As with nearly any collection, some of these interviews I loved and some I was not so excited about, although it was interesting to compare and contrast the different authors' responses. I think this collection is worth reading for writers as well as readers of speculative fiction. Actually, some of the interviews have useful advice for any creative.

I appreciated the selection of interviewees, which included authors of many styles of speculative fiction, including several women. I enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about some familiar favorites, as well as being introduced to a few authors I didn’t know. Highlights for me included David Brin, Kij Johnson, Peter Beagle, and Connie Willis. I found these interviews quite amusing as well as insightful.

I also have some new books on my TBR list that were either written by the interviewees or recommended by them.

I was provided an ARC through NetGalley that I volunteered to review.

The interviews in this book were previously published in abridged form in Galaxy's Edge, so readers of that publication may find that the content is somewhat familiar, however in this volume the reviews are published in their entirety (or at least closer to their entirety). This may mean that authors' responses are longer, or more questions are included. I am not a reader ofGalaxy's Edge, and so all of these interviews were new to me, and I enjoyed every one of them, even the ones for authors whose work I have not read, or whose work I have read and not found to my taste.

Personal tastes aside, the list of authors interviewed for this book is enough to entice any fan of the science fiction genre, studded with Hugo and Nebula winners who began writing when it was possible to have interacted personally with the greats like Asimov and Sturgeon, and to have submitted their first attempts at writing to editors like Campbell, himself. The stories that these authors have to tell about their beginnings, while somewhat formulaic and with a distinct tendency to name-check the same names over and over, are like catnip to genre readers hungry for deeper insight into the authors interviewed as well as their forebears in the science fiction publishing industry.

Some of the aforementioned similarities between interviewees' responses may easily be attributed to the fact that they are all asked a similar set of questions, but given how many of the answered the last question about how they'd like to be remembered with similar phrasing, it gives a reader cause to wonder if there's a personality type which lends itself especially well to writing science fiction. It's also possible that they similar responses stem from the authors' similar age range, since they all cite basically the same set of people as inspirational figures, which really displays the fact that these are mostly authors of the same generation.

Since the book itself is due for publication within the week (as of this reading) I sincerely hope that the typos and errata I uncovered in the text have been fixed. These were sometimes erroneous to the point of misspelling the names of others authors interviewed for the book. Likewise, there were a number of formatting errors and possibly entire questions missing from the final interview with David Drake. Even with these errors, this book was an engrossing read that perfectly toed the line between being long enough to provide real, substantial interviews and short enough to avoid reader fatigue. I really recommend this book.

A collection of interviews with science fiction and fantasy writers, where for the most part I enjoyed the sense of meeting authors whose work I do know, but also came away feeling more warmly disposed to those I don't. It opens, as who can blame it, with George RR Martin, current commercial colossus of the field – and not at all someone I'd have expected to refer so often to that most gentle, least brutal of SF authors, Simak. Next up, Jerry Pournelle, who comes across as a real piece of work, but a fascinating one – and I especially enjoyed the bit about how he and his equal and opposite number, Harlan Ellison, were friends in spite of agreeing on absolutely nothing except for hating film producers. And then Nancy Kress, of whose work I was wholly unaware, but who has a very interesting backstory in so far as her path to success was outside the normal contours either of the old SF fan scene, or the modern one which has supplanted it.

It carries on in similar proportion, though obviously the writers you know and don't may be the reverse of mine. So I loved Peter Beagle talking about, by analogy to certain literary stylists, the time he saw a very fast banjo player with not a trace of soul - "Wow, I'd really like to know how to do that, and then not do it". But also Mercedes Lackey and her husband cheerfully admitting that they're the macaroni cheese of the genre, not the gourmet meal. Even someone like Eric Flint, who writes long-running alternate history series, and for Baen, which meant I'd drawn certain conclusions, turns out in fact to be a Marxist with a long history in civil rights activism and no time for libertarians. The one time I tried to read David Brin, I abandoned him within 50 pages, but here he has some gems, as when he says of non-scientist SF writers, "They learned the simple trick in our field, which is that scientists, the best of them, will give very cheap consultations to science fiction authors for the price of pizza and beer or naming a character after them. One of two of the best experts held out for their character to have sex on stage or die gruesomely, depending on their personalities."

And then you've got things like Gene Wolfe's part in the existence of Pringles, and how he got The Book of the New Sun back into proper print with a little help from alcohol. As a rule, the writers are asked how they got into the business, and whether they have any advice, but their answers are so contradictory as to render it fairly useless as a guide; some of them had to plug away for ages, others got published almost without trying. None of which makes it any less interesting a read. And while the bite-size, back-and-forth nature of interviews mean it's an ideal 'phone read, many of the subjects' entries do add up to pretty substantial pieces. I was particularly moved by the Robert Silverberg piece, in which he talks about how, from school through to pro days, he was always the precocious kid, and now he's about the oldest guy still mobile he has to befriend young whippersnappers like George Martin. Hell, eventually I got quite emotional, as he cheerfully explained about all the people he'd outlived, how he doesn't recognise the world anymore - but hey, he's an SF writer, so he was pretty much prepared for that, and he doesn't complain. Doesn't have a Kindle himself, but makes sure his stuff is available there, that sort of thing. So it may not teach you how to make it as a writer, but perhaps it can teach you how to be an old person.

