ARCHIVED REVIEWS & INTERVIEWS
WHAT THE CRITICS SAY...
"A new writer who knows what a regular reader sitting on the bus wants- action. Pure Die Hard, pure Rambo. This has got to be a film, surely?" -LADSMAG on WARHEAD
"Spiral, a renegade agency kicking out against a corrupt government which rules over a desolate post-nuclear planet... a gritty hero with a heart of gold... villains with disfigured faces... black-clad agents of the government... Remic should do us all a favour and use his chainsaw skills- saving us from a future of clichéd characters, dialogue and plots." -SFX on WARHEAD.
"... a free-for-all punch-up, relentless and breathless and hugely enjoyable, and for no extra cost it's all held together by a clever storyline. A good read? Most definitely!" -SFRevu on QUAKE
"A hard-talkin', hard swearin', hard-fightin' chunk of military sci-fi." -SFX on QUAKE
"SPIRAL is your typical pulpy thriller... conspiracies, secret organisations, nuclear devices, supercomputers, car and bike and plane chases, and an endless string of fistfights and gun battles... you can't really go wrong with Spiral, and it makes for an action-filled page-turner..." -The Alien Online, on SPIRAL
"Remic makes an Eli Roth film look like an outing to the vegetable market. Insanely bloody, violent and sick, this really is a new breed of kickass military SF gore. You MUST read all his novels!"- James McEvoy.
"The freewheeling adventure is high on action and hardware... frenetic violence... SPIRAL is obviously heavily inspired by the ultra-violent action movies of the 1980s... for the first time ever, I have read a book.." -Patrick Hudson, The Zone, on SPIRAL
ARCHIVED REVIEWS...
Quake
Review by Richard Cobbett
Publication: SFX November 2004
www.sfx.co.uk
Here's a fun game to play. Find a willing friend with an assault rifle, grab a copy of QUAKE, close your eyes, and throw it open at a random page. Open your eyes. If, somewhere on that spread, you don't see the word "fuck", "fucker", "fucked" or some other variant that would get you kicked out of kindergarten sharpish, said friend shoots you in the face. It's not that every page spits out what our conservative friends refer to as "the foullest of foul words", but holy ferking schnitt, does it feel like it ...
From this, you can probably surmise that QUAKE is a hard-talkin', hard swearin', hard-fightin' chunk of military sci-fi. Left corner: Carter, conflicted, tough-as-nails killing machine working for the covert agency Spiral. Luckily, things quickly become less predictable. Remic steers well clear of the standard Hero That Women Want and Men Want To Be template, with Carter not only being in a loving relationship and awaiting fatherhood, but waging his own secret war with his alter-ego Kade - a bloodthirsty inner-demon living in his head.
Likewise, the plot is rather more convoluted than it may first appear. Taking a while to warm up and reintroduce characters and themes from its prequel SPIRAL, QUAKE quickly sets up a suitably epic, world-spanning adventure mixing explosive doomsday weapons, genetically-engineered supersoldiers, brand new super-super soldiers, and a metric ton of shoot-outs. It's extremely readable, with plenty of fun characters, although as so often happens, the tech aspects do tend to get in the way. Thankfully, though, the book more firmly keeps the action human level throughout.
QUAKE is a surprisingly enjoyable slice of military action. Fast-paced and rarely subtle, it probably won't stay in your memory too long, but it does make for a much more diverting read than your average Tom-Clancy pot-boiler. It's worth grabbing SPIRAL first, however, as this is very much a continuation of that book's story.
**** four stars (out of five).
Quake by Andy Remic
Review by Antony Wagman/ SFREVU
Publisher:Orbit Paperback: ISBN 1841492043
PubDate: September 2004 List price £6.99
In the short time I’ve been reviewing, I’ve covered a number of recent
Orbit releases (including
Nylon Angel by Marianne de Pierre and
Jane Jensen’s
Dante’s Equation)
Andy Remic is a young British writer hailing from my own home town of Manchester. The biography notes in Quake, his second novel, reveal that this author is an expert in Pentjak Silat, a fierce Indonesian martial art and given that I might bump into Remic on my local high street, I’m relieved to be able to tell you that I rather liked his novel!
Quake is a direct sequel to Spiral (reviewed previously by John Berlyne) and not having had the pleasure of reading that first novel, I could have done with some background on diving into this new one. My beef here is the same point I made in my review of Brook’s Tanequil last month – with the fir
The result of almost exclusively reading only Asimov in my formative years has left me as an adult with a slight distaste for most science fiction. (Oy! Who threw that tomato?) I know that is not the way it is supposed to work, however I have no control over my synapses and unless there is immediate evidence of a lion, a witch or a wardrobe, I start to switch off. I’m first and foremost a fantasy fan and so in sciffy terms it takes something special to grab my interest. Well, Quake has that special something. Let me first qualify this statement - Quake is not earth moving, ground breaking, genre shattering or any other such clichés – what it is though, is simply great fun and completely and joyously unbelievable.
Carter is a senior member of Spiral (think 007 without the smarmy, debonair attitude, without Moneypenny and without the suit!) a covert organization whose main aim seems to be to eradicate the Nex . Nex are humans that, Jeff Goldblum-like in The Fly, have been genetically modified using a prehistoric microwave oven and a mouthful of cockroaches ( I jest ye not!). By the by, Carter shares his consciousness with Kade – (who I assume was introduced with full pomp and ceremony in Spiral), a megalomaniac, homicidal lunatic – kind of Mr Hyde to Carter’s Doctor Jekyll.
Carter has to save the lives of his girlfriend and unborn child by finding the microwave, destroying the Nex and yup – saving the world! He is, in these tasks, assisted by several other Spiral operatives, seemingly loosely based on The Fantastic Four’s Thing, The Incredible Hulk and Jaws from the James Bond films. When Carter runs out of steam, in steps Kade and off we go again. On and on it goes – the action scenes are great, the killing scenes are on the repulsive side of graphic and the “toys” (airplanes, tanks, helicopters &etc) are straight from Q’s laboratory!
Quake is a free-for-all punch-up, relentless and breathless and hugely enjoyable and for no extra cost, it’s all held together by a clever storyline. A good read? Most definitely! And the threat of Pentjak Silat not influencing me in the slightest, I would read anything else our Mancunian friend produces. Nice one our Andy!
www.KIWIreviews.co.nz
SPIRAL review
score 9.3/10
I have to admit here that I have kinda cheated. I got my hands on the second book in the Spiral Ops series first. There usually is something lost from a story's tense moments, if you know in advance who the real bad guys are, who's going to survive the current gripping dramatic encounter, what the REAL 'Big Secret' actually is, and all that. Usually, I find it ruins things to enough of a degree I just go through the motions of reading it for the sake of filling in the blanks in the story, and not really for the sheer enjoyment of throwing myself into someone else's imagination.
