In this episode the guys share their thoughts on Star Wars: The Force Awakens, tackling some deep philosophical questions.  What's the best kind of lightsaber fight?  Are wookies mammals?  Does JJ Abrams know how space works?  Where are all the A-Wings?

After that, George, Nathan, and Peter talk about the Martian, and the many rescues and non-rescues of Matt Damon.  Super-hero / noir series Jessica Jones gets a lot of love, and George gets up on his soapbox, which it turns out is full of comic books.

Meanwhile, Peter's been playing The Witness, and reading Lev Grossman's Magician series, which Nathan agrees is pretty great.

George invents a new segment of drive-by-pop-culture-ry, and some good times are spent with The Library at Mount Char, Grimes, and assorted boardgames.  Nathan fiends for the Black Blood of the Earth, and George shares his (terrifying) historical reading list, featuring Colt 6000 and Command & Control.

It's our first episode with a guest host! We're joined by virtual reality talk show host Will Smith to discuss Aurora, by Kim Stanley Robinson. 

What's Aurora, you ask? Well, you should probably read the book before you listen to the episode, but it's a touching tale of generation ships, systems ecology, island biodiversity, emergent AI, and what happens when you throw a bunch of people into a sealed tube for 140 years.

This is the kind of book that should be right up our metaphorical alleys, since most of us have a deep love of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series and all of us are into spaceships.

Check out Will's virtual reality talk show, FOO TV, and follow him on twitter at @willsmith

As always, you can reach us at lizardpeopledearreaders@gmail.com or tweet to us at @DRLizardPeople. 

Episode 00016's book won the 2015 Hugo Award for best novel. It's The Three-Body Problem, by Cixin Liu! Get excited!