K.B. Wagers’ NeoG novels have all been military science fiction stories.
But as they explain in the following email interview about the fourth installment, And The Mighty Will Fall (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), it’s not really the fourth in a series, isn’t just military sci-fi, and while the title implies some finality, there could be more adventures for the crew of Zuma’s Ghost.
For people who haven’t read the previous books — A Pale Light In The Black, Hold Fast Through The Fire, and The Ghosts Of Trappist — or the interviews we did about them [which you can read by clicking here, here, and here, respectfully], what is the NeoG series about, and when do these novels take place?
I guess to start with I always like to point out that these books are all stand-alone novels, more like Star Trek novels rather than a series in the traditional sense of the word. The in-world timeline does run linearly from A Pale Light In The Black to And The Mighty Will Fall, but the stories can be read out of order.
That said, they’re stories about hope, about the survival of humanity. Wrapped in the backdrop of a near future world where humanity has overcome a massive near-extinction event called the Collapse, we follow a crew of Interceptor Neos as they do their jobs patrolling the solar system and the Trappist system where humans have settled. The stories are heavily focused on the human interactions versus technological explanations. My running joke is I don’t care to explain how the things go boom, only that they do.
If you’ve always wanted to read science fiction but were a little worried about being “in over your head” I’d say these are good books to pick up.
And then for those who have read them, and can thus ignore me writing SPOILER ALERT, what is And The Mighty Will Fall about, and when does it take place in relation to the previous novel, The Ghosts Of Trappist?
Fall takes place five years after the end of Ghosts, so we’re definitely leaning into the stand-alone nature of the books here. There’s been some crew movement for the Interceptor Zuma’s Ghost, but familiar faces are there also — including our cornerstone duo of Max and Jenks. Hostiles take over the Mars Orbital Station just as the NeoG is set to hand it over to Mars civilian control and two members of Zuma get trapped on the station. While they fight to keep people safe, the rest of the crew on the ground tries to first negotiate with the hostiles and then rescue their friends.
The book is Die Hard in space, my love letter to action films in book form with a very specific twist where the lone hero not only can’t, but shouldn’t try to save the day on their own.
When in the process of writing the other books did you come up with the idea for And the Mighty Will Fall, and what inspired this story?
I initially pitched this book as a completely different idea from what we ended up with. Then I had a shot at a project that was along the same lines but it didn’t work out. However, I couldn’t get the idea of the Zuma’s Ghost crew having to John McClane it up on a space station. It sounded like a lot of fun. And the tensions on Mars were already a huge part of the world it seemed pretty natural to write a story centered there.
The previous NeoG novels were all military sci-fi space opera stories, so I assume And The Mighty Will Fall is as well. But are there any other genres at work in Fall?
I was just talking about this recently and mentioned how the books have shifted tone a lot as we’ve gone. Pale Light is just a fun book about unlikely friends (and sports!); Hold Fast is more serious drama and action; Ghosts is the spooky book, but with a girl and her robot dog; and Fall is no different. It’s very much a fast-paced action film (but with consequences and therapy). This one is so messy and takes place over the course of hours rather than months.
And The Mighty Will Fall is obviously not your first novel. Are there any writers who had a particularly big influence on Fall but not on any of your other novels, and especially not the NeoG ones?
I’ve been reading a lot of short form works and poetry lately. Or still? [laughs] I feel like I’ve been reading in that vein since about 2020. Because the format for Fall was so different, I couldn’t really look to the more traditional layouts of stories. There’s no real specific writer I focused on, though.
How about non-literary influences; was And The Mighty Will Fall influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games? You mentioned Die Hard…
All of them have some echo in the book, either in scenes or specific jokes. It was a lot of fun to go back and watch these while I was writing.
Now, as we’ve been discussing, And The Mighty Will Fall is the fourth novel in your NeoG series. But the title has me wondering if it might also be the last one. Because in the interview we did about The Ghosts Of Trappist you said, “At present the fourth book wraps up our contracted NeoG stories. Would I love to write more? Yes. Would I love to write something different? Also yes.”
I know the real question here is: who dies? [laughs] And I’m not answering that.
Since all of the books are stand-alones it’s been pretty easy to write each as if it’s “the end.” Publishing being what it is that answer is always a bit difficult to pin down. So at present Fall is the last NeoG book. If it does well that could change.
Either way, I’m happy with this story and think it’s a fitting send-off for the crew of Zuma’s Ghost.
Speaking of these book being stand-alone novels, you said earlier that “the stories can be read out of order.” But what will someone get out of Fall if they read the books in order?
I suspect the main thing one would get is a better sense of connection to the characters, since so many people have read and loved the crew of Zuma’s Ghost. But I tried really hard to give new readers as much of a reason to jump headfirst into the book and fall in love with Max and Jenks and the others even in the very short time span.
Earlier I asked if And The Mighty Will Fall was influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games. Has there been any interest in adapting the NeoG novels into a movie, show, or game?
To the best of my knowledge no, but Harper Voyager has the rights to those so I’m not in the loop on it. I think it would be a lot of fun though, especially this novel. [makes “call us” gesture]
So, is there anything else you think a potential reader might need to know about And The Mighty Will Fall or the NeoG series?
Don’t be afraid of science fiction or the military sci-fi tag on these. It’s not hard science fiction that’s going to be overwhelming and maybe a bit difficult to comprehend. I like writing fun stories about characters who matter to me, and by extension I try to make it so the reader also cares. I think science fiction has such potential for telling stories about the way the world could be — especially in a bright and hopeful way. While I tend to talk about grief and loss a lot in my books, I’m not a fan of grimdark. I think we (the human race) are better than we’ve been, that we can figure out a way to make an equitable, compassionate world.
Finally, if someone enjoys And The Mighty Will Fall, and they’ve already read the other NeoG novels, what military sci-fi space opera novel or novella of someone else’s would you suggest they check out?
So this is military adjacent, but my most recent favorite space opera novel was Emily Hamilton’s The Stars Too Fondly. It’s a hilarious story about a group of friends who accidentally steal a spaceship (no really) and find their way into rescuing the crew of the ship who’ve been missing for 20 years. There’s an absolutely touching love story, found family, dark matter, and just so much amazing hope in the ending.
