Human Voices, Alien Conversations - James Machell

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.

Featuring interviews with:

Ken Liu

Bogi Takács

Paolo Bacigalupi

John Picacio

John Clute

Samuel R. Delany

Samantha Mills

Jeff Noon

Steven Youll

P. Djèlí Clark

Chris Moore

Ai Jiang

Cheryl Morgan

Neil Clarke

Pat Cadigan

Matthew Holness