One of the cardinal rules of modern life is “Don’t engage the trolls” (followed closely by “Don’t read the comments” and “Get guac on that!”).
But for once, I’m glad someone didn’t follow that rule because — as she explains in the following email interview — it’s why Beth Revis wrote her sci-fi space opera novella Full Speed To A Crash Landing (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), which is the first installment of the Chaotic Orbits series.
To start, what is Full Speed To A Crash Landing about, and when and where is it set?
I’ve been calling Full Speed a mashup between Firefly and Glass Onion, with some killer River Song vs. Sherlock vibes.
The story takes place in the future, and the first one starts with the main character, Ada Lamarr, grappling with the last dregs of an oxygen tank in her breached ship. The crew of the Halifax pick up her distress call, and are immediately suspicious, because she happens to be near the crash site of another ship, one that’s scattered debris all over a remote, uninhabited planet.
Everyone has their eyes on something in that debris field. But only one person will be able to steal it…and Ada’s determined it’s going to be her, even if the Halifax is being led by a government agent determined to stop her.
Where did you get the idea for Full Speed To A Crash Landing? What inspired it?
This story was inspired by spite.
I was a fan convention when someone approached me and basically was incredibly rude about my writing and my skills. Because I was the professional guest, I had to smile politely, despite this person’s utter dismissal of my entire career and his challenge that I couldn’t possibly write a sci fi story that had the right blend of mystery and romance and fun adventure he seemed to think most sci fi today was lacking.
It became my singular goal to prove him wrong. I immediately went back to my hotel and started typing. Within a month of impassioned, rage-fueled writing that very nearly broke my keyboard, I had the first draft of Full Speed done.
It sounds like Full Speed To A Crash Landing is a sci-fi space opera story…
Absolutely! I was building off hard science theories that I actually find really fascinating, but the heart of the novel is about the characters and the mystery and the adventure.
The press release also says it has “sexy tension.” How sexy are we talking about? Is it flirty, is it erotic, is it filthy…? And why was this the right about of, uh, va-va-voom?
If you’ve seen the Firefly episodes with Saffron — that. That amount of sexy. There’s a lot of suggestion, a lot of banter, and a lot of flirting, but Ada’s not going to let a pretty man distract her from a payout. At least not in the first book.
Along with being sexy, it also sounds like Full Speed To A Crash Landing might have a sense of humor.
I certainly hope so! No character I’ve ever written has more sarcastic sass than Ada Lamarr.
It sounds like the humor is situational, like one of John Scalzi’s novels, as opposed to jokey, like The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.
As someone who sneaks the number 42 in almost every single novel she writes, it’s far more jokey in voice than situation. The humor of this book comes from the perspective. Ian White, the government agent, would have told the story in a much more straight-forward, clinical way, but Ada’s going to take you on this ride with her and she’s going to make you snort out loud while she’s doing it.
You kind of just answered this, but who do you see as having the biggest influence on the humor in Full Speed To A Crash Landing?
I cut my teeth on Douglas Adams, Han Solo is sexy because he’s sarcastic, the Doctor’s tongue is his most deadly weapon, and the brilliance of Fleabag is firmly set in the witty dialogue. I think good humor comes not from what you say but how you say it. I’m uninteresting in humor that punches down; I want my comedy to be as sharp as a razor blade.
But really, while I definitely think these are all masters of the craft, I got my humor from my father.
Aside from Adams, what other writers do you feel had a big influence on Full Speed To A Crash Landing?
I’ve long been a fan of Agatha Christie and her brilliant mysteries, and despite the spaceship crashes, the simmering romance, and the high-stakes action, Full Speed is really a mystery at its heart. Rian Johnson’s Knives Out and Glass Onion reminded me a lot of my childhood love of Hercule Poirot and Ms. Marple (although Tommy and Tuppence were my faves, and they deserved more novels!).
Speaking of movies, what non-literary influences — films, TV shows, games — do you feel had a big influence on Full Speed To A Crash Landing?
