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TOM MERRITT: Coming up on "Sword and Laser," I wonder if
"The Great North Road's" a good introductory book for
Peter F. Hamilton.
VERONICA BELMONT: Well, conveniently, we can ask him,
because he's on the show today.
Right here on "Sword and Laser," starting now.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
VERONICA BELMONT: Hey everyone.
Welcome to the "Sword and Laser." I'm Veronica Belmont.
TOM MERRITT: We're all here.
I'm Tom Merritt.
VERONICA BELMONT: And this is one of our fantastic author
guide episodes, where we invite an author up to the
space castle and ask them your questions and ours.
TOM MERRITT: That's very right.
In fact, he has heard our pleas, one of our most
requested guests.
This is our guide to Peter F. Hamilton.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
VERONICA BELMONT: A native of Rutland, England, Peter F.
Hamilton has said that as a child, he had no intention of
focusing on literature or writing as a career, and was
instead interested in the sciences.
However, he picked up writing as a hobby in 1987, and sold
his first short story to "Fear Magazine"
less than a year later.
TOM MERRITT: Hamilton's first novel, "Mindstar Rising," was
published in 1993, kicking off his Greg Mandel trilogy.
Set in a near-future Great Britain, the trilogy stars
psychic detective Greg Mandel and his investigation of
attacks on the company Event Horizon and its deceased
founder's stored personality.
VERONICA BELMONT: The Mandel trilogy was followed by the
first of Hamilton's epic space operas, the "Night's Dawn"
trilogy, which was published between 1996 and 1999.
The roughly 1.2-million-word series focuses on the
unexpected return of dead souls from the beyond and the
struggle to living against possession by
these returned spirits.
TOM MERRITT: He followed with "Fallen Dragon" in 2001 and
adventure novel that follows mercenary Lawrence mutants
attempts to attain what he believes is
really a fantastic treasure.
Naturally, the object of his desires turns out to be
something much greater than he believed it to be.
VERONICA BELMONT: Hamilton returned to writing about
near-future visions of Great Britain in "Misspent Youth,"
the story of 78-year-old inventor Jeff Baker, the first
man to undergo a rejuvenation procedure that leaves him with
the body of a 20-year-old and a crumbling home life.
The rejuvenation technology found in "Misspent Youth"
returns in the "Commonwealth" saga, a duology set 340 years
after the rejuvenation of Jeff Baker.
TOM MERRITT: A space opera in the vein of his "Night's Dawn"
trilogy, the saga follows two desperate men, one an
over-the-hill starship captain, the other an
on-the-run cult leader.
Both men are racing towards a point in distant space where a
massive star appears to simply disappear.
VERONICA BELMONT: Hamilton's next works, the "Void"
trilogy, jump 1,200 years into the future of the
"Commonwealth" saga universe, and find humanity at odds with
the Raiel, as one seeks to colonize a self-contained
universe known as the Void, while the other seeks to
protect it from intrusion.
Currently, Hamilton is developing a children's
series, tentatively titled "The Books of the Realms," as
well as a return to the "Commonwealth" universe with
"The Chronicle of the Fallers," set in the time
between the "Commonwealth" and "Void" series.
TOM MERRITT: As Lem finalizes the encryption on our video
connection with Peter Hamilton, please take a moment
and enjoy this look at today in alternate history.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
VERONICA BELMONT: We are very happy to have author Peter F.
Hamilton joining us today.
Thank you so much for being here.
PETER F. HAMILTON: Thank you.
TOM MERRITT: We kicked off the year here with your new novel,
"The Great North Road." For those who don't know about it,
tell us a little bit about that book.
PETER F. HAMILTON: "The Great North Road" is a standalone.
Which is a bit unusual for me.
And it's also a single volume.
It's a one-off.
I took about two years to write it.
And of course, people are asking me all the time, what's
it about, what's it about, what's it about.
And the best answer I came up with is that it's my monster
in the dark story.
It's about an expedition that goes to another world, which
St. Libra, where the only thing that's evolved there is
plant life.
And these guys are looking for some kind of monster that they
think is killing people.
And the government has poured billions into this expedition,
and it's not allowed to fail.
Politically, it can't fail.
