Human Voices, Alien Conversations

Ok, it is a bit cheeky to review a book that I am in. But this is me getting interviewed, not me writing, and anyway there are plenty of much more interesting sections for you to read.

Human Voices, Alien Conversations is a collection of interviews conducted by James Machell. The idea is to cover the breadth of the field by talking, not just to authors, but also to artists, editors and critics, and to include minor names as well as big ones. Which is doubtless how I got in.

The authors run the gamut from Chip Delany and Pat Cadigan to P Djèlí Clark and Ai Jiang. The Delany interview is perhaps the most disappointing in the book. Machell admits that it was the first he did and he was still learning. His questions are very short, and the answers shorter. But it does contain this gem:

Machell: Is there any advice you would give to an aspiring writer?
Delany: Don’t be a writer. You will just be unhappy.

In contrast, Ken Liu has written short essays in reply to some of the questions. And John Clute is, well John Clute.

The artist interviews include what sadly became the last ever interview given by Chris Moore, so the book is notable just for that.

Neil Clarke, inevitably, gets asked about the plague of AI slop. His response to that question is almost two pages long.

One of the stranger choices for interview is Matthew Holness, a former actor who now writes novels under the name, Garth Marenghi, an author character that he once played in a TV comedy. I’m unfamiliar with either aspect of Holness’s work, but I applaud Machell for his breadth of interest.

The other interviewees are Bogi Takács, Paolo Bacigalupi, John Picacio, Samantha Mills, Jeff Noon, and Steven Youll. If insight into how the various parts of the SF&F community works is of interest to you, this book is worth a look. Thanks for including me, James.

Title: Human Voices, Alien Conversations
By: James Machell
Publisher: Space Cowboy Books
Purchase links:
Amazon UK
Amazon US
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