1550: Kobo, Loma, and Building a Thought-Provoking Sci‑Fi World with Richard Allen

Monday, March 9, 2026

When a constitutional lawyer who once argued before the Supreme Court started wondering what humans would be like as pets fed and loved but stripped of language, culture, and community, he turned that question into an unforgettable sci-fi saga. Author Richard A. Allen joins Robert Plank to talk about Kobo and Kobo’s Children, a series where humans are kept as pets by towering reptilian aliens called Grobs, then forced into slavery on a distant mining world. Richard shares Kobo and Ra’s journey from obedient “pets” to leaders of a hidden human community; the mysterious teaching device that reignites lost human language and history; and the big questions behind it all: What really makes us different from our dogs? Would we accept everything without words to question it?

Richard also teases the upcoming third book, where Earth explorers discover these “pet humans” and bring them back to an Earth 40,000 years in the future thanks to near-light-speed travel and Einstein’s time dilation. If you’re tired of recycled space operas and want science fiction that actually asks something new, this conversation and series will scratch that itch, exploring power, identity, and humanity under alien suns.

Quotes:

“Take away our language, our history, and our culture, and what’s left is the question at the heart of Kobo: Are we still human, or just very clever pets?”

“Before you have words, you accept whatever happens to you. Once you learn to ask why, you can’t help wondering whether life could be different.”

“The Grobs may own the planet, the mines, and even our bodies, but the moment we remember our stories and our science, they no longer own who we are.”