Book Review: Quantum Garden by Derek Künsken

Quantum Garden follows up on The Quantum Magician by throwing a new and pressing problem at Bel: the destruction of his own people

Being a Homo quantus, even one that has pulled the biggest con job in history, rescued a fleet, stolen a pair of time gates, reunited with the love of his life, and gotten rich, is not easy. The problem for Belisarius Arjona is that this has made it clear to the powers of the 26th century that the Homo quantus, thought to be a harmless, dead-end experiment, were in fact very dangerous. Dangerous enough to wipe their colony from existence. Luckily for Bel, he has a pair of time gate wormholes. But how to rescue his people and keep it from happening again? Bel is going to have to pull off an even bigger heist this time. A heist in time itself…

This is Quantum Garden, the second novel in Derek Künsken’s Quantum Evolution series, following on The Quantum Magician. I am re-reading this series in audio, narrated by T. Ryder Smith.

For those who haven’t read the first even once: to catch you up, there are a few gene-engineered variants on humanity in this 26th century setting where wormholes have been used to explore and settle nearby solar systems, but two main political polities, the Union and the Congregate, are in a warming cold war. One of the gene-engineered variants of humanity is the Homo quantus, who have been designed and bred to try and “see the future” through a more intimate connection to quantum states. This design has turned out to be not as useful as people thought, and so the couple of thousand Homo quantus peacefully live on an asteroid, doing mathematics and theory and living quietly. Belisarius (or Bel for short) is the wild exception (aside from the aforementioned love of his life, his partner Cassie), and that is why he was recruited for the heist in the first book.

But after the events of the first book, the danger and potential of the Homo quantus is now clear, and in a world where the two interstellar superpowers are in a deadly cold war, the quantus are a threat to be removed from the board. So Bel and Cassie, fresh off their heist, witness the destruction of the asteroid that houses their people, and then resolve to save those people as best as they can: by using the time gates.

And so a story is told. This is a novel with a lot more philosophy of quantum states, history, and grandfather paradoxes than the first novel. It is in this novel that the author really delves into what some of the newest generation of the Quantus project, like Bel and Cassie, can really do, and the consequences of those actions. The observer effect of quantum superposition states and information theory come into play right from the get go. After seeing the asteroid from a far distance blow up, Bel’s immediate reaction is NOT to go in and look for survivors, because that would resolve reality and constrain the possibilities of those actions. Instead, Bel uses the time gates to go and travel in time to warn his people to evacuate before the deadly attack. Bel didn’t see the evacuation because he was too far away to, and thus it COULD occur.

That is not enough, of course (they could just be found and destroyed again), so Bel has to go much further. The quest to find a safe and isolated location for the Homo quantus has Bel having to go cap in hand to the officer whom he double-crossed in the first book, and taking a perilous journey back in time to get the resources he needs in order to put the Homo quantus beyond the easy reach of the rest of humanity.

This launches the book into a nest of ideas and concepts that are the real heart of the book. Bel discovers not only where the time gates that he stole in the first book came from, but the secrets of the intelligent lifeforms that live around it on a desolate colony planet. Bel’s discovery of the vegetable intelligences and their true relationship to the time gates and to quantum reality itself are part of the wonder and discovery (and origin of the title) of the book.

The other half of the meat of this book is a lot of speculation and thought and consideration of grandfather paradoxes and time travel as a concept. We got a bit of that in the beginning with Bel’s rescue of the Homo quantus, but given that an older version of a character sends Bel and his team to this colony planet to eventually meet her younger self (as she in fact remembers that Bel did it), this leads to a whole nest of paradoxes, closed time loops and more. They soon learn that trying to escape messing with history is far harder than they realize, and the consequences of doing so are debated again and again. There is a lot less action than in the first book, and a lot more philosophy.

The novel focuses on Bel and Cassie as our primary characters, and once again Bel has a team. He does once again hire pilot Vincent Stills, a Homo eridanus who has been designed to live in a high-pressure environment. Stills is foul-mouthed and foul-tempered, but he is one of the most memorable secondary characters in the author’s oeuvre, and the narrator brings him to glorious life. And he really is as good a pilot as he thinks he is. Sadly, the explosive expert Marie, a particular favorite of mine from The Quantum Magician, does not make a return this time.

One other thing that is quite refreshing, like in the first novel, and helps the author’s space opera stand out, is that it is not the too-common “America in space” that for so long dominated the genre. The author’s future has the Anglo-Spanish main culture that Bel was created from, but there is also a strong element of French and French culture in his universe (How *that* happened is explored in his later prequel series The House of Styx). So, yes, in case you were curious, Stills can and does swear in English, Spanish *and* French.

