Having twice explored the Alien universe, and created one of their own in their Salvagers trilogy, writer Alex White is going where they’ve never gone before with their new Star Trek novel, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Revenant (paperback, Kindle, audiobook).
In the following email interview, White explains how this novel came together, when in the show’s chronology it takes place, and what non-Trek stuff influenced this noir-flavored sci-fi space opera story.
When left unchecked, sibling rivalries can tear a family apart. But what’s terrible for families is good for fiction, as writer Kristyn Merbeth shows with her sci-fi space opera series, The Nova Vita Protocol trilogy.
In the following email interview, Merbeth discusses what inspired and influenced both this series and its recently released conclusion, Discordia (paperback, Kindle).
Thanks to its multiplayer mode being free, and super good, it’s easy to forget that Halo Infinite (Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC) also has a single-player campaign. That is, unless you’re one of the people who prefer to play these games solo, and with its epic sci-fi space opera story driving the action. It’s for them — by which I mean us — that I present this assessment of Halo Infinite‘s story driven campaign.
With Star Trek: Coda, Book III: Oblivion’s Gate (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), writer David Mack is ending the Coda trilogy that launched in September with Book I: Moments Asunder and continued in October with Book II: The Ashes Of Tomorrow. Except unlike most trilogies, Star Trek and otherwise, David Mack didn’t write all three. Or even come up with the idea for this saga on his own; Moments Asunder and The Ashes Of Tomorrow come courtesy of fellow Trek scribes Dayton Ward and James Swallow, respectfully. Though in the following email interview, it’s Mr. Mack who gets stuck answering my questions about how this all came together, and how this trilogy earned the title of Coda.
Isn’t it always the way: You finally get to retire, only to have something screw it up. I hate when that happens. But as cliché as it may be to have your dreams dashed just when they’re coming to fruition, there’s nothing cliché about how the characters in Cat Rambo’s sci-fi space opera military fantasy hopepunk novel You Sexy Thing (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook) have their life plans derailed. In the following email interview, Rambo explains what inspired and influenced this genre-mashing novel, as well as their plans to further screw with their characters’ plans.
It’s scary to think that we could one day screw up the Earth so badly that we have to leave it. But like many terrible ideas, it only takes the right hands to turn it into a ripping read. Hands like those of writer J.T. Nicholas (if his excellent 2020 sci-fi novel Re-Coil is any indication). Which brings us to Stolen Earth (paperback, Kindle), his new dystopian post-apocalyptic sci-fi space opera novel in which humanity can’t even vacation on Earth, let alone live there. In the following email interview, Nicholas discusses what inspired and influenced this story.
It doesn’t matter what you put on a pizza; if the cheese, sauce, and crust aren’t good, the pizza won’t be good, no matter what you pile on top. The same is true for combative action games. If the combat is bad, the game is bad, no matter what other mechanics there might be. Which is the problem with Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC), a story-driven, sci-fi, third-person shooter whose problematic combat and other rather basic problems somewhat undermine an otherwise entertaining space adventure.
For Halo fans, Halo Infinite‘s December 8 release date can’t come fast enough. But it might come a little quicker — or at least seem to — if you read Troy Denning’s new Halo novel, Halo: Divine Wind (paperback, Kindle, audiobook). In the following email interview about it, Denning discusses what inspired and influenced this sci-fi space opera spy thriller, including why he thinks it might not work as a Halo game.
While there are times when science fiction stories are too much about the humans involved (I’m looking at you, Cloverfield), it does always help to have some humanity in your sci-fi to ground the story or make the consequences more real. Which is what writer, real-life NASA employee, and Lost In Space consultant Les Johnson is doing in his novel The Spacetime War (paperback, Kindle). In the following email interview, Johnson discusses what inspired and influenced this romantic sci-fi space opera story.