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Overview
–Analog SF
Reclaimed Earth Book 2
In the year 2737, Earth is mostly depopulated in the wake of a massive supervolcano, but civilization and culture are preserved in vast orbiting ringstations.
Tem, the nine-year-old son of a ringstation anthropologist and a Happdal bow-hunter, wants nothing more than to become a blacksmith like his uncle Trond. But after a rough patch as the only brown-skinned child in the village, his mother Car-En decides that the family should spend some time on the Stanford ringstation.
Tem gets caught up in the battle against Umana, the tentacle-enhanced Squid Woman , while protecting a secret that could change the course of humanity and civilization.
The Guardian, the sequel to the The Sky Woman, is a story of colliding worlds and the contested repopulation of a wild Earth.
FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launched in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781787583702 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Flame Tree Publishing |
| Publication date: | 09/26/2019 |
| Series: | Reclaimed Earth |
| Sold by: | SIMON & SCHUSTER |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 368 |
| File size: | 3 MB |
About the Author
His favorite authors include Iain Banks, Octavia Butler, William Gibson, Kim Stanley Robinson, Margaret Atwood, and David Mitchell.
His short stories have appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy&Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, The InterGalactic Medicine Show, Cosmic Roots And Eldritch Shores, and Compelling Science Fiction. His novelette The Icelandic Cure won the 2016 Omnidawn Fabulist Fiction contest. His debut science fiction novel The Sky Woman was published by FLAME TREE PRESS in 2018.
Recurring themes in his fiction include genetic engineering, the sociological effects of climate change, virtualized consciousness, and evolutionary divergence.
J.D. Moyer is the author of the Reclaimed Earth science fiction series and numerous works of short fiction. He lives in Oakland, California, with his wife, daughter, and mystery-breed dog. Don Sakers described his debut novel, The Sky Woman (Book 1 in the Reclaimed Earth series), as: ‘A well-told story reminiscent of Ursula K. LeGuin or Karen Lord.’
Interviews
What is the book about?
The Guardian is about Tem, the nine-year-old son of a ringstation anthropologist and a village hunter. The story take place in 2737, on a mostly depopulated Earth. What’s left of civilization has migrated to orbiting ringstations, which are in competition to repopulate Earth. The main villain, Umana (aka “The Squid Woman”), is a cybernetically enhanced environmental extremist who wants to preserve the Earth as an ecological park.
What are the underlying themes?
Colliding worlds, and living as a foreigner.
Did you base your characters on anyone you knew?
Not the characters, but several of the Norse names (Trond, Esper, and Per Anders) are very similar to the names of electronic music artists out of Oslo signed to my record label Loöq Records. As far as I know only one of them is aware of this fact, and fortunately he seemed pleased.
Who influenced you most in the writing of the book?
Iain Banks, one of my favorite authors, who died around the time I was coming up with ideas for “The Sky Woman.” IMO “The Culture” series is one of the great masterpieces of science fiction.
Is there any advice you can give someone starting to write?
Have a regular time and place to write, and write regardless of your mood (don’t wait for inspiration). Take short breaks from writing if you need them to recharge, but don’t take long breaks—write more days than you don’t write in any given month. Find a few trusted readers whose perspective and life experience differs from your own—people who will honestly criticize your work while also supporting your efforts to succeed as a writer.
Where did you write?
Mostly in my man-cave/music studio. But pretty much anywhere, since I write on my laptop.
Did you write in silence, or to any particular music?
Lately with music. I can’t write to every song, but sometimes the music perfectly matches the scene. Spotify is great for music discovery.
Did you find it hard to write? Or harder to edit your own work?
Once I get started it’s not hard, but I’ll occasionally get stuck on a sentence that I just can’t get right. I’ll edit my own work up to a point, but I need readers to help me spot inconsistencies, false notes, and other problems. My wife Kia is my first and best reader, but I also rely on a number of friends, and my mom (who is also a writer).
What was it like to be edited by someone else?
I really enjoyed working both with Don D’Auria and with the Flame Tree copy editors on The Sky Woman.
What are you writing now?
I’m working on a new novel entitled The Savior Virus about a bioengineer who must choose between two cult-like organizations trying to influence the course of human biological evolution via involuntary epigenetic manipulation.
Who’s your favorite character in The Guardian?
I enjoyed writing Tem, the main protagonist, because I vividly remember being that age, and I drew from my own “colliding worlds” experiences (I was a California kid living in Europe). I also loved writing Egil the Bard, for his stubbornness and curiosity.
Do you think the futuristic scenario presented in The Guardian is possible or realistic?
If we don’t effectively plan for, and find ways to mitigate mega-disasters (climate change, supervolcanoes, asteroid strikes, etc.), then human depopulation does seem likely. Even without any major disaster, human population will peak sometime this century. It’s naïve to think that we’ll “plateau” at that point. Biological populations that rise steeply never plateau—they always crash. Why would our species be an exception? Hopefully our evolutionary descendants (virtualized people, human-machine hybrids, etc.) will carry the torch of civilization forward, and knowledge and culture will be preserved. But progress isn’t inevitable.