If you set a story in the future, and on the planet Mars, people will assume it’s a sci-fi story. I know I do. But in the following email interview with author Jane Killick about Edge Of Catastrophe (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), the second novel she’s written connected to the board game Terraforming Mars, she explains that while yes, this story does take place in the future, and on the planet Mars, she sees it as less a hard sci-fi story and as more of a detective thriller.
In the board game Terraforming Mars, you have to turn the red planet into a place humans can live, and comfortably. The kicker being that every turn isn’t a new minute, hour, or day, it’s a generation. But while this works great for a game, it makes telling a compelling story kind of tricky. Which is why, in her connected hard sci-fi adventure novel, Terraforming Mars: In The Shadow Of Deimos (paperback, Kindle), writer Jane Killick eschews this aspect of the game. In the following email interview about the novel, she explains why she made the time frame change, as well as what else inspired and influenced this story.