The Incomparable Mothership

The Summer of Sundance comes to an end with “The Natural,” a story of a legendary baseball player—no, we’re not talking about Joe Don Baker as The Whammer, or are we? It’s Bernard Malamud’s take on baseball as American mythology, filtered through the mind of Barry Levinson. Barbara Hershey shocks and confuses, Glenn Close glows, Wilford Brimley is very old and near retirement despite being younger than us, and Robert Redford is so versatile he can play a teenager and a man in his mid-thirties despite being in his late forties. Jason Snell with Philip Michaels, Micheline Maynard, John Siracusa and David J. Loehr.

The Summer of Sundance continues with the paranoid thriller, “Three Days of the Condor.” A devastatingly handsome nerd goes out to buy sandwiches for the office, and the next thing he knows he’s on the run and kidnapping Faye Dunaway… Jason Snell with David J. Loehr, Shelly Brisbin, Paul Weimer, Glenn Fleishman and Dan Moren.

Now the curtain is going up, “The Sting” is starting the show! Snappy patter and jokes, along with the star power of Robert Redford and Paul Newman, drive this story of an elaborate con that goes right—or does it?! Also there’s a lot of Scott Joplin music. Jason Snell with Micheline Maynard, Dr. Drang, Monty Ashley and David J. Loehr.

Eleven books later, our Awards Book Club has finally reached the end of the line. In this episode we cover our last uncovered book, “Shroud” by Adrian Tchaikovsky, recommend some Hugo-nominated short fiction, and rank all eleven books. Plus: What are we reading other than shortlisted novels?! See you next year. Jason Snell with Erika Ensign, Aleen Simms, Heather Berberet and Scott McNulty.

Our Summer of Sundance kicks off with Sundance himself, as we travel back to the end of the old west (and, later, to the garden spot of Bolivia) to visit a couple of robbers, their lady friend, and their not-very-important gang with “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” Did they use enough dynamite? Is Woodcock a little too loyal to his employer? What does it say about the old west when a call for a posse is hijacked by a bicycle salesman? Jason Snell with Dr. Drang, Shelly Brisbin, Philip Michaels and Dan Moren.