Helllooooo

A couple of weeks back I reviewed the rather brilliant Fearless by Allen Stroud a tense starting point for a new space opera series. Allen very kindly agreed to an interview about the book science fiction and what is next in store for his series.

So how would you book tempt someone into reading Fearless?

The one thing I am terrible at is promoting myself and my work. I find it very difficult. I’m pretty forthright on my opinions about the work of others – I review quite a lot of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror – so I have a sense of what’s out there and try to give insightful thoughts on my preferences.

Okay, let’s give this a try. First, the elevator pitch. For a plot, Fearless is The Expanse meets Star Trek: Wrath of Khan. You called the influences just right in your review. It’s also a story about people – a collection of characters working for Fleet and trying to do their job in the most hostile environment we can imagine – deep space. It’s a story told from the perspective of the people experiencing it.

What was your driver to this story?

There were two. The first was wanting to write a space opera that had the same kind of tension you get in war films about the navy and to try to emulate something of the team bond people have when they know each other and rely on each other.

The second was the desire to write a story about a disabled character in space that didn’t fall into the often-used trope of that character needing to overcome their disability as part of their story.

What led to your depiction of Captain Shann and what challenges did this pose you?

Ellisa Shann starts the story of Fearless exactly where she wants to be. She’s living in space, in command of a spaceship. She is a character I wanted people to identify with and a character who I wanted to convey strongly.

There’s a moment in the opening that breaks the fourth wall – she addresses the reader directly. The intention of this is to ensure you have a very clear image of her. When I was at the Foundation masterclasses in the Royal Observatory with Pat Cadigan, she was talking about how Alfred Bester was trying really hard in some of his stories to subtly cut against the white male default image that readers(and his editor) would have of his characters – some of his descriptions are so carefully done to try and sneak stuff through. I attended some Worldcon and Eastercon talks that covered a similar theme, identifying this subconscious image readers can have of a character. I decided I wanted to address the issue head on in my work. Shann is disabled. She accepts what she is. The environment she works in is exactly where she wants to be.

Going forwards, the situation onboard the Khidr gradually gets difficult for the crew (hopefully that’s not a spoiler). Shann’s position as their leader means she has to make difficult decisions and the way she deals with that erodes her. I wanted to get that across without it being about any physical characteristic, so this isn’t a personal narrative that panders, its one that is what it is. Mistakes are made, human beings are human. Again, there’s a repeat moment where the fourth wall is broken, right in the last chapter, but this time its to make the point of what’s happened, how she is at the end compared to how she was at the beginning.

Space Opera feels like its coming back into fashion is there a particular UK dimension to it that other countries don’t have?

I don’t know if it is or isn’t really. I do think some writers have found a way to tell stories of this type that appeal both in their circumstances and in the visual imagery. I’ve already mentioned The Expanse TV series, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly and other shows have helped. We’re no longer living in a Star Wars default imagination. The general awareness of readers is that space is silent, gravity is absent, which means forces have consequences that we can see. The distances are vast. The stories of Galactic Empires and the like require a certain level of abstraction, or technological solutions that make journeys small. These stories are great fun, but less connected to where we are.

As the reader has a lot of wonderful new visual sources to draw from, that means they can imagine things in different ways. The spaceships of Fearless are very specifically designed. I modelled the Khidr after I saw the cover art, integrating the artist interpretation into the engineering and descriptions from the book. I’ve started modelling the Hercules freighter too, but those images aren’t what all my readers will see. They’ll see their own imaginary ships, influenced a little by their favourite science fiction. Thankfully, they have a lot of options to choose from.

For me, the moment I want to write about is the dramatization of where we are going in the near future – in a generation or two. I’m not a scientist by training or amateur interest, but I do try to get my technology ‘in order’. I was particularly pleased when reviewers commented on the plausibility of this aspect of Fearless. In 2118 AD there are solutions, but some of those solutions bring additional problems we haven’t thought about yet.

The space battle tactics are really enjoyable yet tense. What did you find made that work in the writing of them?

It’s a challenge for this type of story. I looked to some of the key visual inspirations I’ve had and thought about a realistic structure that would work. The nearest contemporary parallel to spaceships from Fearless are submarines. The differences are; 1) the view outside the submarine is usually pretty dismal and the distance between ships has other variables (surface, underwater, etc).

When I wrote Elite: Lave Revolution I did a lot of research on what worked for me in terms of the writing I enjoyed. I found great material from Michael A. Stackpole and James Khan. They were both trying to connect their descriptions with a set of visual reference material (Star Wars), which at the time, was something I was also trying to do with Elite Dangerous. Stackpole in particular, the books really feel like you’re playing the game, X-Wing.

With Fearless, I didn’t have a specific source text, but I sort of created one in my mind, based on an array of inspirational scenes from films and television, focusing on the harder elements of the science fiction. It is slightly ironic to me that I’ve written a novel that’s pushing to be more scientifically plausible than Elite Dangerous, which promotes itself on its strong scientific elements. When I started working with Frontier back in 2013, I was a fantasy writer, trying my hand at SF who wasn’t very concerned about the magic tech. Now, I’m an SF writer whose work is very much based on the plausibility of that.

But, thinking about the writing itself, to make these kind of dramatic scenes work, I do think you have to focus on the sensations, rather than the specifics. My time in live roleplaying games allowed me to experience mass battles from the perspective of a man in a suit of armour carrying a shield and a sword. The eye holes in your helm are how you view what’s going on, you get glimpses. You act, you react, you see magnificent things you wouldn’t see anywhere else as hundreds of people charge into combat, and then you’re back to the immediate, the parry, block, swing, twist, turn, etc. When you’re done, the emotion of it burns then gradually ebbs away. I’ve tried to translate that into my writing, taking on board the influences and touchstones from above.

Do you have anything else coming up soon and where can we find out more?

I’m working on a roleplaying game called Jupiter Skies with Spidermind Games. It is tangentially tied into Fearless as it depicts events a few decades or centuries further on. That’s currently at the concept art stage.

I’m also working on the sequel to Fearless, which Flame Tree have said they are interested in. I’ve nearly finished the draft of that. You can hear an excerpt here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6umuTSnHlk&t=657s (The reading starts about 11 minutes in).

Other than that, I’m working on some new music and some non-fiction academic writing for Luna Press, plus you can usually find me reviewing a book or two over with SFBook.com, Concatenation.org or at HWSEvents.co.uk

If you could get everyone to read one book (not your own) what would it be?

Tricky one! I read a lot and sometimes revisiting your inspirations isn’t good, as they don’t hold up when you’re older and wiser. Being a reviewer, you do find yourself engaged with the latest releases, so judging whether they are going to continue to shine or fade away also, a difficult thing to do.

That said, Ada King by E. M. Faulds is an undiscovered gem of a book. So, I guess I’d love loads of people to read that, plus Beth’s a great friend.