Thankfully, Andy Remic is a great storyteller, and even knowing the outcome I found myself getting totally immersed into Carter's world, a world of survival second to none. Even the ever-resourceful James Bond would not live more than a week in this world. A world where a single super-computer can access, well, anything and everything, over-ride any and all security and use the resources it finds as it sees fit. A world where two men, claiming the ultimate sanity, create unbeatable assassins and murder people in the name of the preservation of peace for all mankind. A world of weapons, in common use, that we can barely dream of. It's a terrifying word, and you just can't help but be buried in it within the first few chapters.
Setting the stage well for the second Spiral Ops story, this has to me a winner for any fan of Action-Fi, Technobuff or Virtual Soldier-in-Training. With drama, tension, tension, blasting action, impossible deadlines, and a really nifty technotwist... this has it all, in spades.
Overall, a stunning debut for this young British teacher from Greater Manchester, well worth the effort to find and read, even if it's just from the local Library.
To view website please follow: www.KIWIreviews.co.nz
SPIRAL by Andy Remic
A pulpy, action-oriented thriller that doesn't really rise above its admittedly unpretentious intentions
Submitted by: Geneva
Melzack/ the ALIEN ONLINE
On: 15.10.2003
Andy Remic's Spiral is a book that really, really wants to be a movie. It would settle for being a computer game, but you can tell that in its heart it feels it's really an all out action thriller blockbuster.
The titular 'Spiral' is an extremely powerful international organisation that covertly operates to oppose terrorism, acts of war, corruption, etc. and generally works to keep the world as peaceful as possible. The story opens with teams of Spiral's agents, known DemolSquads, being picked off by sinister assassins, which is just the start of a grander attack on Spiral as an organisation. Most of the action focuses on the brutish hero-figure of Carter, one of Spiral's ex-operatives who is called in to help deal with the situation and gradually gets sucked deeper and deeper into a web of conspiracy, violence and betrayal.
Remic's writing is pretty pedestrian, but at least its ordinariness makes it easy to read and easy to read fast. The nature of the conspiracy thriller plot means that Spiral is the kind of book that has the reader racing through the pages to keep up with the action. However, sometimes the lack of imagination in the writing style lends a certain crudity to the feel of the book.
This sense of crudity is enhanced by the extensive, and quite possibly excessive, use of swear words in the mouths of practically every one of the characters, as well as scattered throughout the narrative. There's an awful lot of f**kinf, c**ting, f**king up the a***, and so on. This kind of language would have been appropriate in the mouths of some of the characters, but it isn't suitable for all of them, and when it's being expressed in the author's own voice it sounds merely unimaginative and inarticulate.
As well as a crudity of language there's also something of a crudity of characterisation in Spiral. It's not so much that the characters are fairly flat - Spiral is after all a thriller and, as such, is all about the action and the plot, so only needs to develop the characters insofar as this development will contribute to that plot - but that some of the characterisation is actually vaguely offensive.
All the women in the book are described in terms of their sexual attractiveness, and the only major female character is frequently accused of being a manipulative creature whose seductive wiles put her loyalty and truthfulness in doubt. At one point Spiral also features an embarrassingly explicit sex scene, which, because it is so unnecessary, only adds to the general sense of crudity.
It is perhaps the basic quality of the writing that makes Spiral feel like it's actually aspiring to be the aforementioned film. There are many scenes, particularly the fight scenes and car and motorbike chases, that would look excellent on the big screen, but fall somewhat flat when they're described in print. The story also takes us to a number of fabulous locations - the wilds of Scotland, Kenya, the Arctic wastes - but you get the impression that these would all be better seen than written about.
And it would also be much easier to appreciate the love affair that the characters in Spiral have with their technology if we were able to see that technology for ourselves. If we were to be shown a gleaming motorbike, a polished car, a roaring aircraft, or a sleek weapon, then we might get more excited than we do when given a bland series of numbers and letters and a technical name for some vehicle or gun.
In essence, Spiral is your typical pulpy thriller. You've got the stock 2D characters (the indefatigable hero, the stunning but possibly treacherous love-interest, the unstoppable evil archenemy); the plot too is stock stuff (conspiracies, secret organisations, nuclear devices, supercomputers, car and bike and plane chases, and an endless string of fistfights and gun battles).
But in its defence, Spiral never pretends to be anything other than pure pulp, and with all these stock elements at least you know what you're getting. If you like that kind of stuff, then you can't really go wrong with Spiral, and it makes for an action-filled page-turner if nothing else.
ARCHIVED INTERVIEWS
THE ALIEN ONLINE November 2005
“Andy Remic on new thriller Warhead”
Interview by: Sandy Auden
Andy Remic's new futuristic military thriller, Warhead, is a mixture of high speed adventure and deep philosophical questions.
Warhead is set in the same world as Remic's Spiral and Quake novels, where a secret organisation known as SPIRAL exists to fight a shadow war against fanatics and rogue states of every creed and political persuasion. Carter is a highly trained operative in SPIRAL but they've been driven underground. The earth has been devastated by a nuclear holocaust and humanity is trapped under the iron fist of a new world government. But the promises of salvation are lies and a fate even more terrible awaits mankind. Not even Carter has faced an enemy who is prepared to destroy the entire planet to get what he wants…
One of Remic's most interesting creations for these novels has been the Nex, genetically modified insect-soldiers and their role has been increasing with each novel. "The Nex have evolved in three ways for Warhead," said Remic. "The first: they have grown in global stature, and as the balance of power has shifted from Man to Nex, so too has the role of these insect-soldiers.
"Second, they have come to realise the Grand Plan of Durell (their Creator) and are fighting more powerfully towards a single realised goal. If anything, they are far more savage than before. And third, and most importantly, certain Nex have started to question their position in the scheme of things. They have started to develop emotions, morals, empathy. They have started to turn against their Creator and God. In Warhead, nothing is black and white; positions of good and evil blur and shift like quicksand."
As the Nex question why they're here, Remic also examines other themes. "I wanted to look at the effects Man becoming God. Humankind's innate ability to apotheosise - to rise so far ahead of his so-called brethren that he becomes an unrealistic and dictatorial elite. You only have to look at politicians, dictators, rock stars ... and the mess they can make of the world.
"I also wanted to subvert SPIRAL's position from that of global protector to that of a hunted and almost extinct animal. In the previous novels they had way too much power; I wanted the poor guys and girls of Spiral to really struggle this time round. And third, my favourite theme, the duality of man's mind and soul. Carter and Kade - opposites seeking the same goal. It's just beautiful watching their complex relationship unwind and revelling in their uneasy hate-filled cooperation. And this time round, you finally discover exactly what Kade is."
All these deep meanings are wrapped up in a fast paced plot, but are they as fast paced to write? "Sometimes, yes," said Remic, "Because I have a low boredom threshold and hammer through with the (previously planned and intricately detailed) adventures like a man possessed. I am a workaholic and love getting my teeth into a project.
