PK Interview: Sam Sykes - Pornokitsch

PK Interview: Sam Sykes

Mr. Sykes' debut novel, Tome of the Undergates, was one of last year's hottest and most intriguing releases. In just a few weeks, he follows it up with the greatly-anticipated Black Halo.

Thanks to the power of the internet, we're able to get interviews from authors in far-off, overseas lands. In Sam Sykes' case, it also took a taser and a court order.

--------

PK: Let's start with a question that seems oft-pondered and never-asked, do you play Dungeons & Dragons? The relationship between the Tome of the Undergates' adventurers and a traditional D&D party has been flagged up by a few reviewers.

SS: Yeah, I played D&D. Not as much as some people might accuse me of, perhaps; I never really had enough patience for it. I would get bored and aggressive after awhile, which, playing with three other dudes about sixteen, would inevitably lead to terrible things. There's no way to say this without being at least a little embarrassed, but a lot of my formative years as a writer were dominated by Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms, which were taken from D&D pretty directly. I say a little embarrassed, because it's not quite as lofty as others who might talk through their nose about how they are a true child of Tolkien and adhere strictly to the rules of true myth and the hymns of Robert E. Howard, but fuck that. I loved those books. Dual wielding dark elves with magic panthers 4 lyfe.

The truth is that I wrote Tome of the Undergates back when I was fourteen and finished it when I was around seventeen. At that iteration, it pretty much blew. I had written a pretty competent Forgotten Realms-esque story, but I hadn't written my story. That's when I started branching out, reading more, having that defining moment where every kid's perception of reality is shattered by George R.R. Martin. I kept a lot of the original foundations from when I was fourteen for the original story (sometimes, I think, maybe too much), but no, it's not a D&D adventure.

I mean, fuck, how could it be? Four melee classes? A party of completely conflicting alignments? A cleric that chose healing and good as her domains? Who the hell would run with those nerds? I don't think Denaos even knows what Combat Reflexes is, let alone how to use it.

PK: On a back-of-a-napkin summary, Tome of the Undergates is actually a very traditional-sounding fantasy adventure - adventurers search of a lost treasure, stumble on ancient terror, realise lost powers... how would you describe how your book differentiates itself from your standard dungeon-crawling fantasy epic?

SS: Well, for one, I guess I'd say the quest isn't the main thrust of the plot. The characters are. Their conflicts are what shapes the plot, their motivations are what affects it. It would be a fairly bog-standard whatever if not for the fact that these people do not like each other, do not like themselves and don't want to be doing what they're doing. As it stands, they are doing what they're doing, together, and how they deal with that is what forms the action.

Character drives plot. Not the other way around.

PK: I also felt that the your touch (dodgy!) was made abundantly clear from the first page - with an extremely jaded look at what defines an “adventurer.” This unique shift in perspective colours the entire novel. This may be a chicken or egg question, but at what point into writing the novel did you really sit down and define what being an adventurer meant in your world (or any fantasy)?

SS: Well, with my early influences being made clear, I had read a lot of adventure stories. Hell, even in the old Conan stories, what made an adventurer seemed to be pretty universal. I understood them to be a profession of people whose main source of livelihood was breaking into peoples' homes, beating the shit out of them and taking their stuff. I mean, half the time, the monsters they killed weren't even doing anything other than having something the adventurers wanted.

What I didn't understand was why they were celebrated and praised as heroes for committing armed robbery and murder. I mean, sure, the great Oogy Boogy of Chattanoogy is dead, but what does an adventurer do after he's out of gold and there aren't any monsters to fight? And why would he even go after dangerous beasts with sharp fangs and fiery breath when you can just as easily beat up a peasant and take his shit?

Everything after that sort of fell into place. Adventurers associate with savage races and monsters. Adventurers are brigands and thieves masquerading as warriors. Adventurers hold nothing dear. Why wouldn't they be hated, bitter and jaded?

PK: You’ve famously written on romance in fantasy on your blog (well, you’ve famously written about quite a few aspects of fantasy in your blog)... and Tome of the Undergates sets up a couple pairs of star-crossed lovers.

