossessed is not in this particular book bundle, but there are a bunch of wonderful novels that follow in its thought-provoking footsteps. The giveaway ends on Friday, July 12th.

— Bjorn Munson, Jabberwocky Audio Theater