What is S. L. Huang reading?

Featured at Writers Read: S. L. Huang, author of Zero Sum Game (Cas Russell, Volume 1).

From her entry:

I write a lot of science fiction and fantasy. And my favorite inspiration books for that, hands down, are the popular science books of theoretical physicist Dr. Michio Kaku. Dr. Kaku has a fascinating, readable style, and he seems as excited about extrapolating into the future as we fiction writers are.

Two of my longtime favorites by Dr. Kaku are Physics of the Future and Physics of the Impossible. In the first, he talks about what's likely to come true in the coming century, including expansions of space travel, medicine, and artificial intelligence. But for those who want to dive even further into the realm of "what if," Physics of the Impossible speculates about technologies that currently feel far outside our realm. Just how impossible are these advancements, Dr. Kaku asks, and then provides the answer, splitting up science fiction staples like force fields, teleportation, and time travel into categories according to whether they actually violate the laws of physics or whether they're technically possible but we just don't see how to get to them yet. When I was reading Physics of the Impossible, I wanted to read—or write!—an entire library of stories based on Dr. Kaku's reality-based imaginings.

Now I've just started a third Kaku book, The Future of the Mind. Subtitled "The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind," it promises to...[read on]

About Zero Sum Game, from the publisher:

A blockbuster, near-future science fiction thriller, S.L. Huang's Zero Sum Game introduces a math-genius mercenary who finds herself being manipulated by someone possessing unimaginable power…

Cas Russell is good at math. Scary good. The vector calculus blazing through her head lets her smash through armed men twice her size and dodge every bullet in a gunfight, and she'll take any job for the right price.

As far as Cas knows, she’s the only person around with a superpower...until she discovers someone with a power even more dangerous than her own. Someone who can reach directly into people’s minds and twist their brains into Moebius strips. Someone intent on becoming the world’s puppet master.

Cas should run, like she usually does, but for once she's involved. There’s only one problem...

She doesn’t know which of her thoughts are her own anymore.

Visit S. L. Huang's website.

The Page 69 Test: Zero Sum Game.

Writers Read: S. L. Huang.

--Marshal Zeringue