Beyond the ones I’ve already mentioned? I’m going to dive into history a bit. Ada Lamarr is named for two of my favorite women in science: Ada Lovelace and Hedy Lamarr. Ada Lovelace was Lord Byron’s daughter, and that’s the least interesting thing about her. She was brilliant in both mathematics and science, and had theories that became foundational to modern computers. Hedy Lamarr was best known for being a beautiful actress, but she fought Nazis, cracked codes, and developed technology used in radar systems and, later, Bluetooth.
In Full Speed Ada faces off against Rian White, the lawful good government agent. He’s named after Rian Johnson and his detective, Benoit Blanc (“blanc”, of course, meaning “white”), because it was my love of those movies that really inspired me to try my hand at the really twisty, layered mysteries I’d loved all my life. And naming the character Sherlock (after the BBC version played by Benedict Cumberbatch) was a little too on the nose.
And what about your dog, Jill? What influence did she have on Full Speed To A Crash Landing?
My puppy’s name is Jill. She’s a Jack Russell mutt who staunchly defended me from every attempted invasion of the evil UPS delivery truck. Without her, who knows what those brown trucks would have done. Probably something nefarious.
Jill
Now, you’ve already said that Full Speed To A Crash Landing is the first book in a trilogy called the Chaotic Orbits series, and that the second book, How To Steal A Galaxy, will be out December 9th. First, do you know what the third book will be called and when it will be out?
Last Chance To Save The World will be available April 8, 2025. I just turned in the copyedits this week!
So, what was it about this story that made you realize it needed to be told in three novellas as opposed to one novel?
It was actually a big debate, and I went back and forth on it multiple times. I knew the main mystery had to be short. I had to be, both for Ada’s wit to be balanced out, but also because there’s a timed element to the mystery, and drawing it out meant adding filler. I didn’t want to do that.
But I also pretty quickly came up with two more mysteries that culminated in one over-arching plot. I have clues in the first chapter of the first book about what Ada’s truly doing that’s not revealed until the last chapter of the last book.
So, I had basically three short-ish mysteries. I could have made one big novel in three parts, or told three fully contained, but linked, shorter books. I did the work for both, and ultimately felt the right call was the novella format. I’s short, succinct, and it creates a bit of a division between the stories. And I’m so thrilled to be working with my editor and the entire team at DAW, because they absolutely got the concept from the jump.
Similarly, is there a reason why it’s three parts and not two or four or 37?
This book was like lightning in a bottle. It burst from me like Athena ripping out of Zeus’s head — it was pretty fully formed from the start. The pieces of each individual mystery as well as the pieces of the overarching mystery never changed. Ada has a long con going on in the background, and to get all the pieces of that working, all three of the smaller cons and mysteries got their own story.
I love Ada and Rian a lot, though, and I’d love to explore more stories with them. I have the seeds of an idea of what Ada does next, but I’ve not quite puzzled it through. Perhaps I need someone to insult me at a con again.
Upon hearing that Full Speed To A Crash Landing is the first book of a trilogy, some people will decide to wait until all three are out before reading any of them, and some people will further decide to read all three back-to-back when the time comes. But is there any reason why you think people shouldn’t wait? Or should but not binge the series?
Hey, I’m just happy if people read. But I do know that Full Speed is a fully contained and realized mystery with a full beginning, middle, and end — and if you read the first one, you get a solid story. You don’t need to binge the series to “get it.” The second book gives you enough context to know you’re diving into a new mystery with its own storyline. The third and last book, because it ties up the overarching mystery, may be more binge-able, but there’s no reason not to read Full Speed now. And the DAW production team is going into overdrive to get these books out as quick as possible; just a few months between each one.
Now, along with Full Speed To A Crash Landing, you have two other books coming out soon: The Fate Of Magic, which you cowrote with Sara Raasch, and Star Wars: Someone Who Loves You.
Let’s talk about Fate first; what is that book about, and what kind of a world is it set in, and when does it take place in relation to the first book, Night Of The Witch?
The Fate Of Magic takes place very soon after Night Of The Witch. Both of them are set during the Trier witch trials that took place in the late sixteenth century of Germany…which also were the bloodiest, most violent loss of life in Europe outside of war or natural disaster. Sara and I re-imagined this real event in history with a witch who does real magic and the hunter assigned to track her down.
