Is religious science fiction a thing? It seems like it should be a thing. I’m making it a thing, and I’m going to start with Ada Hoffmann’s new space opera, The Outside (paperback, Kindle), which isn’t religious in that it pushes one religion or another, but is instead a story in which religion and religious elements play a large part. But it’s not — as she discusses in the following email interview — the only unique aspect of this intriguing novel.
When it comes to humorous science fiction, some writers go the parody route, while others inject humor into otherwise serious stories. But in the following email interview about his comedic sci-fi novel Starship Repo (paperback, Kindle), writer Patrick S. Tomlinson explains that he’s going both ways.
While people have long dreamed of moving to another planet — insert your own joke about there being no intelligent life down here, Scotty — the reality is that living on another world would not be easy. Heck, just dealing with local allergens would turn Claritin and Zyrtec into multi-billion dollar companies. But why bother packing and moving and buying all that antihistamine when you can just read W. Michael Gear’s Donovan novels, which are all about living on that titular planet far, far away. In the following email interview, Gear discusses Pariah (hardcover, Kindle), the fourth and newest installment in this sci-fi adventure series.
While the Star Trek novels have always adhered to the canon created by the TV shows and movies, they’re not canonical themselves. But they do, ironically, have their own canon, complete with their own ongoing storylines. In the following email interview about his new Trek tale, Star Trek: The Next Generation: Available Light (paperback, Kindle), science fiction writer Dayton Ward not only discusses the inspirations and influences on his sci-fi space opera story, but also how it serves to connects David Mack’s Star Trek: Section 31: Control and Mack’s upcoming Star Trek story, Star Trek: The Next Generation: Collateral Damage (due out October 8).
With The Dreams Of Ida Rothschild (paperback), science fiction writer W. Mahlon Purdin is concluding the ScreenMasters trilogy he started in 2017 with The Rise Of Farson Uiost and continued later that year in Sargasso. In the following email interview, he discusses the origins of and influences on this story, as well as his plans to continue this series.
With the sci-fi space opera novel Creation Machine (paperback, Kindle), writer Andrew Bannister is kicking off a trilogy he calls The Spin. Except that unlike some science fiction threesomes, fans of this one won’t have to wait years to read the other two parts, as Bannister will be releasing the second book, Iron Gods, on July 30th, and the third, Stone Clock, on November 19th (all three are already out in Bannister’s native England). In the following email interview, Bannister discusses the origin of this saga, its influences, and how it isn’t quite ending with the impending third book.
In her sci-fi novel Free Chocolate, writer Amber Royer not only created a galaxy in which chocolate is worth killing for, she did so by melding elements of space operas with telenovelas. In the following email interview, she discusses the second book in this sweet saga, Pure Chocolate (paperback, Kindle), the next chapter in her Chocoverse series.
Unlike most of the stories inspired by the Halo video games, understanding Kelly Gay’s novella Halo: Smoke And Shadow doesn’t require you to have played Halo 5: Guardians et al. to completion. Now Gay is continuing where her novella left off with the novel Halo: Renegades (paperback, Kindle). In the following email interview, Gay discusses what inspired this story and how it connects to the Halo cannon (and not just the games, either).