Do we see any sort of (cough) fulfillment in Black Halo?

SS: Oh, yes, total fulfillment. I mean, the kind of fulfillment that comes from a woman being fascinated by a man she's well-aware she should see as a disease and a man who hears voices in his head telling him to kill the woman he loves.

Relationships being a big part of characters, and with these particular characters being particularly broken, we'll see a lot of how the characters come to terms with each other when they can't come to terms with themselves.

Also, sexual education from a pubescent boy nerd who's never seen another person naked that he didn't draw himself.

PK: And what about Lenk? He seems possessed by a Sykesian (oooh) spin on the traditional role of the chosen one. I suppose it is too much to ask that he manages to take control of his new powers? (Or wrestle free of them?)

SS: Well, I'll say that Lenk begins to learn more about his everpresent companion. There's a lot of charming conversation between them in the moments when one of them isn't having an intense evolutionary debate with a talking monkey (I think you'll like that part).

I'd love to say more, but I can't think of how to do it without ruining it for everyone.

PK: Recently, you decried the over-use of the word “genre”, and its corresponding implication that sf/f authors are working towards some category standard rather than just writing the best book that they can. What about readers? What do you think readers have come to expect from a fantasy book?

SS: I can't speak for readers, of course, not even a significant majority of them. Because I don't think we're at the point where we can lump readers together as we used to. Saying shit like "oh, girls won't read epic fantasy" and "oh, boys don't want romance in their books" is pretty ridiculous. At DragonCon, a rather dignified older woman listened to me discuss the complex relationships, only to have her nod and say: "Uh huh. So, I'm looking for a lot of blood and guts. You got that, kid?" I've seen a lot of guys gush over the relationships, a lot of girls do the same.

Which, I think, is pretty indicative that the whole idea of the "genre standard" is pretty much over with, or at least not nearly as important as writing a good book is. People don't become attached to the tropes and the magic systems and the worldbuilding (they admire them, certainly, and there's nothing at all wrong with that), they become invested in the stories and the characters and the people. Even when someone goes berserk over the complex societies and crafting of civilizations, they admire (in my opinion) the character of that society, rather than its silk-driven economics or whatever.

For evidence, look at some of the best authors that have been very present in the last five years: Abercrombie, Newton, Miéville, Rothfuss, Lynch, Martin and all the other ones you'd come to expect. Now tell me that they all follow a standard.

So I can slap you for lying to me.

PK: You’ve stepped into a role as one of fantasy’s iconoclasts - using the webbernets to challenge the status quo. Have you had any issues with rubbing other authors the wrong way? What about your own “team” - do you ever get nervous phone calls from your editor, “Listen Sam, we’re...er... we publish a lot of the stuff you’re mocking right now...”?

SS: Is "iconoclast" a new word for "loud asshole" or are you trying to flatter me?

My editors would not be my editors if they did not believe in what I do or what I did. Either that, or both of them have completely given up on the idea that I will ever be an austere, bespectacled tea-snooter, curling up thin lips into a tight smile as I quietly discuss the influences of Hoity v. Toity. That ship pretty much sailed the moment I cut wind in front of them. To be fair, though, it probably was already getting ready to leave port when Simon Spanton looked at the cover he had arranged for Tome of the Undergates and said "looks a little homoerotic, doesn't it?" And Lou Anders remains one of the few men to have ever called me a pussy in multiple formats.

As for authors...I have never had anything but total support from them. I mean, it wasn't exactly the easiest transition from unpublished to published, and a lot of them helped me out during the days when I just felt like crap. Special thanks go to Joe Abercrombie, Peter V. Brett, Brent Weeks, Mark C. Newton and Leanna Renee Hieber for being various pillars to support my tremendous ego. I don't know if it's because everyone remembers how anxiety-inducing it can be to be just coming into this business, or because we just talk to each other and like each other that they're the way they are, but authors are remarkably good to one another. That's probably not at all the reason they don't come to me with any grievances, though.

Diversity is healthy from an economic and artistic standpoint. The more trendy something is, the harder it is to look good in it. Thus, the more we conform to something, the less special we feel. Beyond that, we're clearly not writing to be rich. We have a story to tell. If there were a bunch of rules and standards to follow, we wouldn't be telling the stories we wanted to tell. We'd be telling other peoples' stories.

