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Exclusive Interview: “Twilight Imperium: Twilight Wars: Empire Burning” Author Robbie MacNiven

 

The science fiction space opera board game Twilight Imperium has already inspired a trio of novels (Tim Pratt’s The Fractured Void, The Necropolis Empire, and The Veiled Masters), as well as a short story collection (The Stars Beyond).

But now the game, and people who like to read stories based on it, are getting some of the backstory of this sci-fi universe through a new trilogy by author Robbie MacNiven called The Twilight Wars.

In the following email interview, MacNiven discusses the second book in the series, Twilight Imperium: Twilight Wars: Empire Burning (paperback, Kindle), including how it was influenced by a trio of space-y cartoons.

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Exclusive Interview: “Breath Of Oblivion” Author Maurice Broaddus

 

Works of fiction are often inspired by things that happen to an author in real life.

But when Maurice Broaddus started working for a community benefitting nonprofit, he probably didn’t think it would lead him to write an Afrofuturist science fiction space opera trilogy.

In the following email interview, Broaddus talks about both this series, the Astra Black trilogy, and its recently released second installment, Breath Of Oblivion (hardcover, Kindle).

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“Sprawl” Review

 

As an old fool, I sometimes kick it old school.

And not just by making dated references. I listen to music on CDs, watch TV shows on a TV, and eat food that wasn’t grown in a lab and sold under a name that would make Charlton Heston fans nervous.

It’s also why I was curious about Sprawl (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC), a cyberpunk sci-fi first-person shooter very much in the vein of Doom, Quake, and other old school shooters.

Though as old and foolish as I may be, I was happy to find that Sprawl wasn’t completely vintage.

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Exclusive Interview: “And The Mighty Will Fall” Author K.B. Wagers

 

K.B. Wagers’ NeoG novels have all been military science fiction stories.

But as they explain in the following email interview about the fourth installment, And The Mighty Will Fall (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), it’s not really the fourth in a series, isn’t just military sci-fi, and while the title implies some finality, there could be more adventures for the crew of Zuma’s Ghost.

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Exclusive Interview: “Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy And Science Fiction: Volume Two” Editor Stephen Kotowych

 

When we think of the best things to come out of Canada, we all think of maple syrup, moose, health care, Rush, and all the best Ryans (sorry, Seacrest).

But those looking for the best science fiction and fantasy stories now have two options: last year’s Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy And Science Fiction: Volume One and the new sequel, Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy And Science Fiction: Volume Two (paperback, Kindle).

In the following email interview, Volume Two (and Volume One) editor Stephen Kotowych talks about what went into assembling this new anthology.

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Exclusive Interview: “The Sun Runners” Author James Bow

 

While some authors are hesitant to admit their influences, others understand that no one lives in a vacuum, and that it’s okay to admit that yes, you were shaped by those who came before you.

And then there’s author James Bow who, in the following email interview, not only says what authors had an influence on his young adult sci-fi The Sun Runners (paperback, Kindle), but he also notes that he paid homage to one of them in a rather clever way.

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Exclusive Interview: “Shrouded Loyalties” Author Reese Hogan

 

It’s been said that an army travels on their stomach.

But in his new military sci-fi novel Shrouded Loyalties (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), writer Reese Hogan gives us an army that travels on their stomach…through a parallel dimension infested with monsters.

In the following email interview, Hogan discusses what inspired and influenced this story.

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Exclusive Interview: “Last Train Outta Kepler-283c” Editor David Boop

 

We all know the line: “Space…the final frontier.” But with all due respect to Kirk and crew, Star Trek wasn’t about people colonizing other worlds. Sure, they sometimes looked in on them, dropped off supplies, but it was never about how those colonizers got to their new homes.

But that is what you get in the sci-fi space Western short story anthology Last Train Outta Kepler-283c (paperback, Kindle), which, according to editor David Book, features stories “…about colonists, from miners to law keepers to gunslingers, and everything in between.”

In the following email interview, Boop explains how this book and this series — which also includes 2021’s Gunfight On Europa Station and 2023’s High Noon On Proxima B — came to be, and how he finds the stories to fill them.

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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.