Tobias Buckell Interview

One of the categories in my 2008 Best of List was authors I wanted to interview. Coming up high on that list was Tobias Buckell. Tobias did extremely well in my year end wrap-up, so talking with the man responsible for the amazing Sly Mongoose, my pick for Best Science Fiction novel of 2008, seemed natural. Well ask and you shall receive as Tobias was kind enough to answer some questions for Blood of the Muse.

Your latest book is Halo: The Cole Protocol, a book based on the ultra-popular Halo video game. How difficult is it to write a book
based on a video game? How much creative freedom with the plot did you have?

Tobias Buckell: It wasn't difficult at all, as the videogame created a full universe, and my job was to hunt down what I thought were interesting pockets within which to tell my story for The Cole Protocol.

I had a great deal of creative freedom. Part of that is because only 4 games are around (Halo 1-3 and Halo Wars) and 5 previous books for me to draw from. So there are a lot of areas that could be fleshed out, and I got to do some of that, which meant I had a lot of freedom to play.

For example, the regular citizens caught behind enemy lines interested me, and they become the anchorpoint for the whole book.

Which authors are you most influenced by?

Tobias Buckell: I love a lot of the the noir mystery writers (Hammet, etc) and spy thriller writers (LeCarre, Fleming, etc). In the genre of SF/F, I was heavily in love with Space Opera and Cyberpunk authors. Vernor Vinge, Bruce Sterling, and William Gibson had tremendous impact on me, though Arthur C. Clarke was formative in getting me into SF/F and addicted to the whole genre.

You’ve always had imaginative and unique world-building in all of your novels. And I thought your characterizations reached a new level in Sly Mongoose. What do you feel are your strengths as a writer?

Tobias Buckell: Well, as you indicated I do love the imaginative parts of creating stories and novels: the worlds, the backgrounds, the people inhabiting them, those details are fun. But as far as strengths, I find that plot and movement are what come easiest to me. Pacing a breakneck sort of book, dashing readers through a breathless ride, that is what I tend to naturally focus on the most. I hate boring people. I love action.

When I can combine a great setting into a crazy piece of action I really get excited. When I've felt most strong as a writer were when I created the 0-gee gun battle sequence for Ragamuffin down the center of the ecologically damaged and war-torn tin-can shaped space station, and both the blimp chase scene in Sly Mongoose and the floating cities at war battle sequence.

While Crystal Rain and Ragamuffin were both excellent novels, many people have commented on Sly Mongoose being a huge improvement, raising you into the top-rank of sci-fi writers today. Is there anything you can credit for this improvement? Was there any difference in your writing process during Sly Mongoose as compared to Crystal Rain or Ragamuffin?

Tobias Buckell: Well, that's certainly flattering that everyone thinks so much more highly of Sly Mongoose. As to what I can credit for this, I do have to remind everyone that Crystal Rain was the first novel I'd ever even attempted to write, and Ragamuffin my sophomore novel. That dreaded second book that often trips up writers. I was learning a lot about how I wrote, structure, pacing, everything on the fly. I've been making it up as I went along.

With Sly I really felt a lot more confident about the whole thing and plowed ahead with the writing knowing I had two books under my belt. The novel came a lot easier to me.

One of the aspects of Sly Mongoose I found so fascinating was you tackled the issue of male anorexia nervosa, the xocoyotzin would starve themselves or purge to maintain their figure in order to fit into their spacesuits. Tremendous societal and familial pressures lead them to this eating disorder. How did this idea come about? Was there any social commentary behind it?

Tobias Buckell: There is and there isn't. It's as much a commentary on the fall from technological heights that the city of Yatapek has seen that the citizens are forced into this situation. I wanted to literalize the sacrifices and headspace that Timas is in. It's a big weight he deals with, and it's something that Katerina knows is a problem, but with her more advanced background, sees as something he needs to fix, but she doesn't really get. That shows the difference, again, between the two of them. To her it's annoying curiosity, and to Timas it's something completely different.

Secondly, I did want to saddle Timas with a modern issue that many people deal with in today's world. It's not as common among guys, but with young women who purge in order to remain thin.

The main inspiration for Timas was modern day jockeys, who have to remain small and thin for the best performance. It's part of their job. As a result their teeth are worn by stomach acids. The detail in the novel about the flat, square basins that Timas has in his room to throw up in, that I took from a book about jockeys. I thought of Timas as a pressure-suit jockey.

Your writing schedule has seen you release a new book in the Forty-eight World universe each year for the past few years. Should we expect a new Forty-eight World novel from you sometime in 2009? Or has the Halo novel pushed it out further? Is there anything you can reveal about your next novel?

Tobias Buckell: It's been a good three year run, but I think, barring a miracle, 2009 will see me miss my book a year schedule for the first time due to having two out in 2008, getting a late start on the next book, and my two months or so of health problems I just (more or less) got over. My editor and I are planning out the next couple novels and thinking about where we want to go next, and once we have that nailed down, I'll be talking about that. For now, I'm bubbling up ideas, working on some short fiction and getting other sorts of work done. Probably mid February I'll start earnest work on the next novel.

Pepper is a fantastic, larger-than-life character. How much fun is it to write him? Has he ever surprised you by taking a different direction than you’ve originally imagined?

Tobias Buckell: Pepper is, of course, a lot of fun to write because he causes lots of chaos. The bad ass action hero is also something I delight in portraying.

There are lots of different kinds of writers, some who's characters 'speak' to them. I'm not one of them, however. I lay a lot of this stuff out in outline form ahead of time, and I have a pretty good idea of what Pepper is up to by the time I start writing the early chapters.

Of course, I've had this character around in my head since 1999, so not a lot can surprise me.

You have a real skill in taking disparate genre elements and seamlessly blending them together. In your novels, we’ve seen some fantasy, sci-fi and horror aspects all mixed together. Is there another genre you’d like to work into your writing?

Tobias Buckell: Spy thriller, or hard boiled detective. I got to play a little bit of noir into my novella Stochasti-city for Metatropolis, and I liked it so much. It came pretty easily, and I think I need to indulge in it some more. I've done tight third person perspective, but without much 'voice' in the narration. Letting the narrator color more things in was something I want to play with more in the future.

You hit the sci-fi nerd Mecca with a zombie space invasion in Sly Mongoose. Do you think you’ll ever be able to out-nerd that? Has George Romero called you up yet looking for some writing help for his next Living Dead movie?

Tobias Buckell: Hah, no, he hasn't, and I don't know if I can out-nerd that. We'll see!

Have you read anything recently that you feel is criminally underrated?

Tobias Buckell: Walter Jon William's Implied Spaces was my favorite book this year that didn't get the attention/sales/buzz that I'd hope it would.

Is there anything you’d like to add?

Tobias Buckell: Erm, nope, thanks for interviewing me!

Thanks Tobias.

Related Posts:
The Bloodies: Best of 2008
"Sly Mongoose" by Tobias Buckell (Tor)
"Ragamuffin" by Tobias Buckell (Tor)