"The fight scenes are the easiest, or when a particular aspect of character/ plot conflict rises to climax. Sometimes I have a damned scene in my head for months just waiting to be written - and when I get there, I just can't wait, I fight to get to my keyboard and the words flow like a dark river of blood. Writer's block? Ha!
"However, there are some scenes which take forever to write - complex scenes, tying up scenes, or a scene where I'm trying to get a particular point across and it's just not working.
"If it's a large novel, when you get about half way through, sometimes doubts can start nagging and paranoia can kick you in the guts. With such a big project you can tie yourself in knots, or realise that a certain aspect, character or theme isn't quite working and you have to go back and do a lot of re-writing. This can be demoralising if no end is in sight, and it's a rainy February morning, and the cat has just died.
"And editing - the first few edits are fine, but God, when you've been through a damned book about eight times (on Warhead, that would equate to an edit of 1.4 million words!) you're just glad to see the back of it. Until it's in print, of course, and then you hold the freshly bound jewel in your eager sweating hands and it's just - ahhhh, my baby. Exquisite. Worth the hell."
Warhead is available now from Orbit publishers.
ORBIT interview November 2005.
For those new to your work, can you tell us a little bit about the background to the Spiral books?
SPIRAL are a high-tech covert organisation working beyond the reach of global governments and the military. SPIRAL's fight is a fight against terrorism and genocide; a fight against evil in all its forms.
The main body of SPIRAL consists of Demolition Squads, usually ex-military, secret service and computing personnel who carry out high-tech missions - with lots of guns, bombs, motorbikes and gadgets at their disposal. SPIRAL's toughest operative is a man named CARTER - think James Bond on acid, a man haunted by an inner demon called KADE whom sometimes takes possession of his body during moments of intense battle. CARTER is addicted to whisky, his loving woman and his little boy. And yet time after time he is dragged away from a peaceful life - back into the savage war between SPIRAL and their enemies.
SPIRAL's major adversary are a race of creatures called The Nex, a blend of insect and human. Genetically spliced, The Nex have much increased strength, agility and speed, an enhanced immune system and a resistance to chemical, biological and radioactive toxins. The Nex lack emotions and are lethal killing machines without remorse.
The main bad guy is a genetic deviation named Durell, who plans to wipe out mankind, bring about a new world order of evolution, and elevate The Nex to the platform of God.
Against this army of desecration Carter and a rag-tag band of SPIRAL operatives must wage their shadow war; they include MONGREL, a tufty toothless squaddie with a love of kebabs and decadent women, THE PRIEST, a religious maniac obsessed with Volvos and smiting the enemy tooth and claw, and ROXI, cool and calculating, athletic and graceful - probably the most dangerous woman ever to walk the planet.
Did the idea for these books come to you fully realised or did you have one
particular starting point from which it grew?
I started off with two core strands I
wished to implement. The first was that of a massive global covert
organization working for the good of mankind, against the most extremes of
evil such as terrorist threat and paedophile rings. The second strand was
that of Carter, tortured by his inner demon, hardcore and willing to go to
extremes in the name of good. The rest of the characters and plotlines
developed from these two main elements. I always hoped the concept would pan
into a trilogy (which it did), and yet tried very hard to make each book an
independent read. I suppose the whole thing has deviated and mutated as I've
written and progressed;
Warhead is the current culmination of the
ethos of Carter and SPIRAL and - technically - the third and final novel,
although I have had a recent plethora of ideas for another three SPIRAL
books to be written at some unspecified future time.
Your books straddle what seems to be an
ever-shrinking divide between SF and thriller; do you think it's a good
thing that these boundaries are blurring? Do you consider yourself an SF
writer or a thriller writer?
I think writers will always straddle boundaries of genre because writers write what they want to write, and do not conform to a tick-list designed for easy book-shop categorisation. I personally like sci-fi and thrillers, I have a very low boredom threshold and for me a fast-paced novel is great. And I love the wonder of sci-fi, so it makes sense to mix the two.
As reader and author - for me personally - it's great these boundaries of skiffy and thriller are blurring - but for the bigger picture, I'm not so sure. These things are often dictated by buying trends and sales figures, in turn dictating commissioned work; so if the lines are blurring then it's because that's what people are buying: future-echoes of a society model accelerating and reaching meltdown perhaps? Maybe more meditation and an absence of petrol would be a good start, would slow everybody down and we could regress to long-drawn out social and psychological commentaries on the nature of id. J
In terms of my own categorization, I
think I just class myself simply as: writer. I have scripted heroic fantasy
and scrawled horror novels in the past. And I wrote sci-fi for years when
the market was in a slump ... I just love writing the stuff I write now
though: fast-paced hardcore military sci-fi thrillers. My books are a blend
of my favourite genres; hell, in
Warhead there's even a little bit of
romance and comedy! So then, if I need to be categorized it's as a sci-fi/
thriller/ horror/ comedy/ romance writer.
It's said more and more - particularly now that
we're in the 21st century - that we're actually living in the future. Do you
think this makes it harder or easier to write SF?
I think the main thing for me about sci-fi is evoking a sense of wonder; and the world one lives in doesn't really tend to evoke wonder because when you feed the cat, drive to work, fill in your tax returns - these things are just things you need to do and they are dull. Sci-fi is about what it could be like, or what it should be like ... and writers will always project, imagine, explore, entertain. There are some technological advancements, be them AI, biological, chemical, military, computing - that influence works, and to some extent can make writing in the sci-fi genre easier - and that's great. But there will always be those far-future imaginations that are so far removed from today's existence that the next thousand generations of genetically modified humans could never see them come to light. I don't believe we're living in the future - we live in the present. The future is bright and sparkly and looks like it could be a fun place to be. Unless the human race exterminate themselves first . . .
If the Spiral books were ever filmed, who would you like to see directing and acting in them?
I love Ridley Scott, James Cameron and Quentin Tarantino as directors, and I think the new string of Brit-talent could do some great work with my books - Danny Boyle, Guy Ritchie and Neil Marshall ... and of course, if Spielberg were to make me a generous offer, well ........
Actors: Hmm. Tough one. Jason Statham
would make a perfect Carter; Nats would have to be Connie Nielsen or Claire
Danes, Keira Knightley in PVC would make a great Roxi, Arnold Schwarzenegger
- a brilliant aged version of The Priest. R. Lee Ermy would blast out a
superb Sgt Simmo, and Mongrel ... ahh, Mongrel would just HAVE to be played
by Brian Blessed. No one else in the world could do it! Get that lot
together on a set and watch the sparks fly!!
Changing tack a little, do you have any particular
favourites? Authors who have influenced your work?
I think the biggest influence when I was
younger, if the truth be known, was
David Gemmell. I just absolutely loved the
heroic fantasy setting, the realistic fight scenes and sweeping battles, and
the ethos of good always triumphing over evil. I suppose every writer is
influenced a little bit when he reads something superlative; Hemmingway,
Orwell, Moorcock,
Banks, Phil Dick, all have their little
input slot in my brain. I try very hard not to write like anybody else, I
try very hard not to be influenced. After all, I want to write like me -
which - hopefully, I do.
