Exclusive Interview: “Rebel” Co-Authors David Weber & Richard Fox

In 2006, author David Weber published a revised and expanded version of his 1992 military science fiction novel Path Of The Fury, which he retitled In Fury Born.

Well, now he’s adding more to the story with the Ascent To Empire novels, a prequel series he’s co-writing with fellow sci-fi author Richard Fox.

In the following email interview, Weber and Fox talk about the newly released second installment of the Ascent To Empire series, Rebel (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), as well as the first, Governor, which has also just come out in trade paperback.

David Weber, Richard Fox

I’d like to start with some background. David, Governor is a prequel to In Fury Born. First, what is In Fury Bornabout, when and where is it set?

Weber: In Fury Born is the story of Alicia DeVries, who becomes a drop commando in the Imperial Cadre — an elite force in the service of the House of Murphy, the ruling dynasty of the Terran Empire — in the thirtieth century. She resigns from the Cadre when the Crown has chosen not to prosecute the traitor responsible for the massacre of her original Cadre company because they believe they can use him in a counter-intelligence strategy. She retires with her family to a frontier world, which is later attacked by raiders who kill her entire family and leave her mortally wounded and dying. Unfortunately for them, she doesn’t die after all, because Tisiphone, the last surviving Greek fury, saves her life and the two of them — accompanied by a stolen AI-crewed starship — set out to track down and destroy those responsible for the attack.

Next, what is Governor about, and when and where does it take place in relation to Rebel?

Weber: Governor, the first novel in the Assent To Empire series, takes place in the mid-27th century. The series tells the story of the creation of the Terran Empire which Alicia DeVries serves as a member of the Imperial Cadre.

As the books begin, the Terran Federation has been at war for the better part of sixty years with the Tè Lā Lián Méng (the Terran League). Unknown to either side, the war was actually provoked by the alien Rish as a means to neutralize humanity’s rapid interstellar expansion. What Terrence Murphy, the protagonist, does know is that the Five Hundred, the clique of wealthy industrialists who control the Federation, is deeply corrupt and willing to use the politically powerless citizens of the Fringe Worlds to fight a war which makes the Five Hundred plenty of money. Although Murphy is a member of the Five Hundred himself, he is also a man of honor who believes in responsibility, and when he becomes governor of the Fringe system of New Dublin, he defies the Five Hundred by standing to fight in New Dublin’s defense rather than abandoning it. Because of that, he is pronounced a traitor by the federal government and finds himself trapped between his love for the Federation, the Fringer fury which drives New Dublin and its neighbors to secede from the Federation, and the discovery of the Rish’s involvement in the war.

Which, of course, brings us to Rebel. What is it about, and when does it take place in relation to both Governor and In Fury Born?

Fox: Rebel takes place immediately after Governor. In Fury Born takes place many generations after the events in this series.

Weber: After the events in Governor, Murphy finds himself assuming the role of the Fringe’s spokesman and champion. He is desperately determined to preserve the Federation, but recognizes that it must reform itself. Unfortunately, the Five Hundred have no interest in reform, and the situation escalates as ships of the Terran Federation Navy (60% of whose personnel are Fringers) begin mutinying in support of the secessionists…and Murphy. Murphy continues to believe in the necessity — and possibility — of reform, despite escalating clashes with naval forces sent to crush him for his “treason,” until the Five Hundred sends a punitive expedition to the Fringe system of Bellerophon. The expedition’s commander commits horrific atrocities and kills millions, and in the wake of his crimes, Murphy discovers that he was issued a preemptive pardon by the Federation. At that point, he realizes reform cannot be achieved peacefully and finally embraces his role as a rebel.

And then, just to make sure everyone is on the same page, Governor and Rebel are the first two books of the Ascent To Empire series, which is a part of your Furyverse, though Furyverse at this point only includes In Fury Born.

Weber: Correct.

So then, when in relation to writing Governor did you come up with the idea for Rebel, and what inspired this second book’s plot?

Weber: The Ascent To Empire series was always planned as at least a trilogy. Governor and Rebel were always going to be books one and two of that trilogy, though we did end up incorporating additional elements into Rebel once we got started actually writing it.

Fox: We had to consider what led to Terrance Murphy becoming emperor and what happened to the previous form of government and why it had to be overthrown. Rebel is Terrance Murphy coming face to face with the reasons the Federation was unsustainable.

