B.V. Larson Q&A

Are you an avid fan of B.V. Larson sci-fi novels? His newest, Sky World, is available now in print, digital, and audiobook form. The eighteen-book series is both epic and popular, regularly hitting the top 100 worldwide bestseller list. They are among the most widely read ebooks of any genre.  If you haven’t tried Larson’s mix of humor and adventure, you should treat yourself today.

Larson, a life-long SF reader, began his writing career with college textbooks, but when his fiction started taking off a decade ago, he became a full-time novelist. He has written over 100 books in many genres, but his SF fiction novels are his most infamous works. As a USA Today bestseller with over three million copies sold, he has managed to make quite an impact in the science fiction genre.

Recently, we had the opportunity to speak with B.V. Larson about his vivid imagination and how that translates into madcap adventures for James McGill and his friends. We were very excited that he was able to make time to speak with us and give us a peak into his creative process.

DSF: When you wrote Mercenaries series Steel World, the first installment in the Undying Mercenaries series, did you know how it would change the nature of current science fiction and inspire a whole host of young new talent?

BVL: I was inspired by how uninteresting I found most SF novels to be, say in the 1990s. I felt the genre needed a boost, a change in direction that would bring in new readers who were used to faster-paced plots and more dramatic action. All you need to do is attempt to watch a movie made pre-Star Wars to realize how much slower the SF film genre once was. In addition to speeding things up, I also wanted to bring back a “man vs. the machine” heroic focus.

DSF: You’ve been writing the Undying Mercenaries books for almost ten years. How do you stay fresh and relevant?

BVL: I have not run out of ideas yet! The series explores what happens to the value of human life if the body and mind become recyclable. Then there is the “man against the machine” element, which in this case consists of conquering aliens known as the Galactics. The Galactics exist very far from Earth and have no interest in the welfare of the planet except to collect fighters for their distant wars.

DSF: What’s the major premise behind the series?

BVL: Starting in the twentieth century, Earth sent out probes and transmitted welcoming messages to the stars. Unfortunately, someone noticed. It turns out we’ve had alien overlords all along, but we weren’t worthy of notice, anymore than the average guy with a lawnmower notices an anthill in his yard.

DSF: How would you describe your Undying Mercenaries plot to an uninitiated reader?

BVL: Aliens known as the Galactics arrived with their battle fleet in 2052. Rather than being exterminated under a barrage of hell-burners, Earth joined their vast empire. Swearing allegiance to our distant alien overlords wasn’t the only requirement for survival. We also had to have something of value to trade, something that neighboring planets would pay their hard-earned credits to buy. As most of the local worlds were too civilized to have a proper army, the only valuable service Earth could provide came in the form of soldiers. Someone had to do their dirty work for them—the fighting and the dying.

DSF: How does the series fit in with other SF books?

BVL: This is definitely military SF. Most characters have ranks and say “sir” a lot. The stories are part horror and part comedy but always entertaining. I wanted the adventures to entertain more than deliver a message. Sometimes readers just want to enjoy the ride, and they find my books refreshing. Their feedback and support keeps me going. As soon as I finish one book, they demand the next!

DSF: After eighteen books, where is the series headed now? 

BVL: There are an estimated 100 billion stars in our galaxy. With one new world visited per book, that gives me quite a bit of room to run! That said, there is an overarching plot in addition to the episodic nature of each new story. In most of the books, we meet a new kind of alien on a new kind of planet. But there is continuity with the Galactics, who are in a titanic struggle for dominance among themselves. 

Putting the series into an historic perspective, Earth is like a tiny tribal group on the fringes of the Roman Empire. We’re technically part of that empire, but in the halls of “Rome” there are factions fighting for the throne of the empire. We’re essentially irritants barely worthy of notice, but as the years go by and the Core Worlds waste their strength squabbling, we keep growing stronger… . 

That’s the phase this epic series is in now—the expansion of Earth into a power in her own right.