Well, maybe not hanging out so much as me attending his visit to the awesome (more on that later) Borderlands Bookstore. This was one “SF in SF” opportunity I’m glad I did not miss.

Rather than do a reading – which he said he’d do if we wanted – Foster offered to take questions from the audience of a about a dozen people (and one extremely ugly hairless cat). He talked about his many travels and, or course, science fiction.

I asked which book got him hooked on science fiction. It was The Spaceship under the Apple Tree by Louis Slobodkin. (I personally hadn’t heard of that book until last year, after which I bought a copy and read it to my young daughter. She wasn’t nearly as impressed as I thought she’d be. Kids.)

He used that question as a springboard to name his favorite writers – Eric Frank Russell, Frederic Brown (if memory serves) and Robert Sheckley. He particularly called out the genius of Sheckley’s short fiction stories from the 50′s and early 60′s. (For the life of me I cannot recall the name of the classic sf book – not Sheckley’s – he called the funniest, laugh-your-guts-out, roll-on-the-floor-laughing sf book ever.)

The subject, as it inevitably does, turned to movies. He talked about some movies he liked (Dark City, Alien, Aliens) and movies he didn’t (Disney’s The Black Hole). He also talked about some of the many novelizations he has done, film adaptations in general, as well as some scripts he has had part in. He worked on Star Trek: The Motion Picture but only takes credit for the first five minutes and making Kirk an Admiral. After that, it was Hollywood’s Extreme Makeover as usual. His book The Mocking Program was optioned for a movie, but history has taught him that very few options actually see celluloid. Star Wars also came up. He suspects that Lucas became so overwhelmed with the success of the 1977 film, that he somewhat lost sight of what made the first one good.


One thing he said struck a chord with me. He mentioned that, as an avid traveler, he gets to experience many different cultures. Through his personal observations, he sees how non-American cultures differ to what most of are accustomed. He tries to bring those experiences to his writing. Hearing it spoken out loud, that makes so much sense to me. He also finds it interesting that many science fiction writers don’t do the same, unless they travel to science fiction conventions. Heh-heh. Foster’s upcoming Pyr novel Sagramanda, is based on his recent travels to India. On the subject of Pyr and outside the context of his own book, he had some rather nice (and accurate, imo) things to say about Pyr and editor Lou Anders, noting Anders’ skill in recognizing good sf.

Some folks brought boxes of books to sign. Unfortunately for me, of the 45 (!) books of his I own (and haven’t yet read, much to my misfortune…Hello, my name is John and I’m a biblioholic…), I did not bring one with me to San Francisco from Houston. However, I did slip into fanboy mode and I bought a copy of Lost and Found (Book one of his Taken trilogy) for him to sign, which he did graciously. Hearing him talk about science fiction and what he brings to his writing really makes me want to read some of his work.

All told, Foster is an entertaining speaker and has lots of great science fiction stories to tell. (Like getting into a car at some convention and realizing that he’s sitting next to Fritz Leiber.) I asked if he would be willing to do an interview with us and, again graciously, he said he would consider it.

After the allotted time was over, my biblioholic innards bursting at the seams, I got to peruse Borderlands Bookstore. I had been there once before in 2002 and it was just as cool a store as I remember. The beauty of the store is that they only sell genre books. How many genre-only stores are left nowadays? Any science fiction fan would be gushing at all the juicy stuff they have on their shelves.

I have only one problem with the store, and that is the amount of merchandise that I’d like to buy would leave me penniless. Seriously, there was something on every single shelf that I had to force myself not to pick up. (Who wants to carry all that on a plane?) Their stock ranges from your standard B&N picks, to hard-to-find fiction, to a healthy collection of reference books. They also have quite a collection of used books. I was lucky to get out of there while my wallet still had some green to offer. One thing I couldn’t resist was an SF Masterworks edition of Cities in Flight by James Blish. They had several other SF and Fantasy Masterworks editions that I would have loved to have picked up (William Hope Hodgson, Gene Wolfe, Michael Moorcock) but didn’t. Stupid plane. At least, now I know where to get them if I want some more.

I struck up a conversation with Alan Beatts, the owner. (Like Foster, another stand-up guy.) We talked a bit about bookstores in general, publishers, the market, etc., all interesting stuff. I hit him up for an interview and he also graciously agreed.

This was my very first in-person author event and I have to say it was very enjoyable. All of it puts me in a sf mood. Excuse me while I go read a book.

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