Hellooo!

Earlier this week I reviewed the rather good SF novel Stormblood by Jeremy Szal which for fans of the Madalorian or The Expanse (or possibly even Babylon 5) may be well worth a look. I thoroughly enjoyed it and was delighted that Jeremy was kind enough to talk to me about the book

How do you like to describe Stormblood?

As a dark, noir space opera that’s Mass Effect 2 and Blade Runner 2049 meets the Red Rising trilogy. Of course, with a ton of weird alien drugs.

In the book Stormtech is a key part of the plot – what led to that as your choice of alien technology?

Like most things I write, because I thought it’s cool and wacky! I try to make my stories as personal and close to character as possible, and having alien DNA fused inside the body of the protagonist is about as close as you can get. I wasn’t expecting things to get as sticky and messy as they did when I was writing it, but I tried to make things evolve naturally, and so here we are.

I really liked how you avoided Vakov being a standard loner and actually made him face up to that. Was that a deliberate choice?

Not at all. I wanted to write something that was very driven, very singular, with the thoughts bouncing around in one character’s head carrying the narrative. But as Grim and Katherine developed on the page, and as more of Vakov’s Reaper fireteam came to light, I slowly changed the course of the narrative. Vakov was never a loner, but after the war, he became that way due to circumstances and his personal way of coping, but deep down he’s a man that’s always needed friends and people close to him. That arc carries over to Book 2.

Compass was a fascinating place to explore – how did you go about building this asteroid country?

I initially wasn’t sure I wanted to set it all on an asteroid city! I almost didn’t. But I decided to try something new and weird and fun, and it evolved from there! It did mean editing a few of the levels to make narrative sense, and to show an economic/class development as Vakov traversed the levels, but hopefully it came together nicely in the end!

You juggle many different plotlines really well in the book - what for you is the key to not overloading the reader with exposition?

Character! As I said, I try to filter everything through character. I want every word of these books to feel as if Vakov is speaking them aloud, so the entire narrative is coloured by his PoV. That makes it easy to fold in exposition or world-building into any number of Vakov’s internal rants, so you’re being given exposition, but you just don’t realise it.

What can we expect next in The Common series?

That would involve heavy spoilers! Without being precise, I will say that the universe will continue to deepen and expand as the space opera elements grow more prevalent. The aliens will have a greater impact on the story. There’s three new characters who join Vakov’s ranks, and not all of them are human. And, of course, the decisions and actions set into motion in the first book will very dire consequences. Suffice to say, things get very dark.

If you could make everyone read one book (not your own) what would you choose?

The Red Rising series! They’ve provided endless inspiration and influence on my own writing. Pierce Brown effortlessly manages to write brutal scenes in a savage and terrifyingly dark world, but he always combines this with compassion, love, and characters who will stop at nothing to fight for their friends. It’s a tone I’m constantly trying to emulate, and I think they’re some of the best science-fiction being written today.