Book Talk | Spoonbenders

WNHH Community Radio

Host Cyd Oppenheimer talks with author Daryl Gregory about quarreling with his editor over structure ("he was like, 'yeah, writers always care about structure more than readers do...'); about the advantages of writing science fiction ("you can make metaphors concrete"); and about the ways science fiction is the same as any other genre ("the overwhelming lesson is story is story, humans are humans, and every story has to be rooted in people's wants and desires"). Buddy can see the future; Frankie can move things with his mind; Irene always knows when anyone is lying; Matty can travel outside his body; and Teddy is a con man. This is the Amazing Telemachus Family, whose powers haven't stopped them from being wracked with debt, disfigurement, and loss. This is the Amazing Telemachus Family: shattered, splintered, struggling. As the end of the world as we know it approaches - at least according to Buddy - they have to ask themselves: where did it all go wrong? When did a gift become a curse? And how much can you change the truth just by how you tell the story?