Richard Phillips – interview

 We would like to invite you to read interview with Richard Phillips.

Have you been approached to make a movie based on any of your books? In my opinion they make a great source material.

Yes. My representatives are currently in discussions with several movie and TV studios, exploring the options for the production rights to The Rho Agenda series.

Are all of your Rho universe novels going to be published in Poland, or just the Rho Agenda trilogy?

My current contract with Fabryka Słów is for the original three Rho Agenda novels, The Second Ship, Immune, and Wormhole. However, my agent, Paul Lucas of Janklow & Nesbit, and I would very much like to reach an agreement to publish the entire Rho Agenda series in Polish.

You present a lot of unbelievable technologies in your books. Do you believe that they are going to be made real?

Scientists are hard at work on many of the technologies that I present as science fiction. Examples are medical nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, and quantum entanglement. One of my goals in describing the alien technology that allows for faster than light star travel was to present a theory based on the assumption that space-time itself is composed of quantum granules which I call the ether. The two different star travel technologies were based upon either wormhole transit or upon shifting the starship into subspace (the stuff that exists between the granules of our spacetime). These last two technologies are only speculative.

Why did you decide to make teens the protagonists? Is it because of their adaptation capabilities? Or maybe the fact that they are still growing makes them more susceptible to Bandolier Ship influence?

The Rho agenda is really a coming of age story on two levels. First, thrusts three teens into a set of life-changing experiences that destroys their previously comfortable lives, strips away the facade of whom they believed themselves to be, and forces them into adulthood. Second this series is a coming of age story for the people of Earth, who find themselves suddenly confronted by technologies that humans are not ready for. One of these is a nanotechnology capable of curing all diseases and extending the human lifespan to hundreds of years. I wanted to explore what would happen … Would the population explode creating mass starvation and global war? What would be the impact on different religions and society as a whole? I also wanted to explore the consequences of first contact with advanced alien civilizations. Would it transform what it means to be human? That might not be a good thing.

Do you believe that the modern science fiction authors are able to fill the big shoes of the classic writers of the genre? Are they able to create something as memorable as the works of Frank Herbert or Philip K. Dick?

New masters of the genre will emerge from time to time. I don’t pretend to be in that class. I just try to tell an enjoyable story that allows my readers to escape their day to day lives and immerse themselves in the worlds that I have created.

Do you think that there is still a place for anything innovatory in the science fiction literature?

Yes. To me, innovation in science fiction comes from the same place that we get innovation in the fields of science and technology. Advances come when someone questions something that is thought to be a scientific fact. Common examples in science fiction are questioning the beliefs that nothing can go faster than the speed of light and that nobody can travel through time. One of the ways I did this in The Rho Agenda was to propose that energy is not conserved in our universe. It is commonly believed that the sole reason for the red shift of distant stars is due to the Dopler Effect. Thus, the further away a star is, its increasing red shift indicates that it is moving away from faster than closer stars. In my story, I proposed an alternate explanation for the red shift. What if light loses a tiny fraction of its energy to subspace with each wavelength that it travels? This would also produce an increasing red shift as light traveled farther and farther from its source.

Do you base your books on the observations of the modern worldor are those your own visions, less rooted in reality?

I try to use a combination of real world observations and things that are drawn purely from my imagination to create a believable alternate reality. I think it is important to have some basis in reality and a set of rules underlying any imagined advanced technology to provide the reader with a sense of logical consistency.

Do you think that the technological progress is more an opportunity or a risk for humanity?

Both. I agree with Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, and many others that the single biggest opportunity for revolutionary advancement within our lifetimes is also the greatest threat to our existence. Artificial Intelligence. This subject plays a climactic role in my Rho Agenda series.

Are you especially proud of any of your novels? And if yes, of which one and why?

There are actually two books in the Rho series that I am most proud of.  The first is Dead Shift, the last book in my Rho Agenda Inception prequel trilogy. This is because it reveals the true nature of the alien mind rider that has infected Jack Gregory along with that alien’s central role in driving Jack and Janet into the original Rho Agenda series. My other favorite novel is Immune. That is the novel that rips apart the comfortable lives of my three teen protagonists and launches them into Earth’s violent and dystopian near future.

Why do you like science fiction?

My love of science fiction came from reading the SciFi works of the masters that you listed earlier, plus Orson Scott Card, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and many more. Also, I was born in Roswell, New Mexico and grew up in the mountains near there. The whole mystery of the Roswell Incident stoked my imagination and made me wonder what would be the impact on humanity of first contact with an advanced alien civilization.

What is your favorite science fiction book?

I have many favorites but at the top of my list is Dune by Frank Herbert.

What is your most pleasant memory regarding your work as an author?

A couple of years ago I gave a talk to the Arizona Authors Association where I showed them all of my Amazon monthly sales reports from the days when I was self-published on the Amazon Kindle. For the first few months I just sold a few copies, mostly to family and friends. Then, more people started to find The Second Ship and Immune and they started to move up the Amazon Best Sellers List. Towards the end of 2010 I found myself selling thousands and then tens of thousands of copies per month. My books went to number 1 and 2 on the Amazon SciFi bestseller list so quickly that it was quite a thrill and ultimately led to me signing with a fantastic agent, Paul Lucas of Janklow and Nesbit in New York. It also led to multiple book deals with 47 North, Amazon’s SciFi and Fantasy publishing house.

Do you consider your writing more a work or a passion?

You need to have a passion for story telling and world building because, above all else, writing is WORK!

You have graduated a military school and you have been trained as a Ranger. Did the military influence your outlook on life? And does it influence your books?

I am blessed to have had a broad range of experience in the United States Army, meeting some of the finest people I have ever known. It allowed me to experience the world, to live in Germany for five years, and travel throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The military also sent me to the Naval Post Graduate School where I earned my Masters Degree in Physics, doing my thesis work at Los Alamos National Laboratory. I then served as a Military Research Associate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. That experience not only helps me write many of the action sequences in my novels but also provided a solid basis for imagining the advanced technologies that I portray in my Rho Agenda novels.

Finally, I want to say thank you to my Polish fans. I have had the opportunity to travel to Poland and love its friendly and hard working people. I am thrilled that my Rho Agenda novels are being translated into your native language.

Dziękuję.

Richard Phillips

 

Ariel Agaciński
Sara Glanc