The Legend of Earth (The Human Chronicles Saga -- Book 5) (41 page)

The End

of

Continue to follow the adventures of Adam Cain

and his band of Human Super-Men in the first book of

The Human Chronicles Saga – Part Two

Cain’s Crusaders

Coming Summer 2013

TheHumanChronicles.com

An Interview with Author T.R. (Tom) Harris…

Today we’re speaking science fiction author T.R. Harris, about his series
The Human Chronicles Saga
,
Part One
, and about the upcoming follow-up to the series.

Tom, now that Part One is complete can you tell us a little about the series overall and what we can expect from Part Two?

I’d love to, but first let me just say how grateful I am to all the fans who have made the
Chronicles
such a big success. It has been both an amazing and a humbling experience. This was my first series of books, and I must say, they’ve gone over much better than I ever imagined.
 

Now as to the series itself: Part One is what’s called a sequential series, with one event leading to another, and with several parallel storylines all weaved together throughout several books. I found this kind of series to be much harder to write than expected, mainly because of all the complexity involved, especially as the story evolved, with more detail being added with each new book. Also, I had a general theme I wanted to convey when I first started, but as the story grew, it became bigger than the one theme and branched off to several others. The stress in writing a series like this came from making sure I didn’t lose the reader in all the detail – or lose my own direction along the way.

But now that Part One is done, and my universe is built, I can now have some fun with it! That’s what I intend to do with Part Two. The next books will be more freewheeling and fun, with tons of ‘superman stuff’ throughout.

What do you mean ‘superman stuff?”

As you know Adam Cain has now joined what is essentially an intergalactic hit squad of sorts, tasked with putting down rebellions, stopping criminals and rescuing damsels in distress – that sort of thing – all for the new head of the galaxy, his old friend Kroekus of Silea. While off on these missions, Adam will have the chance to knock heads with a variety of nasty critters, all the while showing off his superman-like abilities.

These new books will also be more stand-alone, meaning they can be read out of sequence without too much loss of context, and will each revolve around an individual mission or groups of missions.

I will, however, have a few central themes running throughout, including Adam’s quest to find his old nemesis Nigel McCarthy. In fact, Nigel breaks away from the Kracori and starts his own crime syndicate, which Adam and his team will encounter on several occasions. Of course, he’ll also be on the lookout for both the Klin and the Kracori.

Why the change in format?

The thing that’s made the
Chronicles
so unique – and successful – has been the portrayal of Humans as essentially the supermen of the galaxy. This concept has really touched a nerve, as I think readers have been looking for something that can make them feel proud, something to make them feel superior. Too often in science fiction, mankind gets its ass kicked by some spore or creatures with three fingers. But not in
The Human
Chronicles
. You see, Adam Cain is no different from you or me, but when he’s out mixing it up with aliens he’s a badass – and by extension – so are we.

But in order to provide my readers with what they want, I have to have more of this one-on-one, Human vs. Alien interaction. That’s hard to do when you’re describing massive fleets of starships fighting it out, or dealing with the subtleties of intergalactic politics. A lot of my readers want more barroom brawls and quick-draw shootouts. The new books will be full of stuff like that – Adam Cain and his buddies fighting it out on planet after planet, building up the body count. Like I said, these books will be more freewheeling – and fun!

What have been some of your biggest surprises you’ve found from writing the books?

Oh, there are so many, but one of the things that comes to mind – and is good and bad – is how serious some of the readers have gotten about the stories and the characters. I love how involved they’ve gotten, and maybe it’s a testament to my writing abilities, but I had one reader comment about how cruel Adam was for killing innocent aliens without any feelings of remorse. I wanted to remind this person that this is a work of fiction and that these aren’t real aliens he’s killing. Also, have they never played the video game
Area 51
before? That’s nothing but killing aliens for a score.

Others have focused on the political aspect of the story. One reader took exception because I basically laid it out as ‘Good Navy SEAL’ vs. ‘Bad Terrorist’ – as they described it.
Well duh!
How else was I to frame it? And besides, the interaction between Adam Cain and Riyad Tarazi on that subject was very brief and was not the central theme of the books.

Others took exception to my pro-America theme. Sorry, but I’m an American. I can’t help it if I love my country.

I’m sure it shocked some of your readers in
The Legend of Earth
when you had the Humans simply walk away from control of a galactic empire. Do you really think that’s what we would do if this was real?

Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t. I think that the-powers-that-be wouldn’t give it up for anything, even if it destroyed us all. That’s why I created the Juireans. I wanted to show what I believed would be necessary for a single race of beings to actually rule over an entire galaxy. Honestly, I don’t think it’s possible – the place is just too damn big! But I do think something like how the Juireans evolved with their society would have to be done just to attempt it. But then what fun would that be if all you did is exist in order to fill a slot on the galactic-conveyor-belt-of-life? That’s no way to live.

It sounds like you’re really excited about Part Two?

Oh yeah! I’m going to have some fun, and I hope the reader does, too. They’ll be a lot more superman stuff – you know, bending steel with his bare hands, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, stuff like that. Just think, there are eight thousands worlds in the Expansion, offering up an unlimited variety of alien races – all of which Adam Cain can kill. Like he said at the end of
The Legend of Earth
:
“So it’s a license to kill –
to kill aliens!
”

So when will the first book of Part Two be out?

It should be out sometime in June, 2013, if not sooner. Thereafter I hope to have a book out every two months or so. Just check the website or email me for updates.

Speaking of that, you have an email list where you let your readers know when the next books will be available.

That’s right. Just email me at:
[email protected]
. I hope to expand the list and the broadcast emails to include more news items, specials and other insider stuff. So just contact me and I’ll put you on the list.

Thank you very much for your time, Tom, and continued success with the series.

Thanks for talking with me.