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Contents |
Fiction |
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Interviews |
Sponsors & Links |
Editorial |
Guidelines |
Reviews |
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Contents |
Fiction |
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Interviews |
Sponsors & Links |
Editorial |
Guidelines |
Reviews |
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You've Come A Long Way, BabyInterview with Jonathan Strahan
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What got you into SF, and who are your biggest influences?
I was five years old, not long migrated to Australia from Ireland, when Armstrong set foot on the moon. I remember watching it on TV, and going to see him and the other Apollo astronauts when they toured Australia. And then the rest of the Apollo landings, all faithfully, obsessively watched had an enormous impact on me. I'd already learnt to read and was picking my own books at the library and such, so I gravitated first to the flood of books about the future (when I was seven I wanted to be a geologist and live on the moon, which seemed quite possible to me), and then to science fiction. The first book was Heinlein's Citizen of the Galaxy . I've never recovered from reading it. Since then, I'd say Heinlein and Sturgeon, then Sterling and Robinson, amongst writers. As an editor, Terry Carr first, then Gardner and Jack. In terms of science fiction generally, though, I'd have to say Charles Brown has been the biggest influence of the past 20 years. Overwhelmingly so, introducing me to the field in a way I couldn't have imagined. Congratulations on your recent MacNamara Award. How does it feel to receive this accolade? I feel honoured and very flattered. I knew Peter pretty well. I used to call him every now and again, and we'd talk about football, science fiction, publishing and stuff. It was always a lot of fun, and I miss it. Being associated with something that his name on it is a wonderful thing, and I'm very grateful.
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What would you consider to be the highlights of your career to date?? This is a weird question to answer, because I don't usually look back at stuff and I don't usually compare them. Hmmm. The Swancon 17 programme book was special because it was silly and fun to do, and we learnt a lot. The first issue of Eidolon and issue 25/26, which were respectively the first and the best issues of the magazine. Publishing Waldrop's Going Home Again , and commissioning Dowling's Blackwater Days , were both great experiences. Conceiving, co-editing and co-publishing Antique Futures . Working on Locus . Of the books, probably The Locus Awards is the real highlight, and one I'm very proud of, though I love all of the year's bests. I'll stop now before I list everything. In the 15 years since Eidolon #1 you've come a long way. How much of this progression has been planned, and how much have you made up as you went along? I guess it seems like a long way, and it has been fifteen years, which is a bit staggering to contemplate. Honestly, I've made it all up as I've gone along. I've stumbled into situations, met people, and responded to them, and that's led to what I'm doing today. I had no intention of getting involved with Australian SF and publishing when I fell into working on Eidolon, which in turn led to publishing books and editing anthologies. I certainly didn't intend to get involved in working for Locus when I started dating their managing editor, but one thing kind of led to another. And it's continued like that. I meet someone somewhere. We have lunch, an idea comes up, we discuss it, and suddenly I'm doing something else. Too much right now, to be honest, but it's just how it works. I keep meaning to plan things, but the plans don't work out, or allow for the opportunities that arise. And, if I were to advise anyone, the best advice I could give would be to put yourself in opportunity's way, and grab every chance that comes along.
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Are themed anthologies important or are they just a gimmick? Like anything, there are good ones and bad ones, a gimmicky idea leads to a gimmicky book. Books like Chicks in Chainmail or Hot Blood IX , for example, always look a bit gimmicky, and I think they suffer a bit because writers have to try to come up with a story that meets a fairly narrow theme. If the idea for the book is good, though, you can end up with a surprisingly good result. I guess it all depends on the effort the editor puts into it, and how committed everyone is to making it a great book. I mean, look at Marty Greenberg's The Further Adventures of the Joker . That should have been awful, but it had some great stories by the likes of Ed Bryant & Dan Simmons, George Alec Effinger, Robert McCammon, F Paul Wilson and so on. Or Gardner Dozois and Susan Casper's really terrific anthology Ripper! , which had great stuff by Pat Cadigan, Lewis Shiner, Genre Wolfe, Lucius Shepard and so on. Theme anthologies don't have to be bad.
Are there now too many Years Best collections? The easy answer to this would be yes. I think we're moving up to a dozen or so year's best series, a number of which overlap. And yet, their contents remain quite different. I think that's a reflection both of differing editorial tastes and the staggering volume of short fiction being published. Increasingly, I get the feeling that the role of the year's best anthology is changing, moving from being a kind an annual showcase to being simple the most accessible selection of good short fiction. It's now quite possible to read all of the year's bests, skip everything else, and get a good idea of what's going on in the field. I don't know that we need many more though, and I think we'll probably see things settling down, and even possibly a reduction in the number of titles over the next five years. |
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Why do you think that semi-pro webzines haven't proliferated in Australia in the same way that semi-prozines have over the last 5 years? I'm not that well qualified to comment, but I haven't noticed semi-prozines proliferating in Australia over the past five years. I see Andromeda Spaceways and Borderlands as new, and Aurealis and Orb continue, but that's it. As to why not websites, well...I don't think websites are particularly attractive places to publish for writers. You don't get something to hold, to point to and say 'I got published', and when you're getting paid little or nothing, that kind of thing is important.
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Who do you think is the "next big thing"(TM)? In science fiction, Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross, with a possible nod to Tom Doyle and Elizabeth Bear. In fantasy, keep an eye on Holly Phillips and Margo Lanagan. All of those writers either are, or have the potential to be, the next big thing. What can the buying public expect to see with your name on it in the near future? Well, the latest book out is Best Short Novels: 2005 from the SF Book Club. After that, Eidolon is due in November, and then the year's bests in the first quarter of next year. And then, in September of 06, my young adult SF anthology The Starry Rift , which I'm very excited about.
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Jonathan Strahan was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1964, and moved to
Perth, Western Australia in 1968.
In 1990 he co-founded Eidolon: The Journal of Australian Science Fiction and
Fantasy, and worked on it as co-editor and co-publisher until 1999. In
1997 Jonathan worked in Oakland, California for
Locus: The Newspaper of the
Science Fiction Field
as an assistant editor and wrote a regular reviewer
column for the magazine until March 1998 when he returned to Australia. In
early 1999 Jonathan resumed reviewing and copyediting for
Locus
, and was
promoted to Reviews Editor in January 2002. As a freelance editor,
Jonathan has edited or co-edited five reprint
anthologies which have been published in Australia and the United States. In
1997 and 1998 he co-edited two volumes of
The Year's Best Australian Science Fiction and
Fantasy
with Jeremy G Byrne for HarperCollins Australia; and in 2004 he
co-edited
Science Fiction: Best of 2003
with Karen Haber for Simon &
Schuster/ibooks;
The Locus Awards: Thirty Years of the Best in Science Fiction
and Fantasy
with Charles N. Brown for HarperCollins Australia and HarperEos,
and edited
Best Short Novels: 2004
for The Science Fiction Book Club.
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