T.S. Elliot once said good writers borrow, great writers steal.” But most don’t steal from their twin sisters. That’s the crime that Marie Vibbert confesses to, among others, in the following email interview about Galactic Hellcats (paperback, Kindle), her new bikers-in-space sci-fi adventure novel.
One of the breakout stars of the original Halo was 343 Guilty Spark. And like all good celebrities, Sparky parlayed his notoriety into a media empire that included a reality show [Keeping Up With The Reclaimers], a perfume [Eue De Digits], and even a line of decorative dish towels. And now he’s back, reuniting with his old pal Rion — and writer Kelly Gay — for the new novel, Halo: Point Of Light (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), the sequel to Gay’s Halo: Smoke And Shadow and Halo: Renegades. In the following email interview, Gay talks about how the Sparkster inspired her to write this sci-fi space opera story.
To fans of inventive science fantasy tales, Alex White is best known as the writer of the Salvagers trilogy: A Big Ship At The Edge Of The Universe, A Bad Deal For The Whole Galaxy, and The Worst Of All Possible Worlds. But to fans of the Alien and Aliens movie, White is known for their extended universe novel Alien: The Cold Forge.
Well, for the moment, anyway. Going forward, Smith will also be known for their second foray into xenomorphic fiction, Alien: Into Charybdis (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook).
In the following email interview, Smith explains what inspired this new bug hunt, how it connects to their previous one, and how writing them influenced their original novels, and vice versa.
Five years after introducing us to the Princess Leia-esque Hail Bristol in Behind The Throne — the first book of The Indranan War trilogy — sci-fi writer K.B. Wagers is bringing Hail’s story to a close with Out Past The Stars (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), the third and final book of The Farian War trilogy.
In the following email interview, Wagers talks about the entire two-trilogy saga, the final chapter, and what’s they’re working on next.
War…war never changes. But it does change the people it leaves behind. Which is where we find Karen Osborne’s sci-fi space opera duology, the Memory War. In the following email interview, Osborne not only discusses what inspired and influenced the second book, Engines Of Oblivion (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), and how it connects to the first one, Architects Of Memory (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), but whether this actually is the end of the story.
Between Rick And Morty, Star Trek: Discovery, and everyone joking that we’re living in the bad timeline, stories about multiverses are all the rage. But jumping from one to another may not be as fun as Rick and his portal gun make it seem. Exhibit A: Doors Of Sleep (paperback, Kindle), a multiverse sci-fi novel by Tim Pratt.
In the following email interview, Pratt explains how things work in this parallel universe novel, what inspired and influenced it, as well as his two other new books: the sci-fi space opera novel The Fractured Void (paperback, Kindle) and the sci-fi space opera novella collection The Alien Stars (paperback, Kindle).
Stina Leicht isn’t the first writer to combine Westerns with science fiction. Or the first to gender flip a familiar story. Or the first to rework Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 samurai classic Seven Samurai into something new. But she might be the first to do all of those things in a way that makes something think of the phrase “viciously feminist.” In the following email interview, Leicht discusses her new sci-fi Western novel Persephone Station (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), including how she explains that interesting tag.
As anyone who’s read any of the Halo or Dungeons & Dragons novels will tell you, novels based on games usually require readers to be players of said games to be understood, let alone appreciated. But apparently, it need not be that way.
Take The Fractured Void (paperback, Kindle), a sci-fi space opera novel based on the strategic board game Twilight Imperium. As author Tim Pratt explains, not only do you not have to play T.I. to enjoy this story, you wouldn’t have had to play the game to write this novel, either.
Siblings, am I right? Can’t live with ’em; can’t throw them out of an airlock. Especially since there are no airlocks on Earth worth throwing anyone out of. But while relatives may be annoying in real life, they do make for some interesting stories. Take the sibling rivalry at the center of Kristyn Merbeth’s science fiction space opera trilogy The Nova Vita Protocol, which she kicked off last year ago with Fortuna, and now continues with Memoria (paperback, Kindle). In the following email interview about the latter, Merbeth discusses what inspired and influenced this second sci-fi story of three.