How extensively
do you plot your novels before you start writing them? Or do you prefer to
let the story roam where it will?
No no no! No roaming for me! I always
plot meticulously; sometimes there are deviations along the way, but I
always have to know what the ending is going to be and what little
intricacies must slot together making the puzzle a well-fitting whole. I
tried the "make it up as you go along" method - twice - and both works just
fell apart halfway through when I became so entangled I could not extricate
myself. 150,000 words down the toilet. Thus: I plan.
Some authors
talk of their characters 'surprising' them by their actions; is this
something that has happened to you?
Yes, a few times. When writing
Warhead I became so involved in writing I
was living it. I remember making a cup of coffee looking out on my back
garden, and I could see Mongrel and Carter fighting the Nex ... I could hear
their conversations in my head all the time, and despite what I said earlier
about planning, the end of
Warhead surprised the bejesus out of me. I
had it planned - and it all went out of the window because my characters
wanted to do it a different way. The single ending became three endings -
and the last 20,000 words went straight down - needed practically no
editing. Those guys in my book dictated to me! The buggers.
And finally,
what's next for Andy Remic?
I've been working on a couple of
different novels recently, but my new prime direction seems to be more the
far-future sci-fi military thriller realms, as opposed to the near-future of
the SPIRAL novels. I have started serious work on COMBAT K, which will have
the most incredible action and fight sequences I have ever written across a
myriad of colourful violent alien planets - but we'll just have to wait and
see what materializes from my deviant mind. Let's just say there will
probably be more sci-fi in my sci-fi in the near future.
Thank you very
much, Andy Remic!
Writing Magazine [vol11, no10]
My Writing Day & My Writing Place, October 2005.
What time do you get up? Do you feed the cat, walk the dog or collect the eggs from the chickens?
I usually get up between 6 and 7am (the joys of a young child!) but am a walking zombie until 9am, several coffees and a good breakfast. I check emails, take the dog for a quick walk, and generally transmogrify from my grumpy old man state into that of thankful smiling human being.
What about exercise and breakfast? Do you run five miles and have a bowl of muesli or read the paper and pig out on a fry-up? (No-one ever says the latter.)
I exercise irregularly; I have no set pattern, but enjoy mountain biking over the moors (especially in the ice), running, Thai boxing, squash and occasionally mountain climbing. I sometimes enjoy a fried breakfast, sometimes nothing but a solitary lonesome banana.
Who do you live with? Family, children, animals, alone?
I live with my wife, Sonia, little boy, Joe, old chocolate Labrador, Samson, two cats Molly and Toffee and several esoteric fish. I still don’t understand why you would want to eat your best friend’s eyes the minute he/ she dies.
Where do you live? Somewhere unusual, ordinary, town, city, country, remote?
I live in an ordinary house at the edge of the countryside and moors, where I like to free my soul from suburban shackles by biking out in the wilderness. My conservatory looks out over Greenbelt and is very soothing for the soul.
How many books have you written and what is your latest title?
I have written several unpublished novels – all part of the writer’s learning curve - but my first published work was SPIRAL, which came out in 2003, my second was QUAKE, 2004, and my latest title is WARHEAD.
How do you begin writing a book?
I usually begin with a central concept and the main characters wandering around my head for a couple of months, gestating and evolving and bickering with one another. I will then write out the first chapter, plan out the first half of the book and write to this marker. Then I plan to the penultimate chapter, write to this and allow the ending to surprise me. Finally, I do two edits to tidy and polish and generally add tasty fruit to the fibre base.
Tell us about your latest.
WARHEAD, although a standalone novel, is also the climax to the loosely coined SPIRAL “trilogy” and culminates with themes and ideas that were begun in SPIRAL, developed in QUAKE and finalized here on this wholesome gruesome platter.
WARHEAD concerns the eve of the fall of the world, where a race of creatures - The Nex - a blend of genetically modified insect and human, have herded mankind into the open-air prisons of all major global cities by the deployment of a brutal biological weapon called HATE. All global governments and military powers have been effectively smashed, and our heroes, the intrepid SPIRAL – once an all powerful secret organization working against terrorism and global anarchy - is teetering on the brink of extinction. Spiral have been driven savagely underground by the boot of dictator.
Our hero, Carter, has retired from active service and seeks nothing more than a quiet life on the island of Cyprus, looking after his son and mourning his recently murdered wife. However, when he is betrayed by an old friend, coerced into an assassination which further condemns Spiral, and then witnesses the kidnapping of his son by the bad guys – with the sole aim of forcing Carter into delivering a MicroNuke to Spiral’s heart and core - Carter is forced to fight, and returns into the arena of War: with devastating results.
Aided by a colourful cast of extras, the novel surges from London to New York, Greenland to Tibet, Norway to Antarctica as Carter searches for the last hope for mankind – an Evolution Class Warhead capable of destruction on an awesome planetary scale. Betrayal and mistrust is high on the agenda, however, and plot evolutions twist and turn as our gathering of rag-tag heroes discover too late that they are merely pawns on a much larger game-board.
Think James Bond on military acid, Vin Diesel with an intelligent plot, Disney, without the nice guys - combined with trace elements of horror, sci fi, romance and comedy. A heady brew. A cauldron of interwoven genres. A page-turner of epic, sweeping vision and grandeur.
Do you write directly onto a computer or prefer to work first drafts long-hand?
I work straight onto a computer. I have three PC systems, a laptop and a PDA with a foldable keyboard, the last two being handy for holidays and weekends away. I never go anywhere without my writing kit. You just never know when that naughty bullying scene will force you up at 3am to write it. The mental helve of persuasive creation is extremely effective.
Any time-displacement activities?
No. There’s not enough time in my life to write all the stories I need to write. What’s the point of wasting time? Get writing! It’s the best tonic.
Do you go out to do your research?
Sometimes. For example, when researching NYC for WARHEAD I visited Manhattan and Ground Zero. I prefer to have done the activities I write about, prefer to have visited the places I portray. However, Carter’s military skills far outweigh my modest attempts at being a toy-soldier. I have never piloted a Comanche, for example, but if Sikorsky are reading this then I am willing to learn J. For free – BIG J!!
Do you give talks or workshops?
I’ve never been asked (weeps into handkerchief). But as a qualified English teacher, once you get me up there you would never get me to stop – so this is probably a Good Thing. And I am, of course, quite shy and retiring. Despite the subject matter of my psychotic stories.
What would your ideal writing day be like?
Up early, bike ride across the moors in the ice to fire me up for work, a hefty hearty breakfast, six or seven hours at the keyboard in that beautiful trance-like state where time means nothing, life is a deviation and reality nothing more than a fluffy woolly dream – and punctuated only by the odd hand-delivered snack. Then a couple of hours playing with my son, a fine Italian meal and two glasses of red (any more and writing turns to smush), then another couple of hours at the keyboard until I fall, exhausted and spent and drained, into the soft loving arms of my wife.
