Big Idea Category

The Big Idea: Lev Grossman

In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit I was partying with Lev Grossman last night. He’s here in Reno for this year’s Worldcon, and last night he threw a book party for The Magician King, the sequel to his best-selling fantasy novel The Magicians. As an author, he had a fair amount to celebrate: not only was […]

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The Big Idea: T.C. McCarthy

Author T.C. McCarthy, whose debut novel Germline recently found itself with a coveted starred review from Publishers Weekly, is the first to admit that his book isn’t a happy romp through the daisies: With its war setting and grim plot points, there’s a lot of dark ground to cover. But as McCarthy explains in this […]

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The Big Idea: Ernest Cline

At this point in your life, you have either lived through the 80s, or lived through enough 80s nostalgia to make you feel like you lived through the 80s. But now comes Ready Player One, a novel that takes nostalgia for the Cosby Era to perhaps its ultimate expression. For author Ernest Cline, the book […]

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The Big Idea: Courtney Schafer

Writers are always looking for the element they can bring in to their writing that not only separates the work from that of other writers, but elevates it as well — and gives readers an experience they won’t get from anyone else. For Courtney Schafer, the element that elevates her novel The Whitefire Crossing does […]

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The Big Idea: Ann VanderMeer

The challenge of creating an anthology is not just putting together excellent contributors on an interesting topic — it’s also how to make your collection stand out, so it’s irresistible to the people buying books. Ann VanderMeer has some experience with that: as a noted anthology editor (often collaborating with her husband Jeff), she’s always […]

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The Big Idea: Diana Rowland

What if everything you knew about zombies was… well, if not exactly wrong, at least somewhat up to negotiation? Author Diana Rowland asked herself this question while thinking about the subject of her latest book, My Life as a White Trash Zombie, and by using her BRAAAAINS (yes, yes, I know, I’m sorry I just […]

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The Big Idea: Steven Gould

What do the adventures of a young man in a classic of 19th century colonial literature have to do with the adventures of another, entirely different person in the fictional American Southwest of the mid-21st century? If you ask Steven Gould, he’ll say: quite a bit, actually. Steve’s here to explain why, and how it […]

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The Big Idea: James S.A. Corey

As you read today’s Big Idea, don’t be concerned when James S.A. Corey starts discussing himself in first person plural. He’s neither royalty nor confused; “he” is actually two people: Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, who have joined forces to create Leviathan Wakes, an old-school space opera that’s got the reviewers happy (“strong characterization and […]

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The Big Idea: Jonathan Walker

Sophisticates will snark about someone who still reads a book with pictures, but those “sophisticates” have not met Jonathan Walker. As Walker explains in this introduction to his novel Five Wounds (co-produced with illustrator Dan Hallett), the presence of images in the novel does more than illustrate — it illuminates, offering the person experiencing the […]

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The Big Idea: Mira Grant

Mira Grant (also known as Seanan Mcguire) is having one of those very good years. First, as Mcguire, she won last year’s Campbell Award for the best new writer in science fiction and fantasy. Then Feed, the first installment of her “Newsflesh” series (see last year’s Big Idea on it), was nominated for this year’s […]

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The Big Idea: Leah Cypess

In talking about her new novel Nightspell for the Big Idea, author Leah Cypess gets a little meta… about the concept of a big idea, and how it relates to writing books, and, of course, specifically this one. And while this sort of recursive examination of big ideas is interesting, considering the context, what it […]

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