Human Voices, Alien Conversations
Human Voices, Alien Conversations is a tour through the modern world of speculative fiction, featuring a variety of perspectives. Authors, critics, editors, and artists, legends and new talents, reflect on their passage through words. Interviewees include a TV star turned novelist, the first transgender woman to win a Hugo Award, and the editor of The Best Science Fiction of the Year (2016 – ).
The book takes the form of a literal journey, opening with James Machell stepping off a plane to explore SF. Along the way, he learns the secrets of non-fiction writing from the co-editor and biggest contributor to The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. The intricacies of world building are explained by a bestselling author of epic fantasy. He discovers the background to some of the most iconic images in SF from their artists as well as the literature that inspired them. “Would artificially created animals be kosher to eat?” is just one of the conundrums traversed.
Featuring candid discussions about creative doubt, the pressures of making art under late capitalism, and how AI threatens a new generation of creatives, Human Voices, Alien Conversations snapshots SF before its predictions come true.
Ken Liu
Bogi Tak¡cs
Paolo Bacigalupi
John Picacio
John Clute
Samuel R. Delany
Samantha Mills
Jeff Noon
Steven Youll
P. Dj¨l Clark
Chris Moore
Ai Jiang
Cheryl Morgan
Neil Clarke
Pat Cadigan
Matthew Holness
James Machell 