EVENT: Live interview with Ada Palmer at her Book Launch, 5/16, 57th St. Bookstore, Chicago

Next week, I'll having a conversation with the brilliant Ada Palmer about her debut novel, Too Like the Lightning (from Tor). Her scholarship on Renaissance reception of Classical knowledge is impeccable, but she's also the author of a complex, innovative, work of speculative fiction, the first of four books, just released last week.

Instead of doing a reading, she invited me to engage her in dialogue around the work, her vision of both future and past, and how she brings her wildly diverse interests together in fiction. I like to think I'll be playing Simplicius  to her Salviatus.

I do have a lot to say about the book, but you'll have to come to her launch at 6:00 PM at 57th St. Bookstore, in Chicago, next Monday. Here's the Facebook event.

In the meantime, here's what NPR reviewer Jason Heller has to say about Too Like the Lightning.

 "One of the most maddening, majestic, ambitious novels — in any genre — in recent years."

"A thrilling feat of speculative worldbuilding, on par with those of masters like Gene Wolfe and Neal Stephenson."

See you on Monday!