The Sword and Laser discussion

Oh hey, did you notice? we're shooting our season 2 videos soon. That means three days and 12 interviews.

We're posting the authors here so we can collect your questions!

Ladies and gentlemen Alastair Reynolds

We're going to ask him some questions and YOU'RE going to ask him some questions. So what do you want to ask? Post it here.

What sf is he reading?

Does he think sf has run out of ideas about likely futures, like Jo Walton blogged about (she doesn't think so)? http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/12/have...

(I guess he's proving that wrong himself.)

1) How come your books come out months later in the US than Britain? Doesn't your American publisher realize how cheap it is to import the British editions through Amazon?

2) Do you have plans for your next book after the Poseidon's Children trilogy? Any chance of a return to Revelation Space?

It seems like my favorite current science fiction authors, such as yourself, Ian McDonald, and Peter F. Hamilton, are from the UK and Ireland. What do you think the reason is for the proliferation of authors from these countries in the SF market? Are British publishers just more receptive to hard SF than American publishers?

I've read all your books except for a couple but am often conflicted about where to recommend my friends start with my favourite author's varied and fairly extensive back catalogue. On the one hand, the Revelation Space universe was what got me hooked, but then a standalone like House of Suns is incredible. What do you think is the best example of an Al Reynolds book? Is this where you would suggest new readers dive in?

As an aside, I met Al at a signing back in 2010 (wow, it's been that long?) and he couldn't have been more gracious. He's blogged a couple of times about being vaguely bewildered by the whole SFF awards circus but IMO, his ongoing lack of recognition in that sphere (aside from a couple of Arthur C. Clarke nominations and a Hugo nomination for a novella) is a real oversight and shame.

Your books are incredibly visually descriptive: do you think anywill ever be made into films, has anyone asked to do such yet?

Writerly question: Since your novels have so much detail in them in regards to world-building, I'd love to hear a little bit about how you go about conjuring up the worlds - do you create a giant world bible that you reference throughout writing? Or do you just have bullet points and make the rest up as you go? Somewhere in-between? Thanks - love your work!

Once the Mass Effect games had wrapped up, did you feel that there was a kinship between the story they told and "Revelation Space"?

Also, who do I have to sacrifice for a sequel to Pushing Ice? :-D

Big fan of Alastair's work. Books less than 500 pages now seem short after reading his books and that's a good thing.

My question is if there's a technology, location or idea from his books that he wishes would be real? Also what technology exists in his novels that he predicts humans will achieve soon-ish?

Thanks

When Alastair came to San Antonio for WorldCon, he was nice enough to stop by the Parman Library for a reading of Harvest of Time and Q&A. He was the nicest guy ever. Even at WorldCon, after his panel, he stayed over half an hour to sign books for everyone.

Hi Alastair, how much of an influence do recent scientific discoveries have on your work? And how much influence do you think science fiction has on the direction of science?

What's up with your tweet the other day?

3:55 PM on mon., jan. 13, 2014 :
It's not you, SF, it's me.
(https://twitter.com/AquilaRift/status...)

And then this:

3:58 PM on mon., jan. 13, 2014 :
@nealasher I've been having a moment for about ten years.
(https://twitter.com/AquilaRift/status...)

That's scary stuff I must say. I really was hoping for a sequel to Pushing Ice.

How far along are you with your 10 book deal? Will you get the 10 out in the ten years as per contract?
Will they all be novels, or will you throw in a collection also?

Hi Alastair,

I am eagerly awaiting a return to the revelation space universe, a continuing journey from the third novel?, or perhaps a Clavain prequel?, or a Scorpio stand alone?, there is so much more to explore there, are you going to expand at all in that universe, if your not do you mind if (lol) i have an attempt at it?

First off, you're one my all time favorite authors. One of my favorite aspects of your books is the strong, interestingly flawed, and realistically developed female characters. And it always feels genuine, not just, "fine you want female characters, whatever, here's a Xena knockoff in a bikini" or "heres an all powerful woman with no flaws and every male in a hundred mile radius is in love with her". But Svetlana and Volyova (just to name a few) felt like real people to me, and that seems so rare it science fiction literature these days (the only other author I know of who also does so successfully is George RR Martin). Do you intentionally set out to include strong female characters in your books, or does it just kinda happen?