Archive for Guest Post

Curiosity: The Hopkins Manuscript by R.C. Sherriff

My anthology, WASTELANDS: STORIES OF THE APOCALYPSE, contains most of my favorite examples of short-form post-apocalyptic fiction. And on the occasion of the UK release of WASTELANDS  (and my zombie anthology, THE LIVING DEAD), Orbit asked me to provide a guest post, so I thought I’d tell you about a curiosity of long-form post-apocalyptic fiction that I discovered during the course of my research into the genre.

Discovered in the ruins of Notting Hill at some unspecified future date, The Hopkins Manuscript is ostensibly a “day-to-day record,” written by retired school teacher/chicken breeder/amateur astronomer Edgar Hopkins, which chronicles the days immediately before and after the shocking discovery that the Moon’s decaying orbit will bring it crashing down into the Earth.

Doom is prophesized, but the world is not destroyed as expected.  Instead, the Moon strikes the Earth a glancing blow to the western coast of Europe .  Being nothing more than a “hollow body with a thick crust,” it collapses and forms a new landmass that bridges Europe and the Americas, like a cosmic puzzle piece settling into place.   Amicable plans are made by an international council to divide up ownership of this new land, but upon discovering that the Moon is not a lifeless rock—that instead it is rich in natural resources and possesses enough minerals “to give wealth to this world undreamed of”—the specter of war raises its ugly head in the immediate aftermath of the greatest cataclysm humanity has ever seen.

R.C. Sherriff (1896-1975)—a playwright, screenwriter, and novelist—is perhaps most remembered for his filmic collaborations with legendary Frankenstein (1931) director James Whale (1889-1957); the two worked together on several films, including an adaptation of Sherriff’s best-known play, Journey’s End (1930), The Invisible Man (1933), One More River (1934), and The Road Back (1937).  In The Hopkins Manuscript, Sherriff presents a dark vision that is both a reflection on humanity’s attitudes in the aftermath of The Great War and a portent of things to come when one considers its publication date of 1939—the year World War II began.  Though its science is obviously laughable, the novel remains thematically relevant and is an engaging read that I would highly recommend to anyone interested in seeing an historical view of the apocalypse through the literature of its time.

 

THE LIVING DEAD and WASTELANDS: STORIES OF THE APOCALYPSE are both now available as to buy digital-only editions in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

The Living Dead, an anthology edited by John Joseph Adams, featuring short stories abotu zombies from Stephen Kind, George R R Martin, Neil Gaiman, Laurell K Hamilton, Clive Barker, Nancy Holder, Joe R Landsdale, Joe Hill and many othersWastelands - an anthology of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic short stories deaturing Stephen King, George R R Martin, Orson Scott Card, Paolo Bacigalupi, Gene Wolfe, Elizabeth Bear, Nancy Kress, Jonathan Lethem and many others

“A Sort of Geek Dare” – Kevin Hearne on his Iron Druid Urban Fantasy Series

HoundedThe Iron Druid Chronicles got started as a sort of Geek Dare. You know how geeks will sit around and throw out ridiculous hypotheticals to one another, like “What if Spock tried to make sense of a Doctor Who episode?” or “How many Jawas could you cram into a Volkswagen?” Usually you only have to throw out one or two of those per gaming session and you can spend all night arguing about them. Well, the hypothetical I threw out one night in 2008 was, “What if one of the old-school Druids were still alive in our modern world?”

The idea was immediately assaulted by my good friends on historical and biological grounds. “The Romans killed most of them and then St. Patrick finished them off,” I was told by Geek One. “And it’s generally agreed that humans don’t live for two millennia,” Geek Two pointed out.

I didn’t let it go, though. My research began the next morning, and I discovered that there were several methods by which someone could enjoy a very long life in the old stories of the Tuatha Dé Danann. That’s when I started thinking seriously about writing an urban fantasy novel. A truly ancient Druid walking among us, talking to his dog and shapeshifting like the old myths said they could? I couldn’t wait to write it! Atticus and his Irish Wolfhound, Oberon, were “born” right there.