And of course, they get out there, and I got into the wild
lands, and everything goes wrong.
VERONICA BELMONT: Now does this exist in a universe that
you've previously worked on, or is it a complete
standalone?
PETER F. HAMILTON: It's an absolute standalone.
It's a new universe.
And I probably won't be going back there, either.
TOM MERRITT: So it's safe for people who want to take just a
dip into Peter F. Hamilton.
They could try that one and not feel like they're sucked
into a series?
PETER F. HAMILTON: Absolutely.
You're quite safe.
Although, I would point out, it's a long, one.
VERONICA BELMONT: Excellent.
Well, our first question from the audience
is from reader Moravian.
"In the 'Commonwealth' universe, the technology
exists which allows people to basically live forever through
rejuvenation and by storing the
consciousness of the person.
But they still experiencing death
and murders and accidents.
Why aren't more people still afraid of death?"
PETER F. HAMILTON: Rejuvenation--
re-life, they call it--
if you suffer body loss-- they don't call it death any more.
They call "body loss." And basically, you back yourself
up every day.
You back of your memories, your sights.
So the only time of your life that you use is between the
backup and the body loss.
So people who grow up in our generation now and live
through into this, we still tend to be quite frightened of
death, because we've grown up with it as a concept.
But of course, if you grow up in a world where this body
loss is a matter of course, it's just a little
inconvenient.
So they don't place the same kind of weight
on it that we do.
TOM MERRITT: And I guess it's not--
you don't remember the body loss, because it's before--
it's after the backup.
So--
PETER F. HAMILTON: Oh no.
You just wake up thinking you've woken up the day you
died, basically.
You don't know that that day is missing.
You have to get told.
It all depends on your insurance, as well.
If you've got good insurance, the better backup.
VERONICA BELMONT: It's like if you have anesthesia before you
get your wisdom teeth out.
And they say, you're not going to totally knocked out, but
you're just not going to remember having the
procedure at all.
And you're like, that can't possibly be true.
Of course I'm going to remember it.
TOM MERRITT: And the next thing you know,
you're waking up.
VERONICA BELMONT: And then you wake up, and you're like, oh.
Yeah, I don't remember any of that.
That was awesome.
TOM MERRITT: Sandy wants to know, why is the culture of
the Commonwealth so much like today?
The biggest standout to me--
Sandy asking this question--
was that people still drive cars and they take trains to
get from one planet to the next.
PETER F. HAMILTON: Trains are a good one.
Trains were the substitute for starships.
On this particular universe, you go between planets through
a wormhole.
There is no distance between planets.
Now these wormholes cost a lot of money to build.
So the way to get a return is you've got to shove stuff
through constantly.
And the best way to do that is in a train.
Just fire one train after another through.
So that's why-- it also, because it appeals to the boy
in me, I like trains.
Who doesn't?
So it enabled me to think up a slightly quirky way of getting
between planets and make it justifiable from an economic
point of view.
As for cars, they're an easy way to get around.
They're very heavily automated in this universe.
There's the auto-drive function on most of them.
So it was just an easy, quick continuation--
they're a lot cleaner than they are today, and
probably a lot safer.
But again, it's just down to economics.
TOM MERRITT: Will you be sending a bill to Google for
the self-driving car?
PETER F. HAMILTON: Ah.
That and Google Glass as well.
TOM MERRITT: Yeah.
that's true.
VERONICA BELMONT: One of the things that fascinates me most
about science fiction is how much of our current technology
is informed by science fiction of the past.
Or even the recent past, like your novels, for example.
I always think it's really interesting how engineers and
scientists use that information and use that
knowledge that existed in a fictional place and make it
into an actual reality.
PETER F. HAMILTON: Yeah.
The latest one that came that was quite heavily featured in
the "Commonwealth" novels is organic circuitry tattoos.
And they're just starting to develop they're transfers
rather than tattoos, but it's getting there.
TOM MERRITT: Yeah.
Well, it's like it feeds off itself, the imagination and
the practicality, back and forth.
VERONICA BELMONT: Totally.
TOM MERRITT: It's great.
VERONICA BELMONT: A lot of people want to know about your
world building.
How much do you map out?
How much gets left on the cutting-room floor?
