Category: Books

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Mother’s Instinct” Author Sherri Cook Woosley

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date August 21, 2024
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We all love dogs, and we all love watching videos of otters.

But a seven foot tall otter dog with a taste for human flesh…not something I’d want to see on TikTok. Or in my backyard.

In my new interview with author Sherri Cook Woosley about her urban fantasy / horror novella Mother’s Instinct (paperback, Kindle) — the latest installment of eSpec Book’s Systema Paradoxa series — she discusses why she decided to get up close and personal with the Dobhar-chu, the 7-foot-long, human eating, dog / otter hybrid from Irish folklore.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “The Dragon In Winter” Author Jonathan Maberry

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date August 20, 2024
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With The Dragon In Winter (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), author Jonathan Maberry is bringing his Kagen The Damned series to an end…

Well, sort of. As he explains in the following email interview, while Winter concludes this trilogy of swashbuckling fantasy novels, this is not the last adventure for Kagen Vale.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Scrap” Author Calla Henkel

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date August 19, 2024
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A lot of people like making scrapbooks for other people.

But in her mystery thriller novel Scrap (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), author and artist Calla Henkel puts someone in the unique position of making a scrapbook for someone who turns up dead, and the scrapable items may be key to solving the mystery.

In the following email interview, Henkel discusses what inspired and influenced this story, including how making a scrap book for someone else in real life led to her writing this story.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “The Fortunate Fall” Author Cameron Reed

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date August 15, 2024
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When we talk about iconic cyberpunk stories, we usually mention Blade Runner, The Matrix, and the novels of William Gibson, Philip K. Dick, and Neal Stephenson.

But we should also talk about Cameron Reed’s The Fortunate Fall, which took what Gibson et al. did and took the genre in a unique direction.

And maybe now we will, since Tor Books are releasing A Tor Essentials version of The Fortunate Fall (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), which augments the 1996 novel with a new intro by sci-fi writer Jo Walton [Tooth And Claw].

In the following email interview, Reed discusses what originally influenced this story, as well as why the main character has an implanted camera as opposed to just some snazzy video glasses.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Time’s Agent” Author Brenda Peynado

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date August 14, 2024
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Be it the Marvel movies, Rick & Morty, or Star Trek, a lot of recent stories involving the multiverse have people visiting different versions of their world, complete with variants of their friends and coworkers.

But in Brenda Peynado’s new novella Time’s Agent (paperback, Kindle), she takes a different approach by having this science fiction story be about pocket universes.

In the following email interview, Peynado discusses what inspired and influenced this sci-fi story.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “New Adventures In Space Opera” Editor Jonathan Strahan

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date August 13, 2024
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Science fiction is often about looking to the future, and this is especially true about sci-fi space opera stories.

So it’s not surprising that a sci-fi space opera short story anthology called New Adventures In Space Opera (paperback, Kindle) would also be forward looking. As editor Jonathan Strahan explains in the following email interview, “I edited two books [of space opera stories] with my good friend Gardner Dozois toward the end of the 2000s. … I wanted to put together a book that looked at what came next.”

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Dissonance Of Bird Song” Author Alexandra Beaumont

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date August 13, 2024
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We all do what we must to survive.

And in Alexandra Beaumont’s folkloric / historical fantasy novel Dissonance Of Bird Song (paperback, Kindle), what the people must do is inhale an enchanted mist from the lungs of birds.

(You can insert your own Affordable Care Act joke here.)

In the following email interview, Beaumont discusses what inspired and influenced this story, including why the mist comes from birds as opposed to some other musically-inclined animal.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “The Bright Sword” Author Lev Grossman

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date August 12, 2024
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In his Magicians trilogy, writer Lev Grossman put his own spin on the portal fantasy genre.

And now, with his new epic fantasy novel The Bright Sword (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), Grossman is doing the same — albeit in a very different way — to the legends of King Arthur and the Knights Of The Round Table.

In the following email interview, Grossman discusses what inspired and influenced this story, as well as why it’s about Arty and not some other King.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “To Turn The Tide” Author S.M. Stirling

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date August 8, 2024
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Plenty of people have written stories in which someone tries to stop World War II by using a time machine.

But in his time travel sci-fi adventure novel To Turn The Tide (hardcover, Kindle), author S.M. Stirling is instead trying to stop World War III, and other terrible things…and thinks sending a college professor and some students back to the time of the Roman Empire is how to do it.

In the following email interview, Stirling talks about what inspired and influenced this novel, as well as his plans for further adventures in the To Make The Darkness Light series.