We’re delighted to introduce Rob Boffard, author of the upcoming TRACER, a heart-stopping SF novel set in space which will be released next summer.

As a newbie to the Orbit list, we asked Rob a few questions about what we can expect from him in 2015 . . .

– Tell us a bit about yourself!

I come from Johannesburg, and can speak enough Zulu to prove it. I have glasses, terrible hair, and exceptionally long arms. I’m 29, obsessed with hip-hop, tattoos, plane tickets, snowboarding, and the Chicago Bulls. And good stories. Both telling them, and reading them.

For the majority of my adult life, I’ve worked as a journalist, being paid specifically to not make stuff up. The fact that I can now do the exact opposite at a place like Orbit is both weird and amazing.

– What can readers expect from your new book TRACER?

I wanted to make this the baddest, fastest, craziest, most intense scifi thriller you’re going to read next year, or any year after it. It’s set on a massive space station, Outer Earth, which holds the last humans in the universe. The station’s been there for a while – everything is broken, rusted, falling apart. Nothing works anymore.

On Outer Earth, there are couriers, called tracers, who carry messages and packages from place to place. One of them, Riley, gets a nasty shock when she discovers that she’s transporting body parts. And as you can imagine, shit gets real, real fast, for Riley and her crew.

– What inspired the book?

I had this idea in my head of a space slum. I’ve always loved space, and I kept thinking about what it would be like to live there – in reality, probably pretty unpleasant. The one problem I saw them having, assuming the station was big enough, was getting things from place to place. How would you do it? Because slums aren’t known for their public transport. You’d need couriers. Fast, agile, couriers with nerves of steel…

Plus, the more I thought about it, the more I loved the scenario. We’d only end up in this space slum if humanity really and truly screwed up. We’ve wrecked our planet, and now we have to live with the consequences: an overcrowded, dirty, inescapable space station. There’s a lot to sink your teeth into there.

I can’t wait for you to read it.

Please join us in welcoming Rob to the Orbit list!