Tag: science fiction

Exclusive Interview: “Halo: Empty Throne” Author Jeremy Patenaude

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date February 19, 2025
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When he was the lead writer for 343 Industries, Jeremy Patenaude helped shaped the science fiction space opera saga told by the Halo video games, while also writing Halo: The Essential Visual Guide, co-writing Halo Mythos, and penning the short story “Sacrifice” that was included in a now unavailable special edition of Troy Denning’s novel Halo: Shadows Of Reach.

But while he may not work for 343 anymore (and 343 is Halo Studios now), he’s still contributing to the Halo saga with the new novel Halo: Empty Throne (paperback, Kindle, audiobook).

In the following email interview, Patenaude talks about what inspired and influence this sci-fi story, as well as where it fits into the Halo-verse.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “I Got Abducted By Aliens And Now I’m Trapped In A Rom-Com” Author Kimberly Lemming

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date February 17, 2025
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It’s amazing some of the things people have done out of spite. Like how Lamborghini started making sports cars to piss off the owner of Ferrari. Or how Sony made the PlayStation after Nintendo backed out of a deal for them to make CD-Rom drives for a Nintendo game console.

Well, it looks like there’s another one for the list: Kimberly Lemming’s science fiction / romantic comedy novel I Got Abducted By Aliens And Now I’m Trapped In A Rom-Com (paperback, Kindle, audiobook).

And yes, as she explains in the following email interview, the title is part of the spite process.

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Exclusive Interview: “Casual” Author Koji A. Dae

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date February 10, 2025
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Having a kid, especially your first, can be stressful for anyone.

But imagine if you lived in a somewhat dystopian future, and had anxiety, and were then told you couldn’t legally use the very thing that makes your life that helps you manage said anxiety because you’re having a baby…and the kid was coming under somewhat stressful circumstances.

Such is the condition under which we find Valya, the main character in author Koji A. Dae’s dark science fiction novel Casual (paperback, Kindle).

In the following email interview, Dae explains what inspired and influenced this rather personal sci-fi story.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Hammajang Luck” Author Makana Yamamoto

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date February 5, 2025
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You know what I hate? When you finally get released from prison, but the person waiting for you is the one who double-crossed you. And it’s not like you can avoid them, since you’re on a space station. In the future. Where are you going to go? McDonalds!?!

But as so often the case, annoying situations in real life make for interesting ones in fiction. Which is why I wanted to do the following email interview with author Makana Yamamoto about their noir sci-fi crime story / cyberpunk lesbian space heist novel Hammajang Luck (paperback, Kindle, audiobook).

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Exclusive Interview: “The Miranda Conspiracy” Author James L. Cambias

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date February 3, 2025
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Like the previous novels in his Billion Worlds series, author James L. Cambias’ Picaresque / pulpy sci-fi space opera novel The Miranda Conspiracy (paperback, Kindle) is set thousands of years in the future.

So it might surprise you to learn that, in the following email interview, Cambias says this story was influenced by a novel from 1939 that was made into a famous movie in 1946.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “The Distractions” Author Liza Monroy

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date January 13, 2025
1 Comment on Exclusive Interview: “The Distractions” Author Liza Monroy

In fiction, it’s easy to portray the future as a utopia or a dystopia.

But in Liza Monroy’s science fiction novel The Distractions (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), she presents a society that is both at the same time. And it’s a balance she employs in other aspects of the story as well.

In the following email interview, Monroy discusses what inspired and influenced this sci-fi story.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Blacklight Born” Author Alexander Darwin

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date December 30, 2024
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As someone who grew up on the original Star Trek, I remember well the episode in which two planets are at war, but instead of killing each other with weapons, they do it virtually, with computers, and then ask the “impacted” citizens to step in disintegration chambers (1967’s “A Taste Of Armageddon”).

It’s something I immediately thought of when preparing to interview author Alexander Darwin about his science fantasy novel Blacklight Born (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), the third and final novel in The Combat Codes Trilogy, in which nations go to war, but through 1-on-1 duels.

Though as Darwin says in the following email interview, his inspiration for this series, and this final installment, was something other than a certain episode from a classic sci-fi show.

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Exclusive Interview: “Ardent Violet And The Infinite Eye” Author Alex White

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date December 23, 2024
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While it sometimes seems pop stars like Beyoncé and Taylor Swift can do anything they set their mind to, I’m not sure, if push came to shove, that they’d be able to save us from an alien invasion.

But I’m happy to be proven wrong. Especially in book form.

Which brings me to Alex White’s new science fiction space opera novel Ardent Violet And The Infinite Eye (paperback, Kindle), in which one of the main characters trying save humanity from aliens is an ultra-glam enby pop star.

In the following email interview, White talks about who, and what, inspired and influenced this novel, the second book in The Starmetal Symphony Trilogy after 2022’s August Kitko And The Mechas From Space,

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Depth Charge” Co-Editors Hank Davis & Jamie Ibson

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date December 17, 2024
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More than 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water. And yet, when it comes to planet-based science fiction stories, most take place on dry land, either here on Earth or on some other world.

But in the new short story anthology Depth Charge (paperback, Kindle), iconic science fiction writers including Arthur C. Clarke, James Blish, and Fritz Leiber give us tales that are all set underwater, at least in part.

In the following email interview, co-editors Hank Davis and Jamie Ibson talk about how this collection came together, how the stories were chosen, and which they think could work really well in theaters alongside Avatar, Aquaman, and other movies that are all wet.