I've seen, on occasion, some people I've rubbed the wrong way: bloggers, readers, whatever. I welcome dissension, so that I may crush it between my feet, but I never address it unless someone addresses it to me. Until then, I will rub whomever I want, however I please. You cannot stop me from rubbing you.

PK: Since you don’t sleep, you’ve got a good view on the differences between US and UK fan bases - is there anything they could learn from one another?

SS: Not a lot of difference, really. People is people. Nerds is nerds. Haters gonna hate.

I'd say UK readers have a harder time figuring out what makes pee funny. But you can't fool me, Britain; I've seen your comedy. You love this shit.

PK: 2011 is a year of highly-anticipated books - once Black Halo is out there and you have a chance to breathe, what will you be reading?

SS: I've been on a Kurt Vonnegut tear lately. This came after my obsession with North Korean memoirs, which came after a brief love affair with Patricia Briggs books, which came after a reading of Bernard Cornwell's various medieval sex fantasy books, all interspersed with various fantasy books (quite liked James Clemens' stuff. Is he still alive?)

So, to summate, I have no fucking clue what I'll be reading next.

PK: Thank you very much. It isn't out yet, so I can't promise "next", but we're pouncing on Black Halo as soon it hits the shelf on 22 March. However, as tradition dictates, one final question... could you beat a Displacer Beast in hand-to-hand combat?

SS: Fuck no. I took TWO ranks of specialization in Great Axe. My attacks come slow as shit and, with a 50% chance to miss? Nuh uh. That thing will have its way with me while appearing to have its way with the air exactly four and a half feet to my left.

Hope you enjoy Black Halo and don't give me a reason to kill you!

--------

Sam Sykes' Black Halo is released on 22 March in the US and 16 June in the UK. For the latest art, updates and provocative discussion, we heartily recommend Mr. Sykes' site.

*Really lovely Orcish Battle Standard by Dante. Spotted on the Warhammer Fantasy Miniatures Gallery.

Comments

Mr. Sykes' debut novel, Tome of the Undergates, was one of last year's hottest and most intriguing releases. In just a few weeks, he follows it up with the greatly-anticipated Black Halo.

Thanks to the power of the internet, we're able to get interviews from authors in far-off, overseas lands. In Sam Sykes' case, it also took a taser and a court order.

--------

PK: Let's start with a question that seems oft-pondered and never-asked, do you play Dungeons & Dragons? The relationship between the Tome of the Undergates' adventurers and a traditional D&D party has been flagged up by a few reviewers.

SS: Yeah, I played D&D. Not as much as some people might accuse me of, perhaps; I never really had enough patience for it. I would get bored and aggressive after awhile, which, playing with three other dudes about sixteen, would inevitably lead to terrible things. There's no way to say this without being at least a little embarrassed, but a lot of my formative years as a writer were dominated by Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms, which were taken from D&D pretty directly. I say a little embarrassed, because it's not quite as lofty as others who might talk through their nose about how they are a true child of Tolkien and adhere strictly to the rules of true myth and the hymns of Robert E. Howard, but fuck that. I loved those books. Dual wielding dark elves with magic panthers 4 lyfe.

The truth is that I wrote Tome of the Undergates back when I was fourteen and finished it when I was around seventeen. At that iteration, it pretty much blew. I had written a pretty competent Forgotten Realms-esque story, but I hadn't written my story. That's when I started branching out, reading more, having that defining moment where every kid's perception of reality is shattered by George R.R. Martin. I kept a lot of the original foundations from when I was fourteen for the original story (sometimes, I think, maybe too much), but no, it's not a D&D adventure.

I mean, fuck, how could it be? Four melee classes? A party of completely conflicting alignments? A cleric that chose healing and good as her domains? Who the hell would run with those nerds? I don't think Denaos even knows what Combat Reflexes is, let alone how to use it.