How many hours do you put in at your desk? Do you work all day? Go back after dinner?
Depends on other projects and activities. When I’m hard at work, I could do a straight eight to ten hours with a break only for food and bodily necessities (must buy a catheter!). I used to work late into the night before I had a baby. Of course, I didn’t actually give birth myself. Although, it does feel like it sometimes. Must lay off the Jaffa Cakes.
When is your best time to write?
When I’m in the mood - but saying that, when is there not a best time to write?
Do you have any rituals or superstitions about your writing?
My only ritual is that, like a tiger, I am regularly fed. And yes, raw meat is just fine.
What are you currently working on?
Ha! My secret project, codenamed N-TEK. Set in the near future where a massive technological conglomerate has made bio-technology available for public consumption. The novel concerns an ex-combat squad turned bank robbing outfit who are captured during a heist and blackmailed into a series of missions against the Seven Ruling Syndicates in an attempt at crushing a wave of piracy which is threatening the N-TEK Corporation itself. As usual, things never go as planned – perpetuated by the fact that the bank robbers are all a little mad in their own individual ways.
If you have a website could you give the address please.
www.andyremic.com
And I value feedback from readers in the perpetual quest for self improvement.
Writing Place
My shrine is my highly personalised study, with enough desk space for 4 PCs and stacked high to the rafters with a plethora of computing equipment, family photos, hi-fi equipment and candles: lots of candles. This is the place where I create. Where the spark becomes the inferno. This is where writer’s block is not allowed to intrude: if he knocks on my door, I kick the bastard in the damned face.
I also love to write in my conservatory; especially when it is snowing and my little boy isn’t throwing hard objects at me. I can look out over the snowy fields, secure and warm and glowing, sip at a fine single malt, and mess with the spaghetti minds of the many [inherently good!] psychos I have created.
WorldCon, Glasgow August 2005.
Presentation
Good afternoon. My name’s Andy Remic, and I’m going to tell you a little bit about my Spiral sequence of near-future science fiction thrillers, and in particular the third book in the series WARHEAD - which is due out this October.
SPIRAL are a high-tech covert organisation working beyond the reach of global governments and the military. SPIRAL’s fight is a fight against terrorism and genocide; a fight against evil in all its forms.
The main body of SPIRAL consists of Demolition Squads, usually ex-military, secret service and computing personnel who carry out high-tech missions – with lots of guns, bombs, motorbikes and gadgets at their disposal. SPIRAL’s toughest operative is a man named CARTER, a man haunted by an inner demon called KADE whom sometimes takes possession of his body during moments of intense battle. CARTER is addicted to whisky, his loving woman and his little boy. And yet time after time he is dragged away from a peaceful life - back into the savage war between SPIRAL and their enemies.
SPIRAL’s major adversary are a race of creatures called The Nex, a blend of insect and human. Genetically spliced, The Nex have much increased strength, agility and speed, an enhanced immune system and a resistance to chemical, biological and radioactive toxins. The Nex lack emotions and are lethal killing machines without remorse.
The main bad guy is a genetic deviation named Durell, who plans to wipe out mankind, bring about a new world order of evolution, and elevate The Nex to the platform of God.
Against this army of desecration Carter and a rag-tag band of SPIRAL operatives must wage their shadow war; they include MONGREL, a tufty toothless squaddie with a love of kebabs and decadent women, THE PRIEST, a religious maniac obsessed with Volvos and smiting the enemy tooth and claw, and ROXI, cool and calculating, athletic and graceful – probably the most dangerous woman ever to walk the planet.
WARHEAD opens with an onslaught of tactical nuclear strikes taking out armies, military installations and key cities across the world. The Nex then herd mankind into the open-air prisons of many cities by deploying a brutal biological weapon called HATE. All governments and military powers have been effectively smashed. SPIRAL is teetering on the brink of extinction.
Five years on, our hero, Carter, has retired from active service and seeks nothing more than a quiet life on the island of Cyprus. However, when he is betrayed by an old friend, coerced into an assassination attempt, and witnesses the kidnapping of his son with the aim of forcing him to deliver a bomb into Spiral’s remaining core – then Carter is forced to fight, and he returns to the arena of War with devastating results.
Aided by a colourful cast of extras, the novel surges from London to New York, Greenland to Tibet, Norway to Antarctica as Carter searches for the last hope for mankind – a polymorphic Evolution Class Warhead capable of destruction on a truly awesome and planetary scale. The high octane plot twists and turns as our gathering of battered, wounded, rag-tag heroes discover too late that they are merely pawns on a much larger game-board. Will they find the Evolution Class Warhead? Will Carter rescue his son and save the world?
Think of James Bond on speed, Vin Diesel with a intellectual plotline, Disney without the nice guys – WARHEAD can be read standalone or as a part of a trilogy - and combines elements of horror, sci-fi, romance and comedy. It is a honeyed drug. A page-turner of epic, sweeping vision. A roller-coaster ride with you on the front seat, eating popcorn and enjoying one of the best thrillers ever written. Not that I’m blowing my own trumpet or anything.
Thank you.
THE ALIEN ONLINE December 2004
“Quake author Andy Remic responds to his critics”
With the sequel to last year's Spiral on the shelves, we offered the author an opportunity to discuss some of the books' saltier attributes...
Interview by Ariel.
Andy Remic's second novel. Quake was recently published by Orbit in the UK. It's a follow-up to his punch-packed debut, Spiral, which introduced the reader to the top-secret organisation charged with protecting the world from hi-tech terrorism.
The first in the series received mixed reviews; fans of fast-paced action fiction loved it for its sheer exuberance and explosive action sequences, other reviewers pointed to its apparent male-bias, frequently abrasive language and sometimes graphic sex scenes.
We thought it would be a good idea, with Quake having hit the shelves in September this year, to give Andy Remic a chance to tell his side of the story and put the record straight by responding to some of the criticisms. But we also wanted to find out how he was finding the process of writing, now that he had more definite deadlines to produce to. So, we asked him, did he find the process of writing a follow-up easier or more difficult than that of creating a debut? "The original writing of Spiral was easy, because I wrote it for myself, not for publication, and without deadline." Remic told us. "However, the editorial process surrounding Spiral was like Frodo's journey; long and arduous, a painful path of degradation through Sauron's domain... but, ultimately, fruitful and bright and filled with hope for a new future.
"I thus found the process of writing Quake much more coherent and smooth, mainly because having worked with two superb editors I had learned a lot of new skills during Spiral's inauguration into the mass-market; as a result, when writing Quake I had refined techniques and better understood what was required, and finally became able to cut out the crap without pissing blood (I hate cutting out stuff; especially when I've laboured for days over a single scene. However, it does need to be done. You must bow to the wisdom of the omniscient editor – who is always right, of course - unless you're called Anne Rice). All writing is a learning curve; Spiral was a canvas for a lot of mistakes but hopefully I came out the other side a wiser man. I feel Quake is much more cohesive, a progression and an advancement of my skill as a writer."