HexedI still had to figure out what happened to get Atticus out of Ireland, how he survived centuries of war and why he hasn’t saved all our forests. Further immersion in old Irish tales gave me a lead: I read of a magical sword named Fragarach that could cut through any armor. It was originally the sword of Manannan Mac Lir, god of the sea, but he gave it to another god, Lugh Lámhfhada, and Lugh gave it to the legendary first-century Irish king called Conn of the Hundred Battles. There is no record of Conn ever giving it back, nor of anyone using it after that time. Aha, I said to myself, now there’s a story waiting to be told.

If Atticus took that sword from Conn and the Tuatha Dé Danann wanted it back, that would explain why he had to flee Ireland and lie low. And when he finally gets tired of running and decides to make a stand against his old gods—well, that’s going to be a fight worth watching.

The Consistency Gremlin spoke up at that point and said if I was going to treat Irish myths like history, then I’d have to do it for all myths. All pantheons would be alive, all gods equally valid, just as their worshipers imagined them. Whoa. (more…)

Introducing Guns into Fantasy Worlds

Fade to Black, book one of the Rojan Dizon fantasy book series by Francis Knight - in a post talking about the introduction of guns to fantasy worldsFrancis Knight’s novel FADE TO BLACK (UK|US|ANZ) and the just released BEFORE THE FALL (UK|US|ANZ) are set in Mahala – a towering, vertically-built fantasy city. It’s a place that has long relied on magic, but is fast becoming mechanised – and now the first prototype guns are appearing. Francis Knight discusses below just what the introduction of arms can do to a world – fantasy or otherwise . . .

Whenever a significant discovery or invention appears, everything changes. Not always in foreseen ways either. I don’t suppose Edison or Babbage ever thought that their discoveries/inventions would mean that you’d be here today, reading this on a PC or pad. Did Edison consider that electricity would be used to carry out death sentences? Would Babbage have continued if he’d known the end result would be Rule 34?

Unforeseen consequences abound in history. If I invent this, it will make life easier for everyone! Only then, a war, or a revolution or plague, people being people, or even just a lack of imagination on the part of the inventor means that it all turns out rather differently.

The same thing goes for guns. Yes, many fantasy worlds use just swords/siege engines/whatever. But what happens to warfare when guns are added to the mix? Are they what people expect? Possibly not. The inventor of the Gatling gun noted that more died in war of infection and disease than gunfire. In 1877, Gatling wrote: “It occurred to me that if I could invent a machine – a gun – which could by its rapidity of fire, enable one man to do as much battle duty as a hundred, that it would, to a large extent supersede the necessity of large armies, and consequently, exposure to battle and disease would be greatly diminished.” And of course, that worked wonderfully. (more…)

David Gemmell and the Depiction of the Hero

Anthony Ryan is the British author of BLOOD SONG [UK | ANZ], a spectacular debut that is set to be this summer’s blockbuster epic fantasy release. Here, Anthony talks about the influence of David Gemmell on his work and the role of the hero in fantasy literature.

David Gemmell is now regarded as perhaps the finest exponent of the ‘heroic fantasy’ sub-genre, and his works present a rich variety of heroes, from mighty axe-wielder Druss the Legend to brooding gunfighter Jon Shannow, distinct from each other but often sharing the same traits of lingering guilt over the lives they have taken and the stark realisation that heroism often holds scant reward.

LegendThe hero has always been an aspirational figure, lauded for courage and self-sacrifice by lesser souls, and of central importance in fiction since ancient times. However, the real world is depressingly rich in heroic tales that fail to match the classic narrative. In Clint Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers we learn that only three of the US marines who raised the flag on Iwo Jima survived the war and, despite a nationwide bond tour and huge press attention, went on to lead lives largely devoid of continued adoration and certainly not marked by any financial reward. It’s also highly unlikely more than a handful of modern Americans, other than military historians, could name them now (for the record: Corpsman John Bradley, Private Rene Gagnon and Private Ira Hayes, and yes, I had to resort to Wikipedia).