The book definitely has a bit of middle-book vibe in some respects, when we cut away from Bel’s point of view to that of his antagonists, the Scarecrow. And even by the end of the novel, it is clear that the simmering conflict is going to blow up in the third book of the series. This is not a placeholder book, but it does have some of the limitations of a middle book, which is possibly why the author went with this bottled time travel narrative. The book does improve on some of the not-fully-realized potential of the first novel; that’s clear on this audio re-read.

This is definitely not the place to start with Künsken’s work. Even if you really were more jazzed by these quantum theories and time travel speculations, jumping in here would remove most of the context to the space opera universe that the author has created. I do appreciate that the author, off the heels of his first novel, did not simply have Bel “pull another con,” and instead has him engage with the consequences of his actions from the first book, while introducing a whole set of complications, both theoretical and practical, to his continued well-being. I applaud the author’s willingness to expand his horizons, and look forward to continuing my re-read of the series.

Highlights:

• Improvement on the first novel, especially exploring the potential of the setting
• Less action, more philosophy
• Middle book in a series.
• Excellent narration by T. Ryder Smith

Reference: Künsken, Derek. Quantum Garden [Rebellion Publishing, 2019].

POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.

My 2019 review of The Quantum Magician is here. That book was previously reviewed by Adri Joy as well.

The voice of Eru Ilúvatar: The Silmarillion in Audio

 Given the upcoming Amazon Prime series set in the Second Age of Tolkien’s Legendarium, and new books and works coming out about Tolkien and his work, I decided a revisit of the Silmarillion was in order...but I decided not to re-read it. But to listen to it in audio.

The Silmarillion scant needs an introduction to most readers in terms of a name. The “forerunner”, the “predecessor”, the “antecedent”, the “bible” of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, it is portions of what Christopher Tolkien would compile to become The Silmarillion is what Tolkien first put words to paper in writing about Middle Earth. It also is legendarily intimidating to readers who may have watched the movies, read the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, and taken one look at The Silmarillion and went “Oh,boy.”


And to be frank and honest, the book is intimidating as all out, especially for readers whose entire exposure to epic fantasy might just BE the LOTR. I mean, readers who haven’t tried to tackle the absolute unit that are Kate Elliott books, for example, or the expanse of works of Robin Hobb, or Michelle Sagara, or Janny Wurts or the like might look at The Silmarillion and go “bwah?” Heck, those are just big, thick novels. The Silmarillion doesn’t even look or feel or read like a novel anyway.


From the start of the first portion of the book, the Ainulindalë:

There was Eru, the One, who in Arda is called Ilúvatar; and he made first the Ainur, the Holy Ones, that were the offspring of his thought, and they were with him before aught else was made. And he spoke to them, propounding to them themes of music; and they sang before him, and he was glad. But for a long while they sang only each alone, or but few together, while the rest hearkened; for each comprehended only that part of the mind of Ilúvatar from which he came, and in the understanding of their brethren they grew but slowly. Yet ever as they listened they came to deeper understanding, and increased in unison and harmony.

Poetry? Mythology? Deep History? All of the above? We’re not in Kansas anymore. We’re not even in Minas Tirith or the Shire. Lots of people who will re-read the LOTR and the Hobbit, watch the movies every year, stay far far away from this. How many people buy and read poetry, for example, much less speculative fiction poetry?

Back when, after I read The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, I tried to read The Silmarillion. I was still in my early teens and frankly, reader, I didn’t know what I was in for, and I bounced off of it and did not try it again for a decade. It took the second effort for me to understand the power and beauty that was to be found within, but even then, it was not the easiest of reads. Portions of it are like the Appendices to the Lord of the Rings, other parts myth and legend, other parts resembling the outline of a tale that could be told in many more pages (and in some cases, subsequently has)


But, friends, I am here to rescue you from those fears and difficulties and to get you into this Silmarillion, today. I am here to provide you a way to experience and absorb the book and get a feel for Tolkien’s earliest parts of his Legendarium, and that would be the audio edition, narrated by Martin Shaw.

