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Jon
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Jul 20, 2014 06:25AM

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Sci-Fi wrote: "What time will you start?"
Hey, sorry not to get back until now - I am up and running and will answer questions til midnight
Hey, sorry not to get back until now - I am up and running and will answer questions til midnight
Lucinda wrote: "Great!" What are you reading at the moment, Lucinda? What's your favourite book this year? Best novel so far for me was The Drowned World by JG Ballard, best nonfiction "Command and Control" by Eric Schlosser - terrifying account of near accidents with nuclear weapons and mind-boggling cold war MADness. You?

Hamble wrote: "I loved Barricade, especially the buddy story between Fatty and Kenstibec. But was it tricky writing a narrative voice of a non-emotional, non-human character? Did you have to keep checking yoursel..." Hey Hamble! Yes it's hard to strip out emotional language, which I decided Kenstibec would avoid as a rule. But it's a writing challenge too - I was a bit worried when I started writing him that his cold, calculated viewpoint would lose the reader - he doesn't feel anything about killing for instance. But as you say I think his buddy thing with Fatty rescues that - Fatty is a kind of anti-Kenstibec - emotional, a physical wreck, unpredictable. It gives the human and Ficial sides a chance to bounce off each other in what I hope is an interesting and maybe funny way, and means that K's brutal view of the world is challenged throughout. Thanks for your Q!


Jon wrote: "What is it about Sci-Fi in general that appeals? the ability for satire and commentary or the world building/technology etc. (which can obviously be part of the satire) or both?" Yes I think it's a mixture really: partly it's the childlike lure of world building: that is the chance to open up new frontiers (not to use a Kirk-ism) for story and adventure - and partly yes it's a great chance to poke fun at the weirder aspects of life today. Barricade has a lot in it about celebrity; I think you could say that the next book has a lot more in it about wealth. One more thing: I do think that all the best scifi has a powerful sense of awe.