John Rubinstein is an actor, composer, and director who won a Tony Award for his starring role in Broadway’s Children of a Lesser God. He has narrated dozens of audiobooks, earning several AudioFile Earphones Awards and being named a finalist for the prestigious Audie Award for best narration in 2013.
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Praise for Books
“A remarkable collection of interviews with some of the most important writers working in the world today. I loved this book.” —Don Winslow, #1 internationally bestselling author of The Force and The Cartel
“Bova gets better and better, combining plausible science with increasingly complex fiction.” —Los Angeles Daily News
“[A] fresh compendium…Particularly revelatory are the authors’ anecdotes about their previous jobs—as reporters, psychiatrists, veterinarians, and lawyers—and the range of perspectives makes for a breezy introduction to the writing game. Thriller writers—and fans curious about the process—are in for a treat.” —Publishers Weekly
“The author’s excellence at combining hard science with believable characters and an attention-grabbing plot makes him one of our most accessible and entertaining storytellers.” —Library Journal
“Just look at this lineup: Lee Child, Patricia Cornwell, David Mamet, Meg Gardiner, Scott Turow, Kathy Reichs, James Rollins—and that’s only a small fraction of them…A nice companion piece to the slew of more traditional how-to-be-a-writer books on the market.” —Booklist
“Ben Bova was my primary gateway to science fiction, and so many of these stories have been dear to me for as long as I’ve been a serious fan of science fiction—and they’ve remained so after twenty years of being an editor. This volume is an ideal introduction to the works of this science fiction legend!” —John Joseph Adams, Hugo Award–winning editor of Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy and Lightspeed magazine
“A brilliant book…Mark Rubinstein has fashioned a book that offers the final word on all things related to the craft of telling tales that are impossible to put down…Rubinstein has penned one of the best author-centric studies of writers and writing ever created, and one of the few ever attempted for popular fiction. This book is destined to stand the test of time, with great storytelling in its own right that for this thriller writer was impossible to put down.” —Jon Land, Providence Journal
“This is a great collection! I’d missed some of these.” —Larry Niven
“Engaging and honest interviews populate the book…Rubinstein’s who’s who of thriller and suspense authors is astonishing and the interviews are sober and sound, as if rubbing elbows with the world’s elite storytellers is an everyday occurrence…Part advice, part tell-all, Rubinstein’s collection encases a treasury of truths from writers whose stories we’ve enjoyed for years. Thrilling indeed.” —Mountain Times
“This collection of short stories features several standouts…This collection has something for all sf readers…Bova is one of the grand masters of the field, and this anthology reflects the breadth of his writing. Recommended for readers seeking an introduction to the author, and for libraries that do not own a more complete collection.” —Library Journal
“The Storytellers is a gift to aspiring writers of mysteries and thrillers, readers and fans, and academics alike. An instant classic.” —New York Journal of Books
“This book is the work of a gifted storyteller putting on a grand display of his versatility. Bova’s fans will rejoice at this collection, and newcomers will find it a great introduction to the works of one of the grand masters of science fiction.” —Booklist (starred review)
“The Storytellers is the most interesting and engaging work of nonfiction I have read in ages, literally filled with golden nuggets of history, background influences and revelations on every page. I envy the reader who goes on this great adventure and inhales the book as I did.”" —BookReporter
“[The stories] are all eminently entertaining and very well-crafted, and together represent a worldview of optimism and triumph over adversity that was once considered synonymous with science fiction…A bridge between the oldest roots of SF and its twenty-first-century forms, still enjoyable and admirable.” —Paul Di Filippo, Locus
Have you ever read a suspense novel so good you had to stop and think to yourself, “How did the author come up with this idea? Their characters? Is some of this story real?” For over five years, Mark Rubinstein, physician, psychiatrist, and mystery and thriller writer, had the chance to ask the most well-known authors in the field just these kinds of questions in interviews for the Huffington Post.
Collected here are interviews with forty-seven accomplished authors, including Michael Connelly, Ken Follett, Meg Gardiner, Dennis Lehane, Laura Lippman, and Don Winslow. These are their personal stories in their own words, much of the material never before published. How do these writers’ life experiences color their art? Find out their thoughts, their inspirations, their candid opinions. Learn more about your favorite authors, how they work and who they truly are.
In this new collection, Ben Bova has compiled fourteen of his favorite short stories. Each story includes an all-new introduction with compelling insight into the narrative.
Exploring the boundaries of the genre, Bova not only writes of spaceships, aliens, and time travel in most of his titles, but also speculates on the beginnings of science fiction in “Scheherazade and the Storytellers,” as well as the morality of man in “The Angel’s Gift.” Stories such as “The Café Coup” and “We’ll Always Have Paris” dip into speculative historical fiction, asking questions about what would happen if someone could change history for the better. This expansive collection is a key addition for Bova fans and sci-fi lovers alike!
Stories included in this collection: “Monster Slayer,” “Muzhestvo,” “We’ll Always Have Paris,” “The Great Moon Hoax, or A Princess of Mars,” “Inspiration,” “Scheherazade and the Storytellers,” “The Supersonic Zeppelin,” “Mars Farts,” “The Man Who Hated Gravity,” “Sepulcher,” “The Café Coup,” “The Angel’s Gift,” “Waterbot,” and “Sam and the Flying Dutchman.”