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May
17
Steph Swainston on new novel ‘The Modern World’
Posted in: UKSFBN Talks To, What's On on 17th May 2007 by UKSFBN admin
Steph Swainston dropped us a line the other day to let us know about a signing session she'll be involved in a couple of weeks from now:
- Thursday June 7th, from 5.30 to 7.30 p.m. - 'SF in the City' at Waterstones Piccadilly, London. Confirmed author attendees are: Steph Swainston, Eric Brown, John Lambshead, Chris Dolley, Andrew Dennis, Steven Savile.
We also took this opportunity to drop Steph Swainston a few questions about her new novel, The Modern World, the latest in her ongoing Castle series:
UKSFBN: Could we start with a quick intro to the new book?
Steph S: "It's the third book and continues the sequence from No Present Like Time, but it is still a complete novel in its own right and is intended to be read on its own – so new readers shouldn't be afraid of starting here. Existing readers get to see more of the Fourlands and more of the Circle than ever before.
"Frost, the immortal Circle's architect, has an idea that would destroy the Insects, break the stalemate and clear the Insects from the Fourlands forever. Lightning has a daughter, Cyan, who is now sweet seventeen and has ideas of her own. She goes AWOL in Hacilith city and Jant volunteers – a bit too keenly – to find her.
"By the end of the book the Circle is shaken in a way it never has been before. Many of the characters are left questioning their world view and even the Emperor is forced to get his hands dirty."
UKSFBN: Judging by the sample chapter of Modern World that's available on your website, the War with the Insects is back on, and in a big way. Having explored the politics of the Castle in more detail in No Present Like Time why have you decided to return Jant Shira to a war footing for the third volume?
Steph S: "The war against the Insects has ebbed and flowed constantly but rarely involves all the Eszai at once. However there are always troops and immortals at the front, battling to contain the Insects. For the immortals, fighting the Insects is their raison d'etre; for the author it provides an opportunity to examine characters and their reactions in an extremely stressful situation.
"While the Castle exists to fight and indeed must fight against the implacable Insects, violence often brings unintended consequences, in the Fourlands as in our world. No Present Like Time showed what happens when a highly militarised society met a completely pacifist one – despite the best intentions of the immortals, conflict quickly arose. The Modern World, on the other hand, shows all-out war. The Fourlands is fully mobilised and the Insects show that they can still surprise, even after two thousand years. But again the scale of the conflict is unanticipated... you'll have to read the book to find out why.
"Finally, lots of people like the battles. I've read a lot about war, both ancient and modern, not least during my time working for the MOD, and while the Fourlands has roughly medieval military technology, their logistics is closer to the nineteenth century and their understanding of military psychology, including aspects such as post-traumatic stress, is closer to the twenty-first. I try to make the battles reflect the nasty realities of war as much as possible, with the caveats that I've never been in combat and the literature on fighting giant insects is understandably thin. But The Modern World isn't about some muscle-bound 'heroes' leading cavalry charges into pike formations like the Lord of the Rings films. That kind of thing may look fun on screen but it's just daft.
UKSFBN: Jant isn't the easiest character to get along with - he's a far from perfect hero and considering he's a junkie to boot this might make him a tad difficult for readers to identify with..? Or do you think that the complexities of his character have worked to endear him to more readers than they've alienated?
Steph S: "I don't think in terms of 'heroes' and 'anti-heroes'. Nearly everyone is capable of some kind of self-sacrificing or 'heroic' behaviour, given the right circumstances and the same goes for selfish or 'anti-heroic' behaviour. By following one extreme or the other most fantasy characters are cardboard cut-outs, not people.
"Most 'heroes' have something that we'd rather not know – in fact our modern media is obsessed with finding such failings out. Someone who always acted in the way traditionally considered 'heroic' would be a tedious bore.
"The closest to a traditional hero in the Castle books is Lightning: he is noble, generous and seeks to serve the Fourlands even at the expense of his own happiness. But he doesn't always live up to his own upright, chivalric ideals, hence his illegitimate daughter. These failings thankfully stop Jant regarding him as a terminal bore.
"Jant is clearly aware of his vices but he doesn't apologise for them. Why should he? He still continues to do his job and, whilst he doesn't draw attention to it – being as much in love with his bad-boy image as many readers are – he tends to do what is necessary in the end. Because the books are from Jant's point of view, he over-estimates his own importance (everyone is the hero of the story of his own life) and he isn't always honest with the reader. Many of the other characters regard Lightning as being the main player in events and Jant as his wayward side-kick.
"As a footnote, following the Emperor's threat in No Present Like Time, Jant is actually off drugs in The Modern World. He has rather mixed feelings about this, which is what being addicted to something means."
UKSFBN: What do you, personally, find to be the most interesting aspect of writing fantasy? Why did you choose to write in a fantastic milieu as opposed to any of the other genres or oeuvres on offer?