PK: On a back-of-a-napkin summary, Tome of the Undergates is actually a very traditional-sounding fantasy adventure - adventurers search of a lost treasure, stumble on ancient terror, realise lost powers... how would you describe how your book differentiates itself from your standard dungeon-crawling fantasy epic?

SS: Well, for one, I guess I'd say the quest isn't the main thrust of the plot. The characters are. Their conflicts are what shapes the plot, their motivations are what affects it. It would be a fairly bog-standard whatever if not for the fact that these people do not like each other, do not like themselves and don't want to be doing what they're doing. As it stands, they are doing what they're doing, together, and how they deal with that is what forms the action.

Character drives plot. Not the other way around.

PK: I also felt that the your touch (dodgy!) was made abundantly clear from the first page - with an extremely jaded look at what defines an “adventurer.” This unique shift in perspective colours the entire novel. This may be a chicken or egg question, but at what point into writing the novel did you really sit down and define what being an adventurer meant in your world (or any fantasy)?

SS: Well, with my early influences being made clear, I had read a lot of adventure stories. Hell, even in the old Conan stories, what made an adventurer seemed to be pretty universal. I understood them to be a profession of people whose main source of livelihood was breaking into peoples' homes, beating the shit out of them and taking their stuff. I mean, half the time, the monsters they killed weren't even doing anything other than having something the adventurers wanted.

What I didn't understand was why they were celebrated and praised as heroes for committing armed robbery and murder. I mean, sure, the great Oogy Boogy of Chattanoogy is dead, but what does an adventurer do after he's out of gold and there aren't any monsters to fight? And why would he even go after dangerous beasts with sharp fangs and fiery breath when you can just as easily beat up a peasant and take his shit?

Everything after that sort of fell into place. Adventurers associate with savage races and monsters. Adventurers are brigands and thieves masquerading as warriors. Adventurers hold nothing dear. Why wouldn't they be hated, bitter and jaded?

PK: You’ve famously written on romance in fantasy on your blog (well, you’ve famously written about quite a few aspects of fantasy in your blog)... and Tome of the Undergates sets up a couple pairs of star-crossed lovers.

Do we see any sort of (cough) fulfillment in Black Halo?

SS: Oh, yes, total fulfillment. I mean, the kind of fulfillment that comes from a woman being fascinated by a man she's well-aware she should see as a disease and a man who hears voices in his head telling him to kill the woman he loves.

Relationships being a big part of characters, and with these particular characters being particularly broken, we'll see a lot of how the characters come to terms with each other when they can't come to terms with themselves.

Also, sexual education from a pubescent boy nerd who's never seen another person naked that he didn't draw himself.

PK: And what about Lenk? He seems possessed by a Sykesian (oooh) spin on the traditional role of the chosen one. I suppose it is too much to ask that he manages to take control of his new powers? (Or wrestle free of them?)

SS: Well, I'll say that Lenk begins to learn more about his everpresent companion. There's a lot of charming conversation between them in the moments when one of them isn't having an intense evolutionary debate with a talking monkey (I think you'll like that part).

I'd love to say more, but I can't think of how to do it without ruining it for everyone.

PK: Recently, you decried the over-use of the word “genre”, and its corresponding implication that sf/f authors are working towards some category standard rather than just writing the best book that they can. What about readers? What do you think readers have come to expect from a fantasy book?

SS: I can't speak for readers, of course, not even a significant majority of them. Because I don't think we're at the point where we can lump readers together as we used to. Saying shit like "oh, girls won't read epic fantasy" and "oh, boys don't want romance in their books" is pretty ridiculous. At DragonCon, a rather dignified older woman listened to me discuss the complex relationships, only to have her nod and say: "Uh huh. So, I'm looking for a lot of blood and guts. You got that, kid?" I've seen a lot of guys gush over the relationships, a lot of girls do the same.

Which, I think, is pretty indicative that the whole idea of the "genre standard" is pretty much over with, or at least not nearly as important as writing a good book is. People don't become attached to the tropes and the magic systems and the worldbuilding (they admire them, certainly, and there's nothing at all wrong with that), they become invested in the stories and the characters and the people. Even when someone goes berserk over the complex societies and crafting of civilizations, they admire (in my opinion) the character of that society, rather than its silk-driven economics or whatever.

