616. The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson Part 2 Review (with Anthony Ha)

Geek's Guide to the Galaxy - A Science Fiction Podcast

David Barr Kirtley

Arts

4.5 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 2 April 2026

⏱️ 135 minutes

🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS

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Summary

Anthony Ha joins us to discuss the second half of the book The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson. Stories discussed: "The Translator" (1:38), "Glacier" (14:57), "The Lunatics" (27:34), "Zurich" (45:56), "Vinland the Dream" (58:34), "A History of the Twentieth Century, with Illustrations" (1:07:12), "Muir on Shasta" (1:19:14), "Sexual Dimorphism" (1:28:54), "Discovering Life" (1:41:03), "Prometheus Unbound, At Last" (1:45:11), "The Timpanist of the Berlin Philharmonic, 1942" (1:50:22). Ad-free episodes are available to our paid supporters over at patreon.com/geeks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm David Barr-Curtley, author of the book Save Me Please and other stories, and welcome to
0:23.6	episode 616 of Geeks Guide to the Galaxy. Today on the show we'll be discussing the last 11 stories
0:30.2	from the book The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson. And those stories are The Translator, Glacier,
0:36.8	The Lunatics, Zurich, Vineland the Dream,
0:40.3	a history of the 20th century with illustrations, Muran Shasta, sexual dimorphism, discovering life,
0:47.9	Prometheus Unbound at last, and the tymponist of the Berlin Philharmonic, 1942.
0:54.0	And this will include spoilers for all of those
0:56.3	stories, so just be aware of that. And this is a follow-up to our discussion of the first half of the
1:01.7	best of Kim Stanley Robinson back in episode 613, so definitely check that out if you missed it.
1:07.8	And I'm joined today by my good friend Anthony Ha, making his 36th appearance on the show.
1:13.2	He's the weekend editor at TechCrunch and a co-host of the podcast original content.
1:19.0	And his short fiction appears in Asimovs and Lady Churchill's Rosebud Aristolet and in the chatbook
1:24.1	Love Songs for Monsters. His story of The Tourists will be appearing in an upcoming issue of Asimovs.
1:30.0	And now here's our interview with Anthony Ha.
1:33.4	All right, so we're here with Anthony Ha.
1:35.4	Welcome to the show.
1:36.7	Thanks for having me back.
1:39.1	Okay, so the first story in batch two is called The Translator.
1:47.3	And so in this story, it's set on an alien planet and there's a small human settlement there and the main character is this guy Owen Rumford
1:53.7	he's like the mayor and bartender and mailman for this community since it's such a small community
1:59.5	he plays a lot of roles.
2:02.3	And in his capacity as bartender, he sometimes serves aliens.
	...

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