You might have caught Ren’s June article about her cyberpunkafunkadunk story which metamorphosed into Escapology. If you’re hoping for a snuggly woolly jumper of a read, you’ll be disappointed. Escapology is much more the outfit one wears to turn every head when you walk in the room.
Enough with the clothing metaphors. Published by Titan Books, Escapology is set in a dystopian future where your Pass or Fail status is far more than a symbol. While New Weird flits through Shock’s trials, Cyberpunk influences the world Shock and Amiga battle in, both in the Slip and on the streets. Kill, maim and destroy, Amiga is brutal compared to Shock’s mangled finesse of a life. Yes there’s elements of Blade Runner, you’ll find mirrors of The Matrix in it too. If you read closely enough there’s even a little Studio Ghibli*. Ren’s world demands not to be ignored. Once you’re in, her story telling skills are reluctant to let you leave.
Welcome back to SFFWorld, Ren. The cover of Escapology features Shock’s avatar, a shark. While you were developing the story what came first, the avatar or Shock?
Thanks so much for having me back and for your very kind words there about Escapology!
Shock sort of came with both his avatars, a little bundle of three as it were. Shark was always the weaponised one, because why else would you have a seventeen foot predator on your avi-team? There is a deeper reason behind Shark but…spoilers!
A deep but realistic cynicism all but drips from the pages of Escapology. Did you find that infecting your day-to-day life?
No. That cynicism you see is one hundred percent proof Ren. I grew up poor and in shitty areas and saw a lot more of the nastier side of the world than perhaps is healthy at a very impressionable age. I am a dreamer, and can be naïve in the extreme, but the starker realities of life are clear to me. I don’t tend to sugarcoat. I can be quite outspoken about it all.
Shock’s flawed life choices are compounded by those around him who use those choices to keep him in a useful state, and the politics of the world he lives in. Just how difficult was it to track the story around this?
Not very, as that was the story. Escapology is like everything else I write: character driven. I write about people, what happens to them and why. People using weakness against people is as old as time, both politically and personally. People can be so horrifically callous when focused on their own ends. The world is full of predators.
Because of the Slip there’s an element of techno-necessary terms, alongside the slang, were you concerned you’d confuse your reader?
I love books like dive pools. Books you’re thrown into and have to learn to swim in. I’m aware the book has confused some readers with its lingo and terms etc, and I’m not being confusing on purpose, I’m just writing the type of book I like to read. Any confusion on the reader’s behalf is entirely the fault of my inability to clarify when diving, and that will improve––practice makes perfect, and I don’t intend to stop writing. Ever. You’ll hear me tapping away as a ghost. (I honestly feel like saying ka-boom tish after that––fake medium jokes ftw)
The Cyberpunk and New Weird genres are about more than vice, filth and tech, but if you could have one subversive implant, augmentation, or other biohack, what would it be and why?
Easy. Give me the implant that will allow me to download everything I want to know––which is basically everything––the tech-cheat for learning by osmosis. I’m ADD and the worst procrastinator in history (the two are not unrelated), so being able to just DL anything I needed to know? Heaven. My ideal tech-heaven.
Your e-novella The Lonely Dark (Fox Spirits) claimed a great deal of respect. Did that encourage you, or add to the pressure while working on Escapology?
Crikey, I don’t know that TLD was respected as such––that’s a hefty old word. Certainly I know some people enjoyed and rated TLD, but no more. And it’s a very different book to Escapology, too different for worries of comparison. More personal. TLD is a quite serious exploration of loss, loneliness, self and consciousness, partially inspired by the music and visuals of Purity Ring’s Shrines album. Escapology’s a frothy, neon, punk rock anthem on speed, and whilst it deals with those self same ideas, along with notions of brokenness, addiction and isolation, it’s definitely too loud and brash I think to invoke anything like the same feel.
Thank you, Ren, good luck with the sequel, Virology!
This was my pleasure. I find I’m always being asked such fabulous questions and it’s so much fun thinking through my answers!
If you fancy reading something different and very much this generation, you can buy Escapology direct from Titan Books, Amazon and any bookshop worth their mortar. You can find Ren on Twitter, Facebook and her website.
*Yes, Studio Ghibli isn’t a book, graphic novel, or an author.
