Interview with Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert, Authors, “Hellhole”

Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert are the authors of Hellhole, a new science fiction novel of planetary danger, hardship and an ancient alien legacy. Hellhole goes on sale next Tuesday.

Naming a planet Hellhole is a pretty bold move. Does it really live up to the name? How bad can it be?

Technically, it’s named “Hallholme” after an old military commodore who defeated a rebel general (one of the main characters), but it doesn’t take long for the colonists to nickname it, more appropriately, Hellhole. Of all the newly opened colony worlds, this one is at the bottom of anyone’s list — struck by an extinction-event asteroid several centuries before the story starts, the ecosystem is wrecked, most of the native life exterminated (not that it was compatible with Earth biochemistry anyway), and now plagued with storms, seismic events, volcanic eruptions. We think it lives up to its name.

Who are the main characters in your story and how bad did their lives have to be for them to end up on Hellhole?

General Tiber Adolphus led a desperate rebellion against the corrupt galactic government, but he failed and is exiled to the worst colony planet, which is supposedly a death sentence. But through his sheer determination and command skills, he manages to survive and keep the colony alive. Other dregs of society come to Hellhole for a second chance — a con man looking for a new opportunity, a divorced woman and her son ready to start again from scratch, a wrongfully convicted man sent away for a life sentence, a battered woman trying to escape her abusive lover. And all sorts of outlaws, religious fanatics, anybody with no place else to go.

They’re an interesting bunch. Did you have an idea of how you wanted them to evolve in the very beginning or did they come to life on their own on the page?

As collaborators, especially on such a large and complex book, we both need to have a very clear blueprint of the whole story so we can each write our separate chapters. We meet and brainstorm our full plotline thoroughly, chapter by chapter, and we develop the characters, the history, and the planets. However, in the writing of the 600+ page manuscript, a lot of details come to life, small changes turn into course corrections. And the characters grow through the draft and the editing process.

Buried alien civilizations are a popular trope in literature, from fiction like H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness to purported non-fiction like Erich Von Daniken’s Chariots of the Gods? Were either of you familiar with these or other works? How did you conceptualize the civilization in Hellhole?

We were familiar with the classics, and dying alien civilizations have dated all the way back to The War of the Worlds. However, the alien presence in Hellhole is, we think, a unique and exciting take on the idea, something we haven’t seen done before. It’s much different from just a few mysterious old relics buried in the ruins (but since it’s a surprise in the novel, we can’t reveal it here).

I’ve seen Hellhole described as “militaristic.” Military-themed science fiction is a fun subgenre, but sometimes it’s hard for authors to get the right tone. How did you do this in Hellhole?

Maybe the “militaristic” label came from the fact that our main character is a deposed military general, but Hellhole isn’t what we would call “military fiction” in the mold of David Drake, David Weber, Lois McMaster Bujold, or RM Meluch. This is more of a colonization story, a survival story of hardy pioneers, and a brewing political rebellion.

Will we be returning to this universe again? What’s next?

Hellhole is the first in a trilogy, and we have the whole story arc mapped out. We have just completed and delivered The Sisterhood of Dune, part of a new Dune trilogy, and we’ll be alternating universes each year, a Dune book and a Hellhole book until the two trilogies are finished.