Spotlight on Allan Kaster & Infinivox

March 31, 2025March 11, 2025 locusmag 0 Comments

Allan Kaster is a child of the Sputnik era. Raised, mostly, in San Antonio, Texas, he traveled the world as an Air Force brat. Sharing and trading comic books with other kids in Germany is a fond memory of his childhood. He started reading sci-fi novels when he was ten-years old. Not surprisingly, science was always his favorite subject in school. He graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in microbiology and eventually specialized in anaerobic bacteriology. He’s been a teacher; lab researcher; bio-tech sales rep; and science fiction editor and publisher.

You run the small press Infinivox. Tell us about it – when and how was it founded, and do you have a mission statement or particular niche you aim to fill?

Infinivox started out as the science fiction imprint of AudioText, then branched off to become its own separate business entity. AudioText is a study guide publisher for biology and nursing students. Infinivox came about to bridge the gap in study guide sales between the spring and fall semesters of the school year. Infinivox first published the series, Great Science Fiction Stories, in the mid-1990s on cassette tapes which featured stories by Ursula K. Le Guin, Stephen Baxter, Alastair Reynolds, George Alec Effinger, Nancy Kress, and many others. With the publication of the annual series, The Year’s Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction and The Year’s Top Short SF Novels, Infinivox began publishing ebooks and trade paperback books. Along with the occasional standalone anthology, Infinivox now puts out four different annual series.

What recent or upcoming titles are you especially excited about?

If all goes according to plan, 3 Hard Shots at the Moon will be coming out the latter part of March 2025. I’m currently going over the proofs from the printer. It’s a reprint collection of three classic hard science fiction novellas set on the moon: “Griffin’s Egg” by Michael Swanwick, “Stories for Men” by John Kessel, and “The Menace from Farside” by Ian McDonald. The signed, numbered, limited edition hardcover will include: three gorgeous interior illustrations by Maurizio Manzieri who also provided the wrap-around cover art for the dust jacket; a signature page signed by all three authors and the artist; and a foreword by James Patrick Kelly.

You’ve edited more than 40 SF anthologies (and counting). What do you love about doing anthologies? What are the challenges?

I’m rather fond of anthologies. They allow for a diversity of stories, ideas, settings, characters, and voices within a single book. If short stories are the pulse of science fiction body, “Year’s Best” anthologies are the genre’s stethoscope. They also provide a sense of continuity between proven genre masters, and those who are on their way to becoming so. For the most part, authors are a joy to interact with. Probably the toughest thing for me when putting a collection together is not being able to secure the reprint rights to a story I’ve fallen head over heels for. Another challenge I have is sticking to the word limit Infinivox has placed on a particular volume…. I always want more.

You currently edit multiple year’s-best volumes. Tell us about those.

I currently edit four annual series of “Year’s Best” anthologies. The Year’s Top Hard Science Fiction Stories is my attempt to pick up where David G. Hartwell left off with his Year’s Best SF series and usually comes out in June. The Year’s Top Tales of Space and Time collects space adventures, alternate histories, and time travel tales and is usually released in August. The Year’s Top Robot and AI Stories is my homage to the authors of all the robot stories I grew up reading and is published in October. The Year’s Best Science Fiction on Earth, usually released around Thanksgiving Day, is dedicated to stories that take place on our planet.

You also produce audiobooks. Talk about your process, and what you like about doing audio fiction.

Wow, have things changed with audiobooks. When we started 30 years ago, we’d bring a physical copy of the story to the recording studio for the actor to read, corrections to the master tape would be made by hand with a razor blade, and the audiobook would be published on cassette. Today we send PDF files of the stories to actors who have their own home studios and are able to make corrections without physically cutting tape, and the audiobook is published digitally for downloading and streaming. I’m a fan of audiobooks because they allow me to “read” while I’m walking or driving. Since most of what I read are short stories, I tend to listen to novels.

Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know about you or the work you do?

Look for Infinivox to begin publishing its first series of original hard science fiction novellas in another year or so. They’ll be published in all the usual formats as well as a signed, numbered, limited edition.

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