Fantastic Metropolis

Paul Witcover: Well, you asked for it: what is your definition of science fiction?

Tony Daniel: Any story where the plot turns on a fantasy element. Fake science is fantasy. You can gussy it up to seem plausible. This application of makeup, false teeth, and moustache is what we mean when we say we are “writing science fiction.”

Paul Witcover: You mentioned that Cormac McCarthy is your favorite living writer. Who else has been meaningful for you? Can you name a few contemporary writers that people interested in SF should be reading but probably aren’t?

Tony Daniel: I like Jack Kerouac, Herman Melville, and Walker Percy a great deal. I like V.S. Naipaul’s honesty and sourness. I like Kierkegard, Heidegger, and William James for philosophers. I just read Mario Vargas Llosa’s first novel, The Time of the Hero, which he wrote back in the early 1960s. It’s kind of The Lord of the Flies set in a Peruvian military academy. Very rough and touching book. Before that, I finally worked my way through Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain. In science fiction, I think Kathleen Goonan is doing amazing work. Lucius Shepard is, of course. I discovered Charles Harness last year—a wonderful writer. Don’t know how I missed him before, except sheer ignorance.

Paul Witcover: Thanks, Tony. I’ll be looking forward to Superluminal. Best of luck!