Fresh Fiction Reviewer talks with Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, authors of the
ILLUMINAE,
about creating The Illuminae Files, inspiration, and the future of AI.
Debbie: Hi Amie and Jay! Thank you so much for joining us here at Fresh
Fiction!
Jay and Amie: Thank you so much for having us! Nice place you got here, we
dig the bean bags.
Debbie: Can you tell us a little bit about how ILLUMINAE
first came together as a collaborative effort and perhaps tease us a bit with what
we have in store for the rest of the trilogy?
Jay and Amie: We first thought about writing together after Amie had a
ridiculous anxiety dream that we were doing exactly that… and that she’d forgotten
what the book was about. Kind of like those dreams where you’re at school and
realise you forgot to study for the test.. and the test is in German. And you’re
not wearing pants. Once we stopped laughing, we started wondering if that was such
a ridiculous idea—and the story itself didn’t come from any one flash of
inspiration. It was built brick by brick, idea by idea, and it was SO much fun!
As for the rest of the series, we can’t say much, but we can say that everyone who
survives book one (which isn’t everyone) will be in book two—and that book two
will answer the question of why the characters in book one called and called to
Jump Station Heimdall for help, but it never came.
Debbie: ILLUMINAE is absolutely mind-blowing, as the blend of the
written word with visual images is absolutely stunning. I particularly love the
scenes with the space fights as well as the ones where the writing practically
dances across the pages. Did the writing process differ with including the visual
aspects and how did you decide what scenes to include the visual aspects?
Jay and Amie: Thank you so much! The writing process did differ, in that
sometimes we were putting together art notes for the amaaaaazing design team at
Random House, and other times we were actually putting together art (Jay did some
of the design work!) that would end up on the page. For each scene we’d consider
the information we wanted to convey, the mood we wanted to create, lots of factors
– and then we’d decide on the best type of document to deliver it. For those who
haven’t yet read the book, every single page in it is a document, rather than a
traditional narrative. There are IMs, emails, security reports, schematics, you
name it.
Debbie: What is the easiest part of collaborating together on a novel? And
conversely, what is the hardest part?
Jay and Amie: Easiest: waking up in the morning and finding out there’s
MORE BOOK THAN THERE WAS BEFORE!
Hardest: waiting on a scene you’re dyyyyying to read!
Debbie: ILLUMINAE has some great characters, from the main characters
of Kady, Ezra, and Aidan, to the secondary characters like James McNulty and Byron
Zhang. I love that each character had a separate and distinct voice. How
difficult was it to create and maintain the voices of the various characters,
particularly since the story is told through their various viewpoints?
Jay and Amie: It definitely wasn’t as hard as we were expecting. We worked
very hard to make sure the secondary characters were very real, despite sometimes
only having a small amount of room on the page to themselves, and we did that by
giving the reader glimpses inside their heads. The way people act when they’re not
being observed gives you a direct line to what’s happening inside their heads, and
their hearts.
Debbie: ILLUMINAE is definitely my favorite book of the year and has
sneaked onto my all-time list with other authors like Anne Rice,
Stephen
King, and Dean Koontz. Who are some of the authors- or even films- that
have inspired and influenced you?
Jay and Amie: Wow, that’s so kind of you to say, thank you! We could name
influences all day, because we’re both SUCH nerds! Here are just a few: William
Gibson. Anne McCaffrey. Douglas Adams. Gene
Roddenberry. Phillip K Dick. Joss Whedon. Frank
Herbert. Isaac Asimov. Glen A Larson. Ronald D Moore.
Debbie: The scenes where Kady longs for the people and things of her past
life still break my heart just thinking about it. If you had to evacuate your home
as quickly as Ezra and Kady did, what are the top 3 items you would want to have
on the spaceship with you?
Jay and Amie: Sorry about the heart breaking. (Though not really.) We did a
lot of thinking about what’s vital, over the course of writing this book. The
truth is, so long as we had our families and our pets with us, we could leave
everything else behind. If we had a little extra time, though, we’d be stuffing
books and music and writing materials into our bags, along with bourbon (Jay) and
chocolate (Amie).
Debbie: The Aidan trailer is super creepy! Any hints about how his AI will
play into the future books? And any thoughts you want to add on the current
technology and direction with AI?
Jay and Amie: Isn’t it suuuuper creepy? The team who created it did such a
great job! We can’t give you too many hints about the role AIDAN will play in
future books, but we can say that we’re absolutely fascinated with the question of
artificial intelligence, morality and where those issues intersect with human
behavior. For example, check out this awesome article on whether a self-driving
car should be programmed to kill its own occupant to save a larger group of people
– tricky stuff!
Debbie: That is truly fascinating! Thank you so much and I can't wait to
read the next in the The Illuminae Files.
Amie Kaufman is a New York Times bestselling author of young adult
fiction. Her work has been published in fifteen countries, won the Aurealis
Award for Best YA Novel, been named the Huffington Post’s best YA novel of the
year, shortlisted for the Gold Inky Award and is in development for TV. Her
first series, co-authored with Meagan Spooner, began with THESE BROKEN STARS, and
her new series, co-authored with Jay Kristoff, will start this October with ILLUMINAE.
Raised in Australia and Ireland, Amie has degrees in history, literature, law and
conflict resolution. She lives in Melbourne with her husband, their rescue dog,
and an extremely large personal library.
Website | Facebook |
Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram
Jay Kristoff has managed to trick the world into thinking he's an author.
His award-winning steampunk trilogy, THE LOTUS WAR, is out now. A new sci-fi
trilogy, THE ILLUMINAE FILES arrives in October 2015 from Random House. A
new fantasy series, NEVERNIGHT, hits shelves in 2016.
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d
have to do.
This afternoon, her planet was invaded.
The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s
little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody
thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them,
Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their
way onto one of the evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.
But their problems are just getting started. A deadly plague has broken out and is
mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet’s AI, which should be protecting
them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really
going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it’s clear
only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she swore
she’d never speak to again.
Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails,
schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae
is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives
interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.
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