Not every moral question has a right answer. Or no wrong one.
Take the question that inspired author Brad C. Anderson to write his new novel, Ashme’s Song (paperback, Kindle): “Is a hero someone who dies for their country or someone who gathers their family and gets them someplace safe?”
In the following email interview, Anderson talks about how that question inspired this story, which combines elements of science fiction, cyberpunk, political thrillers, and space opera into what he calls “spacethrillerpunk.”
To start, what is Ashme’s Song about, and when and where does it take place?
Ashme is a young woman who must choose between leaving her family to join a resistance movement defending her people or taking on the responsibility of looking after her brother, who is unable to care for himself.
It takes place in the far future on the planet of Esharra, a world scarred by ancient, sentient AI and caught in the midst of an escalating battle for control.
Where did you get the idea for Ashme’s Song?
The seed for Ashme’s Song came to me way back in 2015, during the Syrian refugee crisis. Back then, several news outlets (of certain political bents) focused on the number of young men in the influx of refugees and derided them for leaving their country rather than staying and fighting. It struck me that the problem was there were already too many people back in Syria who seemed willing to kill for their cause, and adding more wasn’t going to make things any better.
It got me thinking about the meaning of heroism. Is a hero someone who dies for their country or someone who gathers their family and gets them someplace safe? Who is braver, someone who faces bullets or someone who faces the prospect of languishing in a refugee camp?
The story morphed as I turned the concept into a novel, but that idea stayed constant.
So, is there a reason why Ashme has a twin brother as opposed to a twin sister? Or is a boy with a twin sister? Or twin brother? Or just a woman with a brother who isn’t a twin?
For a long time, I’d had in my head the idea of a pair of characters, irrevocably bound, one hyper-competent, the other unable to function on their own in the spirit of George and Lennie in [John Steinbeck’s] Of Mice And Men. Twins seemed the natural way to bind them. They are, in effect, two sides of the same coin, utterly different from one another, yet each part of a whole. Then, when the inspiration for Ashme’s Song came along, they seemed the perfect characters to explore the themes I wanted to explore.
So, why the genders, sister versus brother versus any other combination? I think part of that choice was driven by the desire to play up the oppositions between them: one is hyper-competent, the other dependent, one’s a man, the other a woman, and so on.
Setting the genders as I did allowed me to create other dynamics in the story, too. Ashme, a woman, looks after her brother, and a female caretaker is what one might expect, coming from a patriarchal society as we do. Her cousin, Ganzer, however, is a big brute of a man, and yet is the most attentive caretaker of his aging grandmother.
So, setting Ashme as a female caretaker and her cousin as a male one created further two-sided coins to explore the themes.
It sounds like Ashme’s Song is a cyberpunk sci-fi story…
It definitely has cyberpunk elements: sentient AI, hackers, characters that live on the fringes of criminality in a dystopian society.
That said, it’s not a classic cyberpunk. The rebel resistance fighting oppressive powers brings in elements of space opera, and the intrigue between the various powers vying for control brings in threads of political thrillers. So, what genre is that? Political cyberopera? Spacethrillerpunk?
You know what? I like that. Spacethrillerpunk. That’s its genre.
Ashme’s Song is your fifth novel after Duatero and the three in the Triumvirate Trilogy: Hammer Of Amahte, In The Ravager’s Shadow, and The Light The World Needs. Are there any writers, or specific stories, that had a big influence on Ashme’s Song but not on anything else you’ve written?
Nothing specific to Ashme’s Song.
But that said, what I write about has evolved. I wrote the Triumvirate Trilogy when I was quite young. My mindset then was action and adventure are fun, and that’s what I wanted to write. As I get older, I find I can’t write action scenes as just being fun and adventurous anymore. My older mind can’t dissociate the act of violence with its consequences: broken lives and heartache.
I still enjoy reading rip-snorting action adventures, but the writers that resonate with me more now are those who explore characters’ reality in a chaotic world, writers like Ursula LeGuin and Guy Gavriel Kay. Those are who I aspire to these days.
What about non-literary influences? Was Ashme’s Song influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games?
As boring as it sounds (and it sounds more boring than it is), I pulled much of Ashme’s Song setting and events from the news and history. The truth, as they say, is stranger than fiction. What is happening in the world today and in the past is every bit a rollercoaster ride as any story you could imagine. A lot of the elements in Ashme’s Song are inspired by contemporary 20th-century history.
And what about your puppy, Mae? What influence did she have on Ashme’s Song?
She was curled up beside me for pretty much every word I wrote for Ashme’s Song. She reminds me angels walk amongst us.
Mae
Now, as I mentioned earlier, you previously wrote a stand-alone novel called Duatero as well as three in a trilogy, the Triumvirate Trilogy. So, what is Ashme’s Song? Is it a stand-alone novel or the start of a series?
Ashme’s Song is a stand-alone novel. I seem to be an anomaly on this, but I much prefer stand-alone novels to series, and so that’s what I write. I have so many stories in my head, and I’ll never be able to tell them if all I do is focus on a series. In my mind, a good story has a beginning, a middle…and an end. Good stories end. They leave you wanting more, but they end.
Earlier I asked if Ashme’s Song was influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games. But to flip things around, do you think Ashme’s Song could work as a movie, a TV show, or a game?
I think Ashme’s Song would make a great limited series. Having several episodes would allow the character arcs and moral dilemmas to develop, which would be hard to replicate in a two-hour movie.
I think you could also turn it into either a role-playing or video game. You could do that in one of two ways. One, you could have a different story in the same setting. The machinations of powers-that-be vying for influence and relics of ancient, sentient AI create a rich source of endless stories. Conversely, you could create an Ashme’s Song game where the player faces the same moral choices Ashme does that dramatically influence the direction the game takes.
And if someone wanted to go the TV route, who would you want them to cast as Ashme and Shen?
For Ashme, I think an actress like Shioli Kutsuna of Deadpool fame or Lana Condor from Alita Battle Angel would be a good fit.
Shen is a special needs character, and I think he would best be played by someone from that community.
So, is there anything else you think potential readers need to know about Ashme’s Song?
It’s an exciting ride. The characters go on an incredible journey, and you go on it with them. It’s the kind of story that stays with you after.
Finally, if someone enjoys Ashme’s Song, what cyberpunk sci-fi novel or novella of someone else’s would you suggest they check out?
Well, there’s the classic Neuromancer by William Gibson that gave the genre its footing. I also enjoyed Richard Morgan’s Altered Carbon.
