Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Bennett R. Coles?

Thanks for having me on the site. Who am I? Well, for starters I’m a military SF author who’s been lucky enough to have a shot at the writing big leagues. I served fifteen years as an officer in the Royal Canadian Navy and got to do a whole bunch of cool things – driving ships, firing missiles, leading boarding parties – that served as rich inspiration for writing. I live in Victoria, Canada, with my wife and two sons, and when I’m not writing I run a small publishing house called Promontory Press.

Your next novel, Ghosts of War, was recently published by Titan. As the sequel to Virtues of War, how would you introduce it to a potential new reader? And what can fans of the first expect from the sequel?

Ghosts of War is a stand-alone novel that picks up the tale of our heroes from Virtues of War and primarily explores this question: what happens to young men and women when they come home from war for the first time? How do they reintegrate into “regular” society, and how do they deal with their own emotional trauma amongst people who can’t possibly understand? Ghosts of War is a character-driven story with a plot that is propelled forward primarily by drama and intrigue. It still has military action and loads of suspense, but fans of Virtues of War shouldn’t expect a carbon-copy repeat of the relentless pacing of Book I. Continue reading →