For evidence, look at some of the best authors that have been very present in the last five years: Abercrombie, Newton, Miéville, Rothfuss, Lynch, Martin and all the other ones you'd come to expect. Now tell me that they all follow a standard.

So I can slap you for lying to me.

PK: You’ve stepped into a role as one of fantasy’s iconoclasts - using the webbernets to challenge the status quo. Have you had any issues with rubbing other authors the wrong way? What about your own “team” - do you ever get nervous phone calls from your editor, “Listen Sam, we’re...er... we publish a lot of the stuff you’re mocking right now...”?

SS: Is "iconoclast" a new word for "loud asshole" or are you trying to flatter me?

My editors would not be my editors if they did not believe in what I do or what I did. Either that, or both of them have completely given up on the idea that I will ever be an austere, bespectacled tea-snooter, curling up thin lips into a tight smile as I quietly discuss the influences of Hoity v. Toity. That ship pretty much sailed the moment I cut wind in front of them. To be fair, though, it probably was already getting ready to leave port when Simon Spanton looked at the cover he had arranged for Tome of the Undergates and said "looks a little homoerotic, doesn't it?" And Lou Anders remains one of the few men to have ever called me a pussy in multiple formats.

As for authors...I have never had anything but total support from them. I mean, it wasn't exactly the easiest transition from unpublished to published, and a lot of them helped me out during the days when I just felt like crap. Special thanks go to Joe Abercrombie, Peter V. Brett, Brent Weeks, Mark C. Newton and Leanna Renee Hieber for being various pillars to support my tremendous ego. I don't know if it's because everyone remembers how anxiety-inducing it can be to be just coming into this business, or because we just talk to each other and like each other that they're the way they are, but authors are remarkably good to one another. That's probably not at all the reason they don't come to me with any grievances, though.

Diversity is healthy from an economic and artistic standpoint. The more trendy something is, the harder it is to look good in it. Thus, the more we conform to something, the less special we feel. Beyond that, we're clearly not writing to be rich. We have a story to tell. If there were a bunch of rules and standards to follow, we wouldn't be telling the stories we wanted to tell. We'd be telling other peoples' stories.

I've seen, on occasion, some people I've rubbed the wrong way: bloggers, readers, whatever. I welcome dissension, so that I may crush it between my feet, but I never address it unless someone addresses it to me. Until then, I will rub whomever I want, however I please. You cannot stop me from rubbing you.

PK: Since you don’t sleep, you’ve got a good view on the differences between US and UK fan bases - is there anything they could learn from one another?

SS: Not a lot of difference, really. People is people. Nerds is nerds. Haters gonna hate.

I'd say UK readers have a harder time figuring out what makes pee funny. But you can't fool me, Britain; I've seen your comedy. You love this shit.

PK: 2011 is a year of highly-anticipated books - once Black Halo is out there and you have a chance to breathe, what will you be reading?

SS: I've been on a Kurt Vonnegut tear lately. This came after my obsession with North Korean memoirs, which came after a brief love affair with Patricia Briggs books, which came after a reading of Bernard Cornwell's various medieval sex fantasy books, all interspersed with various fantasy books (quite liked James Clemens' stuff. Is he still alive?)

So, to summate, I have no fucking clue what I'll be reading next.

PK: Thank you very much. It isn't out yet, so I can't promise "next", but we're pouncing on Black Halo as soon it hits the shelf on 22 March. However, as tradition dictates, one final question... could you beat a Displacer Beast in hand-to-hand combat?

SS: Fuck no. I took TWO ranks of specialization in Great Axe. My attacks come slow as shit and, with a 50% chance to miss? Nuh uh. That thing will have its way with me while appearing to have its way with the air exactly four and a half feet to my left.

Hope you enjoy Black Halo and don't give me a reason to kill you!

--------

Sam Sykes' Black Halo is released on 22 March in the US and 16 June in the UK. For the latest art, updates and provocative discussion, we heartily recommend Mr. Sykes' site.

*Really lovely Orcish Battle Standard by Dante. Spotted on the Warhammer Fantasy Miniatures Gallery.