my Wikipedia entry
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on InfiniteRegress.tv: my reviews of 24, Battlestar Galactica, Big Love, Brotherhood, Californication, Dexter, Heroes, In Treatment, John Adams, Lost, Mad Men, Tell Me You Love Me, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, The Tudors, The Wire, Weeds ... plus new tech, the odd movie, and the Presidential debates
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or get it on your phone, any time 415-223-4122 ... talking about new tech, popular culture, tv, movies, cars, food, lifestyles, science fiction, politics...
I'm proud to be on the May 8 page of this calendar, with the following quote: "What begins as a seemingly innocent campaign against indecency . . . always segues in short order into political censorship."
I'm author of five science fiction novels - the latest is The Plot to Save Socrates , now in inexpensive trade paperback, click on the title to learn more, message me to find out how you can purchase an autographed copy at no additional expense!
from the dust jacket: In the year 2042, Sierra, a young graduate student, is shown a new dialog of Socrates, recently discovered, in which a time traveler tries to argue that Socrates might escape death by use of a clone and travel to the future. Thomas, the elderly scholar who has shown her the document, disappears, and Sierra immediately begins to track down the origins of the manuscript, with the help of her classical scholar boyfriend, Max. The trail leads her to time machines in the Millennium Club in New York and the Parthenon Club in London, into the past and into the future. Complications, mysteries, travels, and time loops grow as Sierra tries to discover who is planning to save the greatest philosopher in human history, or do so herself. Historical characters who make appearances include not only Socrates, but Plato, Alcibiades, Benjamin Jowett, William Henry Appleton - the great 19th century American publisher - and the ancient inventor Heron of Alexandria.
Praise for THE PLOT TO SAVE SOCRATES
"challenging fun"--Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller"--New York Daily News
"a fun book to read"--Dallas Morning News
"Levinson spins a fascinating tale ... An intriguing premise with believable characters and attention to period detail make this an outstanding choice for most science fiction collections. Highly recommended."--Library Journal <[b>starred review]
"Light, engaging time-travel yarn . . . neatly satisfies the circularity inherent in time travel, whose paradoxes Levinson links to Greek philosophy."--Publishers Weekly
"intricately and intriguingly woven, lots of fun, and extremely thought provoking."--Stanley Schmidt
"This is a dazzling performance. . . .History as science fiction; science fiction as history."--Barry N. Malzberg
"Paul Levinson has outdone himself: The Plot to Save Socrates is a philosophically rich gem full of big ideas and wonderful time-travel tricks." --Robert J. Sawyer
"proves that excellent entertainment can and ought to be intellectually respectable--a glorious example to us all."--Brian Stableford
"as happens with Kurt Vonnegut's Billy Pilgrim . . . . the reader soon becomes unstuck in time . . . . Levinson presents one of the most unique books I've ever encountered. A highly recommened read."--Matt St. Amand
"quick-to-read, entertaining treatment of the problems inherent in time travel with style and flair"--Booklist
"readers are sure to enjoy his take on the paradoxes of time travel"--BookPage
"Paul Levinson's new novel is both very different from anything he has done before and very satisfying. . . . This, I think, is the first of Levinson's novels to deserve to be called a tour de force. Watch for it on award ballots."--Analog: Science Fiction and Fact
"it's exciting to see a book as daring with both its ideas and its approach to narrative structure as this one hit the shelves . . . It's an absolute treat to sit back and be wrapped up in a story that gives a retro SF premise like time travel such a brilliant new kick, and it's doubly delightful to find the story as fun and entertaining as it is thought-provoking."--SF Reviews.net
"Paul Levinson brings both intellectual heft and affection for his delightfully depicted characters to this highly original story of time travel . . . bringing all of its threads together in an ending that is emotionally satisfying and extremely moving. The Plot to Save Socrates will provoke thought long after readers have finished the book, at which point many may want to pick it up and read it again, to savor its twists and turns."--Pamela Sargent, SFWeekly
"Fast-paced and full of plot twists."--Davis Enterprise (California)
"an elaborately-reasoned temporal tale - a novelized thought experiment whose logic and ideas Socrates would have approved of"--John Joseph Adams, intergalacticmedicineshow.com
"a philosophically rich, engaging time travel story . . . a charming portrayal of Socrates"--Fantasybookspot.com
"a fun romp through 2500 years of Western history"--freshfiction.com
"resonates with the current political climate . . . . heroine Sierra Waters is sexy as hell . . . . there's a bite to Levinson's wit"--Brian Charles Clark, Curled Up With A Good Book at curledup.com
