Blinks: NYT reviews by Jemisin; Walter Isaacson on cyberpunk; Ansible; KSR; Okorafor; Naomi Alderman

» New York Times Book Review: N.K. Jemisin reviews Stephen R. Donaldson, Kat Howard, Andy Weir, Axie Oh

» This week’s NYTBR “By the Book” interview is with Walter Isaacson, author of a new da Vinci biography and one-time editor of Time magazine:

What book might people be surprised to find on your shelves?

I have a weakness for cyberpunk. I jacked into it during the 1980s when I subscribed to Omni and read William Gibson’s story “Johnny Mnemonic,” which led me to his novel “Neuromancer.” The hero is a console-cowboy hacker who gets data stored in his brain, which first ignited my interest in artificial intelligence, hacking and cybertechnology. I also love Neal Stephenson’s “Snow Crash,” which 25 years ago foresaw a virtual-reality metaverse that might supplant the internet and a blockchain-like successor to fiat currency. And Bruce Sterling, who in the early 1980s wrote of a future in which those who pursue genetic modification of humans will compete with those who push cybernetic augmentation and artificial intelligence. Wow. When I was an editor at Time, we ended up doing an offbeat cover on cyberpunk culture. It may have been our worst-selling issue of the year.

» David Langford’s Ansible 364

» NPR: Adam Frank’s Writing On The Terrifying Beauty Of The Human Future, on Kim Stanley Robinson

» Nnedi Okorafor’s TED Talk: Sci-Fi stories that imagine a future Africa

» Naomi Alderman’s The Power is getting lots of attention: here are reviews by Ron Charles in Denver Post, by Sophie Gilbert in The Atlantic, and by Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing; and here’s an interview with Claire Armiststead in The Guardian