Steph S: "I didn't sit down and set out to write 'a fantasy'. I've written some books about the Fourlands and how booksellers and readers want to classify them is up to them. The Fourlands is something that goes way back for me (twenty five years this month, in fact), and I wanted to share it with people. It's not a world deliberately constructed to write books about. Much of my life is in there, for example the cut-throat competition of the Circle was influenced a lot by experiences at university and Frost's dam in The Modern World is a consequence of my own bizarre interest in the Hoover Dam. If more writers didn't write 'fantasy' so self-consciously and follow imagined 'rules' of the genre then the whole thing might not be so hidebound and repetitive. It should be the most creative writing around but is frequently the most conservative.
"Once I've written what I currently want to on the Fourlands, I may try something else entirely. But it's got a while to run yet and I'm sure I will continue to return to it."
UKSFBN: How tricky is it to strike the balance that ensures the reader is able to suspend disbelief without losing the sense of the story's internal reality?
Steph S: "There are two different realities in the books. The Fourlands themselves are internally consistent and – the presence of San, the Awians, Rhydanne and Insects aside – obey the same rules as own world, as far as I can make them. I do a lot of research, for example, into archery, sailing, even hydraulic engineering (you'll have to read The Modern World to understand that one!). In contrast, the Shift follows only the rule: what sounds good goes. It follows as much logic as Wonderland but this was no bar to Carroll and I don't see that anyone finds it any more difficult for the Shift.
"What I find jarring in fantasy is 'magic'. It's usually a way of systemising lazy plot devices. There is no magic in the Fourlands and they don't have the concept – there is only scientific reality, more or less understood. It is a rational world, much more than our own; that's the fantasy."
UKSFBN: Do you think that the more exotic and imaginative the scenario is, the better the reading experience will be?
Steph S: "Only if you're in the hands of a stunningly first-class writer. The more exotic and imaginative, the more technical skill a writer must have in order to make it readable and not some drivel that degenerates to a succession of words on paper instead of a clear picture in the reader's mind.
"As a writer you can also decide to fetter your imagination. By this, I mean you can create limits and choose to be true to the world you've created. In the Castle books so far I have kept rigorously to Jant's terms of reference and phraseology. I might not always do this because it is restrictive; for example, in three books I have never used the word 'evil' because Fourlanders don't have the religious concept. Likewise there is no reference to afterlife.
"A writer has to be consistent. He can't throw all kinds of different stuff together to make an exotic scenario because the reader will feel somehow cheated and unfulfilled. The fantasy genre can be a good training ground for the new writer to practise this self-control. However, having deliberately restricted myself I want to stretch my wings and take my published writing further than Jant's point of view."
UKSFBN: The Emperor is an extremely intriguing - in all senses of the word - character... will we find out more about how he came to power and how he continues to effect his rule in the next two books in the series, or do you plan on keeping him to the shadows
Steph S: "The Emperor plays a larger role in The Modern World than the other two books and, wrong-footed for once by events, he gives away more than he'd like to. The perceptive reader might also be able to draw out more about him from the book than simply what he says.
"Yes, I do know his past and there will be further revelations, but not in the next book. Carniss Keep however will show clearly how the Emperor and Castle relate to the governments of the Fourlands outside a war situation."
UKSFBN: What can you tell us about the next two novels in the series at this stage?
Steph S: "The next book, Carniss Keep, is one I've been planning for years. It is set 125 years before The Year of Our War and shows a younger Jant before he started on drugs and before his rougher corners got knocked off. It tells the story of Shira Dellin, whom the keen reader will notice was mentioned in the previous books, and of a clash between Awia and the Rhydanne. As I mentioned above, it will not be told solely from Jant's viewpoint so the reader finally gets to see him from the outside."
UKSFBN: Presumably you'll be working on those next two books at the moment, but do you have irons in any other fires? Any plans for any short fiction or novella-length work set in the Fourlands?
Steph S: "Yes, I have a novella planned but it will have to wait until I can fit it in. Carniss Keep is the most important thing in my life at the moment. Short stories are a different form than novels and I have to say I'm definitely more of a novelist than a short story writer.
"Now I must leave you. Cracks and curses are echoing in from the garden. A strange Australian arboriculturist is trying to cut down my 40 foot eucalyptus tree. I'm going to pester him for a go with his chain saw."
The Modern World is officially published today, May 17th, by Gollancz Books and will be available from all good book shops, and from online retailers, including Amazon.co.uk. The US edition, bearing the title Dangerous Offspring will be published in July.
For more information on Steph Swainston and her Castle series, including extracts from all three books to-date, check out her website at www.stephswainston.co.uk.
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Tagged With: Andrew-Dennis | book news | book signing | Chris-Dolley | Eric-Brown | fantasy | Gollancz Books | interview | John-Lambshead | London | Steph-Swainston | Steven-Savile | Waterstones
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