Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff on ILLUMINAE, Insipiration and AI

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.

About Amie Kaufman

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.

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About Jay Kristoff

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.

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About ILLUMINAE

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.