Ep 54 - Kelly Robson's Top 10
Invaders From Planet 3
Author Kelly Robson joins us for the final episode of the special bonus season of Invaders From Planet 3! Kelly shares her list of her Top 10 favourite works of science fiction by other writers.
info_outline
Ep 53 - Joe Haldeman's Favourites
Invaders From Planet 3
Author Joe Haldeman returns to the show in this bonus mini episode to share his thoughts on some of his favourite works of sf, with a special emphasis on comics.
info_outline
Ep 52 - Sebastien de Castell's Top 5
Invaders From Planet 3
Author Sebastien de Castell returns to the show as we count down towards the end of our special bonus season. In this episode, Sebastien shares his Top 5 list of some of his favourite speculative fiction stories by other writers.
info_outline
Ep 51 - Kristi Charish's Top 5
Invaders From Planet 3
Author Kristi Charish returns to the show to share her list of her Top 5 favourite speculative fiction movies.
info_outline
Ep 50 - Robert Charles Wilson's Top 5
Invaders From Planet 3
The bonus season continues with author Robert Charles Wilson. In this previously-unaired mini interview, Bob shares his list of his Top 5 favourite works of speculative fiction.
info_outline
Ep 49 - Minister Faust's Top 5
Invaders From Planet 3
Author Minister Faust returns to the show. This time, he's sharing his list of his Top 5 favourite works of speculative fiction by other writers.
info_outline
Ep 48 - Alyx Dellamonica's Top 5
Invaders From Planet 3
Author Alyx Dellamonica returns for the show's bonus season to share her list of her Top 5 favourite works of speculative fiction by other writers. And she throws in some bonus recommendations, including a book to help aspiring writers.
info_outline
Ep 47 - David Nickle's Top 5
Invaders From Planet 3
Author David Nickle returns to the show for its bonus season. In this previously-unaired mini interview, he shares a Top 5 list of noteworthy speculative fiction stories.
info_outline
Ep 46 - Matt Ruff's Top 5
Invaders From Planet 3
Author Matt Ruff joins us in this previously-unaired mini interview as the bonus season of the show continues! Matt shares his list of his Top 5 favourite works of speculative fiction by other writers.
info_outline
Ep 45 - Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Top 5
Invaders From Planet 3
Author Silvia Moreno-Garcia joins us for this mini-episode of the Invaders From Planet 3 bonus season. She shares her list of her Top 5 favourite works of speculative fiction by other writers.
info_outlineAuthor Matt Ruff joins us in this episode, where he talks about how books like Bertrand R. Brinley's The Mad Scientists' Club made him fall in love with scientific thinking and science fictional ideas. He also tells us how being given a box of Robert A. Heinlein's adult books at the age of 9 got him thinking critically about stories, and how they could be written better. And he discusses other influences over the years, such as Stephen King, John Crowley's Little, Big, Neal Stephenson, and William Gibson.
Matt shares his thoughts on writing, including how to know when something is written well, crafting stories that are in conversation with the works of other authors, and why he doesn't like to go back over the same ground. We also talk about a trope he frequently explores in his stories: the challenges of dealing with power — getting on in a world where power imbalances exist.
This leads us into a discussion about Matt's latest work: his mosaic novel Lovecraft Country, about an African-American family in the 1950s dealing with the supernatural machinations of a Lovecraftian cult, as well as the day-to-day horrors of racism in the U.S. Matt talks about confronting the racism and sexism in Lovecraft's work. He also shares this thoughts about the importance of doing a good job on the writing, and of finding common ground, as a white author writing about African-Americans. And we talk about last week's announcement that Jordan Peele, Misha Green, and J.J. Abrams will be producing a Lovecraft Country series for HBO, and how he's okay with adaptations and letting TV writers play with his ideas.
Our interview took place in May 2017 at Matt's home in Seattle.
Find out more about Matt Ruff on his website:
Visit iTunes to subscribe to Invaders From Planet 3 and download episodes, and be sure to rate the show while you're there!