I'm thrilled to be on the blog tour for Empire of Silence. There's been so much buzz about this book online and I can't wait to get my own copy. Thank you Christopher for joining me on the blog today!
Tell us
about your book and your main character.
Empire
of Silence is a classic space opera adventure crossed with epic fantasy. Set
in the very remote future, it’s the story of a war between humanity’s vast,
interstellar empire and an invading horde of aliens called the Cielcin. It is
also the story of Hadrian Marlowe, the son of a wealthy but minor aristocrat
who rejects his place in the hierarchy and his father’s plans for him and
who—despite his best intentions—gets swept up into this war and ends up becoming
the man who ends it all. That’s not a spoiler. The book’s written as a memoir,
like Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind. For Hadrian, the past is already
written, but these books are his attempt to set the record straight, to tell
his side of the story. Hadrian’s a bit Lord Byron, a bit T.E. Lawrence: a
sometimes-brooding, sometimes-laughingly charismatic, always dramatic sort
who—like the Luke Skywalker of old—attempts to do the right thing because, at the heart of things, he’s a
deeply decent person. The world is not often kind to such people, of course,
and road is long and terrible. This is a book and a series for people that like
deep worldbuilding and narratives heavy on character. If you’re looking for a
book and universe to sink your teeth into: this is it.
It’s really
interesting that Empire of Silence draws elements from different genres.
Was this a conscious decision? How did you go about it?
No, it happened quite unconsciously. There’s a
Japanese RPG for the Nintendo Gamecube called Tales of Symphonia that
came out when I was around 11 or 12 years old, and it’s set in this very
medieval-seeming world with swords and crossbows; the main character is raised
by a dwarf. As the game progresses more and more science fictional elements
appear: spaceships, parallel dimensions, genetic experimentation, and so on. I
saw no reason why these elements should be kept apart, so Empire is a
science fictional story written like a fantasy epic. The truth is, I think that
genre distinctions are only useful for booksellers. They want to know which
books have spaceships and which ones have wizards and whether those wizards
live in Minas Tirith or Chicago. But I think there’s a danger there. Fandoms
seem increasingly atomic and walled-off from one another to me. I know SF fans
who won’t read fantasy, and epic fantasy fans who won’t read urban fantasy. It
reminds me of the way metal music fans might listen to, say, only power
metal, but not black metal, for example. And one consequence of that is that
while the genres get smaller and tailor themselves to more and more dedicated,
loyal audiences, fewer and fewer works get read by everyone. Genre is a
menu system, but the problem with menus is that most of us just buy our
favorite thing at the restaurant every time we go. I hope that either Empire
is a strange enough combination to be someone’s new favorite thing, or that
it’s familiar enough in one or two different ways that some fans will open the
first page and feel like they’ve come home for the first time.
What is your
writing process? Do you have any tips or rituals that work for you?
I’m afraid I’m terribly boring, truth be told.
I’ve never understood these writers who can only write in a specific way in a
specific place by the light of a specific moon. I try to think of writing as a
job. I do have to wake up and start at the beginning of the day, or else
nothing will get done, but beyond that I try and sit down and do 2000 words a
day. I also work full time as an editor at Baen Books in the US, so most days I
get about half my writing done between 6 and 8 AM, before work, and the rest
when I get home in the evening. The only thing I think that might be unusual
about me is that I insist on reading everything aloud as I compose it. I’m a
very auditory person, so I find it’s easier to think that way, but hearing your
work said aloud will not only help you catch errors, but it is also the case
that good writing must sound good. If you’ve written a bad sentence,
your ears will absolutely let you know.
Where did your idea
come from?
Not from any one particular place. I’ve been
heavily inspired by the space opera of the ‘60s and ‘80s, but as I’ve mentioned
I’ve been influenced by certain video games (like the aforementioned Tales
of Symphonia), and anime/manga series like Cowboy Bebop and Berserk.
