Jeremy Szal is the author of The Common series, whose three science fiction novels – Stormblood, Blindspace, Wolfskin -and one short story – Scream in Blue – are set in the world of The Common. The three novels are a epic military space opera trilogy. The first, Stormblood, was reviewed HERE.
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Hello Jeremy! Thanks for joining us at SFFWorld.
Thank you very much for having me!
To start with, would you tell us about the Common books?
Sure! They are space opera novels, about the DNA of an extinct alien race that is used as a drug to make users permantely addicted to adrenaline and aggression. And as the dust from one war settles, a deadlier, more alien, war looms out of the stars. However, the books are also deeply focused on the two brothers central to the story and how their relationship evolves and grows and deepens over time. In short, it’s a mash-up of Mass Effect and Red Rising and Star Wars: Andor.
What did you want to achieve by telling the story of Vakov Fukasawa and the world he lives in?
A great many things! The books are, ultimately, a love story – just between brothers, siblings. And I’m trying to explore how those bonds, and the bonds between a family that isn’t always blood, are tested and endured in utter hellish conditions. Especially when dealing with some of the other themes that the books touches on, like mental health, anxiety, depression, rage, anger, injustice, obsession, and human nature.
The books are quite violent, although it is for a purpose. You also cover issues such as addiction and drug use with the use of Stormtech, the serum that the military take to enhance their performance. Are writing such dark details difficult?
Well, I suppose violence should be violent, right? Otherwise, if the horrible slaughter of millions is glossed over and sanitized, then it threatens to diminish the horror of violence and death. Turns it into something that moves the plot along, rather than something to be mortified at, which is a problem in of itself.
And sometimes, yes, writing about such gruesome things, depicting the worst aspects of human nature, can be mentally taxing. Especially when you start making real-world comparisons to atrocities, and what human beings do to each other.
But I think what has made it sustainable for me – and readers – is that there is always hope. Always a reason to keep fighting, keep struggling forwards. Especially if that reason is a person. I do believe that degree of hope, however small, is especially crucial in darker fiction, and I think that I’ve been able to maintain that.
The first book was published in 2020. Were the books always originally planned as a trilogy? Did you know the end when you started?
I suppose? I hoped that I’d get a book deal, and that I’d have the opportunity to publish them as a trilogy. Personally, I think that three books is my limit. Anymore than that, and I think that the material starts to lose it’s edge.
I didn’t know the end, no. The shades of it started to slowly materialise as I wrote it, and more details made themselves known to me. I suppose I always knew the general tone of where things would end up, but my brain works on a book by book basis, not an overall series.
How do you think your writing has changed from the beginning of the series to now? (Or has it?)
I start writing the first draft of Stormblood in late 2016, when I was only 21 years of age. I was 29 when I delivered the final draft of Wolfskin, so I certainly hope that my style has changed! I think that my style has evolved with each book, Especially. With wolfskin. And coincides nicely with real life because I was going through quite a bit at the time – both personally and professionally. As a result, I think I became a little more serious, more mature. And Vakov’s own path mirrors that – without spoilers, he goes through hell at a certain point (well, a hell that’s nastier than the hell he’s usually put through) in the narrative, and those scares and hardships have had long-lasting, rippling effects on him. His voice has natured and deepened and become richer, as my own has. And I think that can only be a good thing.
I think your description of the action scenes are particularly good, for example, as well as your world-building, as the series becomes increasingly epic. What part (or parts!) of the books are you most proud of writing?
Thank you, sir! It’s hard to pick just one, honestly, but I am very happy with how the central relationship between Vakov and his brother has turned out. I feel that it covered all the highs and lows and twists of a real relationship between siblings, warts and all.
There’s also a big set-piece sequence in the middle of Wolfskin that I am immensely pleased with. It works through a series of escalating tensions, with some of the best dialogue (and insults!) that I’ve written, where you know the metaphorical bomb is going to explode, but you just don’t know when. And then when it does, what follows is one of the best (and most personal) fight scenes in the whole series. It all falls into place perfectly – if I do say so myself.
Were you brought up on science fiction? What were your original influences – books, film, TV, games?
