Cody Sisco's Blog, page 2
November 22, 2017
Made in L.A. Writers Discuss Books at Indie Author Day 2017 at the Los Angeles Central Public Library
The Made in L.A. authors participated in a panel discussion and mini-book fair at the Los Angeles Central Library. It was a dream-come-true moment to have an official event in California’s most iconic library.
November 13, 2017
A Review of Tortured Echoes by IndiePicks Magazine
Tortured Echoes was reviewed by Alan Keep of IndiePicks, a new magazine aimed at librarians.
Alan writes:
Sisco’s work is highly recommended for fans of alternate history or near future SF, as well as for any reader looking for an engaging new SF series.
I’m thrilled to have been included! Read the full review below.
August 22, 2017
Quick Review: Accelerando by Charles Stross
Accelerando by Charles Stross
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Accelerando is a science fiction mind-bender that will stay with you long after you close the book.
What if your family was at the crux of the next phase of a human and artificial intelligence revolution?
Charles Stross tackles this question across decades and light years as the pace of technological advancement overtakes all efforts by reasonable people to ask, “Where exactly are we headed?”
The future is not bright for humanity. Nested Dyson spheres are harvesting most of the sun’s energy and humanity flees for the dark edges of the solar system as their own bodies are spliced and hacked beyond what we think of as people.
In the midst of all this change are characters scrabbling to make something of their lives. The story is told through the viewpoint of a succession of characters. Changes come at a breathless pace and the setting threatens to obscure the human story–that is precisely Stross’s point, I would hazard. It is unlikely we can ever go back to being “purely” human. In that case, what should we make of our future? And is our future actually in our hands, or have we already abdicated, leaving that responsibility to AI overlords who may not care that their appetites for energy and materials leave us with barely the means to survive?
If you’re up for a hurtling romp through the future of the solar system, this book is for you.
August 16, 2017
Interview: Cody Sisco and the Los Angeles Public Library
From the Los Angeles Public Library’s Local Author Spotlight series, a conversation between Senior Librarian Catherine Royalty, and Cody Sisco:
Did you know you were starting a series before you began writing Broken Mirror?
I knew I was writing a series, but I didn’t quite know what shape it would take. The draft of what I thought was the first installment ran over 600 manuscript pages, far too long for a first-in-a-series novel. An editor I asked for advice told me I should chop it into thirds. “No way,” I responded. And, of course, a little while later, I realized he was right and the manuscript was broken into three parts. Then I began the work of whipping the first book, Broken Mirror, into shape.
The Resonant Earth series has such an imaginative premise. What was your initial point of inspiration?
The first spark came as I was traveling by train from Paris to Geneva for a consulting gig. The eerily quiet train moved through the shadow of the mountains as rain splattered the windows. I felt very far removed from my prior life back in the United States. I began to wonder how much a character could change and remain themselves, and by extension, remain fully human. And that idea started snowballing into my vision of a character with mental illness in an alternate reality where history had taken different turns and how he struggles to understand what’s real and what’s in his head.
Like most great sci-fi novels you touch on important issues that society is grappling with today, including immigration, mental illness, and our sometimes uneasy relationship with technology. Do you find the speculative fiction genre to be particularly suited for social commentary?
I do. Speculative fiction allows both authors and readers to enter into a story with a sense of appreciation and wonder for what’s different between the fictional world and the real world. We can also view the similarities from a more comfortable and critical distance. We let down our guard to get absorbed in a new world, and the ideas of that world move inside us and begin a transformation.
The discussion continues. Read more on the Los Angeles Public Library’s Local Author Spotlight blog.
Patrons of the Los Angeles Public Library can borrow and read Cody’s novels on the Self-E/Biblioboard e-book platform.
From the Los Angeles Public Library’s Local Author Spotli...
From the Los Angeles Public Library’s Local Author Spotlight series, a conversation between Senior Librarian Catherine Royalty, and Cody Sisco:
Did you know you were starting a series before you began writing Broken Mirror?
I knew I was writing a series, but I didn’t quite know what shape it would take. The draft of what I thought was the first installment ran over 600 manuscript pages, far too long for a first-in-a-series novel. An editor I asked for advice told me I should chop it into thirds. “No way,” I responded. And, of course, a little while later, I realized he was right and the manuscript was broken into three parts. Then I began the work of whipping the first book, Broken Mirror, into shape.
The Resonant Earth series has such an imaginative premise. What was your initial point of inspiration?
The first spark came as I was traveling by train from Paris to Geneva for a consulting gig. The eerily quiet train moved through the shadow of the mountains as rain splattered the windows. I felt very far removed from my prior life back in the United States. I began to wonder how much a character could change and remain themselves, and by extension, remain fully human. And that idea started snowballing into my vision of a character with mental illness in an alternate reality where history had taken different turns and how he struggles to understand what’s real and what’s in his head.