While there have been many re-recordings of various other Tolkien works, there is but one version of The Silmarillion in audio, and that is the very proper British enunciation of Tolkien’s work that you will hear. Listen, feel the words of Tolkien in your ears as he brings the various portions of the book known as The Silmarillion to life. You may only vaguely know who Ilúvatar is, know Beren and Luthien only from their mention in the Lord of the Rings, and Gondolin is just a name for the place where Orcrist, Glamdring and Sting were made from The Hobbit, but through the voice of Martin Shaw, you can learn and experience so much more.

It occurs to me that readers of this may not be familiar with what the book actually has to offer.

The book begins with a creation myth, the Music of the Ainur, the Ainulindale. This tells the story of the making of the world of Middle Earth. In the beginning was not, as in the Christian tradition, the Word, but rather the Song. The world is Sung into existence by Eru Ilúvatar and the Ainur whom he created, including, of course, Melkor, later known as Morgoth, who would become the patron and master of Sauron.

Next up is The Valaquenta. This is where having an audiobook is really valuable, as it is a relatively dry list of the Ainur: The Greater Valar (and some of the lesser Maiar), who they are and what they do. It is not scintillating reading straight up for me, but under Shaw’s narration, it sounds much grander and epic. It kind of reminded me this time of the Catalog of Ships from The Iliad, and I suspect that Professor Tolkien used that as a model.

After this, we reach the heart of the book, the so called Quenta Silmarillion. This is the story of the Silmarils, the jewels that hold the light of the two trees of Valinor, and much of the early days of Middle Earth in leading up to their creation, their theft, and the terrible oath sworn by their creator, Feanor, in trying to get them back, and the tragedy of Elves and Men subsequently. This section contains the bulk of the stories of the elder days, ranging from the wars against Morgoth, the story of Beren and Luthien, and the fall of Gondolin. One could call it The Rise and Fall of the Noldor. One can see just how, in the time of the Lord of the Rings, the Elves are a shadow of their former self, even in the centers of their power. One can also see how these stories, here are often just recitations less than really polished full on narratives that we think of. Again, this is more like the recitation of myths and legends more than straight up story. For the most part, though, these myths and legends are of loss, diminishment, and tragedy. There are moments of great beauty, and heroism, and light, but the theme is definitely of how the Elves, rising to greatness, fall. Or how the world that Iluvatar and the Valar sang came to be not what that original glorious song might have presaged.

I had forgotten precisely what the "Dark days" were that get referenced in the Lord of the Rings books, and why Elves and Dwarves get along so very badly. I had that story refreshed here, as well, a story of greed, and tragedy remembered for ages of the world. This makes and enriches the Lord of the Rings and the friendship of Legolas and Gimli all the more remarkable for overcoming such hatred.

The Akallabêth is a much more compact section talking about the Rise and fall of Numenor, the great kingdom of Men on an island west of what we think of Middle-Earth, and how pride and arrogance and weaknesses proved Men’s downfall, when they listened to Sauron, who had come to them in a fair form, and challenged the Valar themselves. It is a distinctly tragic tale, in a book that is full of tragedy as seen above. I noticed this time, in listening to the narration, that Tolkien distinctly and very deliberately invokes world cognate on Avalon (as in the Arthuriana) and Atlantis in describing and naming the Numenorean realm. This keeps with the flirtation that Tolkien has throughout his work of whether the early history and myth of Middle-Earth is, in fact, the early history and myth of our own world. Or is it just a nearby world, in a multiverse sense?¹

Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, the last section of the book, isn’t quite what it says, since it recapitulates, first, some of the Second Age as described in the previous Akallabêth. Otherwise, it does focus on Sauron’s rise, the Rings of Power and everything that leads up to the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. It refreshed some things that got changed in the movie, like for example how Isildur’s failure to destroy the ring after the battle of the Last Alliance (the opening to the Fellowship of the Ring movie) isn’t quite as bad as it was. In the text, Isildur was actually going to Rivendell to try and figure out what to do with the ring.

Back in the day, this was all that was beyond the four books. By the late 80’s and early 90’s the wealth of Tolkien work really started going with The Book of Lost Tales and the rest of The History of Middle-earth, The Atlas of Middle EArth and the flood of Tolkien works, and the limitlessness and diversity of forms and styles of Tolkien work really took off. While some of this has been very much a rabbit hole of arcana, others (such as The Children of Hurin) are more traditional narratives that are far more accessible. Portions of the story outlined above have been published in The Children of Hurin, Beren and Luthien, and more. (To say nothing of the forthcoming Amazon series and other visual works in development if not production)

So with the wealth of material these days, is The Silmarillion worth it? Yes. This is the first fruit of the labor of working through Professor Tolkien’s work, and while it is very much myth and legend, and poetry, and not at all the standard of storytelling you expect out of fantasy fiction, there is an undeniable power to it, especially in vocal form. I found, for myself, the Silmarillion was like a book of poetry, not something to blast through on a long drive, or a couple of days at work, but something to sip, to sup, to hear a portion of the poetry of Tolkien’s foundational stories and myths for Middle Earth, was fantastic for me. I think, in those sups and sips, that someone intimidated by The Silmarillion can let the power of the myths and legends in it come over them, and be immersed in the foundational seas of Middle Earth.