And how do you improvise along the way?
Basically, people want to know your working style.
How do you keep track of these massive
universes that you're creating?
PETER F. HAMILTON: Basically, the world's
biggest continuity notes.
It takes me--
I was going to say, it took me two years plus to write "Great
North Road." The first six months of that were just
purely drawing up notes on characters, settings, refining
the plots, if you like.
After I've got all that in place, I do the chapter notes.
So when I get to that blank screen of page one, chapter
one, I know exactly what's going to be said
and how to say it.
Having gone through all that, fresh ideas do crop up.
I'm fairly free to include them.
I mean, I know where the character starts in the day,
and I know where I've got to get him or her at
the end of the day.
How I do it is hopefully what keeps the writing
fresh when I do it.
But of course, ideas creep in, things I don't
want to get rid of.
So halfway through the book, I have to stop and rewrite the
end chapter notes to take into account all the new things
that have come along.
And that's the process, basically.
TOM MERRITT: Baron wants to say--
it's not exactly a question, he says, "Surprise!
There is a sylphan pathway in your backyard.
Would you give it a try and go on a journey?"
PETER F. HAMILTON: Who could I take with me, Baron?
A bag it let's assume you could take whatever you want
but yes I think I would to put on a
backpack and go down there.
Yeah.
VERONICA BELMONT: Nice.
Go down that rabbit hole little bit.
PETER F. HAMILTON: Absolutely
VERONICA BELMONT: Lucy wants to know if you see things from
your novels making their way into real life.
I guess we kind of already--
TOM MERRITT: We kind of talked about that.
VERONICA BELMONT: We touched on that a little bit.
So we've got the Google Glass, the self-driving cars--
TOM MERRITT: Rejuvenation.
When do we get that?
VERONICA BELMONT: Yeah.
PETER F. HAMILTON: Tell me.
VERONICA BELMONT: That's like Botox, kind of.
Like advanced Botox.
TOM MERRITT: Beecause that's the earliest hint of rejuv
that we've got so far.
Yeah.
VERONICA BELMONT: That's funny that you said "rejuv," because
that's what they do in "Downbelow Station."
TOM MERRITT: Oh, that's probably where I stole that.
VERONICA BELMONT: Yeah.
You just stole a different term.
TOM MERRITT: Because we're reading "Downbelow
Station" right now.
Daniel wants to know, "You're well-known for your depth of
hard sci-fi storytelling.
But do you think people's tastes have recently veered
towards shorter forms and less hard-to-grasp sci-fi?"
PETER F. HAMILTON: Good question.
I don't think there are specific groups.
I mean, I get some of my readers going, oh, you went
into far too much detail there.
Can you cut it down.
Cut it down, please.
But the majority seem to say, detail, that's what we like.
That's what we love.
More of it.
More of it.
It's kind of a balance thing.
I can easily cut it out.
You can't always add afterward.
So I tend to rely on my own instinct, and then the
instinct of my editors on this.
But I don't write for trends.
A story is always it's own length.
If it needs what I feel a lengthy book to tell it in,
then a lengthy the book it gets.
Like I say, "The Great North Road" was
an example of length.
The ones I'm doing at the moment will probably be a bit
shorter, because they don't need to be that long.
TOM MERRITT: And a lot of times, we get people on our
forums having a discussion about whether fantasy is
eclipsing science fiction.
A lot of people feel that maybe it is in
hype, but not reality.
How do you feel science fiction is faring there?
PETER F. HAMILTON: I don't think there's so many of us
writing it.
So it probably tends to get eclipsed from
that point of view.
But I think the quality of writing in both fields these
days is pretty good.
So that's a big blessing for all of us, I think.
VERONICA BELMONT: Peter asks, "Any plans on returning to the
universe laid out in 'Fallen Dragon?'"
PETER F. HAMILTON: Never say never, but I don't have any
hard plans for that.
At the end, I did leave a slight opening, in that it
took my hero--
I can't remember the name--
Newton.
It took Newton a long time to reach his destination.
So there is the opportunity to slot in some stories of his
journey towards the end there.
So I did deliberately leave it open, but I haven't got any
plans at the moment, no.