Like most great sci-fi novels you touch on important issues that society is grappling with today, including immigration, mental illness, and our sometimes uneasy relationship with technology. Do you find the speculative fiction genre to be particularly suited for social commentary?
I do. Speculative fiction allows both authors and readers to enter into a story with a sense of appreciation and wonder for what’s different between the fictional world and the real world. We can also view the similarities from a more comfortable and critical distance. We let down our guard to get absorbed in a new world, and the ideas of that world move inside us and begin a transformation.
The discussion continues. Read more on the Los Angeles Public Library’s Local Author Spotlight blog.Patrons of the Los Angeles Public Library can borrow and read Cody’s novels on the Self-E/Biblioboard e-book platform.
July 13, 2017
Broken Mirror: a fractured mind or a deadly conspiracy [Book Trailer]
Check out this PHENOMENAL book trailer for Broken Mirror. The fabulously talented Allison Rose created it and I couldn’t be more thrilled.
Broken Mirror: the start of a smart, complex, and imaginative cyberpunk alternate history saga
In a mirror universe, a mentally ill young man searches for his grandfather’s killer.
May 25, 2017
May 11, 2017
The Alt West: a dangerous, rough and tumble hinterland
In our world, the West was won by federal investment in water and transportation infrastructure, private capital exploiting abundant minerals and precious metals, and the wholesale destruction of Native American communities.
On Resonant Earth, history took a few different turns. The United States in the late 1800’s was pre-occupied with re-building the South. Reconstruction didn’t fail; it led to a progressive movement, “The Eternal Enlightenment,” that reshaped the political landscape and consumed the national imagination.
By contrast, the Alt West languished. A harsh, dry landscape, scarcely populated and difficult to navigate: high-quality maps were hard to find and countless settlers lost their lives. Stories of their deaths haunted potential migrants and soon the Alt West was considered a no-go zone.
Only the Cathars, who worshiped a medieval offshoot of Catholicism, had the resources and determination to overcome the odds and settle on the shores of the San Francisco Bay. They founded a community obsessed with virtuous living–every day was devoted to the struggle of good to suppress evil. Their community served as an escape hatch from an increasingly secular, religiously intolerant European state. But they were on their own, a beacon in the wilderness for many years.
The Alt West might have remained a backwater, if not for the “Cold Nile Miracle,” an economic transformation that began on the Columbia river and spread east then south all the way to the Gulf of the Americas. Spurred on by transportation infrastructure connecting Pacific ports to mines throughout the western basin and ranges, company towns were linked together in a sprawling industry that fed the Great Asian War participants’ needs for raw materials.
After the Repartition, the Organized Western States (O.W.S.) was known for some time as a well-run, dynamic, and innovative nation. It produces vast amounts of goods and returned a government surplus to its citizens. It didn’t last. Criminal elements, attracted by the lure of easy pickings, flooded the O.W.S. A shadowy kingpin rose to power and focused the nation’s resources on a seemingly impossible dream: a modern, technologically advanced, crime-free oasis in the desert. Thus was born Las Vegas.
The King of Las Vegas, whoever he really was, didn’t content himself with his bustling city. He soon expanded his horizons and set his sights on his neighboring states. He looked for ways to destabilize them and profit from the chaos. No one deserved more credit and shame for the descent of the Republic of Texas into civil unrest and disorder.
What does the future hold for the Alt West?
You can read all about it in Broken Mirror, the first novel in my alternate history cyberpunk saga set on Resonant Earth.
May 4, 2017
Get Your Piece of Semiautonomous California
You can now own a handy tote bag from a mirror universe. That’s right, this tote bag has “crossed over!”
That’s right, this tote bag has “crossed over!”
Semiautonomous California tote bagThis is a double-sided wonder. Impress your friends and puzzle your grocery checkout clerk when you show them this map of the American Union.
Impress your friends and puzzle your grocery checkout clerk when you show them this map of the American Union.
Map of the American Union of Nations on a tote bagThese artifacts from a mirror universe can be purchased in your universe from the Cafe Press storefront of the Resonant Earth Emporium for only $19.99, an incalculable savings compared to the item’s price in American Union Dollars.
April 24, 2017
A Fun Day at the Los Angeles Festival of Books
This past weekend in Los Angeles, when large competing events like the March for Science and the opening of the Los Angeles Historic State Park were underway and the temperature was in the 80s and 90s–34 Celcius was the peak–an estimated 160,000 people gathered at the University of Southern California campus with one thing in common: they were all book lovers.
Here’s a few pics before the crowds arrived.
I was there to meet readers, promote my books, and connect with other authors.
The best part of participating in the festival was doing it with other local authors.
In October 2016, I met a few talented local authors at the Indie Author Day event at the Alhambra Civic Library.
In the lead up to the Festival of Books, five of us have been collaborating under the “Made in L.A. Writers” umbrella.
Now we’ve got a website, an email newsletter, and we’re working on additional local events. This is a great group of authors who are going to accomplish much in the years to come, and I’m happy to be part of it.