¹ While the multiverse is recently a hot and new idea, this one is not. The old D&D Roleplaying Setting of Harn postulates a family of alternate worlds connected to each other, the titular Harn being in the center of a cluster of such worlds. One of the other worlds is our own, Earth.  Another of the worlds is called Midgaad, and is where the Elves and Dwarves of the Harn setting originally come from. It is speculated in the Harn sourcebooks, in the world of Harn, that Midgaad is in fact, what we know as Middle-Earth, and that Tolkien either visited there himself or talked to someone from there. 

 POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.

Second Look: The City We Became by N K Jemisin

 A second look at N.K, Jemisin’s 2020 Hugo Finalist novel, THE CITY WE BECAME

In 2020, Adri Joy reviewed N K Jemisin’s The City We Became, available here at Nerds of a Feather.

With the novel now a Hugo Finalist, and me, as the author, as a native New Yorker having re-read the book recently in audio, I thought a second look  at the book was in order to explore other facets of the novel, and the audiobook in particular. Do read Adri’s excellent review first, as I will be covering somewhat different ground here. 

While I had highly enjoyed reading the book in ebook last year, my choice of re-reading it audio, first a way to fill some loose hours in my listening schedule and a way to tag back into the book in order to rank it as a Hugo Finalist on my ballot. I was, however, riveted from the beginning for a number of reasons.

The choice of narrator, Robin Miles, is an excellent choice. Miles has worked with Jemisin before (notably on the Broken Earth trilogy) and has a very good voice for Jemisin’s word choice and sentence style. It’s a wonderfully immersive performance on her part, and her voice kept me listening, to the point of NPR style “Driveway moments” throughout the production. This is a book I could have done even better listening to it on a long driving trip.

The use of sound in the audiobook was inspired. While this is not a full cast production, and just has the aforementioned Miles as narrator, the production is not content to just use her considerable vocal talents. The audiobook employs some sound effects and tricks to help immerse the reader into, particularly, the cosmic horror of the novel in a way that the print novel doesn’t quite manage. (To be fair, the print novel has the map, which the audiobook does lack, but I think that with the choice of that map or the audio tricks and use of sound, it really is a dead heat as to which is better). 

Immersion of the city and its characters  is carried by both the sound design and the narrator. Take each of the incarnated boroughs. In each, Miles brings the voice to life, almost painfully so in the personage of Staten Island for reasons I will explain below, but they are not only distinct in overall diction, but also accent. Staten Island’s accent, Brooklyn’s accent, Bronx’s accent are all three different flavors of the diction of New York that really come through. It isn’t so surprising that, given their origins, that Queens and Manhattan don’t show this distinction in diction, but the “native” New Yorkers of the boroughs showcase the variety of accents in New York. I am glad that Jemisin made the choice of having Queens be an immigrant, so that she, and her subsequently voiced accent, is not the nasal Queens accent that viewers of The Nanny mistakenly seem to think is the dominant or only one in New York.

One of the joys of re-reading a book is to come across the favorite bits, the set pieces, the small moments, the character bits, the tapestry of words that stick with you. The audiobook of The City We Became delivered that re-immersion into the world of the novel in spades. From Manny’s awkward introduction to the city (which reminded me, now a bit of The Freshman) to the confrontation on the FDR Drive, to the “Ding Ho”, to the utter out of NYC place beauty that is the abandoned City Hall Station, the novel and all of its goodness came back to vivid life. It made me homesick all over again. And I realize to my horror and shame something I didn’t realize when I read the book--I’ve never been to Inwood Park and seen Shorakkopoch Rock for myself. I need to correct this the next time I am in NYC. The novel, especially in its audio production, loves and adores New York City and its fractally complex multi-faceted nature. New York really does contain multitudes and the novel gets that. Manhattan, Queens, Bronx and Brooklyn each feels like itself, and also New York, and it is joyous.

