FLY SOUP

  Interview: John Scalzi Part 2 By Chris Large Interview first appeared in Aurealis #82. Welcome back John. At the moment your new book Lock In, [discussed in the last issue] is a standalone novel. Are you considering writing more in this world? Or is this it? No! I’d be happy to write more in this world if there was a desire from my publisher and from my audience. I don’t ever write anything but standalone novels. Old Man’s War was a standalone novel. I wrote that one book, right? And then it took off and my editor said, “You need to write another one,” and gave me some money. I said “Okay. I see how this works.” That’s how Old Man’s War became a series. Android’s Dream was supposed to be a series. I’d signed a contract for a second book but when I started writing it, it was terrible so I stopped doing that and wrote something else. So Lock In is currently a standalone book but if my publisher comes to me and says, “Yeah, I want you to write the second ...

Interview: John Scalzi Part 1.5   By Chris Large WARNING – CONTAINS SPOILERS OF EPIC PROPORTIONS John, in your latest book, Lock In , remotely controlled robotic bodies called threeps are developed to give those suffering the ‘locked in’ form of Haden’s Syndrome a greater degree of freedom. It basically allows sufferers who are trapped in their own bodies to interact with the world, but the long game of the corporations is for the technology to be used to give older people more freedom of mobility. Do you see this as humanity simply trying to avoid getting old? Or are you suggesting this type of technology could be the next step in our evolution? I don’t want to use the phrase “next step in our evolution”. I think that’s a loaded phrase. But say if you were 75 years old and your mobility had been compromised simply by being 75. Your knees are shot, you might be overweight, or you might have a bad back or anything that makes it more difficult for you to do the th...

One thing I've really enjoyed about 2015 has been talking with a bunch of writers at the top of their game. I genuinely get a kick out of chatting with guys as talented, engaging and passionate about what they do as the likes of Shane Abbess and John Scalzi. Most recently I had a chat with Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C.Clarke award winning author Ann Leckie. It was just prior to the release of her new book Ancillary Mercy and I think I was almost as excited for the book's release as she was. Ann can be unexpectedly hilarious though, and we took  a couple of winding diversions in the interview which really surprised me. I think sometimes interviewees get sick of answering the same questions over and over, so if something a bit different pops up they really run with it. You can find the full interview in Aurealis #86 . Also, not sure I fully pimped my interview with Thoraiya Dyer. I think of it as her origin story, since it's a tale of the heartbreaking setbacks that have...