A Subterranean interview with author Kage Baker

Thanks to a recent post on the blog SF Signal, I read
a fascinating interview between author Kage Baker and Nick Gevers of Subterranean Press. Covering a number of subjects, the interview includes a discussion of Baker’s new novel, The Empress of Mars (2008), which was published recently by Subterranean Press in a limited edition. Here’s a snippet from the interview:

Nick Gevers: Looking at your newest book, out from Subterranean in a limited edition now and from Tor in a few months: The Empress of Mars ... This is an expansion of a very well-received novella of a few years ago, isn’t it? How did you set about lengthening it, and what elements of the novel are entirely new?

Kage Baker: Yes, this is an expansion of the original novella. David Hartwell pointed out to me that it might make a good novel, as there were a number of themes I’d only skimmed over in the original work. I was disinclined to do it at first; in every review of any expanded novella I’ve ever read, the reviewer invariably falls back on the word “bloated”. I went ahead with the novel for a couple of reasons, however. One was that, since the original version was published, there have been a lot of fascinating new discoveries on Mars. We poor Yanks have evidently learned to do metric conversion now, and Spirit and Opportunity just keep clanking along like Wall-E. I’m fascinated by the images they send back, the alien landscapes.

The entire interview between Kage Baker and Nick Gevers is well worth reading.