Ian Whates lives in a quiet
Cambridgeshire village with his partner, Helen, and Honey, a manic cocker
spaniel. Ian is the author of six novels to date, most recently Pelquin’s Comet, released in April 2015.
Also, the City of 100 Rows
trilogy (Angry Robot), and the Noise duology (Solaris). Sixty-odd of his
short stories have appeared in various venues, two of which were shortlisted
for BSFA Awards, and his second collection Growing
Pains (PS Publishing) appeared in 2013. Ian has edited some two dozen anthologies
and in 2014 one of these, Solaris Rising
2, was shortlisted for the Philip K. Dick Award. He has served a
term as Overseas Director of SFWA and spent five years as chairman the BSFA,
stepping down in 2013. In his spare time Ian runs multiple award-winning
independent publisher NewCon Press, which he founded by accident in 2006.
Ian dropped by to talk about his latest book - Pelquin's Comet. His interview & a review of the book below:
This is the first
in a trilogy I believe – can you give us an overview of what they’re about?
I’ll try to
do so without giving too much away… The
books are set in an age of expansion, with humanity spreading out into the
stars aided by caches of ancient alien technology which they don’t fully
understand. Humanity has encountered its
first extant alien culture, the Xters, and the two races eye each other warily
across ragged and fairly arbitrary borders, not really competing for habitat
due to physiological differences, but not trusting each other either. This first book centres on the crew of a
small independent trading ship, Pelquin’s Comet, who have a lead on a cache of
Elder tech that they hope will make them rich.
In order to fund an expedition to recover it, they take a loan from a
bank. The bank insists that their agent,
Drake, accompanies them to safeguard the bank’s interests.
They are not
the only parties after the cache and soon find themselves in a deadly race to
reach it first.
Drake
provides the over-riding story arc. He
has a hidden past, one that comes back to haunt him as the series progresses,
starting in this first book, as he encounters familiar faces and places he
never expected to see again. He also has
a companion, a small cuddly bundle of fur called Mudball whom everyone assumes
to be a pet but is actually an alien entity with an agenda all its own. As the series progresses, the secrets
multiply, Drake’s past comes ever more to the fore, the true nature of the
Elder caches is revealed, and the future of humanity itself hangs in the
balance as a result.
I’d say this was
carefully plotted, how much planning did you do?
Thank you,
I’m glad it comes across that way. In
all honesty, not as much as you might think.
I tend to write in an organic fashion, generally setting out with a
loose plot in mind and seeing where my characters take me – which often proves
to be in directions even I hadn’t anticipated.
This book is no exception. I had
the four central characters – Drake, Pelquin, Mudball, and Leesa – fairly well
established in my head and knew where I wanted to take them by the end of the
book. Beyond that, many of the plots and
twists that actually brought them there developed while the writing was well
underway. One of the earliest chapters
to be written was the one exploring Leesa’s childhood on the strange colony
world, her sense of not belonging and her first encounter with an Xter. This proved useful as it gave me a solid
grounding for writing Leesa as a damaged adult.
If you could be a
character in the book who would it be and why?
Drake. He’s the one with a hidden past, the one in a
position of authority, and he’s the one for whom life is about to get even more
interesting and dangerous as the series evolves. Because of his hidden past, he’s very in
control, guarded, careful not to reveal too much about himself… and then Leesa
turns up. I enjoyed exploring his
reaction to her and the threat she represents.
I also envy his analytical mind, which comes to the fore when the ship
is impounded by port authorities, bringing a touch of the Sherlock Holmes to
his character. Wouldn’t it be lovely to
make connections and piece situations together with such clarity?
What did you learn
about writing by writing this book?
The
importance of patience and revisiting your work after a ‘fallow’ period. In all honesty this is nothing new – all
writers know the wisdom of setting your work aside for a while and coming back
to it with fresh eyes, but it isn’t something I’ve always put into
practice. I did here, and Pelquins Comet is the most revised text I’ve
yet written.
When will the other
two books come out?
