Interzone, June 2008, (Jun 2008, David Mathew, Andy Cox, Jetse de Vries, Andrew Hedgecock, Liz Williams, TTA Press, 0264-3596, £3.75, 68+4pp, Bedsheet, magazine)
" *Your previous 'huge-scale' novel* _Diaspora_ *took on the exploration of the universe (or even multiverse) to an extreme end. Then the next 'universe-wide' novel* _Schild's Ladder_ *literally changed the fabric of reality and extrapolated its implications. Compared to these predecessors*, _Incandescence_ *seems somewhat restrained. Did you plan this as such, or did it just happen?*
The main thing I wanted to do was write about a low-tech culture facing a challenge that was very tough for them, and very different from anything in our own history, but completely grounded in known physics. That left room to write about a galactic culture that wasn't facing a catastrophe or cosmic revelations of its own. In the long term, periods of radical discovery or great danger are going to comprise a very small part of our future; it was fun to write about that kind of thing in _Diaspora_ and _Schild's Ladder_, but with the Amalgam I wanted to have a backdrop of stability, where the local dramas are very important if you happen to be caught up in them, but for most of the galaxy life goes on as normal."
4.5 out of 5
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment