Guest Post: “Buffy, Books and Roleplay: On Childhood Influences” by Paul Krueger

Civilian Reader Guest Post , , ,

KruegerP-AuthorPicAs a fantasy author who grew up in the 90’s and 00’s, I come to you with all the classic touchstones you’d expect: Harry Potter, obviously. Scott Pilgrim. Animorphs. Buffy, Angel… hell, the whole Whedon canon. I watched VHS copies of the original cut of Star Wars until the tapes wore out, because that was a thing that could happen to screen media back then. I stayed up late on Saturdays to sneak episodes of Cowboy Bebop and Trigun on our spare TV upstairs. Was I anyone’s first choice for Homecoming king? Not so much. But who cared, when I’d gotten my hands on a new Gotrek & Felix paperback?

I could probably fill a whole book with a tour of my pop cultural influences — after all, Stephen King did it, and the result was one of the best texts on the craft of writing in the past twenty years. But today, dear Civilian Readers, I’d like to talk to you about another corner of my history where I cut my teeth as a writer: in the lost world of message board-based online roleplay. Continue reading →

Review: THE SUDDEN APPEARANCE OF HOPE by Claire North (Orbit)

Civilian Reader Review , , , , , , ,

NorthC-SuddenAppearanceOfHopeUKAn intriguing novel about identity and isolation, thieves and scary tech…

My name is Hope Arden, and you won’t know who I am. But we’ve met before — a thousand times.

It started when I was sixteen years old. 

A father forgetting to drive me to school. A mother setting the table for three, not four. A friend who looks at me and sees a stranger.

No matter what I do, the words I say, the crimes I commit, you will never remember who I am.

That makes my life difficult. It also makes me dangerous.

Long-time readers will know that Claire North is one of my favourite authors. With each new novel (and novella, because we have to include the linked Gamehouse trilogy), North takes reading on a riveting journey of unexpected and thought-provoking directions. The Sudden Appearance of Hope is no exception, with one of the most intriguing characters I’ve read in a while. Well, maybe since North’s previous novel… I enjoyed this a lot. Continue reading →

Interview with YOON HA LEE

Civilian Reader Interview , , , , , , ,

LeeYH-AuthorPicLet’s start with an introduction: Who is Yoon Ha Lee?

I live in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with my family and a cat with the personality of an unusually submissive marshmallow. My twelve-year-old daughter would like you to know that I have a twelve-year-old daughter.

She also wants to let you know that I write genocidal science fiction. Her term, not mine. Maybe I had better set her up with some computer games or a book and get her away from me…

Solaris are publishing your new novel, Ninefox Gambit, in June. It looks rather fascinating: How would you introduce it to a potential reader? Is it part of a series?

Ninefox Gambit is about a disgraced captain, Kel Cheris, who allies with a brilliant undead tactician, Shuos Jedao, to defend one of her nation’s star fortresses. The good news: Jedao has never lost a battle, and he may be the only one capable of cracking the fortress’s defenses. Continue reading →

Excerpt: NOMAD by James Swallow (Zaffre)

Civilian Reader Excerpt , , , , , , , ,

SwallowJ-NomadJames Swallow‘s latest novel, Nomad, was recently published in the UK by Zaffre. To celebrate it’s release, the publisher has allowed me to share with CR readers the first chapter. First, though, here’s the synopsis:

Marc Dane is an MI6 field agent at home behind a computer screen, one step away from the action. But when a brutal attack on his team leaves Marc as the only survivor — and with the shocking knowledge that there are traitors inside MI6 — he’s forced into the front line.

However the evidence seems to point towards Marc as the perpetrator of the attack. Accused of betraying his country, he must race against time to clear his name.

With nowhere to turn to for help and no one left to trust, Marc is forced to rely on the elusive Rubicon group and their operative Lucy Keyes. Ex US Army, Lucy also knows what it’s like to be an outsider, and she’s got the skills that Marc is sorely lacking.

A terrorist attack is coming, one bigger and more deadly than has ever been seen before. With the eyes of the security establishment elsewhere, only Lucy and Marc can stop the attack before it’s too late.

Read on for the excerpt… Continue reading →

Guest Post: “The NOMAD Soundtrack” by James Swallow

Civilian Reader Guest Post , , , , , , ,

SwallowJ-AuthorPicI’m always in two minds about music when I’m writing. Some days, when my focus isn’t where it needs to be, I have to have as near to absolute silence as I can get in order to zero in on what I want to get down on the page. Other times, a little musical accompaniment is exactly what I need to prime the pump and get me writing.