And so to the issue of the criticisms levelled against Remic's first book, Spiral. Did the author think these were fair comments, and has he taken any steps to tone things down in Quake? "Violence, misogyny and excessive foul language." Remic mused. "I'll take each issue step by step.
"Spiral, Quake, and my third novel, Warhead, do contain a lot of violence. Violence, I feel, is a necessity in this sort of tale – and violence is, in fact, a natural part of life; an integral strand of nature; a lodestone of the great eco-system we call the Earth. Ask the gazelle for her thoughts after being ripped apart by the tiger. Ask the WWI veterans how freedom was upheld in 1914-18. It wasn't done with cream cakes and tea. Violence is a part of life.
"However, I do acknowledge that my descriptions are extremely graphic – and I think, in reality, these are born out of fear. It's me saying, Jesus, this could happen to you – consider this a warning. I still remember passing my motorcycle test, getting a 400CC race bike and nearly killing myself within 5 minutes. Then a kid at school told me about a website called rotten.com where there was a horrific photograph of a (still living) American Harley rider with the lower half of his face scooped out following a collision. The Harley's windshield scooped out his lower jaw like a spoon going through jelly. Despite the violence of the photo, it acted as a very serious warning to me. I was a better rider from that day forward.
"Violence exists. It's a bad thing, but unfortunately it does exist. There's no point hiding from it. I am holding up a twisted and very dark mirror to reality in my writing, and if anything, the excessive violence is more of a warning of just how horrible things can be. When you get punched, you lose teeth, get a broken jaw or cheekbone, spend hours at the hospital. Life just isn't as clean-cut as James Bond and Hollywood.
"Misogyny. Hmm. I am happily married. I love my mum. I have a loving family environment. I believe in equality: of sex, of race, of age, the full monty. My agent is Dorothy Lumley of Dorian Lit Agency; she specialises in women's writing. She did not have a problem with Spiral. The women at Orbit who read Spiral, including my editor's assistant, did not have a problem with the book. My wife had no problem with Spiral. My female work colleagues (all professional teachers) did not have a problem with Spiral. I have received several emails from women who enjoyed Spiral and did not identify elements of sexism.
"So then: if there was an element of misogyny somewhere in the depths, it was truly unintended. When reading, every reader brings their own different expectations, their own social context, their own mental outlook to a piece of work. And you've got to remember, the views of the characters in a novel are not necessarily the views of the author – and it's important that readers don't confuse the two. In my books, Kade is a psycho, with extreme views. They are not my views, I do not hate women. Kade, Carter's dark psychotic alter-ego, hates women – but then I am not Kade. I love women! After all, without my mother and my wife, where would I be now?
"One reviewer said Spiral was full of "creepy sexism". Maybe he lives in a world of creepy sexism? Maybe he projected his own diseased and creepily sexist persona onto the characters? Maybe he just read what, subliminally, he wanted to read. Whatever. If there was any element of my writing that was even vaguely insulting to women then I do apologise. This was never intentional – and I've worked hard to make sure nothing can be construed as such in the future. But hey, I'm sure some twisted maniac will read something obscure into something I write. That's just the nature of the game. Thankfully, all reviews of Quake so far have been complimentary.
"And finally, the swearing. . The worst part about this was that it made my mum unhappy – and I hate that. However, we live in a world where people swear. Fact. I have known quite a few soldiers. They all swear. Fact. When I wrote a children's novel called Rocket Cat, there was no swearing. When I wrote a fantasy novel called The Ancient, there was no swearing. Because the contexts were wrong. In the Spiral cycle of novels, it fits. It is right. When a squaddie gets shot in the arse, he doesn't hop around shouting, "Oh jolly spiffing gadzooks!" He uses something more colourful. When I am in the pub with my friends, I swear. When I am in the classroom teaching English, I do not swear. Context.
"I received a wonderfully self-important smug little communication admonishing me for swearing in my books. I replied, saying that in the real world people do swear – I am only reporting what I see. This sanctimonious gentlemen then offered the (unwanted) opinion that people may swear in my world, but they certainly did not in his. That same day, I was driving home from work and I was behind a bus filled with school kids. I watched a twelve or thirteen year old girl get off the bus, with her pretty little pigtails and pink handbag. She then raised her middle finger to her friends on the top deck and shouted, "Fuck you, you fucking twats". So ... which world do I live in? To be honest, its tiresome defending this argument. I wonder if Irvine Welch or Stephen King get moaned at as much as I do? Probably...
"So, just for the record, violence and foul language will not be toned down in future works – unless I work in a different genre."
Another comment often made in reviews as that there was a real action-movie feel to the plots and characters in Spiral. We wondered if Remic had set his stall out to write something deliberately cinema-friendly, with an eye to an eventual movie deal? "If there is an action-movie feel to my novels, it's sheer coincidence." Remic replied. "I did not set out to write action-movie translations, because I'm not really an action-movie fan – I do not watch Van Damme, Vin Diesel, Steven Segal etc. I liked some of the old Schwarzenegger movies, but that's about it.
"I think the comparison comes because of boredom – my boredom threshold is very low, so when I read, there are many novels which bore me rigid, and I hate that. At least my novels provoke a reaction – even if it is hate. Better any emotion than the curse of banality. And so no, I don't try and make the novels like action movies, and I don't think, 'Oh yeah, this might get made into a movie.' If it does, it does. If it doesn't, I am still doing what I love... Writing. Creating. Exploring. Entertaining (hopefully!)."
So, then, how would Remic describe his books to someone who hasn't read them yet? What would he say to persuade the waverers who might like the sound of them, but are unsure of trying out a new author? "I would describe my books as extremely high octane reads with colourful and fruitful characterisation, a continuing acceleration of pace, twisting and hopefully intelligent plotlines, lots of buzzing high-tech gadgets, plenty of black humour and guns. Lots of guns. And to persuade a waverer? I would suggest they stand in a bookshop and read the prologue for Quake. If they don't get a kick from that, then the book quite obviously isn't for them."
Can't say fairer than that. And for those readers who have already discovered Remic's thrillers and are hooked on their mix of gritty action and hi-tech wizardry, where is the series going to go from here? Does the author see it as a rolling concept, à la 007, or does he already have a cut-off point planned, or a new direction in mind?
"I have just completed the third novel in the Spiral cycle; and I do have plans and some good ideas for a fourth." Remic confirmed. "I just love Carter, Kade and Mongrel too much. However, my next three novels will be standalone works (pending discussions with my editor, of course), based on three solid ideas I've had kicking around and developing for at least a decade. But all three novels will still be fast-paced action-packed near-future thrillers, with strong military-themed characters, lots of tech – but maybe with a touch more sci-fi this time, in two of the works at least. I've already put down 30,000 on my fourth novel and am extremely happy with its progress."
