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EDGE: What can you tell us about Pock’s World?
Dave Duncan: Pock’s World is Science Fiction, my first SF since 1991. Pock’s World itself is an exotic setting, but any fiction has to involve people. The love interest involves a high priestess who never dies and is eternally renewed. The alien who threatens the destruction of Pock’s World and all humanity, is a rather nasty little boy. The fact-finding committee that is sent there to decide whether the world should be destroyed is composed of four super-achievers and a humdrum bureaucrat, and they strike sparks from their first meetings.
EDGE: As part of the Countdown to Christmas, we have had each of the authors answering some holiday questions. Are you more of a Santa or Scrooge?
Dave Duncan: A Santa. I spend lots of money at Christmas buying presents -- one or two for my wife, Janet, but the rest for myself.
EDGE: Do you have anything unique or special thing you do to celebrate the holiday season?
Dave Duncan: I like to phone bomb threats into toy stores so I can watch the mothers become as excited as their greedy little horrors. Merry, merry!
EDGE: What was the strangest Christmas/Hanukah/Yule/insert other celebration here gift you ever received?
Dave Duncan: A mermaid.
EDGE: If one, or more of the characters in Pock's World was celebrating Christmas, how would they do it?
Dave Duncan: There are certainly Christians on Pock's World. That fact is part of the plot. From what we see of Pope Cyril-Pius XXII, he would insist on a very traditional festival. The interesting question is how he would calculate the appropriate date. Would his branch of the church have counted clock time from Earth? In that case does he recognize relativistic effects? Or does he use the local calendar, in which case all of the 17 worlds in his domain would have different Christmases. And how do you squeeze all the saints' days into a year of, say, 225 days? He'll need more than three wise men to figure all that out.
EDGE: Excellent! Thanks Dave for joining us for EDGE's Countdown to Christmas!
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Dave Duncan was recently interviewed on Open Book Toronto's blog. You can read the interview here.
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Author Bio:
Dave Duncan
Originally from Scotland, Dave Duncan has lived all his adult life in Western Canada, having enjoyed a long career as a petroleum geologist before taking up writing. Since discovering that imaginary worlds are more satisfying than the real one, he has published more than forty novels, mostly in the fantasy genre, but also young adult, science fiction, and historical.
Praise for POCK'S WORLD
"...Very well-written plot and characters, the tale is a page-turner, as the potential for the death of an entire planet and its inhabitants looms large. The story should appeal to a wide range of readers, not just fans of science fiction...Highly recommended." — Ronald Hore, CM Magazine
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About Pock's World
POCK’S WORLD is a classic adventure story written by master storyteller Dave Duncan.
Pock’s World, long settled by humankind, is accused of being infected by humanoid aliens. It has been quarantined and may have to be sterilized.
Five people are chosen to go there and examine the evidence: saintly but ruthless Father Andre; Ratty Turnsole, muckraking reporter ripe for romance; ambitious politician Athena Fimble; manipulative bureaucrat Millie Backet; and shady billionaire Linn Lazuline. They all have their own agendas.
Pock’s World surprises them all.
Nothing is what they expect. Quickly entangled in love, politics, religion, and deceit, they discover that the clock is already ticking and the fate of humanity itself is at stake.
Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-894063-47-0
5.50" X 8.50"
$14.95 US / $14.95 CDN
280 pages
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