Podcast: has sci-fi had its day . . . or is it just on life-support?
Surveillance . . . paranoia . . . telekinesis . . . and an eight-year-old psionic messiah who will either save or destroy humanity.
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When readers are asked what they love to read, science-fiction comes up second place, with crime being the number one choice. But as a writer, to get your book into the bookstore doesn’t seem to reflect this preference. Sales do not reflect it. And now, arguably more than ever, Hollywood loves the blockbuster sci-fi for its visual spectacularity.
Writer David M Henley discusses this predicament in relation to his Pierre Junior Trilogy, released in omnibus format by Fantastica. Eight years ago, Pierre Junior was born out of a psionic enhancement program. He escaped immediately after his birth and all attempts to find him failed.
Now Pierre is back . . . and he’s taking over the world, one mind at a time.
The Pierre Junior Omnibus tells the story of a psionic messiah with unlimited telepathic and telekinetic powers who leads a rebellion that will either unite humanity or destroy it forever.
Podcast Guest: David M Henley
David M Henley loves science, science fiction and the future. His books are inspired by authors such as Philip K Dick, Peter F Hamilton, Robert Heinlein and Matsumune Shirow.
His breakout trilogy, The Hunt for Pierre Jnr, is fast like a comic book, strange as an anime and set in as complex a world as the one we live in today (but 150 years in the future!). Fifty years after a second dark age that nearly destroyed humankind, the World Union is now confronted with a new threat that doesn’t just challenge their survival but also the nature of life and civilisation itself. Henley’s world explodes with ideas about humanity and what is changing between the possible and the impossible.
From geopolitical convergence to emergent online super organisms, the future is coming. Henley’s books explore themes of technological evolution, species diversification and takes the ‘all-powerful creepy child’ theme to a scary new level.