Wired, the San Francisco, Calif.-based magazine and digital publication, has launched a book club as a part of its expanding culture coverage. Its first selection is N.K. Jemisin’s Hugo Award-nominated The Fifth Season, the first in the author’s Broken Earth series, which chronicles the apocalyptic changes to the planet wrought by climate change and centuries of oppression.
The book club will lead up to an online chat with Jemisin, featuring questions submitted by Wired readers.
While a publication that cut its teeth reporting on emerging technology might not seem like a logical candidate to launch a book club, the endeavor is part of an effort to expand its culture coverage. Befitting this, the magazine renamed its Entertainment section earlier this year; it is now called Culture.
“As time went on, we became increasingly aware that there was so much more to culture than pop culture,” said the magazine's Culture senior editor Peter Rubin. “Ramping up our lit coverage as a whole is one of the thrusts of that shift."
The club, which limits itself to science fiction and fantasy titles, chose Jemisin’s The Fifth Season for a number of reasons. First, as Rubin put it, the book has been out “for a minute,” and was originally published in trade paperback, making its acquisition easy and inexpensive for interested readers.
Wired had also, in fact, covered the novel before; its syndicated podcast, David Barr Kirtley’s “The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy," spoke with Jemisin shortly after the book was published, with Kirtley later writing a piece about the interview as well. And finally, Rubin liked the way the book straddled genre and defied stereotypes.
As for Jemisin, the idea of being featured in a book club on Wired surprised her as much as anyone.
“The first that I heard of the book club was them asking if I could do a Skype or online sit-down with members who’d like to join in,” she said. “I think it’s kind of an awesome thing—the idea of reaching all of Wired’s customers, who are sort of prime science fiction and fantasy territory.”
Nonetheless, the prospect of an online chat feels a bit daunting to Jemisin—especially if participants are eager to question her on the science in her novel.
“I surmise I might get quizzed on my knowledge of seismology,” she said. “That’s my fear. In which case, we’ll see what happens.”
