comment you cite, I'll take it and run with it.
That's probably not much of an answer, though. Clarke and Asimov? I'm probably a better writer than I might have been as a result of that. Because it made me more confident in my abilities. That never hurts. I'd like to think that, thirty or forty years from now, a few people would hold that view.
RUBIN : That confidence certainly comes across in your writing. We were both just at the Nebula Weekend in Arlington, Virginia, where your most recent Alex Benedict novel,
Firebird
was nominated for Best Novel. This was your 11th Nebula nomination, a remarkable accomplishment.
Firebird
is a fantastic book about a missing physicist, disappearing spaceships and quite an original twist to it all. Alex and Chase are called in once again to investigate. These novels seems incredibly popular and are among my favorite that are published today. What is it about the Alex and Chase novels do you think that appeals so much to readers?
McDEVITT : Alex and Chase have done pretty well. I suspect the secret behind their popularity is the nature of the mysteries they're called in to resolve: an exploratory mission that finds something the government wants to keep secret, the disappearance of crew and passengers from a starship, a vacationing writer's conviction that "they're all dead" when in fact nothing unusual seems to have happened, a man who'd spent his entire career looking for aliens apparently succeeded but told no one. We all love a mystery, especially one in which the issue does not involve finding out who did something, but rather coming up with an explanation for a strange event.
It's been an enjoyable series to write. Each novel introduces an occurrence for which there seems no plausible explanation, and then challenges Chase and Alex (or the reader) to find an explanation. It has to be one that makes sense, that doesn't incorporate aliens or somebody with a time machine or whatever, but rather something that, when we get to the end, we wonder that we didn't see it coming.
Or maybe sometimes the reader does.
RUBIN : The mystery aspect certainly appeals to me. I love science fiction mysteries and I'm hard-pressed to think of anyone who does them as well as you do. I include Isaac Asimov's mysteries in this assessment, all of which I have read. But another thing that really appeals to me about the Alex and Chase novels is their setting. Far, far future, post-scarcity, but not post-Singularity. The future that Alex and Chase live in is a recognizable one. People still eat in restaurants. They still go to shows. They date. They work (if they want to). Where many writers have made the far future seem unrecognizable to us today, you've kept yours familiar. Why is that?
McDEVITT : I don't think we will change much over a few thousand years. If we survive, we will inevitably get smarter. That means a more peaceful, cooperative existence, where people recognize, as they always have, what really matters: That people still fall in love, still understand the value of a friend, still take care of their families, still like to leave a mark of some kind, still understand that the secret of a happy life is knowing when to break for a pizza and a beer. If we lose any of that, we will no longer recognize ourselves.
RUBIN : You've also got the Academy series of novels featuring Priscilla Hutchins. Recently, you've written several short stories featuring Hutch in her early days at the Academy (I'm thinking of "Maiden Voyage" and "Waiting at the Alter"). Why go back to the beginning with Hutch and was there a reason you chose the short form instead of a novel?
McDEVITT : Hutch made her second appearance in
Chindi
, but I blundered when I dated it a quarter-century after her debut in
The Engines of God
. I've wanted for a long time to do what I should have done first: to give her a chance to enjoy a few adventures when she was still coming to grips with who she was. I wrote a few Priscilla Hutchins
That's probably not much of an answer, though. Clarke and Asimov? I'm probably a better writer than I might have been as a result of that. Because it made me more confident in my abilities. That never hurts. I'd like to think that, thirty or forty years from now, a few people would hold that view.
RUBIN : That confidence certainly comes across in your writing. We were both just at the Nebula Weekend in Arlington, Virginia, where your most recent Alex Benedict novel,
Firebird
was nominated for Best Novel. This was your 11th Nebula nomination, a remarkable accomplishment.
Firebird
is a fantastic book about a missing physicist, disappearing spaceships and quite an original twist to it all. Alex and Chase are called in once again to investigate. These novels seems incredibly popular and are among my favorite that are published today. What is it about the Alex and Chase novels do you think that appeals so much to readers?
McDEVITT : Alex and Chase have done pretty well. I suspect the secret behind their popularity is the nature of the mysteries they're called in to resolve: an exploratory mission that finds something the government wants to keep secret, the disappearance of crew and passengers from a starship, a vacationing writer's conviction that "they're all dead" when in fact nothing unusual seems to have happened, a man who'd spent his entire career looking for aliens apparently succeeded but told no one. We all love a mystery, especially one in which the issue does not involve finding out who did something, but rather coming up with an explanation for a strange event.
It's been an enjoyable series to write. Each novel introduces an occurrence for which there seems no plausible explanation, and then challenges Chase and Alex (or the reader) to find an explanation. It has to be one that makes sense, that doesn't incorporate aliens or somebody with a time machine or whatever, but rather something that, when we get to the end, we wonder that we didn't see it coming.
Or maybe sometimes the reader does.
RUBIN : The mystery aspect certainly appeals to me. I love science fiction mysteries and I'm hard-pressed to think of anyone who does them as well as you do. I include Isaac Asimov's mysteries in this assessment, all of which I have read. But another thing that really appeals to me about the Alex and Chase novels is their setting. Far, far future, post-scarcity, but not post-Singularity. The future that Alex and Chase live in is a recognizable one. People still eat in restaurants. They still go to shows. They date. They work (if they want to). Where many writers have made the far future seem unrecognizable to us today, you've kept yours familiar. Why is that?
McDEVITT : I don't think we will change much over a few thousand years. If we survive, we will inevitably get smarter. That means a more peaceful, cooperative existence, where people recognize, as they always have, what really matters: That people still fall in love, still understand the value of a friend, still take care of their families, still like to leave a mark of some kind, still understand that the secret of a happy life is knowing when to break for a pizza and a beer. If we lose any of that, we will no longer recognize ourselves.
RUBIN : You've also got the Academy series of novels featuring Priscilla Hutchins. Recently, you've written several short stories featuring Hutch in her early days at the Academy (I'm thinking of "Maiden Voyage" and "Waiting at the Alter"). Why go back to the beginning with Hutch and was there a reason you chose the short form instead of a novel?
McDEVITT : Hutch made her second appearance in
Chindi
, but I blundered when I dated it a quarter-century after her debut in
The Engines of God
. I've wanted for a long time to do what I should have done first: to give her a chance to enjoy a few adventures when she was still coming to grips with who she was. I wrote a few Priscilla Hutchins
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