Exclusive Interview: “The Sum Of All Things” Author Seb Doubinsky

 

Over the last fifteen years, author Seb Doubinsky has written ten stand-alone novels in his dystopian noir and more series, the City-States Cycle, including the newest, the sci-fi and espionage-infused The Sum Of All Things (paperback, Kindle).

But while he went into writing The Sum thinking it would also be the end of the story, it seems this series has different ideas.

In the following email interview, Doubinsky talks about why The Sum was going to be the end of the City-States Cycle, why it’s not, and how thinking it would be influenced how he wrote it.

For people who haven’t read the previous books, or the interview we did about the eighth book, The Invisible, what is the City-States Cycle about, and when and where do these stories take place?

The City-States Cycle is a speculative fiction universe in which the main powers are not represented by countries, but by competing large cities, such as Rome, Athens, or Ibadan were. It is a parallel universe that shares some of our history, like World War Two or the space age, for example. There are New Babylon, New Petersburg, Viborg City, to name a few. The Sum Of All Things takes place in New Samarqand, which is a small independent kingdom, with middle-eastern and Asian influences.

And then for people who have read the previous City-States novels, what is The Sum Of All Things about, and when does it take place in relation to the previous novel, Paperclip?

The Sum Of All Things is about a political intrigue taking place in New Samarqand, involving all the characters on different levels. The king of the city-state is dying, and nobody really knows what the consequences will be as he hasn’t picked up his successor.

What’s more, an archaeological discovery and an alien empire threaten the fragile balance that the city has managed to maintain until now. In a word, it’s a big and crazy mess that the characters have to sort out.

The Sum Of All Things comes right after Paperclip, but, like all my other novels in the City-States Cycle, it’s a stand-alone, which means that any reader can enjoy it without having read any of the prior novels.

When in the process of writing the previous books, and especially Paperclip, did you come up with the idea for The Sum Of All Things, and what gave you the idea for this book?

That’s a very difficult question, because writing is partly a subconscious process — and that’s why a writer is always writing, even if he / she / they are not sitting in front of their laptop.

I would say that the idea for The Sum began to form through the characters of Jet and Velma in Paperclip, who are interested in the occult and magick, and who want to influence events through their rituals. It made me reflect on the powerful force of narratives, both official and subversive, and how this applied to culture and history. I mean we all believe to a certain degree the history we are taught in school and which we use as the basis of our national identities — and I use “believe” on purpose.

But, as we all know, history is also a relative narrative, that can be changed through events, discoveries or political changes. And it appeared to me that archaeology was a little bit like the magick Jet and Velma used: a disruptor of narratives. My maternal grand-father was an archaeologist who always said that archaeology was “10 percent artifacts and 90% story telling.” In The Sum, I decided to develop this idea with the Amazons’ tomb and its consequences on New Samarqand’s history and culture.

People have said the City-States novels are dystopian noir stories, but in the interview we did about The Invisible, you said there are, “always many genres in my novels.” So what genres are in The Sum Of All Things?

Well, there are some elements of noir, of course, but also of espionage novels, such as Graham Greene’s, with a similar type of dark humor. There is also some science fiction and speculative fiction, with occult elements spicing them up a bit. It’s a goulash of genres. Very savory.

So, are there any writers, or stories, that had a particularly big influence on Sum but not on anything else you’ve written, and especially not anything in the City-States Cycle?

Yes, there are at least two. The first one is more of a book than a writer: The Amazons by Adrienne Mayor, which is a very serious book on the famous women warrior, but easy to read. It is really a complete presentation of what we know (and what we don’t) about the historical Amazons, and how they compare to the myths and legends around them. It helped me shape the background of my story and to give it a credible historical gloss.

The second book is The Honorary Consul by Graham Greene, which is a deeply moving espionage novel with strong political references. Greene’s acute vision of the complexities of local politics (it takes place in Argentina in the early 1970s) was extremely useful for me to frame the New Samarqand power struggle, as well as its cultural and religious conflicts.

What about non-literary influences; was The Sum Of All Things influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games?

No, not directly, though I am always very influenced by cinema and television visuals. I would say that if it should be adapted for the screen, I would definitely see a 1980s or 1990s color palette. Game wise, maybe a sort of Far Cry, with less action and a more psychological and occult aspect.

In the interview we did about The Invisible, I mentioned how, at the time, you had also written six books of poetry, and you said, “writing poetry has definitely had a major impact on my prose writing.” How did it impact writing of The Sum Of All Things?

