Tuesday, August 16, 2016

What is Mary Robinette Kowal reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Mary Robinette Kowal, author of Ghost Talkers.

Her entry begins:
I'm currently reading Carrying the Fire, which is the autobiography of Michael Collins. He flew the command module for the first lunar landing. I picked it up as research for my next novel (yes, it'll still be alternate history, just SF this time) and it is seriously compelling reading.

Collins is funny and at the same time can get across the terror and majesty of spaceflight. Even though I obviously know that they survive the moon landing, he still manages to have me on the edge of my seat. Plus, he...[read on]
About Ghost Talkers, from the publisher:
Ghost Talkers: a new novel from beloved fantasy author Mary Robinette Kowal featuring the mysterious spirit corps and their heroic work in World War I.

Ginger Stuyvesant, an American heiress living in London during World War I, is engaged to Captain Benjamin Hartshorne, an intelligence officer. Ginger is a medium for the Spirit Corps, a special Spiritualist force.

Each soldier heading for the front is conditioned to report to the mediums of the Spirit Corps when they die so the Corps can pass instant information about troop movements to military intelligence.

Ginger and her fellow mediums contribute a great deal to the war efforts, so long as they pass the information through appropriate channels. While Ben is away at the front, Ginger discovers the presence of a traitor. Without the presence of her fiance to validate her findings, the top brass thinks she's just imagining things. Even worse, it is clear that the Spirit Corps is now being directly targeted by the German war effort. Left to her own devices, Ginger has to find out how the Germans are targeting the Spirit Corps and stop them. This is a difficult and dangerous task for a woman of that era, but this time both the spirit and the flesh are willing…
Learn more about the book and author at Mary Robinette Kowal's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

My Book, The Movie: Glamour in Glass.

Writers Read: Mary Robinette Kowal.

--Marshal Zeringue