Adrift is the fifth book in the thrilling Donovan sci-fi series and returns to a treacherous alien planet where corporate threats and dangerous creatures imperil the lives of the colonists.
We chat to author W. Michael Gear about Adrift, writing, what’s next, book recommendations, and so much more!
Hello! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hello right back! Delighted to have this opportunity to talk a bit about ADRIFT! I am W. Michael Gear, a New York Times, USA Today and international bestselling author. I’m best known for co-authoring the “People” series of novels about early Native American culture with my wife, Kathleen O’Neal Gear. Together we have somewhere around 17 million copies in print world wide and have been translated into 29 languages, not counting the ones that were pirated. By academic training I’m an anthropologist with a Master’s degree in physical anthropology, and I’ve worked as a professional archaeologist for most of my career. I’ve published 22 novels under my own name, and 38 co-authored with Kathleen. ADRIFT is the 5th book in the critically acclaimed Donovan series, about a mining planet thirty lightyears from Earth.
How is your 2021 going in comparison to that other year?
Frickin’ busy!!! As a result of COVID and the vagaries of the publishing business, Kathleen and I have three novels laying down in the month of June!
Originally, Kathleen’s stunning THE ICE LION: BOOK ONE OF THE REWILDING REPORTS was scheduled for May, but COVID put the printer in a bind (Is that a cute pun, or what?) which pushed the release back to June. Same month ADRIFT had been scheduled. Rather than bollox up the entire schedule, her book will be released on June 15. It’s an outstanding cli-fi novel set a thousand years in the future when attempts to fix global warming have gone really wrong. In an effort to save life on earth, scientists have cloned Pleistocene species, including humans. Kathleen has a scene in the book where young Lynx has fallen into a crevasse; that cold despire as he freezes into the ice still haunts me to this day. Publishers Weekly waxed thus: “This mesmerizing adventure through a world destroyed by climate change is sure to have readers hooked.” The novel will be followed by her THE ICE GHOST next spring, and she’s just finishing THE ICE ORPHAN and will deliver it to DAW Books in the the next month. I’m just hoping that unlike her book THE MAZE MASTER, with its pandemic, that the ICE books don’t come true!
Adding to the mix, I sold Wolfpack Publishing a novel titled DISSOLUTION, a novel that reviewers are calling “a YA, Post-Apocalyptic, Science Fiction, Contemporary Western Thriller.” The story is about an archaeological field school that travels to the Wyoming back country to excavate a high-altitude Archaic village. Only to have the country collapse into chaos while they’re gone. As an archaeologist/anthropologist, I’ve been writing about cultural collapse for decades. Now I turn that lens on our own civilization. Publishers Weekly says, “Gear’s impeccable detail work and timely references…make for a dystopian world that feels too immediate and all to plausible. This harrowing future is sure to linger in readers’ minds.” Kirkus says, “An absorbing, realistic dystopian tale with a superb cast.” Not only is June the second strongest month for book sales, but Wolfpack wanted to release it in the same month that we were receiving the Owen Wister Award from the Western Writers of America and being inducted into the Western Writers Hall of Fame. Both remarkable honors.
Which brings us to ADRIFT! This is the 5th novel in the Donovan series that starts with OUTPOST, is followed by ABANDONED, PARIAH, and UNRECONCILED. The fans have been wanting to get a look at Donovan’s oceans for some time now. And I’m always delighted to fulfill their wishes!
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
Not even hard! Kenneth Robson (aka Lester Dent) wrote a Doc Savage novel called THE PHANTOM CITY. I was nine. On the floor of the back seat of the folks’ car, driving on vacation between Phoenix and Tucson. Mom, an English teacher, read everything her students were into. At the time, she had boys in her classes who were fanatical about Doc Savage. To her dismay, I wasn’t a reader. I hated the bland pap and insipid things they wanted me to read in school. All of a sudden, I open the pages of THE PHANTOM CITY and there are trained vampire bats, Doc, Monk, Renny, Ham, and Johnny? A lost city in Africa with platinum gates? Scary bad guys? What’s not to love? Changed my whole approach to reading.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
When I was 8 and wrote my first novel. Then, it really started to hit home in the eighth grade. In Mrs. Redderson’s English class. I made the cognitive jump to the realization that I could write like my favorite authors wrote. I could use words and descriptions like they did. Writing suddenly became art, and fun, and not just process.
Adrift is the fifth installment in your Donovan series and it’s out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Dark, complex, deadly maritime children.
What can readers expect?
If you have never read OUTPOST, ABANDONED, PARIAH, or UNRECONCILED, you can still read ADRIFT and not be lost. It’s a lot like a stand-alone read. The Maritime Unit is new to the planet just like you are, so you can get into the groove at the same time they do. That’s one of the strengths of the book.