History does offer a few notable exceptions to the forgettable nature of heroes, antiquity tells of mighty Horatius holding the bridge to save Rome from the Etruscans and many in the UK no doubt still recall Colonel H. Jones winning a posthumous Victoria Cross for charging a machine gun post in the Falklands in 1982. But can you remember off-hand the name of the private who won a VC in Iraq in 2004? Or the nursery worker in London who suffered severe injuries whilst protecting children from a madman with a machete in 1996? If, like me, you had to resort to Google, you will know them as Sergeant Johnson Beharry and Lisa Potts. Sergeant Beharry is still in the army but continues to suffer from his injuries and Lisa Potts has experienced repeated bouts of severe depression resulting from post-traumatic stress. (more…)

Top 10 Worst Ways to Die in a Science Fiction Setting

Abaddon's GateWe’re thrilled to announce that ABADDON’S GATE (US UK AUS) is a New York Times Bestseller hitting the extended trade paperback list at #22. Congratulations to James S. A. Corey – the pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck.

ABADDON’S GATE is the third and latest installment in James S. A. Corey’s breakneck space opera that began with LEVIATHAN WAKES (US UK AUS). If you are a fan of science fiction and its subgenres, then you know that there are a thousand and one ways to die a horrible death.  James S. A. Corey breaks down some of the worst ways to go.

10) Energy Monsters

Classic Trek all the way, here.  Let’s face it, half the planets in the galaxy have some form on nasty energy monster on them, and they all kill in nasty ways.  Sucking out the iron from you hemoglobin, frying your nervous system, disintegrating you.  Your phaser won’t work on it.  But take comfort in knowing that the exact horrific manner of your death will give the important characters clues on how to defeat the creature.  So thanks for that.

9) Id monsters

The most famous examples (and still the best) are the monster in Forbidden Planet and Mr. Hyde.  The Id monster is someone else’s fault and your problem.  It’s not that is doesn’t want anything.  It wants to strip you into ribbons in a rage haze because of an unresolved Oedipal complex.  As you’re being ripped apart, you’ll know that this is happening because of unexpressed and unrealized frustrations of some other person, and knowing won’t help.  Kind of like working tech support, only literal.

8) Sandworms

Sandworms don’t chew.  They just have a thousand meters of digestive tract.  Enough said.

7) Sarlacc

Speaking of digestion, Jabba the Hutt claims that you digest in the belly of the Sarlacc for a thousand years.  Figure you die of thirst after three days.  That’s still a rough three days.

(more…)

The Top Five Most Compelling Romances in Science Fiction

Love-Minus-EightySince my first novel for Orbit Books deals with how the technology of the future has changed our most basic human relationships, I thought I’d pay homage to some of the great love stories in science fiction, be they in books, on film, or on TV.  Needless to say, these are my top five choices.  Your mileage may vary.

1. Desmond and Penny in Lost

There’s something about waiting for your true love that is especially poignant, that feels like undeniable proof of the power and purity of that love.  When Desmond tells Penny he’ll call her–in eight years–and eight years later Penny answers the phone, and they shout “I love you” into the phone, back and forth, back and forth, until the tenuous telephone connection fails, they had me.

19842. Winston Smith and Julia in 1984 by George Orwell.

In the darkest future imaginable, a woman Winston Smith barely knows slips him a note that says, simply, I love you.  In the lingo of the rom com, this is their meet, and it’s a beautiful one.  Their love is what ultimately leads to their downfall; they betray each other, and when they meet on the other side of re-education, their lack of feeling for each other is so incredibly devastating because their love was so convincing.

eternal-sunshine3. Joel and Clementine in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Joel and Clementine’s love is tumultuous, to say the least.  Clementine is a force of nature, wild and unpredictable.  She probably suffers from bipolar disorder.  Joel is tight, introverted, and private; yet when they fight, Joel’s words are, if anything, more cutting than Clementine’s.  They fight often, but somehow the passion in their arguments convinces us of the intensity of their love as much as their tender moments do.  They erase their memories of each other, yet meet and fall in love all over again.  These are two people who were meant to be together. (more…)

“Weapons, Weapons, Weapons!” Elizabeth Moon on Research for Epic Fantasy

Limits of Power – released today

Elizabeth Moon publishes LIMITS OF POWER (UK | ANZ), the penultimate volume in her epic fantasy series Paladin’s Legacy, today. As an author who’s returned to the classic fantasy world she first created in the Paksenarrion series again and again, we asked her how she keeps the details about this world realistic, and consistent . . .