Governor is a military sci-fi space opera story. Is Rebel one as well?

Fox: Military space opera amidst galactic empires.

Weber: They are both part of the same continuing storyline, so, yeah, they could both be considered sci-fi space opera. I am inclined to think of them more as military science fiction than space opera, though I’m aware that the distinction blurs for most people. I would describe it as military science-fiction written on the scale of grand strategy and interstellar politics.

So, for both of you, are there any writers, or specific stories, that you feel had a big influence on what you wrote in Rebel but not on anything else you’ve written, and especially not Governor?

Weber: I would say no. Certainly not anything that influence Rebel and not Governor, since they are essentially the two “chapters” of the same story.

Fox: David Weber had a huge influence on my writing here. For obvious reasons.

How about non-literary influences? Do you think Rebel was influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games?

Fox: I served in the Army during two combat deployments to Iraq. I dealt with a good number of former Saddam regime individuals and the consequences of Saddam’s regime. Pooling that into the Alaimo character and his actions was all too easy.

Weber: I can’t personally think of any movies, TV shows, or games that influenced my concept for In Fury Born or Ascent To Empire. They are drawn far more from historical models, as far as I’m concerned.

To be honest, I don’t watch that much television, or movies, so the opportunity for that to influence me is probably limited. I would say that there are probably some residences in here with Babylon Five, which I did watch, but in many ways I think they’d be more apparent than real. Or, put another way, I would suspect that [Babylon Five creator J. Michael] Straczynski and I were both influenced by quite a few stories which came before either of us.

As we’ve been discussing, Governor and Rebel are the first two books of the Ascent To Empire series, which is itself a prequel series to In Fury Born. But David, do you think it’s necessary for someone to read Fury first, or should they wait until the Ascent To Empire series is done and then read Fury? Or is it not necessary at all?

Weber: There’s no reason to read In Fury Born before you begin the Ascent To Empire series. The books are separated by centuries, and the events in In Fury Born do not impinge on the chronologically earlier books at all.

In many ways, it would probably make more sense to read the Ascent To Empire before reading In Fury Born, since that would provide so much historical context for Alicia’s story, but both stories / story arcs will read just fine independent of one another.

Also, are you planning on writing any other stories as part of the Furyverse but not the Ascent To Empire series?

Weber: At the moment, the priority is obviously on finishing Ascent to Empire, [but] there are also a pair of stand-alone books that I have wanted to write for a long time (but may not get around to) which are a direct prequel and a direct sequel to In Fury Born.

Now, along with Governor and Rebel, you both have solo novels coming out soon. Richard, let’s start with you: What is your novel Men Of Bretton about, and when and where is it set?

Like the Ascent To Empire novels, Men Of Bretton is also a military sci-fi space opera story. But what makes them different?

Fox: Men Of Bretton is less about the grand strategy and fantastic space battles David Weber is known for, but focuses heavily on a small group of soldiers trying to get home while their nation falls apart into civil war around them.

Does that mean that someone who likes the Ascent To Empire series won’t also like Men Of Bretton, and vice versa, or are they similar enough that people who enjoy one willlike the other, too?

Fox: Both books are for lovers and readers of military science fiction and space opera. Sometimes you want strawberry ice cream, sometimes you want vanilla. Both are ice cream.

Along with Men Of Bretton, the mass market paperback version of your novel Light Of The Veil just came out. What is Veil about, and when and where is it set?

It sounds like Light Of The Veil is a sci-fi space opera story. Is that accurate?

Fox: Science fiction adventure.

As for you, David, your other book is a trade paperback reissue of 1993’s The Honor Of The Queen, which is the second book in your Honor Harrington series. For people who haven’t read any of those books, who is Honor Harrington, what does she do, and when do these novels take place?

Weber: Honor Harrington is a 6’2″ Eurasian starship captain in the service of the Star Kingdom of Manticore. The books are set roughly 2,000 years from today in a galaxy whose human polities are dominated by the Solarian League, the biggest, most powerful, and wealthiest nation in human history. The Star Kingdom is a small, three-world star nation in a single binary-star system, but it is very wealthy because of its control of the Manticoran Wormhole Junction, a sort of interstellar shortcut which permits enormous economies of time in the movement of people, freight, or information. It is also threatened, when the series begins, by conquest at the hands of the expansionist People’s Republic of Haven. Unfortunately for the People’s Republic, the Star Kingdom has both the technical logical edge and Honor Harrington. Eventually, built the Star Kingdom and the People’s Republic discover that they are being manipulated — along with the entire Solarian League — by a malign force none of them even suspected might exist.