Good
question. I’ve started volume 2 but have
had to set it aside for now while I concentrate on something else. The plan is to return to it shortly and I’d
hope to have the book out by next year, with volume 3 in 2017, but we’ll see.
You’ve mentioned
that there is a nod to Firefly here, which in itself was a nod to Blakes 7.
What is it about the ensemble cast in a small vessel playing fast and loose
with the law that inspired you?
A group of
rogues operating at the very edge of legality and a little beyond but
possessing their own moral code that we can all recognise… The situation offers such opportunity for
drama. The simple introduction of a
stranger is enough to disrupt the established dynamic. Throw in a quest, a threat or two, a mystery
or three, and a twist or four, and away we go.
What’s not to love?
Why did you choose
to have a banker as one of your main characters?
I did so for
a number of reasons; in part because it seemed such a perverse notion but also
entirely logical. If a financial
institution is about to entrust a large sum of money to strangers, they would
want safeguards, a representative on the mission. It also gave me the perfect opportunity to
play around with a situation that’s always intrigued me, that of a close-knit
group having an outsider forced upon them.
All sorts of dynamics come into play as a result – the resentment of
Nate towards the banker, the uneasy clash of authority between Drake and
Pelquin among them. Besides, I can’t
think offhand of an SF adventure series that’s featured a banker as central
character before…
How much input did
you have into the cover art?
In some
senses quite a bit, in others not a lot.
To explain, I trust Jim Burns and have worked with him before. At outset I sent Jim a couple of snippets
from the text that described the ship, Pelquin’s
Comet, and left the rest to
him. Not sure what I would have done had
I hated what he came up with, but fortunately I absolutely loved it. Jim really delivered. To be honest, it never occurred to me that he
wouldn’t.
It felt like you’d
had a great deal of fun writing this, what did you enjoy the most about writing
this book?
I did have a
lot of fun, you’re right. I loved
creating the different societies – from the hi-tech fast-paced banking capital
of New Sparta, to the knock-off gang-infested world of Babylon, from the
superficially civilised Brannan’s World to the Xter-dominated frontier world of
Leesa’s childhood, Liaise. I loved the
interplay between the characters and the wealth of secrets hidden by so many of
them. I loved writing the wise-cracking
Mudball and hinting at his real intentions, and I loved thinking up the
different wonders found in the cache chamber and writing the action sequence
that occurs towards the book’s finale…
Most of all, I think I enjoyed taking established SF tropes such as
alien caches bootstrapping humanity to the stars and turning them on their
heads. Yes, I really have had fun
writing this one, and look forward to continuing the story.
In one sentence
what’s your second best piece of advice for writers? (since I have your first
best in the last interview)
Hey, that’s unfair, I cheated last time and actually gave
you two because I couldn’t choose between them (don’t take rejection personally
and join a writers’ group). Okay,
something new… Write short stories. Even if your real ambition and focus is the
novel, you’ll gain so much from mastering the shorter form – in a short story
you have to establish character and setting in a few deft sentences as opposed
to doing so over the course of chapters – that sort of discipline, that ability
to make very word count, will stand you in good stead whatever you then go on
to write.
Many thanks to Ian for taking the time to providing answers
The BRSBKBLOG review:
Take an ensemble cast in a Fireflyesque small trading ship, add a dash of secret backgrounds, a banker, an alien and a treasure cache. Stir gently with memorable characters and locations. Add a dash of wisecracking language and what you end up with is a highly entertaining space opera. Mr Whates obviously had a great deal of fun whilst writing this and it's bound to rub off on you when you read it. It left me wanting more, which is the point of a first in a series isn't it?
I wanted more of the mysterious aliens that left behind a treasure cache and note that there is the promise of revelations in the future with keen anticipation. The universe building is deftly done and this is a tightly plotted book. My only, very minor, grumble was with the treasure cache itself. I would have liked to have seen more made of it, both in the heist part itself and in the possibilities of the treasures.
Really looking forward to the next one!
Overall - Highly entertaining space opera.
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