This post was originally published on Audible.com.
In his Hierarchy and Licanius series, James Islington built a career on epic fantasies with rich worlds for listeners to get lost in. But with his new novel, Scion, he's bringing listeners five seconds into the future, so to speak, where the wealthiest have figured out how to live forever and people are body-modified and AI-assisted to be freakishly efficient at their jobs, if you can believe such things. I chatted with Islington about writing sci-fi vs. fantasy, how he balances two series at a time, and why Scott Aiello is the perfect voice for this story.
Sam Danis: You’re traditionally a fantasy writer, but Scion, as a cyberpunk thriller, represents your first foray into science fiction. Tell me about what prompted you to tackle a new genre. In what ways did you find it different than writing fantasy?
James Islington: Well, I've always loved sci-fi. I've consumed more of it via film/TV/gaming than through books over the years, but there's always been a lot of that influence in my fantasy work. So it was something I was keen to try my hand at for a while, and then I started writing one as a bit of an experimental break in between Hierarchy books. Very much just for fun, initially, but Scion grew out of that process.
In a lot of ways, I actually find sci-fi easier to write, because I don't have to worry about establishing a secondary world (along with the magic systems and very specific terminology that inevitably go along with fantasy!). Here, I can just reference things like genetics and electromagnetic pulses and advanced-but-plausible tech, and sci-fi readers generally know what I’m talking about. So, that was really refreshing.
Scion is about a genetically modified killer-for-hire whose work is perfectly legal, if morally grey: he takes out “lifers,” or uber-rich who have achieved immortality. Where did this idea come from, and what were your influences?
It came from a few different places. The idea of the rich achieving immortality (and massively increasing social inequality as a result) is hardly new to cyberpunk, of course. For example, I really loved the first season of the Altered Carbon adaptation a few years back.
But just before starting Scion, I’d also been reading about a real-life push by wealthy investors for medical tech to reach "longevity escape velocity"—essentially, the point where for every year you live, science advances enough to add more than a year to your lifespan. And, of course, if that ever happens, that’s something that’s probably going to be available primarily to the extremely wealthy. So, I got started down that path, and then I already wanted to write a character who was markedly different to my usual "heroic" types in my fantasy books. The rest sort of spun out from there.
As for influences, Blade Runner and Deus Ex: Human Revolution are my two big cyberpunk ones. They both explore "what does it mean to be human"-type questions, which are the sort of big themes that I really love about the genre.
Scott Aiello is a stellar voice for this story. Why choose him as your narrator? What in his performance resonated with you?
He is! This was absolutely, probably more than any of my other books, a story that needed the right narrator to make sure it came across the way I intended. We went through a casting process, and Scott’s was exactly the take on the material I was looking for—he gives Azure a dry, sardonic edge that suits the voice of the book perfectly. He just understood the tone straightaway, and I think his performance is going to make listening to Scion a lot of fun.
You’re in the middle of the very popular Hierarchy series right now—was it difficult to tear yourself out of that world to get in the headspace for this new one? I’m always curious how series authors balance multiple worlds at once, especially considering that this is set to be a series as well.
Not at all, thankfully! I do need to give each one dedicated time and make sure I’m in the right headspace for whichever story I’m working on at that point. There’s definitely a bit of "switching modes" involved. But Scion is different enough from Hierarchy that writing it actually feels like a break, and I never find there’s too much cross-pollination in my thinking.
It would absolutely be a different story if I were trying to write two fantasy series at once, though. That’s probably not something I’m going to attempt anytime soon!
