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The Cosmic Codex

The Cosmic Codex

By: Brian Scott Pauls
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Summary
 Living in a science fiction universe...

www.thecosmiccodex.comBrian Scott Pauls Art Literary History & Criticism Science Fiction
Episodes
  • Frank Herbert’s “Dune” and Sharia water law

    Frank Herbert’s “Dune” and Sharia water law
    Nov 14 2026
    An interview with Grace Robinson, presenter at the 2026 Sturgeon Symposium on the University of Kansas campus in October, about Frank Herbert's "Dune" and Sharia water law.Do you or someone you know need professional tech guidance for your author, coaching, or independent publishing business? If so, check out our sponsor Cloudessy, providing fractional Chief Technology Officer services. Simplify your tech stack, prevent launch failures, and build systems that actually support growth.https://marketing.cloudessy.com/30-minute-tech-stack-update/The following interview occurred November 6, 2026. This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.Brian Pauls: Welcome, Grace, to the Cosmic Codex. Very glad to have you here.Grace Robinson: Thank you, I’m glad to be here.Brian: I would like to start out and find out from you, before we get into your paper and Dune: what was the impetus for your interest in speculative fiction in the first place?1Grace: I will have to blame my brother for this one. He was really, really, really into Star Wars growing up, and so every time it was, “What movie are we going to watch? What book are we going to read?” it was always Star Wars. Growing up with that, and especially with the Star Wars: The Clone Wars cartoon when we were kids—I remember Saturday mornings, we would get so excited because my mom would put it on the TV for us.I’ve always been a big reader, and I read Dune for the first time when I was probably 12 or 13. I didn’t really revisit it until I wrote this paper, and it was really cool to reread the book and see what I missed when I was 12. When you read it for the first time at that age, you don’t understand all of the different things that are moving around and the bigger powers at play. So I thought it was a really cool book to reread, but also to write a paper about.Brian: You mentioned you were a big reader. That is not as common as it once was, because there are so many distractions. You can spend your time on video games, you can spend your time on programming computers, you can spend your time watching YouTube videos—and that’s not to mention the distractions that have been around for years, like just television. So I’m wondering, what for you made you a reader, regardless of what type of genre or fiction or nonfiction you were reading?Grace: It was definitely my parents. From a very young age, they encouraged us to read. Growing up, I always remember getting upset with my parents—“My other friends are doing XYZ things”—and my parents were like, “No, we’re going to read, we’re going to enrich our minds and not worry about what the other people are doing.”I think it also helped to have them as role models. My dad doesn’t read books all the time necessarily, but he’ll sit and read the news for an hour every day. And my mom was a big reader growing up as well, so having her as a role model—“Okay, my mom reads all the time, so I’m going to read all the time.”My favorite gift that I ever got, I think, was actually my first Kindle, because then I had every book I could ever want at the press of a button. That was kind of a game changer for me. Now I have a Kindle as well, and I have a Kindle stand and page-turner buttons that I can use to read. So I think there are ways now that make it easier to read.But it is hard when there are a lot of distractions. I don’t think I read very much when I was in my undergraduate degree, just because it’s so busy and there’s so much going on. Probably my junior or senior year, I was like, “Wait a minute, I really miss reading,” and then I picked it back up—reading for fun.Brian: I think that’s natural. I’ve certainly gone through phases in my life when I have read less, even though I also started out as a voracious reader, and have kind of come back to it. It depends on what season of life you’re in. But kudos to your parents. I think it’s tremendously important, for not just intellectual development but development as a citizen, to be able to read, digest, and analyze complex information and make up your mind.Speaking of that, you have gone into a rather complex, language-oriented field. You are a graduate student in law, is that correct?Grace: Yes, I am.Brian: Tell us a little bit about what led you down that path.Grace: When I was in high school, I completed a mock trial program through my school, and it was one of the more fun things I had done in high school. I was a competitive swimmer, and when I blew out my shoulder, I needed to find something to do, so I ended up starting with mock trial. I wasn’t necessarily the best at it, but it was a lot of fun to be in a courtroom and present a case and try to win.Going into college, I knew that I wanted something that made me more relatable to people, because—no shade to a lot of the attorneys, but some of the most incredible attorneys I know are also not the best at speaking with people or interacting as ...
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    1 hr and 11 mins
  • INTERVIEW: Science fiction writer Alex T. Singer

