Joel Shepherd was one of the first authors published by Pyr when it jumped into the US SFF market a few years ago. Pyr largely started by publishing books that hadn’t previously been available in the US – Shepherd’s books had been previously published in Australia and Pyr introduced him to an American audience.
Shepherd first series was the Cassandra Kresnov Trilogy – a science fiction series featuring a feminine android coming to terms with who (and what) she is and kicking ass on the way. Now he is jumping into the fantasy arena with A Trial of Blood & Steel – a planned 4 book series that begins with Sasha (US, UK, Canada, Indiebound), a book that I very much enjoyed. The series continues with Petrodor (US, UK, Canada, Indiebound) which will be released by Pyr in March, 2010 (it’s already available in Australia).
Thanks again to Joel for taking the time to answer Questions Five!
When you create your setting in a secondary world (whether for science fiction or fantasy) does it get cold to the north or to the south? Why?
Well when I started out, it would always get cold in the south, because I’m Australian. And we get kind of parochial about that sort of thing. But then I thought that parochial-ness became a predictable cliché in its own right, with southern hemisphere authors, so in A Trial of Blood and Steel it gets cold in the north. Besides which, it feels like a European-inspired fantasy world, so swapping north and south around just messes with peoples heads unnecessarily.
If Sasha were a fortune cookie, what would its fortune be?
‘Look not for simple solutions, for the road to truth is long and troubled’.
How would you interpret this fortune if it were your own?
Well given that I wrote it, I’d probably say ‘yeah, that makes sense, and is very intelligent and wise also'.
Please describe one reason Sasha would inspire a reader to strip naked and run screaming into the forest?
If the reader in question was insane.
Why should Sasha be the next thing that everyone reads?
Because then I’d be really rich.
Shepherd first series was the Cassandra Kresnov Trilogy – a science fiction series featuring a feminine android coming to terms with who (and what) she is and kicking ass on the way. Now he is jumping into the fantasy arena with A Trial of Blood & Steel – a planned 4 book series that begins with Sasha (US, UK, Canada, Indiebound), a book that I very much enjoyed. The series continues with Petrodor (US, UK, Canada, Indiebound) which will be released by Pyr in March, 2010 (it’s already available in Australia).
Thanks again to Joel for taking the time to answer Questions Five!
When you create your setting in a secondary world (whether for science fiction or fantasy) does it get cold to the north or to the south? Why?
Well when I started out, it would always get cold in the south, because I’m Australian. And we get kind of parochial about that sort of thing. But then I thought that parochial-ness became a predictable cliché in its own right, with southern hemisphere authors, so in A Trial of Blood and Steel it gets cold in the north. Besides which, it feels like a European-inspired fantasy world, so swapping north and south around just messes with peoples heads unnecessarily.
If Sasha were a fortune cookie, what would its fortune be?‘Look not for simple solutions, for the road to truth is long and troubled’.
How would you interpret this fortune if it were your own?
Well given that I wrote it, I’d probably say ‘yeah, that makes sense, and is very intelligent and wise also'.
Please describe one reason Sasha would inspire a reader to strip naked and run screaming into the forest?
If the reader in question was insane.
Why should Sasha be the next thing that everyone reads?
Because then I’d be really rich.
4 comments:
Thanks, I'd read a review of this book recently and it was highly recommended.
Well... I suppose if it'll make Joel rich, I'd better get right on that, then. For such a noble cause and all.
I bought Sasha recently and now I ordered Crossocer a few days ago. So I added one grain of sand to Joel's fortune ;-)
Really enjoyed the Kressnov trilogy, am waiting for the whole of the new series to be published before buying it - gotta support the local authors!
And he's right about the parochialism of reading/writing habits. I'm used to it now but it was always amusing that the further North characters traveled the colder the climate got when down under we're used to the other way around.
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