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

 

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.

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Exclusive Interview: “Ashme’s Song” Author Brad C. Anderson

 

Not every moral question has a right answer. Or no wrong one.

Take the question that inspired author Brad C. Anderson to write his new novel, Ashme’s Song (paperback, Kindle): “Is a hero someone who dies for their country or someone who gathers their family and gets them someplace safe?”

In the following email interview, Anderson talks about how that question inspired this story, which combines elements of science fiction, cyberpunk, political thrillers, and space opera into what he calls “spacethrillerpunk.”

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Exclusive Interview: “The Jinn-Bot Of Shantiport” Author Samit Basu

 

We all know the story of Aladdin. Well, the Disney version, anyway.

But while author Samit Basu knows that version, too, his love of Aladdin goes back further than Disney’s 1992 animated movie. Which is partially why he wrote The Jinn-Bot Of Shantiport, a humorous science fiction space opera / science fantasy / adventure story inspired by the original Middle-Eastern folk tale character from One Thousand And One Nights.

With The Jinn-Bot Of Shantiport now available in paperback — a year after originally being released in hardcover and for Kindle — I spoke to Basu via email to discuss what else inspired and influenced this sci-fi story, his plans for possible sequels, and why he made one of the central characters a monkey-bot.

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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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Exclusive Interview: “Honor Of The Queen” Author David Weber

 

When people start naming names in the genre of military science fiction, they naturally name Starship Troopers author Robert A. Heinlein, Aliens writer / director James Cameron, Lois McMaster Bujold, author of the The Vorkosigan Saga series.

But they also often mention Honor Harrington, the central character in David Weber’s Honorverse series, which, over the course of 30+ years, has encompassed numerous novels, novellas, and short stories.

The latest of which (sort of) is 1993’s Honor Of The Queen, the second Honorverse novel, which has just been rereleased as a trade paperback as part of Baen Book’s ongoing reissue series.

In the following email interview, Weber looks back on this early adventure for Honor.

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Exclusive Interview: “Dark Space” Co-Authors Rob Hart & Alex Segura

 

Having previously collaborated on a comic book as well as a novel in which characters from their individual novels work together, writers Rob Hart [Assassins Anonymous, The Warehouse] and Alex Segura [Secret Identity, Alter Ego] have teamed up again, this time on a sci-fi space opera spy novel called Dark Space (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook).

In the following email interview, Hart and Segura talk about what inspired and influenced this sci-fi story, as well as why they decided to write it together.

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Exclusive Interview: “Intersecting Eternity” Author Margaret A. Babcock

 

With Intersecting Eternity (paperback, Kindle), author Margaret A. Babcock is presenting a follow-up to her 2021 science fiction space opera novel Eden.2.

Except that, as she explains in the following email interview about Eternity, this novel is less a sequel and more like a chronologically distant relative.

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Exclusive Interview: “On Vicious Worlds” Author Bethany Jacobs

 

Like many people who’ve written science fiction novels, author Bethany Jacobs cites other writers of sci-fi as influences in the following email interview about her space opera / space fantasy novel On Vicious Worlds (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), which is the second book of The Kingdom Trilogy after 2023’s These Burning Stars.

But unlike her fellow science fiction writers, Jacobs also cites a certain cult classic fantasy TV show as being just as big an influence on this saga.