Usually when I interview the author of a science fiction novel for this site, and get to the questions about influences, they’ll cite other sci-fi novels or movies or TV shows, even occasionally some games. But in the following email interview with D.J. Butler about his situationally-humorous sci-fi mystery thriller Abbott In Darkness (paperback, Kindle), he instead cited such decidedly not-science fiction-y stuff like Horatio Hornblower, Rudyard Kipling, and the East India Company.
In her new novel Marvel: Crisis Protocol: Shadow Avengers (paperback, Kindle), writer Carrie Harris gets to send Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, and other Marvel Comics characters on an epic adventure. But it’s not one that’s related to the comics, or based on the movies and TV shows, or connected to the video games; instead, it’s inspired by the miniatures game Marvel: Crisis Protocol made by Atomic Mass Games. In the following email interview, Harris discusses what inspired and influenced this novel, as well as how it connects to the game she loves to play.
As someone who loves zombies almost as much as he loves sci-fi, I of course love stories about zombies… in… SPAAAAAACE!!
It’s why I’m excited for the remake of Dead Space, it’s why I can’t wait for the animated show Marvel Zombies, and why I was excited to do the following email interview with writer Tim Waggoner about his novel Zombicide: Invader: Planet Havoc (paperback, Kindle), a military sci-fi horror story based on the space zombies board game Zombicide: Invader.
Most post-apocalyptic stories are, naturally, dark and sad. But in her new novella The Future Second By Second (paperback, Kindle), writer Meridel Newton decided to give us something not so dour. In the following email interview, she not only explains this tonal decision, but also what inspired and influenced this hopepunk sci-fi story.
With Resilient (hardcover, paperback, Kindle) writer Allen Stroud is continuing the military sci-fi space opera saga The Fractal Series that he started with 2020’s Fearless. But as he explains in the following email interview, Resilient is as much an expansion as it is a continuation.
As someone who has trouble falling asleep, I am envious of those who find it easy. But I draw the line at “…and then wake up in an alternate reality with no way to get home.” I hate when that happens. But as is so often the case, what’s terrible is real life is great in fiction.
This brings me to Tim Pratt’s multiverse sci-fi novel Prison Of Sleep (paperback, Kindle), in which the main character has the aforementioned sleep problem. In the following email interview, Pratt discusses this novel, and the one that preceded it, Doors Of Sleep.
Given how going digital has all but destroyed music, I can’t say I’m terribly excited for the prospect of digitizing humans. But what sucks in real life is often quite cool in fiction. Hence my interest in writer Paul Cornell’s science fiction novella Rosebud (paperback, Kindle), in which the main characters are people who’ve been digitized. In the following email interview, Cornell discusses what inspired and influenced this sci-fi story.
For the latest installment of their Systema Paradoxa series of novellas about cryptids, the good people of eSpec Books have enlisted Mary Fan…who used this opportunity to reminisce about her childhood. At least that’s the impression I got from the following email interview about her installment, Found Footage (paperback, Kindle).
With Percivious Origins (hardcover, paperback, Kindle), the husband and wife writing team of J.J. and A.J. Cook are continuing the medical sci-fi trilogy they started in 2020 with Percivious Insomnia. But as they explain in the following email interview, Origins is neither the middle part of three, nor totally the prequel its name suggests.