But that takes a few books. In fact, it takes quite a few books.

And then what is The Honor Of The Queen about, and when does it take place in relation to the first Honor Harrington novel, 1993’s On Basilisk Station?

Weber: It takes place about two years in-universe after On Basilisk Station. Honor Harrington, the protagonist of Basilisk Station is sent as the commander of the military escort for a diplomatic mission to Grayson, a planet in the Yeltsin System, settled a thousand years earlier by religious émigrés. The fact that she is a woman offends the Graysons’ deeply held belief that women must be protected, which complicates the diplomatic effort led by admiral Raoul Courvoissier, Honor’s beloved mentor. She removes herself from the equation by escorting a convoy of freighters to another destination, hoping that will cool things. Unfortunately, the People’s Republic of Haven is also interested in the region, and has assigned one of its modern battlecruisers to support Grayson’s fratricidal enemies on Masada in the nearby Endicott System. While Honor is absent, Masada attacks Grayson, destroys most of its navy, and kills Courvoisier. Honor returns to Yeltsin with her heavy cruiser and chooses to stand and fight in Grayson’s defense, despite the fact that her ship is totally out-classed by its opponent. Not just because it is the decent thing to do, but because the honor of the queen demands it.

The Honor Harrington novels are military sci-fi, like the Ascent To Empire series. What makes The Honor Of The Queen different from Governor and Rebel, and do you think people who like the former book will enjoy the latter ones, and vice versa?

Weber: They are different stories about different challenges. Murphy finds himself compelled to destroy the political system and the economic structure he took an oath to defend because he realizes that they are hopelessly corrupt. Honor is fighting in the defense of a society which has its warts — and she has bitter personal experience of how an aristocratic enemy can use his power against her — is a constitutional monarchy which is also a healthy, representative government. In Murphy’s place, mind you, Honor would almost certainly have done what he’s done, and vice versa. That’s because both of them are responsibility takers who believe that it is their job to fix problems, to right wrongs, and to protect.

The universes are different, with different technological constraints and very different histories and back stories, so the strategic and tactical environments are quite different, although militarily, that’s more evident on the tactical than the strategic level, in many ways. There are similarities and differences in the war-fighting technologies available to Murphy and Honor, but in both literary universes, the tech base evolves and changes in the course of the stories.

I think that most people who have enjoyed the Honorverse would also enjoy what Richard and I are calling the Murphyverse, because the “good guys” typify so many of the same values and virtues and because the stakes are so high (albeit in different ways) in both of them. Politics and strategy are primary drivers in both of them, although the political calculus is different because of the differences in what you might call the foundational political geography of the two series.

Going back to Rebel, earlier I asked if it had been influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games. But to flip things around, do you think Rebel — and, by extension, Governor — could work as a movie series, a TV show, or a game?

Fox: I think Ascent To Empire would make a great animated mini-series.

Weber: I am firmly of the opinion that the Honorverse would work best as a TV show. There’s no way that it could be fitted into a single movie, and even as a movie franchise.

I think the same is probably true of Governor and Rebel, with the caveat that since we are planning only 3 to 5 books in Murphy’s story, it could be worked into a more manageable (and shorter) movie franchise than something with twenty-plus novels in it, like the Honorverse.

Overall, I think that TV, with its greater ability to handle an ensemble cast and the option of cycling characters in and out of a given season as they come and go on the larger, strategic stage, would be the better way to go with both series of books.

Finally, if someone enjoys Rebel, and they’ve already read Governor, The Honor Of The Queen, Men Of Bretton, and Light Of The Veil, what military sci-fi space opera novel or novella that neither of you wrote would you each suggest people check out?

Weber: I’d say anything in the Liaden Universe by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller; any of the (older) Miles Vorkosigan novels by Lois Bujold; or anything by David Drake.

Fox: I recommend Eisenhorn by Dan Abnett. It’s part of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, but that book is a place you can start without doing any homework. And the trilogy has the best character arc I’ve ever read.