As Spear of Light, the second book in the Glittering Edge series is being released we have had the chance to catch up with Brenda Cooper.
Welcome back to SFFWorld, Brenda. Many thanks for giving us some time here. In your own words, who is Brenda Cooper?
Yipes! Overclocked. Seriously – that’s such a hard question. I’ve got a great day job as a CIO for a city, which I actually like (many writers don’t like their other jobs), and my writing career seems to be doing better than ever, so I’m constantly balancing tensions in two worlds these days. I’m also seriously interested in my futurist work, which has mostly been about climate justice these days, and that’s become a bit of an obsession. We really can’t afford to destroy our living room.
You’re now about to release Spear of Light. Can you tell us a bit about it?
What if a park ranger had to save the world from an invasion of robots? Spear of Light continues to ask questions about the nature of humanity through exploring characters who are traditionally human, and characters who have left flesh bodies behind. How can such beings be friends? What keeps them different?
I keep a contrasting focus on the natural world, using Charlie, who is my favorite character from Edge of Dark. Charlie is a ranger who has spent his whole life in service to re-wilding the beautiful planet Lym, to protecting it animal by animal, plant by plant. And now his whole life is threatened by beings who are far more powerful than he is….and telling much more would produce spoilers for anyone who hasn’t read Edge of Dark.
What new challenges did you set for yourself with Spear of Light?
For every book, I try to pick one craft thing. Spear of Light has a big reveal at the end, and so that’s what I focused on this time – trying to pull that off. Readers will have to tell me if I succeeded. I hope so!
How do you feel your characters have evolved since Edge of Dark?
Well, back to the problem of causing spoilers….but I can mention a few things. Charlie has stepped up to the role that the planet and people he loves need him to take. He’s still not happy about it, but he gets it that he’s got to do this, and it’s hard, but it pays off. As for Yi and his family, they’re still learning what they can do….and a little bit more about the beings they might become someday.
Are strong female characters important for you?
Thanks for the lovely leading question! Of course they are. And even more important, strong female characters that are complete with brilliance and challenges. I’m not impressed when “strong female characters” translates to “women who act like men.” I also like balance – I have strong men and strong women, and sometimes weak men and weak women. Not so much in this book as Lym and the Glittering are placed that reward strength rather deeply. But still, characters should be complex, interesting, and they should grow. Women should be at least as strong as men, and just like in our current world, sometimes they need to be a little stronger.
Many science fiction novels are just pure entertainment, while others have the potential to inspire and even predict the future. What is your goal?
To make people think, and a little (with these two books, Edge of Dark and Spear of Light) to further the transhumanist conversation. I’m often at futurist conventions and science fiction conventions and there is this sentiment/conversation about the concept of the singularity that often goes like “In the future we will be able to upload our very souls into the machine, live forever, and achieve nirvana.” Somehow, I doubt it’s going to be that easy. So this set of books addresses that pressure between technology and nature. I hope these books add to the conversation about what we are becoming, and that they are thoughtful about it.
Artificial intelligence has been a hot topic in the media the last years. What do you think the consequences of humanity creating artificial intelligence will be?
I think it’s too early to know. First, the answer is either “We already have created it” or “I’m not a hundred percent sure we will.” That hinges on the definition – do we mean smart computers, or do we mean self-aware computers? Computers will get smarter and faster and even program themselves, and they will learn. So if that’s enough to call something artificially intelligent we’re pretty much there. Just go look at all of the things Watson is doing. Note that almost everyone knows who I mean in this context – Watson has a sort of a gestalt personality. So we might create AI with a personality long before we create one with a soul. If life – if true AI life – requires volition and an awareness of self, then I’m not sure we will create that. In these books, that leap hasn’t happened yet, and all of my super-beings started with and conserved a spark of humanity.
Other writers have explored emergent self-aware AI. The best recent fiction on the subject is Robert Sawyer’s WWW: Wake and its sequels.
Whether any new technology is good for us or not is a complex question. We did get better living through chemicals, and a lot of toxicity as well. A few more years needs to pass before we know whether AI is more good or more bad for us – my bet is good, but then I’m a positive futurist. Who wants to be all doom and gloom anyway?
You have now written four books exploring the same world and Spear of Light concludes the Glittering Edge duology, but do you have plans for even more books set in the same world?
I don’t know. The next three books I have coming out are set in closer-in (but different) future worlds. Post – which will be out via Kickstarter through eSpec Books, is a YA novel set in a recovering post-collapse world. My next two books with Pyr are also set closer into us in time, and the world in those books is full of fabulous cities and barren wildness. I’m still writing these two (The first is tentatively called The Wilders, so I can’t say much more). I do have a story set in this world coming out in Humanity 2.0, which is an anthology edited by Alex Schvartsman for Arc Manor Press. That looks like it’s going to be a great anthology so people might want to pick it up.
I do want to end by saying I think these two books – Edge of Dark and Spear of Light – are two of my best so far, and I love it that readers are saying good things about them. I appreciate every review, every mention, and every opportunity like this one to talk about them.
Once again, thank you very much for your time.
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Interview by Dag Rambraut – SFFWorld.com © 2016