It is also, alas, appallingly proofread, at least in the Netgalley ARC I read – the sort of errors with names and clearly misplaced words which suggest transcription software might have been involved, or at best an intern who doesn't really know the field (now there's a Turing test nobody wants to design). Sometimes it's just annoying, on a spectrum which runs from 'Lynn Carter' through 'Paolo Basset Giulupia' to an award somebody got in 'Japen'. But elsewhere, as in the chat with Mike Resnick (crazily prolific, garlanded to a record-breaking degree, fairly sure I've read something of his but couldn't tell you a title with a gun to my head), it can get genuinely difficult to follow. And even then, whether the help at fault was digital or wetware, getting the first word of the title wrong on the cover...wow. Still, notwithstanding that caveat (and I'm bugged much more than most by this stuff), I really enjoyed it.

Every reader has their favorite author or multiple favorite authors. Just like ice cream it is hard to have just one flavor that you want all the time! Reading about the author can almost be as fun as reading the author. And when one has the chance to read an interview or listen to an interview with their author(s), who can pass that up? I can't, can you? That opportunity to read an interview is what Joy Ward provides in Conversations From The Edge. She has reprinted extended interviews of 24 authors and 1 editor that originally had appeared in The Galaxy's Edge.

The book opens with a George R. R. Martin interview from May 2016 and closes with a David Drake interview from July 2018. There are interviews with Peter Beagle, Eric Flint, David Gerrold, David Weber, Connie Willis, and Harry Turtledove. Toni Weisskope of editor of Baen Books is also interviewed. My favorite interviews were with Peter Beagle and Harry Turtledove. The most disappointing interview for was with Larry Niven. And of all the authors interviewed, only one was new to me.

Conversations From the Edge provide a frank look into how authors got into writing and how they want to be remembered. So read this book and find out if your favorite author is interviewed.

I requested this book because there were interviews with some of my favorite fantasy/sci-fi writer.
I'm happy I read it because it was great to learn something new about them and their work.
I wasn't disappointed and read the book as fast as I could.
Recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Conversations From the Edge: The Galaxy's Edge Interviews
by Joy Ward (interviewer)
Arc Manor
Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Titles
Biographies & Memoirs , Sci Fi & Fantasy


Joy Ward is a veteran journalist and has been doing interviews for Galaxy’s Edge since the beginning. These are the interviews collected here: a long list of major science fiction and fantasy writers and editors (see below).



Ward's best ability is to get at the personal side of the authors, although she does manage to coax out good writing tips from some. Some of the interviews--if you've read about the authors before--will be familiar, George R. R. Martin, for instance. But some writers have evolved, so that the Kij Johnson I interviewed a decade and a half earlier differs from the Kij Johnson that Joy Ward interviewed.



Some interviews are touching simply because the writers are no longer with us: Jerry Pournelle and Gene Wolfe. The Pournelle interview gains new interest following the interview with his friend and collaborator, Larry Niven. Some older writers like Terry Brooks, Robert Silverberg, Lois McMaster Bujold, and Joe Haldeman seem to feel outside the field at present.



Speaking of Niven and Pournelle collaborations, a substantial number of writers discuss their collaborations: Mercedes Lackey, Larry Dixon, Eric Flint, and David Gerrold.



The most revealing interview is last one: David Drake. He shares a rather stunning, personal story that I was unfamiliar with, so that my interest in his work is now piqued. Most readers, I suspect, will be writer wannabees, but Drake's intimate revelation makes me wonder if interviewees have been missing out on not making themselves as interesting as the work itself.



Some interviews have been expanded from the original publication. There is some redundancy in reintroducing the author: with new and original introductions. One introduction might prove sufficient.



Interviews include the following writers and editors and something of what you will find:

George R.R. Martin (turns a dead end into a superhighway)
Jerry Pournelle (his politics, his path to publication and collaborations with Niven)
Nancy Kress (her initial introduction to the field)
Joe Haldeman (tried to maintain involvement in several genres: poetry, literary, SF, adventure)
Peter S. Beagle (the importance being recognized)
Eric Flint (his politics, and his collaborations)
Mercedes Lackey (collaborations and indifference to art as opposed to craft)
Larry Dixon (collaborations and indifference to art as opposed to craft)
Gene Wolfe (how new writers don't pay attention to advice)
Jack McDevitt (the importance of SF & curiosity)
Greg Bear (his personal motivations)
David Gerrold (perhaps the most writerly--modeling stories, voice, showing/having reader experience the story as i
Kij Johnson (her interest in experimental structures and her tapping into flow)
Mike Resnick (his beginnings in pornography and interest in new writers)
Terry Brooks (the importance of putting in hard work)
David Brin (the science in science fiction and the destruction of dystopias)
Catherine Asaro (women as lead characters)
David Weber (advantage of plot and character over style)
Robert Silverberg (the history of the field)
Toni Weisskopf (the importance of healthy discussion within the genre)
Lois McMaster Bujold (the importance of short fiction to selling novels, talk with editor generating Falling Free)
Robert J. Sawyer (the importance of research, dislike of endless series)
Harry Turtledove (read and write)
Connie Willis (importance of having good manners and of having m.s.s. out and comforting self when rejections come in that a better story is circulating)
Larry Niven (collaboration)
David Drake (how experience can feed one's muse)