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| Brian Burt, Author AQUARIUS RISING BOOK 1: IN THE TEARS OF GOD AQUARIUS RISING: BLOOD TIDE (To be published Feb. 2015) |
Please welcome science fiction author Brian Burt. Reviewers tout his first book, AQUARIUS RISING BOOK 1: IN THE TEARS OF GOD,
as an “apocalyptic/dystopian aquatic
tale of impressive scope and remarkable vision.” He describes it as a
“cautionary tale,” a “what if” story that tells what might happen if we don’t
listen. It won the 2014 EPIC e-book award for Science Fiction. You can check out an excerpt from this book following the interview.
Burt's second book, AQUARIUS
RISING BOOK 2: BLOOD TIDE, to be released in February 2015, features a
human-dolphin hybrid trying to survive from the outcome of climate change.
Burt is a father of
three boys, although he hints that he might really be the fourth “boy” in the
family. When he’s not writing, he
enjoys his day job as an information security engineer, protecting us against
hackers. The award-winning author has published more than 20 short stories in
addition to his novels and is already working on the third book in the Aquarius Rising Trilogy.
Q: I’m always
amazed and impressed with how you science fiction authors envision your “what
if” story. Reviewers tout your plot as an “apocalyptic/ dystopian aquatic tale of impressive
scope and remarkable vision.” How do you do it? What inspired you to create
the story for AQUARIUS RISING?
Brian Burt: I'm a dad. I have three
boys, ages 8 to 18, and (despite my chronic immaturity) it's my job to look
after them. I've always believed
that means I'm supposed to ensure that the world they inherit is at least a bit
better than the one in which I grew up.
Lately, when I consider the trends, I struggle to convince myself that
I'm living up to that responsibility.
Climate change
is one of the "inconvenient truths" that keep me awake at night. I'm not a scientist or a climate
expert, but I do read what the
experts have to say, and it's not encouraging. We seem determined to conduct a massive, uncontrolled
experiment with the Earth as our laboratory. If things go wrong and the experiment blows up in our faces,
we can't just leave the building until somebody else cleans up the mess.
That concern
over "what if" emerged as one of the central themes that inspired my debut
novel, AQUARIUS RISING: IN THE TEARS OF GOD. The characters in this story, Book
1 of the Aquarius Rising trilogy, find themselves fighting for survival on an
Earth where a disastrous attempt to reverse global warming has had the opposite
effect. Most of the planet has
become harsh and inhospitable. To
adjust to the brutal conditions, humans have adapted themselves through
bioengineering. We (humanity) have
become the parent race to a variety of child species, all of them competing to
dominate the ecological niches that still support life. In this series, we're too often unfit
parents.
So, yes, it has
dystopian elements. But I think of
this as a cautionary tale, a fictional exploration of one possible future — one
we as a species ought to fight like hell to avoid!
Q: How important is credibility to a science
fiction thriller? One reviewer credited you with “incredible technical tools
made believable.” What do you do to make your story and its characters
believable?
Brian Burt: I'll admit to feelings of insecurity on this. I don't have formal education in the
hard sciences, so I often worry about messing up the technical details,
especially in a series of novels of this complexity. So I begged for help.
I ended up soliciting feedback from three very gracious scientists,
experts in marine biology and oceanography, who reviewed the first draft of
AQUARIUS RISING: IN THE TEARS OF GOD and helped me avoid obvious gaffes. I think in any fiction genre, but
especially science fiction, making a glaring mistake of scientific fact
alienates a good chunk of your audience.
Q: Reviewers also embrace your characters as “well
thought out” and characters “that you really care about.” Why do you think they
like your characters? Did you copy real people?
Brian Burt: That's a great question, and a tricky one! I think every author is a voyeur — a quiet student of human
nature who observes and records unobtrusively all the time. I definitely draw on aspects of the
personalities of real people when I create fictional characters. But, of course, no character in the
novel is a "carbon copy" of somebody I know. Good characters in fiction take on
lives of their own and branch off in directions that you, as their
"creator," never imagined up-front. That's a big part of the fun and challenge of being a
writer. You have to give your characters
(like your kids) space to evolve and not be constrained by your own biases or
preconceptions. If you do that,
you can end up with characters who are compelling to you... and if they grab
the writer's attention, they have a much better chance of appealing to readers.
Q: How relevant is the concept of
hero-versus-villain to telling your story? What are the attributes of an
effective villain?
Brian Burt: I've never been a fan of the "pure evil" villain, the
cartoon bad guy who has no redeeming qualities. In AQUARIUS RISING: IN THE TEARS OF GOD, I wound up with a
villain named Edmund Bryce who was a pretty nasty dude; he did some truly
despicable things. But he genuinely
believed he was doing them to achieve a greater good. He had some worthy goals, and he was haunted by painful
episodes in his own past that marked him indelibly. I didn't much like him, but I did feel sympathy for
him. So, I think readers generally
enjoy having somebody to root for and somebody to root against... but I think
they're smart and sophisticated, savoring protagonists with some flaws and
antagonists with some virtues.