TOM MERRITT: Tanner Hohmeier wants to know if your next
novel would be fantasy.
PETER F. HAMILTON: Good question.
Technically yes, because my next three novels are
children's books.
My next science fiction book, which I started writing this
week, is set back in the Void, which is, I think we cross
that as planetary romance, rather than fantasy.
But it's certainly got fantasy trappings in it.
So that would be my slightly convoluted answer to that.
Sorry.
TOM MERRITT: No.
I think I think she'll like that answer.
VERONICA BELMONT: Yeah.
And finally, do you have any tips, tricks for aspiring
writers out there?
PETER F. HAMILTON: Other than keep writing, keep writing.
Write from the heart.
Do not try and put things in the book because you think it
will appeal to other people.
That's not the way to do it.
That's writing by committee.
It doesn't work.
TOM MERRITT: Excellent advice.
Thank you so much, Peter F. Hamilton.
PETER F. HAMILTON: Thank you.
TOM MERRITT: "The Great North Road" just came out New Year's
Day in the US, January 1.
But it's not too late to start your new year
right and buy it.
VERONICA BELMONT: Yes, and before we go--
TOM MERRITT: And read it.
VERONICA BELMONT: --all of those things.
Aaron has a white board video with some tips to get maximum
enjoyment from Peter F. Hamilton's books.
AARON: We all like to get our money's worth.
Well, Peter F. Hamilton spells "value." You want
epic science fiction?
This is the Costco-sized family pack.
All the classic features of space opera are here.
High technology, far-flung worlds, fully-realized alien
civilizations.
The plots are vast, but related through complex, often
flawed protagonists.
The interstellar junkman in "Night's Dawn," or the
corporate enforcer with a heart of gold in "Fallen
Dragon," ground these tales of interstellar empires and
energy zombies.
But this kind of complexity doesn't come without a price.
A random sampling of Hamilton's
novels reveals the truth.
This is a commitment.
Here are some important tips to get you maximum enjoyment.
First, work your way up to it.
Start with something relatively lightweight, like
James Joyce's "Ulysses" or "Moby-***."
Two, before you start, load up on carbs.
You're going to need a lot of energy.
Don't overeat.
You don't want to get loggy and pass out.
Third, find a comfortable place for reading.
A nice beanbag can serve in a pinch.
Four, hydration is essential.
Frequent intake of water or sports drinks will make sure
you're replacing electrolytes lost to tears of joy or
high-intensity sweats.
Five, remember, this is meant to be enjoyed.
The good news is, once you finish, there over a dozen
more volumes waiting in the wings, and more on the way.
You might need to clear some bookshelves to hold them.
Or a new wing.
Think creatively.
After all, that's what speculative
fiction is all about.
VERONICA BELMONT: Love it.
TOM MERRITT: I know.
A good excuse to eat Cheesy Poofs, if nothing else.
VERONICA BELMONT: Cheesy Poofs.
I was trying to--
that was my Cartman imitation.
TOM MERRITT: Yeah?
VERONICA BELMONT: Nope.
TOM MERRITT: Nope.
VERONICA BELMONT: That was terrible.
TOM MERRITT: I totally got--
VERONICA BELMONT: Yeah.
You totally got that, right?
TOM MERRITT: Peter F. Hamilton, right?
VERONICA BELMONT: Yeah!
Love it.
Just a word before we go.
We're nearing the end of our year-long run
here on Geek and Sundry.
And it has been absolutely fantastic.
We're so appy to have met and reach all of you
new fans of the show.
But we're not disappearing from the face of the internet.
After March, you can still read along with us on our
audio podcast and on our Goodreads group.
TOM MERRITT: That's right, folks.
We're not dead yet.
Just one more video episode for us.
But as always, if you want more "Sword and Laser,"
there's lots.
Join our Goodreads group at goodreads.com and subscribe to
the audio podcast at swordandlaser.com.
We do it every other week.
And keep getting all the awesome Geek and Sundry shows.
Of course, by subscribing to our YouTube channel, right
here at youtube.com/geekandsundry.
We'll see you next time.
VERONICA BELMONT: Cheesy Poofs.
Oh, that was so bad.
Oh, I'm so bad at imitations.
Cheesy Poofs.
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