    INTERVIEW: Science fiction writer Alex T. Singer
    Nov 6 2026
    An interview with Alex T. Singer, winner of the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for the best science fiction short story published in 2025, for her novelette "We the Fleet."Do you or someone you know need professional tech guidance for your author, coaching, or independent publishing business? If so, check out our sponsor Cloudessy, providing fractional Chief Technology Officer services. Simplify your tech stack, prevent launch failures, and build systems that actually support growth.https://marketing.cloudessy.com/30-minute-tech-stack-update/Brian Pauls: Alex, welcome to The Cosmic Codex. I appreciate you taking the time to come and talk with us.Alex T. Singer: I appreciate being here. Thank you very much.Brian Pauls: Well, I would like to start with a question about your background with speculative fiction. How did you get started with an interest in speculative fiction, in particular science fiction?Alex T. Singer: Well, like a lot of people, I’ve been interested in speculative fiction my whole life. It was ingrained in me very early on by the books my parents read to me. My father actually read 2001: A Space Odyssey to me at a very formative age.1 Then he showed me the movie, and apparently Kubrick meant nothing to me, because I was just annoyed it wasn’t the book.Brian Pauls: I get that. I have the same attitude toward movies a lot of times. But exposing you to quality science fiction…Alex T. Singer: Oh, yes. My father was one of those people whose taste in novels went very, very highbrow. He was very interested in the high-concept stuff. He taught me to read using Moby-Dick, so there you go.2Brian Pauls: Oh, wow. The full text, not a slimmed-down kids’ version?Alex T. Singer: No, full text. He was explaining the themes to me as he was also explaining how to spell “whale.”Brian Pauls: Were you able to explain what ambergris was at a young age?Alex T. Singer: Yes. I think I confused a few of my first-grade teachers when I brought that one in as a book report.Brian Pauls: Well, I love Moby-Dick, so kudos to your dad. I’m guessing this turned you into a lifelong reader early on.Alex T. Singer: Yes, it did. I was also going to say that I’m very lucky my grandfather was also a writer. He was trained as an intelligence officer during World War II. The war ended before he was able to deploy, but he had all that intelligence training, so he wrote a lot of conspiracy thrillers.3Brian Pauls: Oh, wow. What an example.Alex T. Singer: Oh, sure. The biggest one he ever did was The Parallax View. It was well known enough that it even got a movie adaptation once upon a time. Warren Beatty was in it, so it was a very cool thing.4Brian Pauls: That gives me something to go track down. It’s hard to get my wife to watch science fiction movies, but I bet I could get her to watch that.Alex T. Singer: Oh yeah, especially because it ended up in the bones of so many conspiracy thrillers.Brian Pauls: My next question—I think you lit on it. It’s one thing to be interested in science fiction, but you became a writer. How did that happen?Alex T. Singer: Well, my grandfather, mostly. He was very encouraging. He would have me sit with him and show him the stories I’d write, and he’d give very gentle but firm feedback. He was very good at telling me, very gently, “You’re using a few too many adverbs, Alex.” He always made the time for me, and he was a very good mentor like that to a lot of young writers.Brian Pauls: Well, that is fantastic. And obviously, you have just won the Sturgeon Award.5 Tell us a little bit about the story that got you the award.Alex T. Singer: Certainly. “We, the Fleet” was my Sturgeon-winning story.6 It was a short story—”short” is relative; it was really more of a novelette—about a first contact from the point of view of the alien. She is basically a hive mind. I based them very heavily on ants and bees, using their social structure with a techno-organic aspect to make them completely unlike humans.Brian Pauls: Explain that for us. That’s a word I don’t know.Alex T. Singer: Oh, techno-organic?Brian Pauls: Techno-organic. Okay, sorry, I misunderstood. Got it.Alex T. Singer: Techno-organic is that fusion of the technological and the biological to make a new kind of creature that has some anatomical references while also being very machine-like in its aspects and mindset. So when she encounters a human for the first time, she has no context for what we are. It was a short story about connections—about de-othering the other, essentially. Because of that, I wanted to start with the point of view of a creature that would normally have been considered the villain in a lot of classic science fiction.Brian Pauls: I met you at the Sturgeon Symposium recently, where you read the story to us.7 One of the things I said to you afterward is that I found something touching about your story: you have a discussion in there about what family means. I’m paraphrasing, and...
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    32 mins
  • SF COMMUNITY: Club Codex Selections (2026-2027)