Excellent news for Remic-fans everywhere. And if you're curious now and want to try a fix for yourself, check out Spiral at Amazon.co.uk, or for more information on Andy Remic himself, visit his website at www.andyremic.com.
Next month sees Orbit launch another new SFF star: gun-lovin' martial arts expert Andy Remic. His debut near-future thriller, Spiral, is destined to be one of the big hits of the summer and in the interests of grabbing you a scoop, ezine braved his fists of fury to 'ave a word...
Who exactly are Spiral?
Spiral are a mostly covert organization who are the secret police of the
world. Their aim is to make the world a better place - to fight terrorism
and evil in all its forms. They have HQs in every country and yet are
invisible to authorities, military organizations and governments. In
effect, they do not exist, but are the most powerful undercover agency
ever to operate on a global scale.
And they are up against...?
There is a splinter faction nestling within Spiral like a mercury needle
in a heroin vein; a group of nasty individuals who have access to the most
powerful weapons and computer systems known to man - and who are willing
to abuse them in the name of apotheosis.
Is it true they have some pretty impressive
tech at their disposal?
Carter and the DemolSquads kick ass with everything at their disposal -
from Comanche attack helicopters, advanced Ducati motorcycles, almost
magical ECube handheld comms devices, HPGs - low noise chemical grenades
and the most advanced computing power ever devised by man. And of course,
Carter has his trusted 9mm Browning HiPower with a 13 round clip.
What can readers expect from the book?
The most intensive high action intelligent contemporary thriller they will
ever read. Insanely high octane fight and chase scenes wrapped in the
black rose petals of betrayal. A twisting winding esoteric plot ... and
guns, lots of guns.
How's it feel to have your debut in bookstores
across the country?
Incredible. Magical. Awesome. Like I am walking through the Twilight Zone
with Burt Reynolds.
When did you decide you wanted to be an
author?
I have always written from an early age. I think I really wanted to
become an author after experiencing David Gemmell's novels in the mid
1980s. I loved his fight/ battle scenes - nasty and violent, as they
should be, but backed up with a strong thread of good overcoming evil: an
ideal to which I subscribe. I have attempted to take the violence to the
next level.
Was Spiral the first story you wrote?
No, The Four Headed Man was a 4 page novel I wrote when I was
10. It was very well received by the critics.
Which novels have influenced you most as an
author?
David Gemmell, Ernest Hemingway, Iain Banks, Michael Moorcock ... to some
small degree, but I like to feel my work is almost devoid of influence. I
hope I have developed my own distinct style and that style is powerful,
violent and very much to the point.
What are you reading at the moment?
No Mean Soldier by Peter McAleese, Look to Windward by Iain Banks
and Mind Over Matter - The Epic Crossing of the Antarctic Continent by
Ranulph Fiennes. All three books are superb for different reasons.
What else has impacted on your writing?
Painful personal injuries whilst doing kick boxing and fast
downhill mountain biking, the love of a good woman, the birth of a mad
little nipper, and beer.
Will we be seeing more of Spiral in the
future?
Oh yes! There are 2 more books planned, (the second nearly
complete) and I intend to write a children's poem entitled "My 9mm
Browning and the Fun Games We Played" and a political pamphlet extolling
the virtues of every good and wholesome politician worldwide.
Hardcore Thriller World, September 2003.
Q Congratulations on the forthcoming release of your first novel. Can you tell me briefly what the book is about?
A SPIRAL is about a shadow organization who protect innocent civilians from worldwide terrorist threat and the general evils of the world, such as chemical weapons and world paedophile circles. They operate in a realm above the military and police forces – and they do not take any shit. Populated by specialist armed men and women from a variety of nations, SPIRAL suddenly finds itself under attack from a splintered cell – betrayed by some of its own people who have access to the most powerful weapons and equipment ever devised. So, in effect, they are in a very big shit pie. Thus commences a high octane and incredibly fast-paced thriller like nothing that has gone before …
Q Where does inspiration and the ideas for SPIRAL come from? Is any of it based on fact?
A I write in a trance. Maybe the ideas are divinely dictated? Ha. Or maybe it’s just when I’m drunk. I suppose the books are so violent because they contain a lot of hatred – writing is my form of personal exorcism. If something really pisses me off, I can right the wrongs of the world from my study without having to bear arms. Therefore, if you cross me – you might end up as a bad guy with no head.
Based on fact? A lot of the characters have parts of their personality “lifted” from people I know (I know some bad people). The stories are wholly fictional and nearly everything in this book was written before September 11 … but I had to change some sections in the wake of that abomination.
Q I know that you have been writing for about 10 years, starting with children’s novels, progressing to adventure and fantasy and now your writing has evolved into the darker and much more adult reading of SPIRAL. Do you feel that this is a natural progression for you?
A I basically write whatever I am in the mood for. When I was younger and more naïve, I wrote happy fluffy children’s books. When I was pissed, I wrote some very nasty dark fantasy and horror – but it was bad. Very very bad. I still intend to write children’s books because I have a little baby boy and like A. A. Milne I will write stories containing him as a central protagonist to read to him at bed time. And don’t worry, he won’t have a Browning 9mm HiPower.
Q Is this style of writing something you feel more suited too? Could you ever see yourself writing fantasy or science fiction stories again?
A I think I always write things which I find “fantastical” but which could happen. I’m not really a spaceship and alien type of guy, and the fantasy I wrote was more “historical”, set in Ancient Greece or somewhere like that, and the Sci-fi stuff was always written as thrillers, only with futuristic settings. I made SPIRAL a more inherently mainstream thriller because I was in the mood for guns, SAM sites, tanks, helicopters and people with their faces shot off. I suppose I am going through a bad patch.
Q Is it easier to write about violence than fantasy?
A My fantasy stuff always had a lot of violence anyway, and I suppose I write harshly because I find writing an outlet for anger and hatred. Ultimately though, I believe that good should triumph over evil – but what you define as good and evil, now there’s another debate … I wouldn’t say it was easy to write about violence and I think a lot of the violence in my work is “cartoon” violence. Over the top nasty.
Q How much do you think your book reflects modern society? Have you found yourself writing about everyday 21st century life? In a world now dominated by the threat of terrorism and media coverage as never seen before, has writing SPIRAL been helped or hindered by this?
A I suppose a lot of my writing reflects modern day society through setting and characterisation – and of course the recent escalation of terrorist threats. I never set out to mirror current world threats because my aim is to write action stories – thrillers - and the anti-terrorist angle came via characterisation rather than my personal need to slay terrorists. I think SPIRAL is probably being marketed in a world more sensitive to terrorist menace after September 11, Afghanistan and events in Iraq – and as such may be more successful because of this. But it really was just a case of writing the right thing at the right time. Remember, I finished the first draft of this novel in August 2000. In terms of sales … only time will tell. I believe a good book will sell regardless of world trends … let’s see how SPIRAL does eh? (laughs)
Q Do you think you could have written the same stories if you had been born 30 years earlier?
