Inspiration Part 3

Hi spacers!

Writing the script for the Bad Space graphic novel lately, has had me thinking again about my inspiration for these stories.

And a huge part of my motivation for Bad space comes from science fiction books. 

Sadly this is because good hard sci-fi comics and movies are precious and very rare things. But good sci-fi books exist in multitudes and have a history going back hundreds of years. 

A few in particular though, are the secret sauce that made Bad Space Comics. So let me walk you through them:

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Frankenstein

The first science fiction book. And still such an amazing read. (Also me and Mary Shelley share a birthday. Just saying.)

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War of the worlds

I actually came to this book tangentially via Jeff Wayne’s album when I was 12. The album is still phenomenal, but this book is also really modern feeling, and the way I write is heavily - like really heavily -  influenced by Well’s voice. (Actually if anyone was going to do a narration of my comics it would have to be Richard Burton). 

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Nineteen Eighty Four

I mean, of course. Have you read my stories? 

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Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy

I still think about these books often, decades after reading them. From politics to science, to the environment, this series is the ultimate in full spectrum science fiction. 

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Anything by Peter Watts.  But start with Blind Sight. You will see his influence all through my writing. 

Same goes for Ted Chiang and Greg Egan.  

And finally, The Gone World. I finished this book a couple of years ago and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. I really wish this was a Bad Space story!

There are many many other books and authors that are beloved to me, and I’ll include a few below, but these ones are the ones that most shape my writing. 

• Yoon Ha Lee

• Iain Banks

• Paul McAuley

• Charles Stross

• Anne Lieke

• Daniel Suarez 

• Malka Older

• Matt Ruff

• Claire North

• SJ. Morden

• Ben Winters

• Ken Macleod

• Daryl Gregory

• Alastair Reynolds

• Max Barry

• Michael Marshall Smith 

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So if you need a good read while you’re waiting for more Bad Space to drop, this is where to start.

Also, please, please, let me know your own top reads of all time! I am always on the look out for more inspiration.