Fantastic Metropolis

Gabe Chouinard: I’d like to talk a bit about this Next Wave of creators. While I think that there has been a bit of a cultural tilt throughout all forms of media, it’s quite noticeable in speculative fiction. The New Wave generated a massive burst of energy within sci-fi and fantasy; it was progressive work that had never been seen before. Now, we’re certainly seeing that again through the works of people like yourself, China Mieville, J. Gregory Keyes, Michael Swanwick… What do you think attracts you to realistic fantasy? Isn’t fantasy supposed to be ‘escapist fiction’ of the highest order?

Matthew Woodring Stover: You’ve said it yourself, Gabe: we’re the guys standing outside the edifice of modern fantasy… throwing rocks at the windows. Somebody needs to shake up this pile of crap before it collapses under the weight of its own irrelevance.

Gabe Chouinard: Agreed. I was in Borders today, and I was overwhelmed by the sheer… God, almost audaciousness of it all! Shelf after shelf of “Book Seven of—” Doesn’t there come a time when people want to throw up their hands and scream “ENOUGH!!!”? But then, I guess that’s where you come in, along with the rest of the Next Wave.

Matthew Woodring Stover: Personally, I’m in the doorway. That’s why Overworld partakes of so much standard, albeit altered, fantasy iconography—you know, elves and wizards and swordsmen and all. I’m the shadow on the threshold in the middle of the night, whispering “Hey, wake up! There’s a whole new world out here… Sure, it may be a little dark and scary, but I’ll show you things you can’t see during the day…”

Gabe Chouinard: Heh! Like you said, you’re working at tipping the balance away from the standard crap, while pandering to those same people by giving them the trappings of traditional fantasy. A sort of rebellion from within.

Matthew Woodring Stover: You can call it pandering; I prefer to think of it as luring. “Hey, kid, you want some elves and dragons? Step over here…”

Gabe Chouinard: But tell me… do you plan on going “all the way”? What kind of books will you be writing five years from now?

Matthew Woodring Stover: Good ones.

Gabe Chouinard: You’ve certainly been very vocal in your support of Greg Keyes and China Mieville…and I must admit, today I picked up Perdido Street Station by Mieville, based on your recommendation, and from reading King Rat—which was exceptional. What have you been reading lately?

Matthew Woodring Stover: I only read books in the genre when I’m between projects (unless an editor is soliciting a quote). I’m in the middle of a Star Wars: The New Jedi Order novel right now, so I’ve been sticking to heavy hitters like Hemingway (A Moveable Feast, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and A Farewell to Arms) and Joseph Conrad (Nostromo and Youth). Right now, I’m in the middle of Don Quixote—hey, once a novel’s been in print continuously for five hundred years, I can guess it’s probably worth my time.

Gabe Chouinard: I’ve heard from writers that feel bogged down when returning to worlds that were popular with readers, as if they were expected to keep writing the same thing over and over. Do you ever feel that way? What keeps you fresh when returning to Overworld, or to Barra and Company? How do you keep the passion?

Matthew Woodring Stover: Easy: you just have to remember that a world is a very big place. The Overworld sections of Heroes Die take place in one single city. Think of the multiplicity of cultures on Earth in the 18th Century: travel five hundred miles and you might as well be on a different planet. Or take Barra & Company: Iron Dawn was set in Bronze Age Tyre. Instead of going back to the same environment with the same characters, Jericho Moon moved the characters a hundred miles southeast: to Jerusalem, under siege by the Nation of Israel. All of a sudden, it’s a whole new story.

By the same token, you should bear in mind that one lifetime has room for many, many different experiences. The idea that a character has one main lesson to learn or issue to resolve is a literary convention, not a law of nature.

That feeling of being bogged down arises from being bored with your own creation. I have news for those guys: if you’re bored, you’re boring. Nobody’s forcing you to tell the same story over and over. The ones who do are just goddamn lazy. If you’re not excited by the story you’re telling, shut the hell up.