And then there is Staten Island. Disclaimer: I AM from Staten Island, it is my home borough and in deep ways, that borough still is deep in my DNA, the good and the bad. The darker sides of Staten Island, its proud self reliant standoffish independence, its wanting to be walled off from NYC, if not the rest of America, really came through in this audio edition and hit me in a way that the print book did not. At first it was nostalgia and memory, with Aislyn in the Ferry Terminal, and then into the less charitable sides of what Staten Island is like. I grew up next to very many people like Aislyn and her family, particularly her father. One might even more uncharitably say that if I had had a sister, she could have been a lot like Aislyn, for good and for bad. The City We Became in audiobook gets that Staten Island experience, that Staten Island mentality, mindset and feel in a way that was a bit of a punch to the face. And yet, the fate of Staten Island, however a reader might think is somewhat deserved, is a tragedy to me that pains me, and I am very curious how it carries forward into subsequent books.

Overall, then, listening to the audiobook has had the salutary effect of raising my high opinion of the novel even further. I daresay that the novel is better and more effective in audio than its already impressive result in print, and I will be looking to get the subsequent volumes of the trilogy in audio as well as ebook. Even more than the text, the audiobook of The City We Became brought me fully and irretrievably to the city that I may have left bodily years ago, but has never, and will never leave me. In the acknowledgements, Jemisin says that this novel is an homage to the city and she hopes she got it right. 

This ex-pat New Yorker, this ex-pat Staten Islander, thinks that she certainly did.

---

Reference: Jemisin, N.K. The City We Became ,[Daw, 2020]

 POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.

Microreview [book]: The Seaborn by Michael Livingston

A vivid audio-only fantasy world of Matriarchal sea explorers, pirates, and a mysterious looming airship-flying threat

Bela may not be salted, may not be a Shipmistress (Captain) herself just yet, but everyone knows who she is. Daughter of the most powerful woman in the isles alone would mark her as someone to watch, but Bela also has the cognomen Carnae (hero)  because, at a young age, she WAS a hero, saving a number of ships in harbor when the airship flying Windborn made their first, and a deadly, appearance over the skies of her home. Now, as second in command of the White Crow,  Bela is seeking to become salted, become a Shipmistress in her own right, which requires a trip to a mysterious, deserted island to get some rather special wood as a rite of passage.

In the meantime, Shae is also a second in command, but she is second in command to the Bone Pirate, the most feared pirate in the fair isles. Even piracy, though, is not what it used to be with the arrival of the Windborn in the skies, and so when the Windborn appear in the skies once again, Shae has a daring plan that will even the odds against the untouchable threat from above. But there are greater dangers still on the island of Mist Mahockie, and secrets, too, that will shake Pirates, Seaborn and Windborn alike. 

All of this, and more is in Michael Livingston’s audio-only fantasy novel, The Seaborn.

Livingston creates a rich and vivid world here with a lot to offer, and a canvas for adventure. The Seaborn are a Matriarchial society, where men are useful for strong backs, breeding, and not much else. It is women who lead, women who generally fight, women who command the ships and the world, and women who are the magic users (Evokers). There are some indications that among the Seaborn, men aren’t even really engaged in romantic entanglements with women, women seeking such things in the arms of other women. The aforementioned magic system is an elemental based one, with practitioners almost always focused on a single of the eastern classical elements. The magic using Seaborn contrast with the Windborn, who use airships, technology and absolutely despise magic. This could have been a facile “magic is bad, technology is good” in the hands of a lesser author, but the reasons why the Windborn and Seaborn have developed the way they do is part of the revelation of the novel.

The action and adventure beats of the novel are also a major highlight of the novel for me. Pre gunpowder age of sail action on the high seas, with elemental magicians means boarding actions, island exploration, “sword and crossbow” fights. It has a medieval feel in terms of the combat tech (and given Livingston’s day job and knowledge of medieval history, that is right in his wheelhouse) with sailing technology that is a little more age of sail. The Windborn, when they do appear on camera in the main timeframe (after an opening prologue) are a whole other kettle of fish altogether, and the author does a very good job in showing what the technologically inferior Seaborn have to deal with in facing down that foe. The writing all for this flows well into the ears of the listener, and like his previous novels, it is engagingly written.

Speaking of which, since  this is an audio-only production, additional word about the narrator and how the book sounds is in order here. The narrator is Elizabeth Evans, who does a very good job with bringing Bela, Shae and the other characters to life. There are plenty of action sequences in this sea borne fantasy, and the narration works well with the text to make it clear and exciting to listen to. In all, Evans was an excellent choice of narrator.