A I think the content may have been a little different, but the impact and style would have been the same. Every writer is influenced by everything surrounding them – what they read, events that mould their lives, I’m pretty sure my anger and hatred for certain themes and people would remain.
Q I know you have a 3 book deal with Orbit; will the books be a Trilogy? Or do you have something else in the pipeline?
A I’m aiming to write all three novels as “standalone” novels, set in the same universe, but which can be read sequentially to form a cohesive whole. I do have other works in the pipeline but they will follow after contractual obligations.
Q What about life after Carter? Will he be killed off or replaced by a new hero? Will you stick with this type of story or try your hand at something else?
A I cannot comment on Carter. He would shoot me.
I love action heroes. Arnold Schwarzenegger has either blessed or cursed me. I love characters who are larger than life but flawed in some way. I f***ing hate James Bond. JB never gets shot. He always knocks men out with a single punch. And he always gets the girl. Ha ha ha. Life just isn’t like that.
Q Have any of the film houses of Hollywood shown an interest in SPIRAL? Who would you like to play Carter?
A A certain reputable film company have been sniffing around but I will believe it when I see it. In an ideal world I think Brad Pitt could do Carter some justice, but he’s perhaps too good looking. Might need his nose breaking first. Maybe early versions of Michael Caine or Sean Connery – from around the time of The Man Who Would Be King. Yeah, that would work, you buggers.
Q How did you get involved in writing originally? I know you read a lot of books as a child, was writing your own material part of the plan and did you write with the intention of getting work published, or was it a hobby which became more successful?
A I have always written because I enjoy writing. I read a lot as a child and suppose tried to emulate from an early age. I just thought, that’s what I want to do. I never wrote originally with the intention of getting published – that came later, I’d written perhaps four or five short novels and thought, maybe I should try and get some of this published? I have always written out of love – not for the money. I suppose the acid test is: if you were unpublished would you continue to write? And my answer would be yes – until the day I die. I suppose I am now in a good position to try and make a living at it! A writer’s dream.
Q So what about the future? Have you any idea of where you would like to be in ten years time?
A 10 years? - Working on another fast-paced adventure novel. Getting enough sales to sustain me as a full time writer. Riding a fast motorbike along winding sun-bleached European mountain passes. Watching my boy grow up. Nothing incredibly original.
Q Quickly for fun, tell me 10 interesting facts about yourself.
A
I’m getting older.
I’m getting fatter.
I like photography.
I like making home made movies of drunken friends.
Mountain biking in the ice on the moors is like no experience on earth.
I currently own a 750cc Ducati.
I’m working on Spiral.2 and planning Spiral.3.
I play guitar badly.
I am the current monthly winner in our MOH sniping contest.
I hated Matrix Reloaded … ha ha ha ha ha.
Q And finally as the current Big Brother draws to a close, if you were a house mate, what would be the one luxury item who would take inside with you?
A A machine gun. To kill all the boring arses surrounding me. They take the meaning of banality to a new all-time high.
Q Thank you for your time and good luck with the book with is out 14th August and available from WHSmiths, Waterstones and ASDA.
A My pleasure. I thought you were paying for the beer?
Interview for WarMongerer magazine by Sonia Ivers, July 2003.
Q Tell us what inspired you to become a writer?
A I’ve always been a writer, I think it’s something you either are or are not – like it’s in your blood. I still remember at primary school reading Enid Blyton and Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigator novels and being entranced by the fantasy world contained therein – I suppose I just wanted to create my own fantasy worlds where I was in control of everything and I could make things right from a very early age.
Q What was the first novel you wrote?
A The first I started writing (other than a foray into literary circles when I was about 10) was a very embarrassing fantasy piece called The Land of Falanor when I was fourteen years old. “The sword sliced through the warrior’s leg spilling forth blood and muscle”. Oh, how my friends laughed. Who’s laughing now PGH?
Q What led you to write thrillers?
A Writing science fiction and not being able to get it published! Although that’s probably unfair because all my previous science fiction works were also thrillers – just thrillers set in the future. I like writing adventure stories, with a fast pace and lots of action. I get bored very easily.
Q Tell us in one sentence what SPIRAL is about?
A SPIRAL is about a nasty c*** who kills people.
Q What other things do you do when you are not writing?
A Cycling, running, playing with my baby, drinking beer, riding my motorbike and getting my knee down. I used to do a lot of Thai boxing but got fed up with the high injury rate – broken ribs, torn groin muscles, a torn ankle ligament that put me out of action for nearly two years, a variety of broken fingers and boxer’s fractures. My X-Ray folder at the hospital needs its own cabinet! I stopped bothering with the hospital because I am an expert on strapping up my own injuries. And coming off a mountain bike at fifty miles an hour on an old stone quarry road didn't help my ribs and skin either!
Q Who inspires you?
A God inspires me with the perpetual comedy of life.
Q What inspires you?
A Adrenaline.
Q After the proposed Spiral trilogy, what comes next?
A I have a hundred ideas for novels and my greatest fear is that I will die without writing a third of them! My next two novels planned after SPIRAL.3 are TPlanet and TOX.
Q Do you base your characters on real life people?
A Yes, most of my characters are an amalgamation of two or more people. I love interesting people. You are never safe when I am around – I exist in a state of continual research … nothing is Sacred.
Q If you weren’t a published writer what would you be?
A An unpublished writer.
Q If you were God for a day, what would you do?
A Abolish war, poverty and human (and animal) suffering.
Q What’s been the most amazing part of getting a book deal so far?
A Holding the first bound copy of SPIRAL for the very first time, and working with some great people like my agent and the people at Time Warner UK. And then seeing it in the shops!!!
Q Here’s a quick fire session – choose which word best sums up your character and philosophy:
Q City or country?
A Country. I hate cities.
Q Hardback or paperback?
A Hardback – it’s a traditional thing.
Q Hero or villain?
A Villain.
Q Beer or wine?
A Beer. I’m like Dave Lister in that respect.
Q Mountain bikes or motorbikes?
A Mountain bikes … there’s no feeling on earth like cycling the moors in snow and ice.
Q PCs – cool or geeky?
A Geeky - an unfortunate side-effect of a computer user’s image which should be cast off by the masses! “We fear change!”
Q Music: heavy or mellow?
A Heavy. I like my metal harsh.
Q Nightclub or local?
A Local. Places selling alcohol should have character – or be burned to the ground.
Q Thriller or Sci-fi?
A They are (and should be) the same thing.
Q Gemmell or Banks?
A Banks – but that’s an unfair question!! I love both of these writer's works incredibly. They are both an inspiration to me.
Thank you very much for your time Andy.