I’m also a huge fan of classic literature: from Sophocles to Shakespeare to
Luo Guanzhong. History itself provides a lot of inspiration, from the history
of the Roman and Byzantine empires, to classical Persia and China, to the
history of the great empires of the last millennium. I was also raised Roman
Catholic, and though the question of what I believe or don’t believe—or what
belief even means—is something that it would take far more than a blog post to
unpack, it is fair to say that my religious upbringing has played a role in
shaping the person and the writer I am today (but fear not, Empire is
not a religious book in any way). So what I hope I’ve done is borrow a piece or
two from all these works and traditions which have impacted me and hammered all
these different metals together into something both familiar and new. And I
hope everyone likes it!
Who was your
favourite character to write and why?
Well, not counting Hadrian, it’s hard to say.
Hadrian’s tutor, Gibson, was particularly fun. Older mentor characters are a
tired trope, perhaps, but a classic, and he gave me an excuse to get in some
good Socratic banter. There’s also Valka, who I wouldn’t necessarily
characterize as my favorite to write more than she was a complete
nightmare. She’s a sort of alien archaeologist and Hadrian’s intellectual
foil—they disagree on nearly everything, which causes every scene they’re in
together to multiply in complexity. Nonetheless, I think the end result was
worth the headache. She may not be my favorite to write, but she is among my
favorite characters to have written—if that makes any sense. I will also add
that there’s a character who doesn’t appear until book two that was an absolute
joy to write: so that will give you all a little something else to look forward
to down the road.
Why do you think
sci-fi and fantasy are such popular genres?
This is one of those questions that could get
me into trouble! I think that human beings need some sort of mythology to embed
their lives in and to help give them meaning. For most of history and for most
people today, that purpose was filled by religion. A lot of people today have a
hard time with classical religions, for one reason or another, and genre
fiction these days seems a more palatable way for people to inhabit a
mythological way of thinking. People relate their day-to-day struggles to the
lives of characters in Harry Potter, for example, treating Harry, Ron,
and Hermione almost like patron saints. People talk quite casually about their
struggles “with the Dark Side” or attend festivals/conventions in costume.
Fandoms look very much like pagan ritual cults in the Greek sense, with
initiation rituals and gatekeepers and even orthodox beliefs (just look at the
huge schism breaking up Star Wars fandom right now over The Last
Jedi). Mind you, none of this is to disparage either religion or fandom: I
think they’re all descriptions of whatever the deep truth about human nature is
(and we do have a nature, it’s not all a matter of opinion or acculturation).
It’s only that some of these mythologies are more complete and accurate
descriptions of the human condition than others. Obviously a single book
written by a single 22-year-old is going to be less nuanced and impactful than
a 2000-year-old tradition touched and edited by millions of hands, but that
doesn’t mean they don’t speak to the same needs.
Can you give us
any hints what's next in the series?
Well, I’ve already finished book two, which
is a good deal darker than the first book. It sees us leave the relative
stability and decency of the Sollan Empire for the frontier and the horror that
lies beyond. If this first book is my love letter to ‘60s and ‘80s space opera,
this second one is a strange mix of Gothic horror and cyberpunk...in space. The
second volume is much heavier on the action, much heavier on the space travel,
there’s more aliens, more mysteries, and more deaths. It was an absolute joy to
write and I’m looking forward to sharing it with everyone here in a year or so.
Finally, if you
could visit anywhere on Earth or in the Universe, where would you go?
Most
of all, I’d like to go to Italy. My family came to America from Benevento at
the very start of the 20th century, and I’ve never been myself. I’d
love to go to Rome and to Florence in particular. I’d love to do a circuit of
the eastern Mediterranean one day: Athens, Constantinople, Jerusalem, and
Alexandria—given how much I adore classical history—but I don’t know if I’m
that ambitious a traveler. As for other places in the universe...I’m not too
sure I would leave Earth, given the chance. Everything I know about space
travel makes it sound extremely onerous and unpleasant, and the truth is that
I’m happy to watch our progress in space from the green hills of Earth, but I do
hope that in my lifetime we put men and women on Mars and the moons of Jupiter.
The photographs alone would be something to see.
I want to read this book even more now after that interview! Some great writing tips and tantalising teasers about what's coming next in the series as well. Thank you Christopher for your answers and to Gollancz for inviting me to join the blog tour.
To see where the blog tour is going next, check out this banner:
