Binary is the latest from Eric Brown and we have had the pleasure to talk to him about the book and what’s next. Mark Chitty did also write a review of Binary last month that you can read here.
Hi Eric, thanks for giving us some time here at SFFWorld. First of all, can you in your own words tell us a bit about Binary?
It’s a gung-ho action-adventure in the spirit of the old Ace Double novels of the fifties and sixties, updated though for modern sensibilities, with an exotic planet, strange aliens, starships, wormholes and a feisty lead character.
How did you get the idea in the first place? Did much change from the original idea during the writing?
I love crash-landed starship stories. I’ve done quite a few of them – and I wanted to do a crashed starship tale on a planet with an elliptical orbit around a binary star. I wanted to write about a central character facing seemingly insuperable odds against survival, to begin with, who through luck, bravery and perseverance wins through. Once I started the tale, it pretty much followed my original vision, though in terms of drama and characterisation, the old subconscious kicked in and improved things.
Tell us a bit about your main character? When did you know that you wanted to have a woman as your protagonist?
Delia Kemp is a thirty-year old doctor with half a dozen extra-solar missions under her belt. She’s resourceful, determined, and no-one’s fool. That said, faced with the odds against survival on an inimical alien world, with evil aliens in hot pursuit, she does feel a tad vulnerable from time to time. I can’t recall when I made the decision to have a woman lead – it seems as if she was always there, from the very outset. She’s assisted in her adventures by her Imp – a neurological implant – and by a couple of friendly aliens.
It’s a fascinating world you’ve created and I especially enjoyed that we also got to know a lot about the background of the Vo, Fahran and the Skelt. What was important for you when you created your alien races?
The danger in creating aliens is that you anthropomorphise them too much. It’s inevitable that you do this, to allow the reader to enjoy the story, but also I didn’t want to make the aliens (especially the ape-like Fahran) too alien. I had to tread a fine balance. It was important that the three alien races on Valinda should be very distinct, which is why I made one race ape-like, the other arachnid, and the third like locusts.
What can you reveal about System, the second part of this duology?
It follows directly on from Binary and follows Delia, the Fahran Mahn, and the spider-like Var – and another human survivor from her starship, the South African, Oma – across the face of Valinda as the planet is coming to the end of its long ten-year long winter. The Skelt are still after Delia, wanting her superior scientific knowledge. Delia and her companions have plenty of spills and close shaves, are captured and escape – and head towards the Valley of Mahkanda, where a revelation awaits them.
Can you tell us a bit about the cover?
It’s an atmospheric beauty by Adam Tredowski, dark, alien and brooding, and admirably matches the tale.
As already mentioned it’s going to be a duology, but at the same time I feel the universe we have glimpsed so far leaves a lot of possibilities for more stories. Do you have any such plans?
I’d love to write more stories set in this future. The Skelt are a threat to humanity’s expansion across the galaxy, and Delia is set to go on many more missions – maybe accompanied by Mahn. I can see a few more novels set in this future, following Delia and other characters, and the conflict against the Skelt. I suppose it all depends on how well Binary System
System is going to be released as an e-book early next year, but the publisher is also going to release both in novel form under the title Binary System. What led to this rather unique way of releasing the books?
A suggestion from my editor at Solaris that I might like to write to 45k novellas that would fix-up into a novel, with each section coming out to begin with as an e-book. I went about it by using as my template the idea of the old Ace Doubles. I wanted both stories to be stand-alone, though the resulting novel to read as one complete story.
What is it about Space you find so fascinating?
Its endless possibilities, I suppose. I’m a sucker for space operas, wide-screen baroque action-adventure with starships and aliens and exotic planets. Done well, with decent characterisation and good pace, there’s nothing quite like it. I like reading it and writing it. (I’ve recently discovered the zany Doris Piserchia, whose novels are a whacky delight).
What other new and exciting projects are you working on at the moment?
Lots. I’ve just finished the fourth Langham and Dupré crime novel set in England in the 1950s. I’m now thinking about the fifth, which I hope to do next year. Next up is the fourth and final Telemass novella for PS Publishing – it’s in rough first draft at the moment, so I’ll be knocking it into shape in the coming weeks. Then I have a novella set on Mars to write for Ian Whates at NewCon Press. Then a novel for Solaris, for delivery in the middle of next year. I also hope to write a series of xenological novellas with my good mate Keith Brooke… as well as short story collaborations with Keith, and several solo shorts. It’s all go.
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Interview by Dag Rambraut – SFFWorld.com © 2016
Eric is a lean writing machine! Can’t wait for all these new stories.
My apologies to the cover artist, Adam Tredowski, in the above piece. I left his surname as ???, meaning to check the spelling, and forgot to do so. Sorry, Adam.
Now also updated in the text, sorry I didn’t catch it when it went live.