Welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview, in which I chat to science fiction author Tim Pratt about his first novel for Aconyte Books – The Fractured Void. Set in the Twilight Imperium universe, this promises to be a fun, action-packed sci-fi adventure, from an author who’s got form with the space opera genre. It’s due out in ebook and as a US paperback on the 3rd November, with the UK paperback due a little bit later on the 10th December. If you’re a fan of the Twilight Imperium game, or just fancy a good old space opera, this sounds like one to keep an eye on!
Without further ado, let’s get straight on with the interview – over to Tim!
Track of Words: How would you describe your new novel The Fractured Void?
Tim Pratt: A staggering work of incomparable genius? I suppose it’s more appropriate to let other people say things like that. It’s a fast, thrilling, funny, moving space adventure about flawed characters trying to change the galaxy, struggling against other people who are also trying to change the galaxy, just in somewhat incompatible ways.
ToW: Without spoiling anything, who are the main characters and what do we need to know about them?
TP: Felix Duval is a captain from the Mentak Coalition (a culture founded by prisoners who seized control of their penal colony, and thus more multicultural than many of the factions in Twilight Imperium; his crewmates are non-human aliens). He’s in charge of protecting and assisting a scientist named Thales who’s on the cusp of developing wormhole technology. Thales is an extremely unpleasant person, but he’s brilliant, so he’s sought after by everyone who knows about his work.
Felix has to keep Thales from being captured by agents from other factions, notably a vicious but charming operative from the Federation of Sol named Azad and a repressed bureaucrat-turned-reluctant-field-agent named Severyne from the Barony of Letnev. The latter two team up against Felix, which, really, isn’t fair.
ToW: For anyone who isn’t already familiar with it, can you tell us a little about the Twilight Imperium world in which this story is set?
TP: The Twilight Imperium universe is a galaxy-spanning world of competing factions, human and humanoid alien and REALLY alien. The world has a deep history that covers millennia, but the basic gist is: there used to be a huge galaxy-spanning empire; a long time ago that empire fell; now the various factions that made up that empire, plus assorted other species and groups, are fighting to become the *next* imperial power and dominate the galaxy. This book is about a technology that could alter the balance of power significantly.
ToW: What is it about the world of Twilight Imperium that makes it stand out, in your opinion, from other science fiction settings?
TP: I love the depth of the history and the huge variety of alien factions. There are so many cool species, from malevolent machine intelligences to spooky energy beings to telepathic snake-people to mercantile lion-folk. They all have their own cultures and goals, and those are frequently in conflict, so you really just have to consider the interactions of any two or three groups and it’s easy to come up with stories.
ToW: Where did this specific story come from? Of all the Twilight Imperium stories you might have written, what made you choose these characters and write this story in particular?
TP: I wanted to start with the Mentak Coalition, because that’s a chance to showcase members of numerous species working together. Once I had a human captain, using the Barony of Letnev as an antagonist was obvious, since humans and the Letnev are historically at odds. Since Felix is a human, but not loyal to the MAIN human faction, the Federation of Sol, I thought it would be fun to put him in opposition to one of his ‘cousins’, too.
As for the focus on wormhole tech… I wanted to play with something that could alter the nature of the galaxy in a fundamental way, and I just think wormholes are neat. My Axiom space opera trilogy is riddled with the things too. Space is big, and technology that makes it smaller (at least in terms of travel time) is powerful and fascinating stuff.
ToW: You have a background in writing space opera – what is it about this sort of science fiction story that keeps drawing you back to it as a writer?
TP: I grew up loving stories like this, everything from Star Wars and Edmond Hamilton and Leigh Brackett when I was a kid through modern space opera by Alastair Reynolds and Iain M. Banks and even the occasional foray into those areas by people like M. John Harrison and Joanna Russ and Peter Watts. In general, my interest in writing is to explore human character and emotions in extreme situations, and space opera is full of extreme situations. Also, space science is cool, and while I’m definitely not a hard science person, I have a deep love for black holes and wormholes, goldilocks zones and strange matter, string theory and stellar formation. Telling stories against a backdrop that vast creates so many opportunities for great fiction.
ToW: Where did you look for influences outside of the game itself, when writing this? Did anything inspire you in particular?
TP: Oh, space opera as a whole, certainly. Weird physics. For the Mentak Coalition I did some research on pirates and on prison revolts to think about the roots of their culture. There’s lots of black ops spycraft stuff too that’s always fun to research. My Axiom series has squid-like aliens so I’d already done a lot of the aquatic-culture research and “how cephalopods communicate” stuff that shows up in the scenes with the Hylar.
ToW: What do you hope readers will get out of this by the time they’ve finished it?
TP: Ideally, they’ll have a really good time. Twilight Imperium is a big high-level strategy game, and the chance to tell small-scale stories set in that world is an exciting opportunity.
ToW: Do you have more stories planned for these characters in future?
TP: The Twilight Imperium universe is huge, so the later books will explore other parts of it, and focus on other people… but it’s safe to say you’ll see some of these characters again. I love having major characters in one book pop up in cameos or supporting roles in other ones.
ToW: Can you tell us anything about what you’re working on with Aconyte for future release, or anything else you’ve got in the pipeline?
TP: I’m currently working on the second Twilight Imperium book, tentatively titled The Necropolis Empire. It’s about a young woman with a secret (one even she doesn’t know), who gets caught up in the machinations of dangerous people who want to use her for their own purposes. It’s going really well.
For other work, my multiverse adventure novel Doors of Sleep will be out from Angry Robot Books in January 2021. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever done.
***
Thanks so much to Tim for taking the time to answer these questions! I don’t know about you, but I think this sounds like a great read – I’m looking forward to checking it out, and I’ll be sure to post a review as soon as I can [EDIT: I published my review of The Fractured Void in July 2021 – suffice to say this was a lot of fun!]. In the meantime, make sure you follow Tim on Twitter to keep up to date with news on his upcoming writing projects.
Click here if you fancy taking a look at some other Author Interviews. If you have any questions, comments or other thoughts please do let me know in the comments below, or find me on Twitter.
If you enjoyed this interview, and can manage it, please consider leaving a tip on my Ko-fi page.