One of the main characters in The Sum Of All Things, Kassandra, is actually a world famous poet, and another character, Commissioner-General Ali Shakr Bassam, is a dedicated poetry reader. Poetry is actually at the very heart of The Sum Of All Things, and basically all its plots are linked to it, whether political, cultural, or even sentimental. Poetry can encompass all subjects and give its reader a different angle on things, because of its complex relationship with reality, even if it is a fictional reality like in this novel. Poetry embodies paradox and mystery, which are both key elements in The Sum‘s plot.

Now, as we’ve been discussing, The Sum Of All Things is the latest installment of your City-States Cycle. But as I understand it, Sum is also the end of the City-States Cycle. Did you decide before you started writing Sum that it would be the end of this series or did you decide that while you were writing it?

It actually isn’t but I thought it would be at the time, The last volume will be Liberation Now! [which is] coming out in 2026.

But I really did write The Sum thinking it would be the last. I had planned it that way, and I wrote it thinking that. It was after I had signed the contract with Meerkat Press that it suddenly hit me that I still had one more story in me, and that it was the real conclusion.

Sorry about misleading you. All my fault.

No worries. But now I’m wondering, why, going into The Sum Of All Things, did you decide to end this series?

I had a feeling that New Samarqand would be a good place to finish it, as The Song Of Synth [the third City-States novel] in which the drug Synth was introduced, took place there. It would be a good last meeting ground for two of the main characters, namely Thomas and Vita, who have occupied a central space in many of the novels.

I wanted to end the series because I felt that the real world was catching up with its bad craziness with my fiction, and that soon it would be difficult to imagine a dystopia worse than the one we are living in right now. So my idea of an ending was a fairly dark one, Philip K. Dick  style.

Then it struck me that as a speculative fiction writer, maybe I should turn a little light at the end of the tunnel, and I started working on Liberation Now!

So how did thinking The Sum Of All Things would be the end of the series influence its story?

I would say that that the greatest influence of thinking it was the last novel of the cycle was in its tone, which is both very dark and very funny — or at least, I hope. I wanted the reader to laugh with me, but also to be aware of the bad craziness the story implied and how it could relate to his / her / their real world.

Missing Signal, which is the sixth book in the City-States Cycle, has been optioned for a movie. Is there anything you can tell us about this adaptation?

Yes, of course. A super talented American independent film director, Steven Richter, has acquired the rights for its adaptation to the screen. We have worked very closely together on the screenplay, which will both respect and depart slightly from the novel. It will a film in its own right, not just an adaptation.

I am very happy about that. I think literature and film are two very different medias, with each their own particularities. The mental and the visual are two completely different universe, which demand specific adaptations. Steven has his vision of Missing Signal as a film and I respect it totally. For example, he lives in Brazil and talks about shooting the film there, possibly in Brasilia, which makes things more interesting and also more challenging. I am sure Missing Signal‘s readers will love this movie, because it really captures both its paranoia and its strange love story, but with a slightly different angle than in the novel. I actually think the two works will be seen as complementary by many people.

And is the deal just for Missing Signal or does Richter also have the rights to the other books in the City-States Cycle? Because I really want to be able to say “Doubinskyverse.”

So far, it’s only Missing Signal, but we might have other projects after that. That’s the plan anyway. I would love working again with Steven, and I really think we will. And I had lunch with Michael Moorcock in Paris last week, so I guess it was the “Doubinskyverse” meeting the “Multiverse.”

So, is there anything else you think a potential reader might need to know about The Sum Of All Things or the City-States Cycle?

I think the most important thing is that it’s a complete stand-alone. You don’t need to know anything about the City-States Cycle to dive in, and everything you need to know will be explained on the way. Each novel is an independent unit.

At the same time, if you have already read of my other books, then you might recognize some of the characters, as I love to re-use them in different settings.

Finally, if someone enjoys The Sum Of All Things, and they’ve read all of the other books in the City-States Cycle, what novel or novella of someone else’s would you suggest they check out and why that?

I would definitely recommend Marie Howalt’s trilogy around “The Moonless Earth” — We Lost The Sky, Seeking Shelter, and Heart Of The Storm — because even if they’re much more sci-fi oriented than my books, they are an amazingly hopeful yet complex description of a post-apocalypse Earth, where city-states have to collaborate instead of competing. In a way, it’s the luminary opposite of my rather dark city-states, and I think that my readers will love this breath of fresh air.