My major criticism of the novel has to do with the character of Illyra, Bela’s friend. The novel opens as them as a two-hander, the famous Bela and her almost Watsonian friend. Illyra, however, gets herself shuffled mostly offstage at about the same time that Shae appears as a viewpoint character, and while we get stuff from her point of view, it is, charitably put, not plot-relevant to this novel. It While Bela and Shae carry the main plot and get involved in things central to this novel, Illyra finds out a couple of things that the main plot does not reveal, but otherwise, charitably, once she is mostly offstage, her sections become fewer and feel a lot more perfunctory. I suspect that this might be more important in a subsequent novel, but within this novel, within this story, it doesn’t go far and doesn’t go anywhere. I think this offstaging could have been done better than it was handled here especially for readers who are only going to read *this* novel.

Overall, despite that major criticism, the audiobook has a lot to offer. Not a criticism per se, but my usual bias with fantasy novels that really can’t be addressed easily in an audio-only production: What I really would love is a couple of maps, of the central island in the novel, and of the Fair Isles in general. Livingston does a great job in bringing an audio-only production to life with good and clear writing, however, and I am interested in listening to more works set in this universe.

---

The Math

Baseline Score: 6/10

Bonuses: +1 Rich and inventive worldbuilding that is immersive and well through you.

Penalties: -1 Plot handling of a major character being shuffled offstage really could have been done better.

Nerd Coefficient: 6/10  still enjoyable, but the flaws are hard to ignore

POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.

Reference: Livingston, Michael, The Seaborn [Audible Originals, 2020] 

Fireside Chat: Amanda Rose Smith of Serial Box

One of our contributors, Shana, is also the social media manager for Serial Box, a company that creates and distributes serialized audio fiction. Think audiobooks with extra bells and whistles. Shana put me in touch with Amanda Rose Smith (@LadySoundSmith on Twitter), who is the audio producer and composer for most of Serial Box's output, including the new fantasy series Born to the Blade. This series has an impressive pedigree, and boasts a writing team of Michael R. Underwood, Marie Brennan, Malka Older, and Cassandra Khaw. Amanda is an audio pro with literally hundreds of audiobook credits under her belt, and production and composition credits for a number of other projects across many different media. We spoke through the interwebs to discuss some of the ways this type of audio production overlaps and differs from other kinds of production work. — Vance K

VK: Could you give a quick overview of your involvement with Serial Box? I know you composed the Born to the Blade theme, but does it go beyond that?

ARS: Yes, I'm actually the audio producer for just about all the series. So that means I cast (with their final approval) and coordinate the recording and post production. I do all the sound design and themes as well. There are a couple series I didn't do, such as The Witch Who Came in From the Cold and Belgravia, but that's it.

VK: Gotcha. I listened to Born to the Blade Episode 1, and it wasn't exactly what I expected. I don't know why, but the notion of "serialized audio fiction" made me think of old radio shows, with full casts, etc. This was more like an audiobook with sound effects. Is that an accurate description? And for context, I loooove audiobooks.

ARS: Sort of! In the audio world, those old audio dramas are kind of antiquated and I didn't really want to harken back to an older form as much as work towards a newer one. Serial Box calls itself the HBO of reading, and I was thinking of it more as a hybrid between a television series and a book. So my [audio] effects are meant less to give sound to every little thing that might make sound, and more to just subtly make the listening experience a bit more immersive than it would be in a straight audiobook.

VK: Do some of the series feature a full-cast production, or are they exclusively a single narrator?

ARS: Some of them are multicast! Tremontaine has 3 narrators. It's still not like a radio play though, because they tend to narrate different sections from the point of view of different characters, less than speaking directly to each other.

VK: I want to circle back to the "audiobook with sound effects" thing later, but since you mentioned multiple narrators, that leads me to something else. When you're dealing with something that's hours long, are your narrators there with you in-studio, or do they all record separately and then send in the audio? The last time I did a lot of voice over recording, I insisted on bringing them in because — I know many performers have home studios — but I was too nervous as a producer to cede control of the read to someone I hadn't worked with before. What's your approach?

ARS: I do both in different situations. Sometimes I also direct via Skype. If someone is going to record at home, I often do that for the first episode, but we also do comprehensive listen downs and rounds of corrections. So if someone does record at home, self-directed, we make changes as needed if something feels off.

VK: What is that "listen down" like? How many people are involved?