I was, sort of? I read all kinds of books groing up, but never really thought of them as one genre or another. But my mother introduced me to Star Wars (all six movies) and Blade Runner and Back to the Future, growing up, and I knew that I loved those, especially anything to do with space. When I was a little older I started playing Halo, Mass Effect, Bioshock, Deus Ex, all things that would become major influences on the Common series, but it wasn’t till I discovered A Song of Ice and Fire and the Halo novels around the age of 17, that my love of speculative fiction became solidified.
So later on I cut my teeth on the Red Rising series, The First Law trilogy, the Barsoom novels, authors like Iain M. Banks, Karen Traviss, Adrian Tchaikovsky, all of which have influenced me in some way, both great and small.
Readers may not know that as well as being the author of these novels, you’ve also written over forty science-fiction short stories, many of which have been translated into multiple languages. Do these stories have a common theme? Are they all science fiction?
No – I’ve written a few secondary world fantasy stories, dabbled in horror a little bit, but I’d say I’m most comfortable in science-fiction, and that’s the genre that the majority of my stories call home (although of course genre is a very fickle and ambiguous thing). I’ve been very lucky with translations – recent languages I’ve conquered have included Turkish and Finnish. I’ve also had the honour of having about six of my stories translated into Chinese by venues like SFWorld and Eight Light Minutes – which on one occasion meant that the story was used in a university course study (something I did not see coming!).
I’ve had many more stories of mine given a Chinese translation, but only six are legit, far as I can tell. The others are all bootlegs/fan translations. Which . . . I suppose I’m happy about?
Whether novel or short story, each format has its own advantages and disadvantages when writing. (I really liked Scream in Blue as a short but punchy story, for example.) Do you have a preference when writing?
Thank you! I definitely prefer novels. I feel too constrained by the word count limits of a short story, and in almost every short I write, by the time I’m really getting into the flow of things . . . the story has to end.
Shorts do allow me to experiment with a new voice or character or world, but I prefer them as side-dishes to the main course: novels. I don’t ever see myself focusing on them as a primary storytelling form.
Many reading this may also not know that you were also the editor for the Hugo-winning StarShipSofa until 2020 (Where did you find the time?) Editing is a time-swallowing occupation…. Was editing others work a blessing or a curse when it came to writing your own work? How easy is it for you to separate the two processes?
I was also in university for several years while I was an editor at SS. So . . . I honestly do not know where I stole the time from. My sleep, I guess.
Editing and reading other stories that were sent to me for consideration certainly helped – it was a good exercise in defining what made up a solid story. What was considered to be a good opening, a good ending. It showed me the difference between a tale that grabbed me and one that wobbled towards the end. An opening hook that delivered on its promise and one that landed on an ending that was totally unearned. I think it made me a better, and more self-conscious writer. But when Stormblood was published, I had to stop – it would have been impossible to do both otherwise.
When not writing, what do you do in your spare time to refresh the brain? You’re in Australia I believe, so, thinking of all the cliches, thoughts of beachcombing, sunbathing and surfing come to mind!
I am an Aussie, yes! Based in Sydney, to be precise. And I live 10 minutes away from the beach, something I try to never take for granted, so I’m frequently down there, throwing myself into the waves, or pulling on the wetsuit and going for a snorkel. Which means I can go swimming even in the dead of winter.
Otherwise, gardening helps. A lot. Anything that gets me out of the house. I have the very expensive habit of going to Japan (usually Tokyo) and getting myself get lost there for a few weeks when I need a pause. A habit that I won’t be stopping anytime soon, however.
And lastly, what is next for you?
I have two main projects in the works. I don’t want to say too much about them, but I do hope to have one trad published, the other independently published on the side. The former is a big, sprawling, genre-busting project that is Very Much what one would come to expect from me . . . but also much more epic and evocative and fantastical. The other is something that is a marked departure from my usual voice and style, and is firmly within the realm of fantasy. It’s been enormously fun to have this project on the side like this, and to see where things go with it.
I’ll have more news on them when I am ready, and not before!
We look forward to seeing what you do! Many thanks for your time, Jeremy.
Jeremy’s books are out in all good bookstores and available from all the usual places online.
He has a website; find him at https://jeremyszal.com/ or @JeremySzal
