At a time when you have to actively try not to be reachable, the idea of not being able to contact someone can be frightening.
So imagine if it wasn’t someone you couldn’t reach, but ten thousand people, and they all lived so far away that it would take more than a year to get there.
This is the problem that kicks off author David Wellington’s sci-fi horror / space adventure series Red Space, which he launched last year with Paradise-1 and now continues with Revenant-X (paperback, Kindle, audiobook).
In the following email interview, Wellington explains how Revenant-X picks up this story, his plan for this series moving forward, and the surprising author who influenced this middle installment.
For people who haven’t read the first book, Paradise-1, or the interview we did about it, what is the Red Space series about, what happens in Paradise-1, and when and where is it all set?
A lot happens in the trilogy; it’s very hard to do this without spoilers. But let me try.
Red Space is the story of the crew of the starship Artemis, a fast courier ship which is traveling to humanity’s first interstellar colony, Paradise-1. Onboard are Alexandra Petrova, an Inspector of Firewatch, the Earth Government’s secret police; Dr. Zhang, a specialist in a very dark kind of medicine; pilot Sam Parker, who has no idea what he’s signed up for; and a robot named Rapscallion who chooses not to kill the human crew in their cryosleep because it would just be too much trouble to explain himself.
Paradise-1 is supposed to be a utopian agrarian planet where hard-working people are building new lives for themselves. The problem is, fourteen months ago, they cut off all contact with Earth. There’s been no explanation, so Firewatch has sent our heroes to discover what’s going on. It doesn’t go well for them, or anyone, really.
And then for people who have read Paradise-1, and thus can ignore me writing SPOILER ALERT, what is Revenant-X about, and when and where does it take place in relation to Paradise-1?
Really, really don’t look at this answer if you haven’t read Paradise-1.
Okay…spoilers start now.
Revenant-X picks up exactly where Paradise-1 left off. Petrova and company have finally reached the planet and made a mostly-safe landing. Unfortunately, their shuttle was wrecked on touchdown and now they have no way to get off world again.
Bad, but much creepier is the fact that the planet appears to be deserted. There were supposed to be ten thousand colonists here, but it looks like they just abandoned their own town and disappeared.
Suffice it to say the mystery is answered pretty quickly — but not in a way that bodes well for our characters.
Paradise-1 was a sci-fi horror story. I assume Revenant-X is as well, but are there any other genres at work in this second story? Like maybe space opera.
Actually, if you took all the scary parts out, it’s a classic space adventure story. There’s a lot of exploration here, a lot of sense of wonder. Paradise-1 is a very young world, a planet where the native life is just beginning to take over the land. There are animals but they’re not like anything on Earth. There might also be some non-native species on the planet as well…
Are there any writers, or specific stories, that had a big influence on Revenant-X but not anything else you’ve written, and especially not Paradise-1?
I always hate questions about influence because I pride myself on writing original stories, where I alone have wrought, Prometheus-like, some precious new thing for humanity.
But no, seriously, we all have our influences. There’s a surprising answer here, too. C.S. Lewis wrote science fiction novels, not just the Narnia books. Christian allegory isn’t typically my thing, but these books are actually pretty great just as science fiction. The best of them is Out Of The Silent Planet, but Revenant-X actually takes a lot from the sequel, Perelandra. That’s also a story about a young planet, but we have very different takes on what that means. Lewis saw innocence in a world that had not yet known sin. For me, a planet loses its innocence when life develops there. Life is all about murdering and eating other life, one way or another. I don’t see any innocence in the natural world.
What about non-literary influences; was Revenant-X influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games? Because anytime someone pairs science fiction and horror together, I immediately think of the Dead Space games and that movie Event Horizon.
I love Dead Space, I’m playing the remake right now. Event Horizon is one of my all-time favorite movies. There’s definitely some of them both here, though I absolutely can’t give you any more spoilers here. We’ve already gone too far.
Now, as we’ve been discussing, Revenant-X is the second book of the Red Space series. In the interview we did about Paradise-1 you said this series was, “…going to be a trilogy, at the very least.” Have the plans been finalized yet?
Nothing is ever final! But right now we’re looking at a trilogy. I’m deep into writing the third book right now, and it will have a definitive ending. Though of course, there will always be room for more stories…
Do you know yet what the third and final book will be called, or when it will be out?
Even just telling you the title would be a spoiler. It would be a spoiler for me, since we haven’t decided on a title yet. Nor do we have a release date. But I’m hoping the wait won’t be as long this time.
So, is there anything else a potential reader might need to know about Revenant-X? Or, while we’re on the subject, Paradise-1 or the Red Space series?
Don’t look at the spoilers. This is a big, twisty trilogy, and knowing what’s coming for you is the worst way to get started here.
Instead, focus on the characters, like Rapscallion. The robot can 3D print new bodies for himself and often creates new looks just to freak out humans. If he wants to laugh he has to play a sound file of humans laughing, or what he thinks humans laughing sounds like. He’s also a fan favorite, and the most lovable character in the series. If that doesn’t make you want to read more, then…then pick up the books anyway. They’re scary and fun and have tons of cool ideas. I promise.
Finally, given that Paradise-1 is nearly 700 pages long, and that Revenant-X is another 500, people who’ve read them might want something short and sweet to read next. So, what sci-fi horror novella would you suggest they read while waiting for the third Red Space book to arrive?
I’ll do you one better and give you an anthology to pick up. It’s called The Darkness Beyond The Stars, edited by PL McMillan. I wrote the foreword, but don’t worry about that. There are some incredible stories in this thing, including a novella called “The Vela Remnant” by David Wren.
Here’s a little bonus you shouldn’t skip: of the short stories in the collection, my favorite is “Last Transmission From The FedComm Sargasso” by Bridget D. Brave. But the whole book’s great and worth a look.