ARS: It varies. Sometimes its just me. Oftentimes, the series producers listen before a piece airs as well. And, depending on the project, I sometimes enlist proofers to listen and note any mistakes. Every episode gets listened to at least twice before airing, which is really important for quality, I think.

VK: How meticulous can you afford to be in line readings and nuances of performance? My work with narration and voice over has extended only to projects that are less than an hour in length, but I'll drill down on almost any single line that isn't as good as I feel it can be. But when you expand out to novel/series-length work, I assume there have to be "we can live with it" moments.

ARS: It does happen sometimes. And certain things are also subjective. It's not always a matter of it being wrong, but of different interpretations. When it comes to straight errors, I'm pretty serious about that, but all the actors we work with are truly fantastic and sometimes their interpretation is something I might not have thought of, but it's still great.

VK: Yeah, that happens a lot. This isn't any kind of revelation, but I feel like the longer the project, the more crucial that trust in the person you've cast becomes. If I'm doing something very brief, I feel like I've got a bag of tricks that can get almost anybody through to a workable final product. But that only holds for so long. What is your casting process, then? Do performers read small samples, do you work off of recommendations, etc?

ARS: I've been working in the audiobook world for about 10 years, so I'm fortunate enough to have a lot of actor contacts. So I draw on them a lot. Generally I get a lot of auditions, pare it down to a few people I think are all great, and then make the final decision from those people with the producers of the series. But trust is SO key. Like, for me, following audition instructions is really important. If you don't do that, how can I trust you to take care of the project?

VK: Right. Circling back, I'm curious what the decision-making process is for how to structure your approach to sound design on a project like Born to the Blade. The canvas seems so vast, you could do an entire start-to-finish sound mix, but instead you pick your spots. What helps govern your approach when the options seem endless?

ARS: Well, obviously time is a factor, as much as I wish it weren't. But it's also an aesthetic choice — for me, it's about supporting the actor's performance, enhancing it, but not competing with it. It's not like a visual medium, where you can design around the dialogue. The whole thing is dialogue. So you have to consider that with the effects, to make sure you aren't covering the performance up. All the information about the story is coming primarily from their words.

VK: Do you have any insight into what's driving the push into serialized fiction at the moment? A couple of years ago John Scalzi started releasing The Human Division as a serial, which harkens back to old...I mean, Dickensian...publishing models, but now the trend seems to have caught on. Is it the influence of podcasting? Something else?

ARS: I think podcasting has a lot to do with it...people are doing a lot of multi-tasking, and I think that these episodes are great for commuting, or doing things around the house. It can be nice to have a bite-sized story rather than a full novel, and also following along with something as its being released, weekly, or monthly, or what have you.

VK: Before moving on, I have to ask — there are people who physically make books who can't stand to read them, there are grips who make movies who can't stand to watch them, etc. — do you get to enjoy podcasts and audiobooks yourself, or does being in the trenches make you want to keep them at arms' length, as a consumer?

ARS: It can be hard. I'm not sure if it's that I want to keep them at arm's length in general, or just that since I spend so much time listening to them that it can be nice to get away. I have about 1000 books under my belt in general, including Serial Box and my other work, I probably end up working on around 75-100 books a year so I don't always want to hear more in my free time, especially since it can be hard not to listen with a work-critical ear. BUT that said, I also really, really enjoy listening to the ones I work on, and sometimes have to re-listen to passages because I was into the story and not paying close-enough attention to the accuracy or what have you. So I really do enjoy listening to them, and I think if for some reason I weren't working on so many I would listen a lot.

VK: That's always a nice feeling. Getting lost in something you helped bring into being.

ARS: Totally!!! I had the Born to the Blade theme stuck in my head for two days, and was really proud of that.

VK: Can we talk about your music? Music started my journey into the arts, and into my career. I started off in a band, we decided to make a music video, made album art, etc., and that got me hired to do graphics, and then video work, etc...So I'm always interested in other artists' journeys. How did your creative/music endeavors intersect with a career in audio production?

ARS: Well, I started off as a classical composition major, specifically interested in film music, and I started engineering originally to record my own music. And then found that I loved that, too. Interestingly enough, my work study was with the office of disability services recording textbooks onto tape for blind and dyslexic students with one of those old little dictation recorders. I'd get their weekly assignments and then read them aloud.

VK: The tools have changed a little bit.