"There's a delightfully old-fashioned feel to The Plot to Save Socrates. . . . Levinson's cool, spare style reminded me of the writing of Isaac Asimov. . ."--Colin Harvey, Strange Horizons at strangehorizons.com
"I've never read anything like this before . . . The Plot to Save Socrates is highly, original, creative, and engaging. I enjoyed it from the first page."--Book.of.the.moment. at myspace.com/book_of_the_moment
"revels in the possibilities for paradoxes . . . . fresh and welcome. . . ." --Steven Silver's Reviews at www.sfsite.com/~silverag
"frankly, he [Levinson] is one of my 'read on sight' authors . . . The Plot to Save Socrates is a tapestry of times and characters and philosophies, with an excellent look at history. . . ."--Jerry Wright, Bewildering Stories at bewilderingstories.com
"A thinking person's time travel story... I felt like I was there."--John DeNardo, SF Signal
"a very intelligently written novel . . . ."--GF Willmetts, at SFcrowsnest.com
"Paul Levinson handles a complicated plot and a multitude of characters in a manner that can only be described as masterful. . . . I highly recommend this book, and I won't be surprised if it wins several awards."--Scott M. Sandridge, specmusicmuse
"a journey through time that’ll make you think as it thrills ... so accessible, even those generally put off by sci-fi should enjoy the trip."--Rod Lott, bookgasm.com
"This book was a lot of fun, and surprisingly poignant at the end. (Yes, I'll admit I cried a little.) . . . I was worried this would be a fairly cold sci-fi book, where I never got to like any of the characters, but somehow by halfway through I found I really cared about them. I'm not sure how Levinson managed that . . . but somehow they all just got inside me."--Lady Amalthea, eharlequin.com
". . . a new metaphor for the literary tradition of time travel."--Robert Blechman, blogcritics.org
"Socrates has always seemed a rather dour and dull figure to me but Paul Levinson breathes new life into this time."--Debbie, ck2skwipsandkritiques.com
"an extremely engaging, entertaining story. . ."--Laurie Thayer, Rambles.net
listen to the first chapter ... a quiet, late-evening reading ..
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read the first chapter of The Plot to Save Socrates ... FREE!
See also How I Came to Write The Plot to Save Socrates !
first part of the sequel to The Plot to Save Socrates - Unburning Alexandria - to be published in Analog: The Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy in the summer of 2008...
sneak preview of the cover art...
Sierra Waters in NYC, date unknown
Join Sierra Waters, time traveler group here on MySpace...
"Millennium" Club, late 20th century, NYC
Jean-Baptiste Régnault, 1785, Socrates dragging Alcibiades from the Embrace of S.
Other novels are The Silk Code (1999), The Consciousness Plague (2002), and The Pixel Eye (2003) -- all three featuring the exploits of NYPD forensic detective Dr. Phil D'Amato (which began with a shorter piece, "The Chronology Protection Case", published in Analog Magazine in 1995) -- and Borrowed Tides (2001).
Enjoy Shaun Farrell's free podiobook reading of The Silk Code...
Awards: The Silk Code won the Locus Award for best first science fiction novel of 1999; short fiction nominated for Hugo, Nebula, Edgar, and Sturgeon Awards
Film: low-budget movie of "The Chronology Protection Case"(my award-nominated novelette) made by Jay Kensinger in 2002.
Audiobooks: radio-play of novelette "The Chronology Protection Case" (2005), and novels The Consciousness Plague (2005), and The Plot to Save Socrates (2006) - all narrated by Mark Shanahan.
and here's a trailer for Jay Kensinger's 2002 movie of my novelette
The Chronology Protection Case! .. ..
I've been an avid reader and viewer of science fiction all of my life, and was President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), 1998-2001.
I'm also author of lots of other short stories - about 20 now available on www.fictionwise.com , including "Albert's Cradle," my first professionally published short story, appearing in Amazing Stories in 1993, and many other stories originally published in Analog Magazine in the 1990s, including "The Way of Flesh," "The Chronology Protection Case," "The Copyright Notice Case," "The Mendelian Lamp Case," "Loose Ends," "Little Differences," "Late Lessons,""The Orchard," "The Suspended Fourth," "Advantage Bellarmine," and "The Man Who Brought Down The New York Times"
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alpha centauri -the song
I've also written eight non-fiction books -including Cellphone: The Story of the World's Most Mobile Medium (2004), Realspace: The Fate of Physical Presence in the Digital Age (2003), Digital McLuhan (1999), The Soft Edge (1998), Electronic Chronicles (1992) and Mind at Large (1988) - translated into ten languages around the world. And I've written hundreds of articles, published in Newsday, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Village Voice, and all kinds of newspapers, magazines, and journals and anthologies.
I'm on TV and radio at least 5-10 months a month, including an interview every Sunday morning, 7:20am Pacific time/10:20am Eastern time, on KNX 1070 all-news radio out of Southern California ... click here for live streaming and click here for complete list of interviews from July 2006-present.
