Sci Fi for economists

Those of us who blog about economics books don't get out all that much in Literary London, but this evening I had the pleasure of attending the launch of Francis Spufford's superb new novel about the economics of central planning (and much else), Red Plenty. For more on that, see my earlier post. (It was at the excellent Daunt's in Holland Park.)

Amongst the many people I met were dignitaries of the UK Science Fiction Foundation. They highly recommended Charles Stross – see for example his novel Accelerando – as sci fi for economists. It's a new name to me but regular readers of this blog will know my theory about economists and certain types of genre fiction. Not just me: Paul Krugman made the same connection in an essay he once wrote about how Isaac Asimov got him into economics.

By the by, the BBC's technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones (@ruskin147) – and my beloved husband – was at this evening's launch too and took this photo of Francis Spufford.