Space Opera Fans discussion

*FANGIRL SQUEEE!!!*

Greetings Space Opera Fans!

As part of our monthly Group Read, I contact the authors who wrote the books we are reading and invite them to answer interview questions about themselves and the book we are reading. Sometimes, they even write back :-)

I am pleased to announce that Peter F. Hamilton, author of The Reality Dysfunction, has answered our curiosity below. It takes a long time to type out answers to all these questions, so I hope y'all will comment and add to the discussion.

Without further ado ... thank you Peter F. Hamilton!




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Author Interview with Peter F. Hamilton

1. What books have most influenced your life?

In childhood it would be Enid Blighton, C.S. Lewis, and W.E. Jones (Biggles) then moving on to Tolkien, E.E. Doc Smith, Niven, A.C. Clarke, Asimov, Heinlein, Anne McCaffery, (yes, all very standard for the 70’s) in the early eighties Julian May’s Saga of the Exiles.

2. How do you develop your plots and characters?

Over time... A flip way of saying I spend months plotting out in advance of writing the actual book. For Great North Road the whole process took two years, of which the first six months were spent making notes and working out story arcs and finding suitable characters.

3. Tell us about your Space Opera Fans book?

The Reality Dysfunction came about after I’d finished writing the Greg Mandel books, which were near-future. I wanted to do something very different to show I wasn’t stuck in one aspect of the genre. In my early teens I’d loved the Lensman series, and apart from Iain Banks and Colin Greenland (Take Back Plenty) no one was really doing space opera then (early 90’s) so I thought that would a perfect for me, and I started writing. The themes and technology just seemed to be ideal topics that only Science Fiction could explore. Two years later, and the manuscript thumped down on my agent’s desk, frightening the life out of him. Nobody had told me you weren’t supposed to write books that long.

4. We all need a hero! Tell us about your protagonist(s)? Was there a real-life inspiration behind him or her?

I wanted some non-standard protagonists, not anti-heroes as much as people who seemed more realistic than the traditional capital letters Starship Captain and Villain that dominated space opera. So Joshua, Syrinx, Louise, and Quinn were born.

5. A good villain is hard to write. How did you get in touch with your inner villain(s) to write this book? Was there a real-life inspiration for him/her/it?

David Garnett, the editor of the 90’s editions of New Worlds once said to me: you’re not good at writing evil. So I thought, right, I’ll show you, and came up with Quinn Dexter. The nice irony being that Quinn himself is manufactured. I don’t know how many people spotted it, but in Banneth’s room (in The Naked God) there’s a picture of Mary Shelly on the wall -Banneth was the one who literally created Quinn on her operating table.

6. What real-life inspirations did you draw from for the worldbuilding within your book?

The politics of the time made me go for the ethnic-streaming worlds. Also the gap between rich and poor inspired the Edenist Adamist split, and gave the Edenists their aloofness -they’re not bad people, they just don’t live life the same way, it’s easier for them.

7. Sci-fi fans love techno-porn! What real-life science (or pseudo-science) did you research for your book?

I remember reading up on the possibility of mining helium3 from gas giant atmospheres. As this was the start of the internet and laptops and mobiles it was fun extrapolating where the trends would go, which is how neural nanonics were developed. There were also articles on modified bacteria being used to break down asteroids and leech out their minerals -from that space biology came the Edenist habitats

8. What was the hardest part of writing this book?

The editing I had to do. In book two, the storylines began to get spread too wide, which would have meant Naked God winding up far too big, so several plotlines had to get cut, after I’d already written thousands of words. Somewhere on old discs are files with Louise crash landing on Mars before she gets to Earth, and a whole strand about an Indian ethnic world.

9. What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?

Probably Alkad Mzu escaping from Tranquillity. It’s got everything that should be in Space Opera, action, intrigue, wild spaceship flight, a flawed noble cause…

10. Did you learn anything from writing this book and what was it?

I learned more about the process of writing than ever before during the time it took to write, it’s the kind of real-life lesson that no how-to book can ever give you.

11. Is there a message in your novel that you hope readers will grasp?

I always try to emphasize optimism in my writing. It might be hard to spot in some books, but it is there. That’s because I always believe the future can be better. It won’t be perfect, but going backwards as a society just isn’t an option as far as I’m concerned.

12. What are your future project(s)?

Currently editing The Abyss Beyond Dreams: Chronicle of the Fallers, which is the first of two books set in the Void, in my Commonwealth universe. The next, Night Without Stars is the last one I’ll do in the Commonwealth. And parallel to that, I’ve become a children’s author, with the Books Of The Realms trilogy, aimed at 7+ years. The Queen of Dreams came out in January, and the second, The Hunting Of The Princes is due out next January (2015).

13. If you couldn’t be an author, what would your ideal career be?

Apart from Rock Star? Right now synthetic biology is a hugely promising scientific field, so I’ll go for researcher in that, or working at Space X.

14. Do you have anything specific that you want to say to the Space Opera Fans community members?

Thanks for the support. And hopefully see you at the London Worldcon!


(Interview granted: 2014.04.17)


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Thank you, Peter Hamilton for taking the time to answer our questions! I hope everybody will head over to our Book of the Month group read thread and use these interview answers to discuss the book!

The Reality Dysfunction BOTM thread is HERE: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...


And you can FOLLOW Peter at his website: http://www.peterfhamilton.co.uk/


Be epic!
Anna Erishkigal
Space Opera Fans

I like his sense of optimism. Thanks for posting this interview.

Steven wrote: "I like his sense of optimism. Thanks for posting this interview."

I know, isn't it great? That's why I love sci-fi. The authors are always so forward-looking :-)

This quote is my favorite:

"Two years later, and the manuscript thumped down on my agent’s desk, frightening the life out of him. Nobody had told me you weren’t supposed to write books that long.

I like big books and I cannot lie...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMHrX...

URG!!!

Just went hunting for The Queen of Dreams (Peter Hamilton's brand-new children's book) for my son and it's already out of print!!!

[*expletive*]

Great interview Anna! Sweet to read about the behind the scenes stuff from Hamilton. Takes quite a mind to write three books that span and explore as much as those three do!

John wrote: "Great interview Anna! Sweet to read about the behind the scenes stuff from Hamilton. Takes quite a mind to write three books that span and explore as much as those three do!"

I'm about 200 pages into Reality Dysfunction and totally enjoying the character development (which always the most important thing for me). I'm just really happy he wrote back. My experience in the other group I moderate (paranormal romance) is that the bigger authors won't give you the time of day. Probably why I've always loved going to sci-fi conferences :-)

Wow! This is my first experience with author contact, and it adds so much to the read.

Anna, you must have cloned yourself to do all you do. Thank you [waves]

Lynne wrote: "Wow! This is my first experience with author contact, and it adds so much to the read. Anna, you must have cloned yourself to do all you do. Thank you [waves]"

Hi Lynne! Usually the bigger-name authors won't give inquiries such as this the time of day, but Peter F. Hamilton did which made me very happy (and a loyal fan). I like epic stories told by a bard around the campfire, so anything I can do to approximate that experience for community members I will do (worst thing that can happen is I ask and then I get ignored :-). Don't forget to visit J.D. Clarke's thread about Lunar Contact Complete Trilogy, as well. It's equally as fascinating. That thread is HERE: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Old interview but I’m enjoyed reading it. I’m pleased he liked the Lensman series as he was growing up, as I did.