You’ve heard me rant about bad storytelling before (like here, for instance). And I will admit I have been a bit worried about the tendencies of both video and print medias lately. More and more consideration has been given to questions of politics and ideology, not talent (or even basic competence).
And there have been some horror stories, for sure. Take the infamous Amelie Zhao catastrophe, for example. Another example: all you need to do is read the Nebula Showcase for 2019 to see that among some sectors of the publishing business, it’s not so important that you write well (as long as you have… other advantages, shall we say?)
But it may well be that the catastrophe is overblown. Yes, some of the bizarre casting choices in The Witcher were clearly politically motivated. But the story of The Witcher was pretty good. The Rise of Skywalker consciously tried to disavow anything to do with The Last Jedi, and chose (unsuccessfully, for the most part) to follow a more traditional storytelling structure. I expect the new Tolkien series to be nothing but classic storytelling.
And if you look a little more deeply at the kinds of books that are being published, you might be pleasantly surprised.
I certainly was! Thanks to a recommendation from a friend, I started a new series. How do I describe it? Space opera meets epic science fantasy meets military sci fi meets far future sci fi…
Or… it’s what Star Wars wishes it was. It’s the heir to the Dune series and Gene Wolfe’s New Sun series.
It’s Christopher Ruocchio’s Sun Eater series, which I reviewed a few weeks ago.
Last week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Christopher. He’s a lot younger than I expected, and is well-read, intelligent, and fun to talk to. If the future of imaginative literature is in the hands of people like him, I’m not so worried.
Here’s our full conversation below:
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