Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Guest Post: Tobias Buckell Blog Tour

I'm handing over the content of my blog today to Tobias Buckell, whose new novel Arctic Rising publishes today. I posted my review a week ago and really enjoyed the novel, which is a mix of spy thriller, eco-thriller, with a classic Science Fictional Big Dumb Object (or lots off little big dumb objects) as the MacGuffun. Without further ado, here's what Tobias has to say today about how well the timing of the book's publication worked with a certain actress protesting:


Today I'm reading that Xena actress Lucy Lawless is perched on top of an oil exploration ship that docked in New Zealand somewhere. Apparently she and other activists rushed on board the ship and are refusing to leave it. By the time this blog post goes up I'm sure that the standoff will have ended (actually, after writing it I checked, she's been arrested and charged).

But what draws my attention is the reason she's engaged in the act of civil disobedience. And that is the boat she hopped on board is chartered by Shell, and was on its way to the Arctic where it was going to drill exploratory wells.

For a while, when I told people that I was fascinated by the fact that large oil companies were proceeding under the assumption that the Arctic would be more or less ice-free within a few decades I would get these 'conspiracy theory' faces from people. But as I wrote the book they were filing permissions to gain access to the new resources that are being uncovered as Arctic Ice retreats.

Now as the book is about to drop, they're already heading up there. For the first time in recent history, the Northwest Passage is becoming passable. And that changes… a great deal. Geopolitics. Resources. Even entire nations.

As a science fiction writer, I just couldn't resist dropping a character, Nigerian-born Anika Duncan, into the middle of all that. She's no Lucy Lawless, but she's an ass-kicking warrior in her own right. It makes the whole connection all the more interesting to me...



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2 comments:

tmso said...

Is that it? Just a teaser? Oh! It does sound interesting. I'll have to pick up a copy. Is an e-edition available?

It is amazing how people underestimate greed. I work in the energy business (geothermal, not for the home, but for the grid), and that was one of the first things we all talked about years ago when scientists started to make climate predictions. Makes perfect sense to me to go exploring there if I were an oil company.

RobB said...

Yup, e-edition is available. It's a VERY good book.