    SF COMMUNITY: Club Codex Selections (2026-2027)
    Oct 30 2026
    Do you or someone you know need professional tech guidance for your author, coaching, or independent publishing business? If so, check out our sponsor Cloudessy, providing fractional Chief Technology Officer services. Simplify your tech stack, prevent launch failures, and build systems that actually support growth.https://marketing.cloudessy.com/30-minute-tech-stack-update/Club Codex, the official book club for The Cosmic Codex, offers a convenient way to discuss award-winning science fiction novels and collections. Each month, I’ll read a new selection and post my thoughts in the discussion thread. You’re welcome to participate, or just follow along—whatever works best for you!See below for our upcoming selections.November 2026In the Belly of the Whale by Michael FlynnWinner of the 2025 Prometheus Award for Best Novel of libertarian science fiction1Aboard a vast generation ship, the founders’ rigid rules for keeping humanity alive harden over the centuries into separate societies divided by class, belief, and identity. As those divisions deepen, talk of rebellion spreads through the crew, and the voyage becomes a test of how far people will go to win their freedom.2December 2026Time of the Cat by Tansy Rayner RobertsWinner of the 2023 Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Novel written by an Australian citizen or permanent resident3At Chronos College, humans and cats travel through time for a living, and the job is pure joy apart from the occasional lost traveler, or lost cat. A chance to rescue a missing legend sends the team to the 1960s, if they can persuade Professor Boswell, a famously cranky marmalade tabby, to come along.4January 2027Some Desperate Glory by Emily TeshWinner of the 2024 Hugo Award for Best Novel5Kyr has spent her life on Gaea Station among humanity’s last survivors, training to avenge Earth’s destruction. When her superiors send her brother to certain death and assign her to the nursery to bear sons, she breaks away with his rebellious friend and an imprisoned alien, and discovers a universe stranger and richer than anything she was taught.6February 2027Cassandra in Reverse by Holly SmaleWinner of the 2024 Audie Award for Science Fiction audiobook7Cassie remembers everything and understands almost nothing about other people. After one disastrous day costs her a relationship, a job, and her local café’s banana muffins, she discovers she can travel back in time and undo her mistakes. Unlimited do-overs, however, may not be enough to set things right.8March 2027The Artificial Man and Other Stories by Clare Winger HarrisClare Winger Harris, winner of the 2024 Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award for underread science fiction and fantasy authors9Ten pulp stories from a pioneering woman of early twentieth-century science fiction, selected and introduced by scholar Brad Ricca. Giant insects, Martians thirsty for Earth’s water, and a journey back to ancient Rome fill a collection that shows how much the young genre owed to a writer it largely forgot.10April 2027Cahokia Jazz by Francis SpuffordWinner of the 2023 Sidewise Award for Best Long-Form Alternate History11In an alternate 1922 where the great Indigenous city of Cahokia never fell, the Mississippi metropolis has become an industrial hub of many races and faiths, held together by a fragile peace. When two detectives find a body on a skyscraper roof one snowy night, a week of upheaval follows that may destroy that world or remake it.12May 2027A New Eden by Menilik Henry DyerWinner of the 2024 Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Novel of New Zealand science fiction and fantasy13On a future Earth ruled by the Fermion Party, which preaches immortality through uploading into a simulated metaverse, four astronauts training on Mars become targets for assassination. Launched early in four ships guided by four AIs, they set out as uploaded minds to find habitable worlds, reunite across the stars, and survive first contact while the Fermions hunt them down.14June 2027Uncertain Sons and Other Stories by Thomas HaWinner of the 2026 Locus Award for Best Collection and the 2026 World Fantasy Award for Best Collection15Thomas Ha’s debut collection turns on familial love and trauma, set against societal and technological anxieties, questions of identity and class, and near futures slightly askew from our own. The title novelette won the 2026 Nebula Award.16July 2027Ancillary Justice by Ann LeckieWinner of the 2024 Hugo Award for Best Series, and of the 2014 Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke Awards17Breq was once the warship Justice of Toren, an AI commanding thousands of soldier bodies for the conquering empire of the Radch. After an act of treachery ripped that life away, she survives in a single human body, on a remote, icy world and closing in on the revenge she has pursued ever since.18August 2027Ancillary Sword by Ann LeckieWinner of the 2024 Hugo Award for Best Series19Now serving the Radch’s ruler and seeking atonement for...
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    21 mins
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