What can long-time readers expect? The Gear Fan Club on Facebook has been all over this for the last four months. They know that when the Maritime Unit places their research station out on that reef five hundred kilometers from shore, that it’s just not going to end well. An early reviewer asked, “Should this be categorized as horror?” Even Kathleen thinks I somehow channeled Stephen King. And, yeah, little Felix and the kids end up being really spooky. Of course, this being Donovan, there are big toothy beasties.That’s like a trademark. And, being a Donovan book, everything the humans are expecting, the decisions they make, the dangers they anticipate, all of it’s going to be wrong. Part of the pleasure I get out of writing the Donovan books comes from setting the reader up to anticipate one thing, then whacking the story in a direction they didn’t see coming.
And yes, the old familiar characters still have a role to play. For Kalico, her mine is in trouble, she has to try and save the Maritime Unit from themselves, and figure out just exactly how to fix her screwed up social life—and if Dek is the way to do it. Dek, meanwhile, has his own troubles with rampant quetzal molecules taking over his brain, while Talina’s desperate in her attempts to keep him from killing himself. And, no, I don’t write simple novels.
Can you tell us about any challenges you faced while writing this latest installment and how you were able to overcome them?
Sorry. ADRIFT was a delight. Kathleen and I had lost a year’s worth of writing time with the sale of Red Canyon Ranch, the bison, the office in town, finding a new place, moving our 30,000 copy library, fixing, inspecting, and all that comes of a major real estate sale and relocation. We got the new house livable, most of the books up, and I went to work. ADRIFT just seemed to flow. One of those magical books, that all authors hope and pray for. Each day was an adventure, filled with, “oh wows” and “what ifs” that just seemed to spill out of that wondrous hole in the page.
But, you want to talk about LIGHTNING SHELL, the final book in the PEOPLE OF CAHOKIA series? That’s been like pulling teeth with mangled pliars! But after the skull sweat, angst, and pain, we think it’s a fitting end to the prehistory books.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring more in this installment?
Ha! See above! This entire novel was fun! But if I had to pick a few scenes, I’d say Felix splashing in the water for the first time. Long-time Donovan readers are going to be saying, “Don’t do that! That’s not going to end well!” I loved writing the submarine scene, and especially Jaim and Varina’s submarine being towed into the depths by the “lobster monster.” That happens right at mid-point in the book, when things are about to go from bad to worst. I also got a high from exploring Two Falls Gap with Talina and Dek. Those were just little moments of delight. The biology is always fascinating. Each of the creatures has to be real. And by that, I mean they have to be biomechanically feasible as well as viable within their environment. The physics have to work. No Geiger aliens with impossible physiology. Hey, I was trained as a physical anthropologist. Creatures have to follow rules of limb size, weight, mobility, and meet criteria that a zoologist can read and say, “Yeah, I can believe that’s real.”
The world building is one of the most fun things about Donovan.
What’s the best and the worst writing advice you have received?
Best advice: “What do your characters want? What are they willing to do to get it?” Those two questions are key to making any novel work. And “Whatever you start to write, make yourself finish it.” If you get bored, make it fun again. Break a character’s leg. Throw someone in the mud. Ask yourself the questions that started this paragraph. They hold the answers.
Worst advice: “Hi! I’m a literary agent. Sign here. I’m here to help you.”
What’s next for you?
I’m currently finishing the edit and revisions on LIGHTNING SHELL. It will be delivered to Forge Books next week. This is the last of the “People” books. It’s been a good run. Twenty-nine titles and tens of millions of readers around the globe. But all series end, and the market has changed. People are no longer interested in prehistory.
As soon as LIGHTNING SHELL goes in, I pick up the manuscript for IMPLACABLE ALPHA. When the Penguin Random House censors were savaging ALPHA ENIGMA last year, my editor and I agreed to put the book on hold. Trying to write with a political censor staring over my shoulder was terrifying. Now, a year later, I’ve had time to come to terms with what censorship means and what I’m going to do about it. Screw ‘em! I’m going to write the book like I think it should be written. But damn, talk about a sobering, chilling, and soul-killing experience. Who would have ever thought we’d have censorship in America–or that it would be the publisher who demanded it?
After delivery of IMPLACABLE ALPHA, I’m contracted for Donovan Book No.6. Can’t wait to write that. I’ll be picking up Kylee’s story some three years after the events in ADRIFT. As long as the fans keep buying Donovan novels, I’m really hyped to write them. So much of the planet, the wildlife, the politics, remain to be explored.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
Do yourselves a favor! Pick up a copy of Kathleen O’Neal Gear’s THE ICE LION from DAW Books. It lays down on the 15th of June. The early reviews have been raves, 4.67 stars last I checked on Goodreads. In addition, the audio rights went to a three-way auction. Lots of excitement and anticipation out there. Not only that, but the ideas are unique and wonderfully executed.
Curious about Name change in Adrift to TAG lione vs TAlione in previous books , very obvious in audio books . I have relistened 3 times . Love the series !