One of my favorite new authors is David J. Williams author of The Mirrored Heavens and it’s brand new sequel The Burning Skies which hit stores Tuesday. Dave has been a longtime supporter of The Nerds so it’s great to have him back as our first interview which we’ll post in two parts. We’ll post part two tomorrow as well as a review of The Burning Skies on Friday.
RBN: First off, can you offer a quick recap of your first book, The Mirrored Heavens for people who might not have read it or need a refresher?
Dave: Sure, no problem. The book centers on the hunt for the mysterious terrorist group Autumn Rain, which destroys the world’s space elevator and promises further strikes.
Our saga centers in particular on Claire Haskell . . . the tormented/genius netrunner who can’t even trust her own memories, but is the key to stopping the Rain and uncovering the deeper mystery behind them.
RBN: When The Burning Skies opens up we meet a very different Claire.
It’s only been four days but she seems to have increased her control over her abilities immensely. What’s happened in those four days?
Dave: She’s been on–and continues to be throughout BURNING SKIES–a very steep learning curve.
In a sense, you can think of Claire as a weapon that’s off the leash and out of control.
The paradox of Claire is that even as she gains in power, she can’t be sure that others don’t have the back door to her own mind.
So you can think of BURNING SKIES as her struggle for self-ascendancy. It’s a rocky road!
RBN: Claire is desperately trying to find out what happened to her, what’s real and what isn’t. It’s a fine line in how you portray that. How hard is it to structure a story around a central character who at times can’t tell what’s real and what isn’t?
Dave: There’s definitely an Unreliable Narrator Problem, that’s for sure.
For me the key here is the ensemble cast. The fact that we have multiple characters/POVs means that the reader has at least some opportunity to calibrate their various stories. Also, by keeping the main thread so kinetic/action-oriented, the overall saga becomes a lot more tangible.
But I will also note that these books are definitely riffs on knowability/subjectivity. Haskell’s wrestling with the Real, two other characters (Lynx and Linehan) are on some rather heavyweight drugs, and all the characters are being thrust into a situation (the Europa Platform) that is easily the craziest thing they’ve ever seen.
RBN: Speaking of the ensemble cast, catch us up on who exactly returns for part two and where they are when we meet up with them…
Dave: Sure. Strom Carson (aka the Operative), Stefan Lynx and Leo Sarmax are doing some heavy-duty special-ops as the book opens. They’re down on the Europa Platform, the giant O’Neill space station, looking for evidence of Autumn Rain infiltration.
What’s also interesting in this book is that there’s a lot of “career mobility”: all the (surviving) characters got various promotions after their heroics at the end of MIRRORED HEAVENS. . . but the higher up the ladder you go, the more dangerous it gets!
RBN: Absolutely. The stakes ended high in part one and we enter an all out battle that takes up the majority of part two. How hard is it structuring a story that relies on nearly non stop action?
Dave: The key is to not rely exclusively on the action to escalate the story. Ironically, despite the fight on the O’Neill cylinders that occupies part two, the revelations that occur subsequently serve to propel the drama even higher as the characters struggle to deal with their implications.
RBN: What I find really entertaining in both books is that you are constantly questioning what you think you know. And each time you get close, there’s another layer.
How deeply have you plotted the trilogy?
Dave: All the way to the end. I know exactly where it’s all going, and I hereby promise to resolve all mysteries in the finale, THE MACHINERY OF LIGHT (out next year!).
RBN: Let’s get into the actual storyline in Burning Skies if we can.
Dave: for sure
RBN: We open with Claire seeking information from her former boss Matthew Sinclair who begins to peel back some of the conspiracy…on what Autumn Rain might actually be, who’s pulling the strings and who knew what…which leads us to the central setting for a large part of the book, the Europa Platform.
Can you go into what the Europa Platform is and how you envisioned it?
Dave: For sure.
First, probably worth noting that the initial conversation–between Claire and her imprisoned/disgraced spymaster, Matthew Sinclair–serves a dual purpose.
It’s intended both to provide anyone who (however inexplicably!) DIDN’T read MIRRORED HEAVENS all they need to know going into BURNING SKIES. It also provides us with invaluable info about what was REALLY going on in that book . . and some surprises are in store.
As to the Europa Platform: this is a “standard” O’Neill space station . . .two thirty kilometer long rotating cylinders, with valleys and windows running along their length. The idea is that you can stand in one valley and look up and see two more overhead.
Very trippy.
My Europa Platform also has a twist, in that each cylinder has an asteroid “stapled” onto one end. The asteroid being the strongholds of the Euro Magnates, who are the leaders of the neutral powers, unaligned with either East or West. Of course, what’s really going on is that the Europa Platform is the location of the secret summit conference between the U.S. president and the Eurasian leadership in the wake of the chaos that ended MIRRORED HEAVENS.
Though (to your point about multiple layers), even THAT ‘s a cover story, in that what’s really going on is that President Harrison is trying to lure Autumn Rain into a trap. Of course, they’re trying to do the exact same thing, so we are on the road to some serious mayhem.
RBN: One thing that I found really interesting is how the cast refer to the US President as “The Throne”, who is protected by Praetorians…
Even Claire talks about putting her sword into service to the throne.
For such a high tech story how did you come about that sort of terminology?
Dave: I wanted to give the reader a view into the “colloquial-speak” of the agents who serve the president. It also provides insight into who the president is–this is America under the Reformed Constitution, and the prez governs with “permanent” emergency powers.. . so he essentially has monarchical status. The Praetorians who serve him dub him the Throne as a result, in the same way that those who serve (or used to serve) Sinclair dub him the Old Man.
It’s also worth noting that President Harrison doesn’t exist as a character in MIRRORED HEAVENS. He’s an off-screen, shadowy figure, and by the time we actually see him “on camera” in BURNING SKIES, you really start to feel like that’s the president, and it increases dramatic tension accordingly.
And re “Praetorians”–that was the term for the emperor’s bodyguard in ancient Rome, and that’s kinda the vibe I was going for here. . .
RBN: It works really well. Especially when you apply it to a character like Carson who’s 100
percent pure badass. How much fun is Carson to write?
Dave: Carson is a blast to write, in that he has a very dry sense of humor, and a lot of what he’s saying can be read as comedy, frankly. Though he doesn’t intend it that way . . .
RBN: All of your characters are augmented in some way. Did you put research into how these things might actually work or just go for the cool factor?
Also, regarding Carson…there’s a whole lot more to him than what we’ve seen so far I’m guessing?
Dave: Like everyone else, Carson has his layers/secrets. He’s unlike a lot of the characters, though, in that he’s pretty aware of them. . .
As to the research . . I go for what’s cool, of course, but I also have to make sure I can back it up.
Vis-a-vis the power suits, the main problem that they’re trying to solve in the here and now is the power source. Seems reasonable enough they’ll lick that in the next hundred years.
RBN: I think the power suits are great, but I’m fascinated by all the hardware the characters have internally…
Dave: . . whereas you can clearly see a trend right now with all our wireless devices. . pretty soon they’ll literally be inside our heads.. . which of course is a double-edged sword.
The Good News: you’ve got mega-enhancements.
The Bad News: some pesky razor could be hacking them right #$# now!
Come back tomorrow for part two of our interview with Dave. In the meantime head out to your local bookseller and grab a copy of “The Burning Skies” which is on sale now.
[...] originally published in Rescued By Nerds on 2009-05-19 [...]