My first visit to New World Arbalest wasn’t a quest for crossbow knowledge, but a chance to see a period (real, not modern make) rapier . . . to hold and flourish a sword that had been used, several hundred years ago, either to mark someone’s rank or kill someone’s foe.  I had met “Master Iolo” (David Watson) and his wife Kathleen – both fencing instructors – at a convention.  But in that first visit I saw the shop at the back of the house, full of wood, sawdust, shavings, antlers, arrays of tools, and crossbows in every stage of construction.  I knew very little about crossbows then, except that I wanted to learn more.

Writers are often research junkies.  We need to find out about all sorts of things in order to write stories that go beyond our own personal experience. Whether it’s a thriller or a mystery or a contemporary slice of life story – or epic fantasy – there’s always something we need to learn.  So we haunt libraries, have overstuffed bookshelves in our own homes (or, now, overstuffed e-readers, or both), spend hours hunting down facts (we hope) on the internet.  When we meet someone with first-hand knowledge of something we know we’ll need for later books, that poor soul hasn’t a chance.  A writer in full research mode is like a hungry vampire: we will get what we want . . . (more…)

Advice for the Travel-savvy Monster: NYC Edition

The Shambling Guide to New York CityIn writing THE SHAMBLING GUIDE TO NEW YORK CITY (US | UK | AUS), a book about a travel book for monsters, there was, sadly, a lot I had to leave out. Originally I wanted to write a full travel guide to go with the novel, but ambition beat me down with a club. Or is that hubris? Anyway, there was a painful encounter with a metaphorical club, and I had to settle for writing little excerpts from the book to put at the end of each chapter.

But there is so much more to think about for the travel-savvy monster (“coterie” please, let’s not be rude.) So I thought I would take this opportunity to provide a bit more advice on traveling in New York City. (Please note that we may not be able to cover all coterie here, and if you find yourself left out, please send an email to our webmaster to add to the errata on the website.)

Vampires: You already know the most important things, your own coffin, your hometown soil (if you’re from Eastern Europe), and plenty of sunscreen. The City that Never Sleeps is very friendly to vampires, considering very little shuts down by the time you wake up, and often it’s so bright that you can get a fleeting feeling of daylight. But you must make sure your thrall has everything he or she needs, especially credit cards, cash, and possibly weapons. They will need to hire a car that specializes in coffin-transport (unless you like to live on the edge and arrive at night and hope you find a hotel room – your chances are good, but there’s always a risk!) Also remember hell notes and blood tokens, they’re the best way to barter with the Red Cross.

Zombies: You know what they say; travel to Arizona, carry a humidifier, travel to NYC, carry a dehumidifier! Well, if they don’t say that, they should. The problem, of course, with forgetting your dehumidifier is you get rather rotten in the time you forgot you brought yours. New York summers are murder on zombie skin. They are drier in the winter, so bring lotion. You’ll want to carry our convenient map to the coterie-friendly morgues to do some shopping, but sometimes hitting the restaurants is actually cheaper than the morgues! You will want hats for camouflage  but you already have the bonus of the fact that no one meets your eye in the city, so no one will look at your directly to notice your dead gaze (although we’re sure your eyes are lovely.)

(more…)

“I Don’t Mind Being Punched in the Face” – by Matthew Stover

Heroes Die, book 1 in the the Acts of Cain gritty heroic fantasy series Acts of Caine, by Matthew Stover, in a piece on martial arts called "I don't mind being punched in the face"The Good Folk at Orbit invited me to write another post for the site here, and my editor suggested I might touch on my experience as a student – and occasional instructor – of martial arts, and how that study has influenced my work, especially in the Acts of Caine.

People who enjoy my work often speak of how much they like the way my books depict personal combat – one prominent blogger memorably commented that “All of Stover’s heroic fantasies offer fight scenes of such crippling power that they risk hospitalizing incautious readers” – and many fans and reviewers attribute this to my (presumed) martial arts expertise. Which is true to a degree, though somewhat misleading. It does help – but perhaps not in the way you might expect.

For example, the arrow of causation points mostly in the other direction. I don’t do fight scenes because I love martial arts, I do martial arts because I love fight scenes.

And let’s be clear: what makes a fight scene good has very little to do with choreography. A good fight scene does everything a good scene of any type does: engages imagination, reveals character, advances plot and illuminates theme. There are, in my novels, a lot of fight scenes (‘cuz like I said, I love ‘em) and many of them do not involve characters most readers would recognize as highly-trained martial artists. Caine is one, yes, as are Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Mace Windu . . . but most of the rest involve characters with varying degrees of experience and natural aptitude trying like hell to get out of dire situations without getting killed.

Look:

I like hitting people. I also like kicking people, kneeing them, doing (potentially) crippling things to their joints as well as occasionally throwing them across a room, not to mention stabbing them with (rubber) knives and slashing them with (rattan stick) swords. This is not, it should be noted, actual combat. It’s recreation. All in good fun, and when it’s done properly, no serious injuries occur.

Also look:

I often write about people who like these things I like, except many of these people are missing an essential circuit-breaker in their brains. These are people who are bored by the merely recreational. Who only take it seriously if someone’s life is on the line. Who have made violence not only their profession, but their lifestyle. Some are mercenaries, some are jihadists, some are psychopaths. At least one is a performance artist. None of these categories are, you will note, mutually exclusive. (more…)

On co-authoring a novel set in the world of ENDER’S GAME . . .

EARTH UNAWARE, book one of the First Formic War, by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston, set 100 years before Ender's Game, which will be released as a major motion picture in October 2013 starring Harrison FordToday sees the release of EARTH UNAWARE (UK|ANZ) and EARTH AFIRE (UK|ANZ), books 1 and 2 of The First Formic War, set 100 years before ENDER’S GAME.

Orson Scott Card co-authored these novels with Aaron Johnston – a bestselling author and associate producer on the upcoming Ender’s Game movie. To celebrate the release, we asked Aaron what it’s like to write within such a well-known and much loved world . . .

When Orson Scott Card asked me to coauthor the prequel novels to his science-fiction classic Ender’s Game, my first two thoughts were: (1) Wow, what an incredible honor, and (2) You better not screw this up, Johnston, or fans will hunt you down and toilet paper your house.

We fans can be a prickly lot. Especially when it comes to stories that hold special significance to us, as Ender’s Game does to millions of readers. I’ve read Ender’s Game more times than any other work of fiction, and whenever anyone asks me for a book recommendation, the first words out of my mouth are always, “Have you read Ender’s Game?”

For me, Ender’s Game was the first book I ever read wherein the characters didn’t feel like characters at all but rather like friends and kindred spirits. Bean, Dink, Shen, Valentine, Ender. They were all so believable and honest and distinct that when I stepped into their world, my own world melted away.

Earth Afire, book two of the First Formic War, by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston, set 100 years before Ender's Game, which will be released as a major motion picture in October 2013 starring Harrison FordI don’t presume to suggest that our books will have the same effect on readers as Ender’s Game does. Only Ender’s Game can produce the experience it provides. But I do hope that our novels will feel like they belong in the Ender universe. That was my goal from the beginning. “If we do this,” I told Scott, “I want it to feel like an Orson Scott Card novel.” And by that I mean: when fans read the book, I didn’t want them to distinguish between the parts I had written from the parts Scott had written. I wanted it to feel seamless.

That’s a lofty goal, I know. Only OSC can write like OSC, after all. But I felt as if we owed it to fans to provide a new and exciting adventure story that also felt like a member of the Ender universe.

In fact, it was so important to me that the books sounded and felt like other OSC novels that before I started writing each day, I would usually pick up an OSC book and read a chapter or two just to get my mind in a place that spoke in the voice and rhythm of Orson Scott Card. Scott has a gift for writing in third-person, limited point-of-view that allows for deep characterization without abandoning the pace. I’m not conceited enough to suggest that I do it as well as he does, but I certainly tried. The biggest compliment I have received thus far is when one fan called the series “classic Orson Scott Card.”

But of course this is a collaboration. And since Orson Scott Card rarely collaborates with other authors, fans naturally have a lot of questions. What follows are my answers to the questions I most often hear. (more…)