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| The Cronin Incident by Matthew Williams |
Describe your
hero, or heroes.
For starters, Elon
Musk. His ability to commit to ambitious plans and then make them happen has
never ceased to amaze me. Jeff Bezos is another, since he too is a major
innovator who is making change happen, especially where it counts (i.e. space
exploration!) Last, but definitely not least, there’s Chris Hadfield. There is
a man who really has done it all. In addition to being a pilot and the first
Canadian to command an ISS mission, he has gone on to become an inspirational
speaker and science communicator.
Tell us about your
main character.
The main character
of my story in Jeremiah Ward. He is a former, disgraced investigator whose
struggles with addiction led to the tragic deaths of two witnesses. For his
failure, he is now a convict laborer serving out a lengthy sentence on
Mercury’s mining colony. He grew up on Mars, in an era characterized by
post-scarcity, transhumanism, augmentation, and no limitations. After years of
chasing down human traffickers, smugglers and assorted scum, he turned to the
designer-drug Glo as a means of escape. What he craves now, however, is a shot
at redemption.
What type of setting
did you place your story in?
The story takes
place in the late 23rd century, where humanity has colonized the Solar System.
From Mercury to the Kuiper Belt, settlements exist on every planet, moons,
major asteroid, and in rotating cylinders around the Sun’s Lagrange Points. But
between the Inner Worlds of Venus, Earth and Mars and the Outer World (the
moons of Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus), a divide exists. Whereas the Inner Worlds
are bastions of development and post-Singularity technology, life in the Outer
Worlds is much more rugged and modest. There are those who fear that the line that
exists between the “Extros” (highly-advanced people) and “Retros” (traditional
people) could someday lead to open conflict.
What inspired your
story?
The idea was
largely inspired by my writing for Universe Today. After writing extensively
about the Solar System, I began to contemplate what life on its various
planets, moons and bodies would be like. At the same time, I had been thinking
of writing a story about what human colonization efforts would look like, and
what kinds of forces would drive it. In the end, I brought these two sources of
inspiration together and The Cronian
Incident was born!
Is your story a
part of a broader work or series?
The novel is part
of a planned trilogy which is named the Formist Series. The name refers to the faction
in the story (the Formists) who are dedicated to terraforming Mars. As you may
imagine, they are at the center of many intrigues in this series.
In four lines,
tell us about your story.
Jeremiah Ward was
just another convict serving out his sentence on the mining colony of Mercury. But
when a member of a high-profile Martian faction goes missing on Saturn’s moon
Titan, the disgraced investigator gets an offer he can’t refuse. In exchange
for looking into the disappearance of this man, his sentence will be commuted and
he will get a second shot at life. But the deeper Ward digs, the more he
realizes that this is not just a missing’s person case. What he finds is a conspiracy that was centuries in
the making, and a shot at redemption that could end up costing him his life.
More than
four lines, sorry. That is the shortest description I could give ;)
Who is your
favorite author or book series?
1984, by George Orwell
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Rainbow’s End, by Vernor Vinge
Guns, Germs and
Steel,
by Jared Diamond
A Short History of
Progress, by
Ronald Wright
Rendezvous with
Rama and 2001: A Space Odyssey, by
Arthur C. Clarke
The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson
The Sprawl Trilogy, by Williams
Gibson
The Foundation series, by Isaac
Asimov
Accelerando and Halting State, by Charles Stross
The Dune series, by Frank Herbert
The Revelation Space series, by Alastair
Reynolds
What are you
working on now?
At the moment, I am busy working on the
sequel to The Cronian Incident. Titled The Jovian Manifesto, this book picks
up where the first left off and should be available in the near future!
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| Matthew Williams |
About the Author
Matthew
S Williams is a professional writer and former educator who lives on Vancouver
Island with his wife and family. His articles have been featured in Universe
Today, HeroX, Popular Mechanics, Business Insider, Gizmodo and IO9, with topics
ranging from astronomy and Earth sciences to technological innovation and
environmental issues.
Follow
Williams at:
storiesbywilliams.com
castrumpress.com
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