Speculative fiction readers strike me as a very savvy bunch, and anyone who reads books these days is
probably a pretty discriminating judge of storytelling!
Q: Did you write AQUARIUS RISING to entertain
only, or did you intend to deliver a message or educate your readers?
Brian Burt: I wanted to write a story with plenty of action and compelling
characters, but I was aiming for more than that. I'm not an activist, and I don't mean to get overly
political. But I do hope the novel
makes readers think: are we willing to bet the future of our planet on a roll
of the climate dice, praying that the scientific consensus is wrong and that
the bones won't come up snake-eyes?
Is this really the kind of world we would bequeath to our
grandchildren? Can we trust
ourselves as a species to "play god" to some extent and manipulate
our own genetics? If we try to
"geo-engineer" a fix to global problems, will we be better or worse
off in the long run? These aren't
easy questions, and I certainly don't know the answers. But if readers end up contemplating
them, I'll feel satisfied that the novel had some value.
It was
reassuring to learn that the novel won the 2014
EPIC eBook Award for Science Fiction.
We all need validation once in a while, and this renewed my
determination to keep working and striving to become a better storyteller.
Q: What draws you to write in your genre? Why “dystopia”
rather than “utopia?” Can there not be an interesting story in “utopia?”
Brian Burt: I think utopias can be intriguing as well, but I'd have to confess
that most of the memorable stories that leap to mind (from classics like 1984,
Brave New World, or Farenheit 451 to more contemporary novels
like the Hunger Games) seem to focus on the shadows in our future rather
than the light. I suspect it's
easier to create drama and tension in a dystopian setting, sad to say. The works of speculative fiction that
stick with us are often haunting, not necessarily predictive but provocative.
Q: Why write a series rather than a standalone
book?
Brian Burt: Believe it or not, the Aquarius Rising series began its life as a
short story. For most of my
writing career, I've only written short fiction; in fact, my first big break as
a writer was winning the Gold Award (grand prize) in the Writers of the Future
contest for a short story entitled "The Last Indian War." So I wrote a (somewhat long) short
story called "Neptune's Children" that was set in the fictional world
that became Aquarius, but it was a dismal failure. I couldn't do the idea justice in that format. So, when I finally decided (gulp!) to
get over my fear of commitment and try a full-length novel, the world of
Aquarius Rising seemed perfect, but I still strongly suspected that it would
expand beyond the boundaries of a single novel.
Q: Reviewers are pleased with the “unremitting
tension” and say you did a “good job of balancing action,
exposition and scene-setting to create a highly colorful page-turner.” How do
you build tension and suspense? Are there any tricks?
Brian Burt: I'm
a rookie novelist, so I wouldn't presume to imply that I've mastered the
tricks! But I'm a longtime,
voracious reader, and I've learned some valuable lessons from the brilliant
authors who have hooked me with their writing styles. I tried to approach my debut novel with the assumption that
each chapter was in some sense a short story unto itself, but one that could
end on a cliff-hanger without cheating the reader. So I tried to build tension within most chapters, leaving
some unresolved challenge for the point-of-view character to confront at
chapter's end. That can certainly
be overdone, and the pace needs to be varied, but I tried my best to ramp up
the tension steadily throughout the novel.
Q: What’s next?
Brian Burt: AQUARIUS RISING BOOK 2: BLOOD TIDE is scheduled for release in early
2015. I'm hard at work on BOOK 3:
THE PRICE OF EDEN, which will conclude the Aquarius Rising trilogy. After that, I'm looking forward to
building a totally new fictional world, but it will likely still draw on
environmental themes since these evoke passion in me as a writer and as a person.
Q:
Tell us about Brian Burt. What do you like to do when you’re not
writing?
Brian Burt: My wife would say that I'm an overgrown kid (maturity-wise, at
least), so I love goofing around with my three boys. I also enjoy my day job as an information security
engineer. Anyone who reads the
headlines knows that the cyber-crooks keep breaching the digital barriers and
stealing precious personal information from company after company. I love the challenge of trying to block
them, to put on the "white hat" and counter the black-hat
hackers. These days, it definitely
feels like there are a lot more attackers than defenders. Talk about job security!
About
Brian Burt
Brian Burt works
as an information security engineer in West Michigan, where some of his most
bizarre and twisted imaginings wind up in threat assessments. His wife and three boys tolerate his
strange imagination and constantly inspire new flights of fancy, whether they
mean to or not. He enjoys reading,
cycling, hiking, horseplay, red wine, and local micro-brews (so hopefully the
virtues balance the vices, more or less).
At every opportunity, he uses his sons as an excuse to act like an
unruly child (which is why his wife enjoys rum, school days, and migraine
medication).
