John Scalzi is the bestselling science fiction author of Old Man's War, The Last Colony, and Redshirts. He is also one of the coolest geeks around, and if you haven't paid a visit to his blog Whatever or followed him on Twitter, then you are missing out on some of the best and funniest blogging in the webosphere.
His newest book, The Human Division, is actually the print edition of his most recent internet endeavour, a collection of 'episodes' based in the Old Man's War universe. John was kind enough to take a few minutes out of his book tour to answer a few of our questions.
Indigo Blog (IB): Human Division was written as an experiment in telling a story through episodes. It doesn't exactly mirror the structure of a TV show, or a traditional serial novel, but does sort of gently ease into a loose form. (Kind of like Jell-O salad, where there is an overall structure, but it contains different elements and is kind of wobbly and flexible. In a good way!) Is there anything you might have done differently, in hindsight?
John Scalzi (JS): From a structural point of view, I don't think so. The Human Division was conceived of as an experiment – that is, a vehicle to try new things with. So doing things differently and risking failure was sort of the point. If we weren't taking chances with it, we wouldn't be doing our jobs with this one. Now the job is to take what we've learned from this one, both from the writing and from the reader response, and incorporate those lessons for the future – not just with my projects but also for other serial projects Tor might want to try.
IB: You've stated that the episodic nature of Human Division allowed you a certain amount of freedom in exploring some of the secondary characters. Was there anyone you wish you could have given more "screen time"?
JS: It would have been nice to spend a little more time with General Gau, who is the head of Conclave, the federation of alien species who are the Colonial Union's primary rival in the book. I've made him an honorable but ambiguous character, and those sort of people are always fun to write. But the needs of the novel come before my own curiosities, in this case.
IB: You clearly have some fun in playing with literary devices and conventions, like the shaggy dog story ("The Dog King"), and the locked room mystery ("The Observers"). Is there one particular trope that you have a fondness for?
JS: Not really – I like them all. And of course that was the nice thing about The Human Division for me: I got to do a lot of different things and play with different moods, in ways that wouldn't necessarily hand together in a conventionally structured novel, but which come together here because of how the novel is built. It was a playground, basically, and I got to ride on all the swings.
IB: The universal appeal of the churro helps along diplomatic relations in Episode 6: The Back Channel. Are there any other foods that you feel deserve intergalactic recognition?
JS: My masses of fans would probably kill me if I didn't mention bacon.
IB: What type of visual imagery would best describe the plot of The Human Division?
JS: I think a mosaic would be the obvious answer here – a bunch of tiny pictures that are whole in themselves, but when you pull back you see there's a larger picture as well. Which is what we tried to do with the individual episodes: Have them be complete stories in themselves but when you put them together, you see the novel-long plot arcs and character development.
IB: If we did Survivor: The Space Opera edition, who would win: Harry Wilson, Miles Vorkosigan (Lois M. Bujold), Ender Wiggins (Orson Scott Card), Malcolm Reynolds (Joss Whedon's Firefly) or Rand al'Thor (The Wheel of Time)?
JS: No idea. That's why they tape the shows, isn't it? Because you never know until it gets played. Also, I know several of the people who have written these characters, and I don't want to play favorites. I suspect that of all of these, Harry would be the one to find a loophole to his advantage, however.
IB: Congratulations on the renewal of The Human Division for a second season! Any teasers you are willing to share with our readers?
JS: There are no teasers I can share because I haven't started writing it yet! But I will say that there's a very good chance that readers will find out more of who is behind the troubles of the Colonial Union. I say that because I think if I didn't do that, people might kill me. Please don't kill me. Thanks.
We thank publishers Tor and Macmillan for arranging this Q&A, and also thank John Scalzi for taking the time out of his busy schedule to answer our questions.