ARS: Heh. For sure. When I was graduating, I realized that as a composer and musician, making a career was...challenging. I come from a poor background and there wasn't anyone able to subsidize a beginning composition career. So given that, I liked recording, I decided to continue school in that vein, and ended up getting a masters in music technology from NYU. Over the years, all the different backgrounds and skills have just kind of...merged interestingly. Recording, composing, and also the out-loud expression of stories. Working for Serial Box has been a particularly cool way to mix all those skill sets.

VK: Between the Born to the Blade theme and the work you have on your website, I'd certainly describe your music as "cinematic." B2tB is as epic and sweeping as you'd expect in a fantasy TV show or movie. Do you bring a sense of genre (of the overall project) to bear when you start composing, or is it rooted in character, story scope, etc?

ARS: Definitely both. Part of what I love about this kind of composition is the opportunity to step into so many different worlds and genres. Just in the themes...Born to the Blade, Remade, Royally Yours, False Idols...they're all totally different styles. I've always been a giant nerd, and most of the other projects I work on are smaller scope, so I was particularly psyched about B2B. I so rarely get to use choirs in my pieces!

VK: When you're digging into pieces that are very different in terms of genre, do you find yourself relying on your training, or do you seek out a lot of examples in that style that you look to for inspiration?

ARS: Both. I always ask the series producer for a few links, even something on YouTube, that they like and that they feel is in the vein of what they want. And if possible, I try to wait until I've finished recording and creating the first episode until I finalize the theme, so I know that it fits with the genre but also the characters and mood and plot trajectory. Music is such an emotional thing, it's hard to explain what something should be in words. Just saying something like "fantasy, epic" means so many different things to so many people.

VK: This is something I struggle with: if you're trying to do a piece that's "like" something else...like a fantasy theme, or like a mystery thing...do you try to nail that thing — the best Amanda Rose Smith version of a mystery theme, for instance — or do you also try to subvert expectations in some ways?

ARS: I don't try to subvert anything unless I think that's part of the process. An old professor of mine once said that in a film, the score is like an invisible actor, or the psyche of a character. It doesn't add something that isn't there, but it does illuminate something that someone might not know is there. So that could subvert expectations in some instances, but that's not my goal. So, for Born to the Blade, it's epic, but its also emotional. There's a lot of political stuff there, and stories about cultures that have been subverted by other ones. So I didn't want to only go big and bombastic, but also to inject some emotion into it.

VK: I think you did. If I remember right, you did some academic work on whether regular folks can tell the difference between acoustic and sampled instruments.

ARS: Yes! That's what my master's thesis was on. Of course that was a decade ago now, but still.

VK: How does that inform your approach to recording? I assume you're mixing live and sampled instruments in a lot of your work?

ARS: Well, mostly due to time constraints, these themes have been largely computer only. But when the opportunity arises, I do like to mix the two, even if listeners can't tell the difference. That doesn't mean it's not worthwhile, for the same reason that an actor's interpretation might be worthwhile even if it's not the same as mine would be. Real live musicians bring their own soul to the work. I've heard other people play things that I've written and thought, "Wow! I didn't even know it could sound like that"

VK: Another lovely feeling.

ARS: I wrote my first orchestral piece when I was 17, and though it was pretty terrible in retrospect, I remember that feeling well.

VK: But for all of that, people can't generally tell the difference, is what you're saying?

ARS: Generally not. Even when I did my experiment in 2008, people only guessed right about half the time. Tut there are certain instruments and genres that are harder to do all with computer.

VK: For sure. But regardless of the method of production, I feel like the goal is always to land emotionally with the listener, or viewer. So if you can accomplish that, what does it matter if the strings are synths or not?

ARS: Agreed!

VK: It seems like in a lot of ways your Serial Box gig is kind of a perfect one for you — you get to bring a lot of strengths to bear. Is this sort of a dream project, or is something dangling out there that you think, "One day I'd really love to...?"

ARS: I think that to some degree, just because of my personality type, I'll always have those dangling ideas. But to be honest, it really IS a fantastic gig for that reason. I get to merge a lot of different skill sets, but also the projects are all super high-quality, and the producers I work with really respect me and the skills and ideas I bring to the table. I feel that I'm really allowed to do a lot creatively. In a perfect world, every project would also have unlimited time for completion too! But alas I can't keep the listeners waiting forever.

Check out Born to the Blade here. And take a look at our (very positive) review of the first two episodes here. 

Posted by Vance K — cult film reviewer and co-editor of nerds of a feather since 2012, folk musician, and Emmy-winning producer.