SPSFC3 Author Interview - Rex Burke

What inspired the world, characters, or core concepts of your story? Was it a particular event, piece of media, or a speculative scientific idea?

I knew I wanted to write a SciFi adventure, but I was hampered by the inconvenient fact that I don’t know much about the science of space travel. I mean, what am I, a rocket scientist? No, a travel writer, actually. So I figured I better make the main character someone like me, who would be permanently bemused by the things going on around him as he woke up on a spaceship. That way, I didn’t really need to explain anything science-y at all, except in very simplistic terms that even I could understand.

I also needed a plot, and then one of my teenage sons went on a school hiking and camping trip, during which some idiot promptly lost the tent. And while I don’t know much about science, I do know lots about teenagers, so I decided to put a bunch of them in space, have them looked after by someone like me, and see what happened.

Orphan Planet is what happened.

How did you approach the creation of your main characters? Were they modeled after real-life figures, or did they evolve organically as you explored the world of your story?

See above, really. The main character, Jordan Booth, isn’t based on me, exactly, but I do think he reacts to being woken up on a spaceship in precisely the way that I would. He is a kind of Arthur Dent figure, if that reference resonates with you. The hilarious, ridiculous, spiky, snarky, kind and empathetic teens aren’t modelled on anyone, certainly not on my teenage sons and their friends, oh no, not at all. But mostly, I made everyone up – it’s not like I know any spaceship captains or self-aware AIs. But both of those, in particular (Juno and Reeves), are influenced by a long line of literary and TV/movie characters that I’ve grown up with and enjoyed. You’ll probably spot the nods and references throughout.

Science fiction often delves into questions of ethics, technology, and humanity. What central theme or moral question does your story grapple with, and why did you feel it was essential to explore?

The book is less about ethics and technology – only in a tangential way – and far more about humanity, and above all, family and relationships. It’s character-led and driven, with notions of found family at its heart. I don’t know that it was essential for me to explore those themes – more than that was the only type of book I was ever going to write. Not a science guy, remember? What I wanted to convey were all my complicated feelings about kids, teens and family – I just happened to set it all in space. Think of Harry Potter – yes, it’s about magic and wizards, but really, at its heart, the HP books are about family and found family. That was what I was aiming for.

How did you approach the integration of futuristic technology or scientific concepts in your story? Did you base them on existing theories or let your imagination run wild?

I made it all up. I mean, not the concepts of FLT travel, or cryo-sleep, or colony ship voyages – all tried and trusted SF concepts that appear in the book. But I didn’t go in for any hard science explanations of anything, and if I needed a plot device or a MacGuffin, I just invented one. So, I’m sure you can find some tech description somewhere in Orphan Planet that isn’t strictly accurate – in fact, I insist! – but I was more interested in the story than the tech.

The sci-fi genre provides a canvas to depict diverse cultures, species, and worlds. How have you incorporated representation and diversity in your work, and why do you think it's vital for the future of science fiction?

I was conscious of this when I started writing Orphan Planet, in the sense that SciFi has historically been a pretty male-dominated genre, both in terms of writers and characters. So the captain and her first officer were always going to be strong women, and the teen protagonists are 50/50 boys/girls, all with largely equal page time.

Beyond that, I let my readers decide – by which I mean I don’t really provide any visual clues about appearance, culture or background. There are hardly any physical descriptions in the book. A name or two might give a hint about my intentions for that character, but you can project your own feelings onto any of them. What’s their family and cultural background? It’s up to you.

Every author has a unique writing process. Can you share a bit about yours? How do you manage world-building, plot progression, and character dynamics in such a complex genre?

I am not a plotter. I knew the beginning of the book, the rough story arc, and the last scene, and everything else just followed once I started writing. I had a few character notes at the beginning – ‘Poole, idiot, loses tent’, that kind of thing – but then this strange thing happened, that writers talk about but I didn’t really believe was true until I started Orphan Planet. They all just took on lives of their own, and I would end up writing scenes that turned out as they are in the book because that’s just what those characters would do and say.

What's next for you after SPSFC? Are there any upcoming projects you can share with us?

I’ve since published two more books in the Odyssey Earth series – Twin Landing, and Star Bound – which, in theory, bring the whole story to an end. But I would never say never about that – I’m not sure I can leave them all out there in space without going back to see what happens. But next up is a standalone SciFi adventure thriller that’s basically Murder on the Orient Express meets ET, so we’ll see how that turns out.