It's Monday, July 1st, 2019, and you're listening to Inquiring Minds. I'm Andravis Gondis.

Each week, we bring you a new, in-depth exploration of the space where science, politics, and society collide.

We endeavor to find out what's true, what's left to discover, and why it all matters.

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Longtime listeners of Inquiring will know, Neil Stevenson's book, Seven Eves, has influenced me in many, many ways. I refer to it multiple times on this show. So you can imagine

how thrilled I was when he agreed to come onto the podcast. He's just written a new book, and this time it's even on

a topic that is very close to my heart, digital consciousness. It's called Fall or Dodge in Hell,

and to some extent it picks up on some of the characters of Riemdi, one of his previous novels,

but in many other ways, it is extremely different.

For those of you who don't know him, he is a prolific author of epic science fiction books.

And as Time Magazine's Lev Grossman says, sometimes when you're reading Neil Stevenson,

he doesn't just seem like one of the best novelists writing in English right now.

He seems like the only one. Neil Stevenson, welcome to

inquiring minds. Thanks for having me on your program. So I have to say that Riem Dee and Seven

Eves are two of my favorite books of all time, but for very different reasons, which I'll get

into a little bit later. And so when Fall or Dodge in Hell came across my desk, it was like a Christmas

present. I was so excited to get this book and I had no idea it was coming. So thank you.

Well, you're welcome. I'm glad you enjoyed the other books as well. They are very different.

Yeah. So, you know, Reim D for me was like this fast-paced thriller that was really exciting,

that, you know, had so much kind of

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