Sylvia Bishop

Dec 21, 2024 | fivebooks.com | Sylvia Bishop

Hard sci fi is concerned with scientific accuracy. It’s obvious this adds huge constraints on you as a writer – what are the rewards? It’s interesting, a lot of the time when you’re working with constraints, you write things you’d never otherwise write. I really enjoy writing fantasy fiction, where the only constraints are the ones you’re setting yourself, but that will generally go down a certain way and follow a certain path.

Oct 20, 2024 | fivebooks.com | John Wyndham |Amy Binns |Sylvia Bishop

Some of John Wyndham’s work is very famous, but the man is less well known: he has been called ‘the invisible man of science fiction’. Who was he? John Wyndham sprung to prominence after the Second World War, writing appalling dystopian visions of the future, which were very well researched and brilliantly well written. He appeared to be an incredibly new and exciting writer, and people assumed in the 40s and 50s that he was one of that new generation.

May 24, 2024 | fivebooks.com | Philip K. Dick |Sylvia Bishop |David Hyde

Philip K. Dick is one of the most famous sci fi writers – could you introduce us to him? Philip K. Dick was an American science fiction writer. He was born in Chicago, when his family was on the way from Washington D.C., in 1928. He was a twin; he had a twin sister, and they both weighed just a few pounds each. It so happened that on the way out to California, Phil’s sister died, aged about six weeks.