Brian has
published more than twenty short stories in various markets, including print
magazines, anthologies, and electronic publications. He won the L. Ron Hubbard Gold Award in 1992 for his short
story, “The Last Indian War,” which was anthologized in WRITERS OF THE FUTURE
VOLUME VIII. His story “Phantom
Pain” received an Honorable Mention in The
Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, Tenth Annual Collection, edited by Ellen
Datlow and Terri Windling. He’s a
card-carrying member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of
America. His debut novel, AQUARIUS RISING: IN THE TEARS OF GOD, won the 2014 EPIC eBook Award for Science Fiction.
*Winner
of the 2014 EPIC Award for Best Science Fiction*
On
an Earth ravaged by global warming, human-dolphin hybrids called Aquarians have
built thriving reef colonies among the drowned cities of the coast. Now their
world is under siege from an enemy whose invisible weapon leaves no survivors.
Only Ocypode the Atavism—half-human and half-Aquarian, marooned in the genetic
limbo between species—knows why. Disclosing the reason could be as deadly to
Aquarius as the Medusa plague itself. Ocypode and his comrades must face the
perils of flight into the open ocean, a friend’s betrayal, a killer storm, a
lethal kelp forest haunted by mutant monsters, and a fundamental challenge to
their most cherished beliefs if they are to have any hope of saving Aquarius
from destruction. They must enlist allies of the most unexpected sort from the
most unlikely of places. Even then—when confronted by rogue scientists
determined to resurrect the land by slaughtering the sea—it may not be enough.
Excerpt from
AQUARIUS RISING BOOK 1: IN THE TEARS OF GOD
We were born in the tears of God.
When the First Creator wept at the fate of His Creation, His tears
fell like burning rain to melt the polar ice and swell the seas, the cradle of
all life. His grief swallowed the
mighty human cities of the coast and gave them over to the realm of Mother
Ocean. Humanity, who did not
aggrieve the Maker out of malice but out of ignorance, wished to atone for
their sins against the Earth. We
are that atonement. We are
Humankind's offering to the First Creator, the Maker of All. The Great Father — a man, and nothing
more — crafted his transforming virus and infected his own kind, so that we
might be born as the children of Man and Mother Ocean. Humanity became the Second Creator,
Aquarius the Second Creation, and we the stewards of its bounty.
We owe much to Man, who is our father and our brother. We must honor our debt to him. But we must always remember this: he
who has the power to Create also has the power to Destroy.
— Delphis,
Third Pod Leader of Tillamook Reef Colony, from a speech to commemorate the
Fiftieth Aquarian Birth Day
CHAPTER 1—BIRTH DAY
Ocypode dove
through the turquoise waters of Tillamook Reef toward the fringes of the
celebration. Revelers floated
everywhere. Strings of limpets,
whelks, and periwinkles glittered around their necks, clicking when they
moved. Brightly colored pigments
stained their skin of blue and gray and silver with pictograms symbolizing the
history of Aquarius. Ocypode
ghosted through the crowd in silence.
His own flesh bore no ornaments.
Ocypode of
Tillamook had no desire to draw attention to himself.
He slipped through
the window of an ancient building, its barnacle-encrusted frame long devoid of
panes, and hovered in the opening like a misshapen eye thrust into the socket
of a skull. Birth Day throngs made
him want to flee toward open ocean.
He preferred to watch from the shadows.
The surface
shimmered overhead as sunlight filtered down to paint the reef. The drowned Human city had been reborn,
bones of steel and concrete covered with a growth of corals. Fish darted
between caves marked by crumbling doors and windows, danced across the reef
like fragments of a shattered rainbow.
Waves soughed beneath the chatter of the crowd. When he listened, Ocypode could almost
grasp the secrets hidden in that ceaseless whisper.
Ocypode hated secrets. They had ruled his life for far too
long...but not today.
About AQUARIUS RISING BOOK 2: BLOOD TIDE
Scheduled for release by Double Dragon Publishing in 2015
Megalops is an Aquarian, a human-dolphin hybrid who lives in one of the many reef-cities that thrive beneath the waves on an Earth ravaged by climate change. Some of the Humans who cling to the barren lands blame Aquarius for their plight and unleashed the Medusa Plague that entombed Megalops's wife and daughter in stone. Tormented by that loss, Megalops dedicates everything to avenging his murdered family, no matter what the cost. He unleashes a Vendetta Virus as cruel and lethal as the Medusa Plague, a bio-weapon that transforms living Humans into Aquarian corpses.
Ocypode — one of the heroes who stopped the Medusa Plague — and his band of Human and Aquarian allies battle desperate odds to prevent Megalops from committing an act of genocide that will escalate into global conflict, dragging the Earth's other humanoid species into the chaos. War demands sacrifice. If Mother Earth and Mother Ocean wage war against each other, will anyone survive?
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Twitter - @btburt