IMDb.com details are under Paul Levinson (I) . I'm also interviewed a few times a week by AP, Reuters, the New York Times, Newsday, the New York Daily News, USA Today, Us Weekly, etc. about various media issues of the day.
Here's a video of my January 23, 2004 appearance on O'Reilly - I'm defending the right of Youngstown, Ohio TV news anchor Catherine Bosley to keep her job, after she had been videotaped, naked, in a wet t-shirt contest in Florida. . .
And here's a video of me on the Discovery Channel - December 2006 - talking about the cell phone
More videoclips of my conversations and debates with Bill O'Reilly, Pat Buchanan, Jesse Ventura, Ray Suarez, Joe Scarborough, Brent Bozell, Kelly Wallace, and other players are on YouTube -check 'em out!
When I'm not writing or talking to the media, I teach at Fordham University - where I'm Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication and Media Studies. Here am I making five profound points, simultaneously, at a lecture I gave at Fordham University's Lincoln Center Campus in September 2006.
I like to garden, love grape juice, tea (green, white) and Cape Cod, where we vacation every summer. I collect old postcards, tradecards, old books, and antique pens. I'm happily married, with two kids who are now adults and both real winners. My top two current favorite TV shows are Lost and Battlestar Galactica.
I'm a songwriter - one of my songs, "Hung Up On Love" (co-written with Mikie Harris) was recorded by my group, The Other Voices (consisting of Stu Nitekman, Ira Margolis, and me), produced by Ellie Greenwich and Mike Rashkow, and released on Atlantic Records in 1968 - it was reissued on Rhino Handmade's "Come to the Sunshine" compilation CD in 2004. I've recently reunited with Stu and Ira (we originally were called The New Outlook), and we're converting our old records into MP3s. I started a record company - HappySad Records - in 1972, and released one album, "Twice Upon A Rhyme" (recently talked about a lot in Japan -it's Beatles circa Rubber Soul, maybe a little more psychedelic with some folk and pop mixed in) and a bunch of singles. Four of our songs and details about lots of this are on my music page here at myspace - myspace.com/paullevinsonthenewoutlook and blog.myspace.com/paullevinsonthenewoutlook .
Hey - James Harris just did a great cover of my song, "Looking for Sunsets (in the Early Morning)" ... listen to it right here !RECENT WRITTEN INTERVIEWS WITH ME - 26 February 2008, Pillow Talk ... 18 January 2008, emonome ... 13 January 2008, SL-Lost ... 1 December 2007, BookPleasures ... September 2007, Smoking Poet ...
featured radio interviews: Patrick Rands interviewed me for an hour on June 30, 2006, about my music, with 14 songs I wrote or recorded ...You can listen to it right here ..
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featured podcast interviews: Jason Rennie interviewed me on December 16, 2006 about science fiction and philosophy on The SciPhi Show .. and again on March 10, 2008 on The SciPhi Show about Robert Heinlein and Barack Obama ... Shaun Farrell interviewed me on March 28, 2007 about science fiction and the academic world on Adventures in Scifi Publishing ... Stephen Euin Cobb interviewed me on February 6, 2008 about nanotechnology, SETI, the Fermi Paradox, the probability and impact of our finding another Earth, and more on The Future and You ... Maia Whitaker interviewed me on Feburary 26, 2008 about how to promote your writing on the Web, plus we talked a little about Barack Obama on The Knitwitch Zone ...
and check out my weekly podcast - Light On Light Through - also available on iTunes ... 15-20-minute takes on new tech, popular culture, tv, movies, science fiction, the First Amendment, the works...
E-mail me directly about the podcast any time!
Light On Light Through podcast playing in Second Life
a few all-time favorite quotes:
"the only people who have proof of their sanity are those who have been discharged from mental institutions" -- Marshall McLuhan
"rain, I don't mind" -- John Lennon
"success is an enemy to the losers of the day" -- Phil Ochs
"darkness washed over the Dude - darker than a black steer's toochas on a moonless prairie night" -- The Big Lebowski
"a college education I would never propose/a bachelor's degree won't even keep you in clothes" -- Cole Porter
"better to reign in Hell than serve in Heav'n" -- John Milton
"the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence" -- Louis Brandeis
More details on all of this and much more, including transcripts of some of my O'Reilly Factor and other TV interviews, excerpts from reviews of my books, and three other (free) MP3s, are on my main web page: www.sff.net/people/paullevinson
visit my Soft Edge bookshop in Second Life!
BEST FIRSTS: SCIENCE FICTION! ... my list ... add your favorites ... change the ranking!
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my Wikipedia entry
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I'm the avatar on the left, interviewed by Kenny Hubble on the right, in Second Life on 5 November 2007
my vidcast on Blip.tv: Paul Levinson Lectures on Freedom and Media
a more recent picture of Sierra Waters,
likely in NYC, likely taken later than
the picture above, date not known...