In Night Of The Witch, Fritzi is on the run after the witch hunters killed her family and wiped out her village. Otto, the character I wrote, is working with the witch hunters, intent on taking them down from the inside. They end up being forced to work together to fight against the hunters, and travel the length of Germany into the Black Forest and the heart of magic.
That’s where The Fate Of Magic picks up. The sequel is about the consequences of life after such a horrific mark on history…with the added complication of actual magic leaking into late medieval Germany.
And are Night Of The Witch and The Fate Of Magic the first two books of a trilogy, are they a duology, what?
Duology; the story will be done with The Fate Of Magic. Well, Fritzi and Otto’s story is done. There may be more coming soon…
And they’re both historical fantasy, right?
Yes, historical fantasy.
As for Star Wars: Someone Who Loves You, what is that book about, and when in the Star Wars chronology does it take place?
I wrote Star Wars: The Princess And The Scoundrel, which came out in 2022, and it’s about Han and Leia’s wedding on Endor and subsequent adventure-filled honeymoon.
Someone Who Loves You is a picture book that puts us back in Endor as Han and Leia get ready for their wedding, with a growing group of Ewoks curious about what love is. It’s absolutely as cute as it sounds, and while it’s perfect for the kids, I hope a lot of adults will like it too (and I secretly hope someone uses it to pop the question to a loved one).
And is Star Wars: Someone Who Loves You written like a story, or is it set up like one of those “Cherished Memories” wedding books? Y’know, something they’d make you look at if you went to their house. Or the Millenium Falcon.
It’s a true picture book with a complete story. It’s got beautiful illustrations by Sophie Li that capture the whimsy and joy of the moment in masterful brushstrokes. Personally, I plan to buy a copy and take it apart so I can frame some of the pictures and hang them on my wall. I’m a bit like Maurice Sendak (and did have a nod to Where The Wild Things Are in one of the spreads) — I hope the people who love the book the most are the children who gnaw on the pages and toss the book around like a toy, but I also hope there are some grownups who love it, too, much as I love many of the classics I pulled from my bookshelf to put on my son’s.
As you mentioned, Star Wars: Someone Who Loves You is illustrated by Sophie Li. What was it like working with an illustrator on that book?
It was amazing! I made an entire portfolio with reference pictures for her, and while many of them were from Star Wars scenes, I had a lot of fun finding other reference pictures that showed details and expressions. There are a few visual gags that would never work without Sophie’s skilled talent.
Going back to Full Speed To A Crash Landing, earlier I asked if it was influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games. But to flip things around, do you think Landing could work as a movie, show, or game?
Absolutely I think Full Speed would work [as a movie or show]. And my agent is actively shopping it. My love for sci-fi started watching Star Trek: The Next Generation with my father, Firefly, and Doctor Who, and, of course, Star Wars.
And if someone wanted to adapt Full Speed To A Crash Landing and the Chaotic Orbits series into some movies or a show, who would you want them to cast as Ada, Rian, and the other main characters?
For Ada, I truly think Phoebe Waller-Bridge would be brilliant. If you’ve seen the last Indiana Jones movie, there’s a moment where her character, Helena, is on the Greek ship and slightly breaks the fourth wall, looking out at the audience for a moment that’s deeply hilarious because it’s so perfectly timed. That one image is the embodiment of Ada’s attitude.
For Rian, I’m going to be selfish and say Ben Barnes [Shadow And Bone]. Because I want him on my television screen at all times.
So, is there anything else someone might need to know about Full Speed To A Crash Landing?
My very first novel was a sci-fi mystery called Across The Universe. Although very different from this book, they share the same universe. If you liked my first trilogy, you’ll notice a few nods to Across The Universe in Full Speed…and you’ll find out something key about Amy and Elder in the background of How To Steal A Galaxy.
Finally, if someone enjoys Full Speed To A Crash Landing, what humorous sci-fi space opera novel or novella of someone else’s would you suggest they check out?
I cannot imagine anyone’s not read Martha Wells’ brilliant Murderbot Diaries, a series of novellas, but I adore them. I actually studied those books a lot when tackling the novella process, which was new to me. Murderbot has my full heart, and while it’s not romantic (at all! the horror Murderbot would feel if forced into a romance plot!), I like to think that maybe Full Speed is one of those feeds it ignores humans to watch in the background.
