Fantastique: Interviews with Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy Filmmakers (Volume I)

​Fantastique: Interviews with Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy Filmmakers 

 BearManor Media (14 April 2016) 420 PAGES​

When it comes to promoting your book I have always said that interviews are more important than reviews.  Everyone is shouting into the vast void about their latest 5-star review, and nine times out of ten it isn't a review it's a poorly written 1000 word summary of the book with a rating tacked on to the end of it.  A well-written interview that asks intelligent questions that get to the heart of the interviewee is a far more potent tool for getting an artistic project noticed.  It alls comes down to the promote yourself without actually taking about your project.  

So what is a reviewer to do when they are faced with a book filled with interviews?  

To put it simply the reviewer simply has to bask in the sheer quality of the interviews held within the book.  In this day and age where everyone is either a writer or a critic, it is a breath of fresh air to come across a journalist who has spent years honing his craft.  Tony Earnshaw is an interviewer whose knowledge for the fantastique genres is only matched by his passion for them.  

Throughout the thirty or so interviews spread across the 400 pages of this impressive tome, it is clear that this is the work of a journalist who knows his stuff.  All of the interviews are comprehensive, intelligent and thoroughly researched.  Anyone can review, but it takes real skill to be a great interviewer.  You have to be acutely aware of not just the subject matter, but so many other issues that overlap with the main topic of conversation.  You need to have that ideal mix of informality and reverence for the subject.  Something which Earnshaw has in abundance.  

I used to think of myself as a good interviewer; I used to think that was the reason I got to interview Joe Dante, however, after reading this book I now know my place.  The interviews in this book are what good and great interviews should be.  Insightful, and revealing these interviews show us the real personalities behind the filmmakers on show here.  From giants of the genre such as Quentin Tarintino. Ben Wheatly, John Carpenter and George Lucas, to lesser known subjects Earnshaw treats everyone with dignity and reverence, allowing the interviewee, rather than the interviewer to shine through.  

FANTASTIQUE: INTERVIEWS WITH HORROR, SCI-FI & FANTASY FILMMAKERS is a must read for fans of the fantastical genres, and anyone who even thinks they want to be an interviewer, this is the sort of book that makes you want to be a better writer of interviews, eye-opening and humbling in its brilliance this book should be on every journalists shelf.