Richardsbooks: Science Fiction, the Future, and AI-Generated Covers: An Author Interview with Tommy Bildström

Tommy Bildström is a well-known figure in swedish libraries and culture, currently in the spotlight with his philosophical fantasy novel "The Hero's Journey," set to be released in November. Here, he’s interviewed about another genre he enjoys writing—science fiction and the future.

**Tell us a bit about what you write.**

I’ve mostly written horror stories under a pseudonym in the past, but I’m dropping that now as I debut with my novel, which, by the way, might be more science fiction and horror than one might think. Besides my novel project, I’ve also been working on a science fiction short story collection that I may have a publisher for but its not quite decided.

**What fascinates you about science fiction?**

I started writing the short story collection a few years ago and read a lot of non-fiction books about AI, which sparked my imagination. This was actually before the AI boom really exploded. I created an early cover with the help of AI in Midjourney. Well, not just me—I needed help as it was a bit tricky when it first came out. I showed the cover to an editor who was surprised and didn’t believe it was made by AI. Six months later, every high school student was using apps like Image to create pictures, so it feels like I missed a small window of opportunity there.

But what really fascinates me are the fantasies about the future. Will we have religions centered around AI in a hundred years? (How will people relate to AI when their grandparents have been raised with it?) How would an AI revolution really look like?

Sometimes I play around a bit too much with style and content. There are often themes that interest me deeply on a personal level. Neanderthals are one of those topics that keep coming up. It’s so strange that there was a type of human that wasn’t really human.

The environment is another recurring theme, as is, unfortunately, quantum physics. I say "unfortunately" because I realize it’s not in the general public's interest or knowledge area, but on the other hand, I can’t understand how one wouldn’t wonder how reality actually works.

**What kind of feedback have you received on your science fiction collection?**

Pretty decent, actually. The feedback has been a bit mixed. The story that test readers like the most is the one I find the simplest and most boring. I have a story set in a flying saucer where the aliens are made of mucus and tasked with stopping an invasive species, which, of course, turns out to be humans. I think it’s a fun idea to apply our thinking about nature from an outsider’s perspective. Many have thought it was childish and had too much toilet humor, but that’s also the luxury of being a writer at this level. I mostly write for myself, and my goal is perhaps more to get things published than to sell a lot of copies.

**Back to AI. What do you think about AI-generated book covers or AI-narrated audiobooks?**

Like all other creative people, I’m both skeptical and maybe a little worried. For my debut novel, where I have a real and solid publisher backing me, I have a hand-painted cover, and I would never use AI for audiobook narration. You can also see that people are already getting tired of AI-generated styles when it comes to covers. At the same time, it’s practically impossible for me not to play around with the technology. I might have a publisher for my science fiction short story collection, but if that doesn’t happen, I’m tempted to self-publish, and in that case, AI covers are quite appealing. However, this doesn’t replace any artist or other writer. If a publisher believes it’s not good enough or interesting enough for the market, I might still want to release it, and it wouldn’t pose a threat to anyone competing in the market. In that sense, you could say AI democratizes the creative process and makes it more accessible. I also think it will be associated with lower quality, which will make it less attractive to many. But the fact that the technology exists is something we’ll need to relate to.

Here is the first AI-generated cover, created when the technology was new.

The author has experimented with storytelling in video games and video game worlds.

Here he is in cuberpunk (2a)

Here he is depicted as an astronaut (2b) (note: unfortunately, the author is not actually an astronaut in real life, but a librarian). The image is a cross between a screenshot and the author's real face pasted on.