I tend not to listen to songs when I’m writing scenes, because I find myself paying too much attention to the lyrics, and sometimes subconsciously assimilating the words into my own work. Orchestral and thematic stuff works a lot better. I have a massive collection of classical music and soundtracks that I will queue up into five-hour-long playlists. For example, working on my new thriller novel NOMAD, my working score included Salt (James Newton Howard), Inception (Hans Zimmer), Tron Legacy (Daft Punk), The Sweeney (Lorne Balfe), Watch Dogs (Brian Reitzell), Bangkok Dangerous (Brian Tyler) and The International (Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek & Reinhold Heil). Continue reading →

Guest Post: “How I Write, and How It’s Changed” by Ian Irvine

Civilian Reader Guest Post , , , , , , , ,

IrvineI-AuthorPicI’m not sure when I had the idea of writing a fantasy novel, though I first acted on it in 1977 after reading Terry Brooks’ The Sword of Shannara. My inspiration came from the sketchy map in the book and I decided to create my own realistic fantasy world, though worldbuilding soon became an obsession. I was supposed to be writing my doctoral thesis in marine science but I redrew my fantasy maps in greater and greater detail until they were the size of house doors. I had created the Three Worlds.

In 1979, on a train above the Arctic Circle in Finland, I wrote the first snatches of a story, including a scene that I later used – Faelamor’s dramatic defeat of Mendark in the abandoned city of Havissard. Then it stopped for nearly a decade. What with finishing my thesis, taking a demanding job that involved a lot of travel, children, and renovating a decrepit Victorian house in Sydney, there wasn’t time for writing.

But I had to write, and in September 1987 I began A Shadow on the Glass with a dramatic event – Karan, compelled by Maigraith, breaking into Yggur’s fortress of Fiz Gorgo to steal the Mirror of Aachan, a corrupt magical artifact that contained a deadly secret. I wrote three pages a day I’d have a first draft done by Christmas. Continue reading →

Interview with EMMI ITÄRANTA

Civilian Reader Interview , , , , ,

ItarantaE-AuthorPic2Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Emmi Itäranta?

I’m a Finnish writer living in the UK. I have written two novels to date: Memory of Water and The City of Woven Streets, which is out in the UK on 2 June 2016. I write in two languages, English and Finnish.

Voyager has just published your new novel, The City of Woven Streets. It looks fantastic: How would you introduce it to a potential reader? Is it part of a series?

Thank you! The City of Woven Streets is a story set on an isolated island where dreaming is forbidden. The main character, Eliana, is a young woman who works as a weaver; she is also a dreamer, and she must hide this ability, because in her society it’s a taboo. Her life changes when she finds a woman with her tongue cut off and Eliana’s name tattooed on her skin. It’s a stand-alone novel. Continue reading →

Excerpt: THIS SAVAGE SONG – “LONELY” by V.E. Schwab

Civilian Reader Excerpt, Guest Post , , , , , , , ,

SchwabVE-SavageSongTourStop3

Where his skin was marked with short black lines, hers was covered in stars. A whole sky’s worth, or so he thought. August had never seen more than a handful of real stars on nights when the grid went down. But he’d heard about places where the city lights didn’t reach, where there were so many stars you could see by them, even on a moonless night.

“You’re dreaming,” said Ilsa in her singsong way. She rested her chin on top of his shoulder, and squinted. “What is that in your eyes?”

“What?”

“That speck. Right there. Is it fear?” Continue reading →

Interview with KIJ JOHNSON

Civilian Reader Interview , , , ,

JohnsonK-AuthorPicLet’s start with an introduction: Who is Kij Johnson?

My mother always told me that I was a troll changeling, and that some grabby troll mother had lucked into a quiet, well-mannered, obedient little human girl in the exchange. So one answer is that I am a smallish mountain-troll who passes as human with moderate success.

Another answer is that I am easily bored. I grew up in very small town in the midwest, at a time when climbing out your second-story window at midnight and riding a bike alone to the county park was in the acceptable range of eleven-year-old behaviors. I studied ancient history in college, which prepared me for a career in nothing, so I worked in bookstores for a few years. Then it was publishing: Tor Books, Dark Horse Comics, Wizards of the Coast/TSR. I also did stints in tech. I would move every few years to a new city, pick up some new hobbies, and cut my hair again. At some point I realized that my summer gig — teaching people how to write novels as part of the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction’s SF Summer program — was more fun than any of the jobs I was doing, and I went back to school to be able to do it formally.

Is that who I am? Well, it’s what I’ve done. Now I teach creative writing at the University of Kansas and at various summer programs. Continue reading →

Guest Post: “Coming Back — On Alien Races and Space Adventures” by Jamie Sawyer

Civilian Reader Guest Post , , , , , , , ,

SawyerJ-AuthorPicMy debut novel, Artefact, was released in February 2016. It is book one of The Lazarus War, and the story continues with Legion, released in the UK and US on 26th May 2016.

The Lazarus War is a series focusing on a far-future space war. The Alliance – the nominal “good guys” of the series  – are locked in an apparently endless conflict with the Krell – a bio-mechanical alien race. But in the universe of The Lazarus War, soldiers never really die: they remotely-operate clone bodies (called “simulants”). That means that if a veteran soldier dies, he retains his experience and knowledge, and can simply “reset” to a new body. Pretty handy, given the situations many of these soldiers find themselves in… Continue reading →