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Interview with Richard J Galloway, author of Amantarra

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Tell us what Amantarra is about.
A race of beings called the Bruwnan, who, having reached the limits of what was technically possible in the universe, moved beyond it and into a set of dimensions of their own creation. Here, beyond the physical limitations of normal space time they created a virtual city called Valheel which was constructed on the inside of a sphere. For more than half the age of the universe the immortal occupants of Valheel refined the arts and sciences of the physical universe they had left behind. But how many times can you rehash a form of art? How does the mathematical rephrasing of Euclidian physics change the nature of it? Half the age of the universe is a long time to be bored. Amantarra couldn’t honestly put a finger on when she realised that something was wrong, the problem had been masked by the general lethargy that had descended on the city. Valheel had become a city of immortals that felt dead. Her father was the first to voice his concern; “people are disappearing” he confided to his two daughters. The Bruwnan were unaware of it, but they were at war with an unknown enemy. Three hundred thousand years before this story starts, Saranythia, Amantarra’s sister, had set out to do something about it. She was never heard from again. Now it was Amantarra’s turn, but despite her best efforts the battle follows her to Earth where she is forced into hiding. It’s in a small town in England that an unsuspecting John Godbert suddenly finds himself caught up in a war that is older than the human race. Not only is he caught up in it, he is the key to the survival of two species, human and Bruwnan.

What genre is it?
In the main Amantarra is science fiction, but there are fantasy, romantic and mystery elements to it as well. The whole plot is grounded in the everyday reality of an English industrial town, where some people are not as they seem, and some are unaware of what they are.

What kind of readers will it appeal to?
An easy question to ask, but a difficult one to answer; I suppose the simplest answer is that it appeals to me. So what do I like? I have a preference for reading works of fantasy like “Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin”, “Orcs by Stan Nicholls”, “The Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb” and “The Painted Man by Peter V. Brett”. I don’t tend to read much science fiction at the moment but I do like watching it, series like “Doctor Who”, “Stargate”, “Fringe” and “The Lost Room” feed my imagination along with films like “Avatar”. These sources have all had an influence on my writing but Amantarra is nothing like any of them, rather the essence of the worlds they represent is reflected in my work.

Complete this sentence for us: If you like_______________, you’ll love Amantarra.
The Painted Man by Peter V. Brett, Fringe or The Lost Room.

This has got to be the hardest question you’ve asked me.  I appreciate that a lot of readers won’t have heard of The Painted Man or The Lost Room but they are well worth a look.  The Painted Man hints at world of lost technology now besieged by demons. The Lost Room is about a motel room that has been ripped out of space time and opening any door using the key to that room leads back to it. The Fringe, well I imagine that a lot of readers will be aware of that series.

What can we expect from the rest of The Ascension of Valheel series? How many books will there be in it?
The Ascension of Valheel is intended to be a trilogy, I’m currently working on the second book which is entitled “Saranythia” and the story will certainly not end with this book. There will be a third book, but as for a fourth in the series, I simply don’t know yet.

What length of time does this book span from start to end? How do you manage to take readers along with you across such an expanse?
The total time span is thirty two thousand years which sounds like a lot, but I do skip a fair amount. I do this with a series of snapshots of the key events throughout time. More recent past events are shown as flashbacks and character recollections. The bulk of the action surrounds the protagonist John Godbert in the year 1976 where all the past events find a focus.

Tell us a bit about yourself.
An extraverted showman with a flair for self-promotion and a need to be the centre of attention; I could not in any way be described as any of these things. What I possess in abundance is a quiet empathy, a phobia of unfinished stories thanks to The Hobbit, an obsession with the mysterious, implausible world of fantasy, and an urge to write it all down. I like to take an ordinary everyday event and provide an alternative and slightly stranger explanation to its apparent meaning. My own term for this is “exposing the illusion of the ordinary”; it’s a sort of literary paranoid psychosis. Incidentally, if you want to know how The Hobbit is involved in all this, I wrote a blog about it.

Have you got a website where readers can keep up with your work? How can we follow you on Twitter and Facebook?
My web site is: http://www.richardjgalloway.co.uk , you can follow me on Twitter @rjgalloway1 and Amantarra’s Facebook address is: http://www.facebook.com/amantarra.

What’s next?
Amantarra is currently being translated into Italian and that version will probably be published sometime in the autumn. Meanwhile Saranythia is taking shape and I suspect it will be late in 2013 when it is released into the wild.

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  1. Pingback: Top 10 Books: Week ending March 29, 2013 | Indie Author Land

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