L.E. Modesitt Jr. is the bestselling author of the fantasy series, The Saga of Recluce. He had a varied range of careers before becoming a published author in 1973 and since then has created an impressive back catalogue of over 70 novels. He is an established author of both fantasy and science fiction, and I had the pleasure of speaking with him to discuss his new book, Quantum Shadows, which publishes on July 21st, and learn a little more about his writing process and style.
Firstly, can you tell us a little about Quantum Shadows?
Quantum Shadows is a far, far future science fantasy, set in the world of Heaven, where every faith has a geographical domain, ranging from mere villages of belief to the large lands of ten major faiths [the Houses of the Decalivre], each House ruled by a hegemon, an individual of great power, who may be a god or the prophet of a god. Corvyn, sometimes known as the Shadow of the Raven, contains the collective memory of humanity’s Falls from Grace. With this knowledge comes enormous power. When unknown power burns a mysterious black image into the holy place of each House of the Decalivre, Corvyn must discover what entity could possibly have that much power and what lies behind that symbolism. The stakes are nothing less than another Fall, and if he doesn’t stop it, mankind will not rise from the ashes, having, literally and symbolically, burned most of its bridges behind it.
The subtitle of the book is “Forty-Five Ways of Looking at a Raven,” partly because each chapter begins with a couplet or quatrain dealing with a raven or ravens that bears on what follows.
You are quite well known for using ethical issues within your plots and exploring how they affect your characters. What inspires you to write in this way?
Everyone operates on an internal system of ethics, something long posited, but recent psychological studies tend to confirm that such systems exist within each of us and that they’re at least partly genetically influenced. I’ve always been fascinated by the variation in such “personal” ethical systems, even in siblings with similar genetic backgrounds and upbringings, and how they influence people and how people rationalize their actions to themselves and to others.
Also, much of history is dominated by conflicts over beliefs, or at least by conflicts rationalized to be about beliefs, and beliefs can’t really be separated from ethics. I’ve always wondered how so many people can profess an ethical stance or religious belief… and then act against that belief while professing it. Those are at least a few of the reasons which such conflicts are a part of what I write.
Quantum Shadows is an exciting mix of fantasy, science fiction and mythology in a futuristic world. What was the inspiration behind this?
Quantum Shadows was a difficult and complex book for me, and it took over six years to write it, admittedly part-time and often on the side, although it’s less than half the length of many of my fantasies, the longest of which only took eight months to complete, but it was a book I absolutely had to write, and, when an author feels that way, it’s often hard to explain the basis of that feeling.
One of the inspirations was my long-standing fascination and interest in ravens. They’re certainly more intelligent than, say, eagles, which are so often exalted, and, until recently, ravens have been highly underrated. Another factor was a desire to explore the commonalities, differences, and conflicts in religion. And a third was to pose a series of questions about religion. I also wanted to tie in poetry with the story, because words – especially poetic words – are integral in some way or fashion to most religion.
Your previous works have commonly been multi-part series, but Quantum Shadows is a standalone. Were there any differences in your writing process for this book?
The biggest difference was that I continually, but intermittently, wrote parts of it over a period of years, but I can’t say that my writing process changed.
Your back catalogue of works is both vast and varied. Do you feel like your writing style has changed over the years?
I don’t think that my basic style has changed that much, but, in looking back at my earliest fiction work, it’s clear that I’ve improved, and I’ve also removed a few stylistic “tics” that didn’t set well with most readers. There’s also another factor to consider. I was almost forty when my first novel was published, and I’d been writing professionally in other non-fiction and technical and political fields for more than fifteen years so there might not have been as much change as there would have been if I’d been writing fiction from my early twenties.
Considering all your novels, is there a character you really enjoyed crafting and writing?
There’s really not any single character I enjoyed creating more than another. Some I enjoyed because of the challenge, particularly the first female protagonist – Anna Marshall from The Soprano Sorceress – or the five protagonists from Archform: Beauty, which I wrote with alternating chapters from different characters, each from the first-person viewpoint. Lorn, from Magi’i of Cyador and Scion of Cyador, was also just enjoyable, as was Taelya, from the forthcoming Recluce novel, Fairhaven Rising.
What is the best part about being an author?
For me, the best part is being able, within certain parameters, to create worlds and explore ideas that I can share with readers – and to make a comfortable living at it. It’s not something that I take for granted, because I wrote professionally and successfully [at least if you define selling every novel as success] for twenty years before I could afford to leave the series of day jobs to write full time.
I wouldn’t say that writing is fun or even enjoyable… although there are moments… but it’s immensely satisfying in the end.
Are there any particular authors or books that influence your work?
There are so many authors I’ve read over the years. Each of them has likely provided some influence, beginning with the poets, such as William Butler Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, even Kipling. As for the novelists, those in the F&SF field would have to include Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Heinlein, Alfred Bester, Gordy Dickson, Ursula LeGuin, Sheri Tepper, Arthur C. Clarke, Cordwainer Smith, Michael Moorcock, Keith Roberts, and Roger Zelazny… but they’re not the only ones, just the ones who come to mind immediately.
What are you currently reading and have you read anything recently that you could recommend to our readers?
What I’m currently reading are non-fiction periodicals, such as New Scientist, Scientific American, History, Archaeology, and The Economist. I seldom read fiction while I’m writing, unless I’m traveling, and, right now, I’m definitely not traveling.
The latest good F&SF that I read included Guy Gavriel Kay’s A Brightness Long Ago, The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemison, and A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. I also got to read an ARC of The Freedom Race by Lucinda Roy, which is a disturbing but fascinating look at a future America already split by another civil war, and it’s totally unlike any other scenarios of future America, either in narrative or style. But it’s likely to be a good year before it’s out from Tor.
Being almost halfway through 2020 I’d love to know what is next for you. Are you currently working on anything else?
Besides Quantum Shadows, which will be out in July, there are several other books that I’ve completed and that are in production. The next Recluce novel – Fairhaven Rising – will be out in February of 2021, and Isolate, the first book in a new series – The Grand Illusion – is scheduled for release in late 2021. I’m currently working on the sequel to Isolate, but since it’s not finished and won’t be for several months, I don’t know when it will see print.
I also just had a short story published in the anthology Fantastic Hope, put together by Laurell K. Hamilton, and recently turned in another –“Evanescence” – for a small press anthology called Shapers of Worlds that’s scheduled to be released this fall. It combines a creation myth, proto-solar-system dynamics, future deep space high-tech Oort Cloud exploration… and opera.
