Hugo Award-winning author to release 3 books this year

“My latest novel was fun to write because of the time-traveling aspect of the story,” says local author Kameron Hurley. “It was also really hard to write because of the timetraveling aspect!”

In our recent chat, Hurley gave a good-natured laugh as she shared that writing a time-travel story was a challenge.

But it’s a challenge she’s more than met in her newest novel, “The Light Brigade,” just recently published by Simon and Schuster.

The novel has already merited starred reviews from three of the big four publishing trade review publications: Kirkus, Booklist, and Publishers Weekly. (Note: As an author, I know this is akin to hitting a grand slam.)

“’The Light Brigade,’ is near future military science fiction,” Hurley says, “in which a starry-eyed soldier goes off to fight a war not long from now after global climate change has increased Earth’s overall temperature by four degrees Centigrade — a huge change. The Arctic and the Sahara have both greened up. Life as we know it has ended.”

Yet, to Hurley, that is a hopeful message. “This is not a dystopia, or saying all life dies. Life changes. My novel explores how the humans that are left keep going after a climate apocalypse.”

Her novel was also inspired by a personal thread. “My grandfather, a GI, met my grandmother during World War II in Nazi-occupied France, so I grew up hearing war stories that were noble. Yet, other members of my family served in the military and found that their service experiences weren’t quite as noble. I wanted to explore how a young soldier’s view could change over the course of a war.”

Later this year, Hurley will also enjoy the release of “Meet Me in the Future,” a collection of short stories published by Tachyon Publications (August), as well as the final title in her Worldbreaker Saga, “The Broken Heavens,” published by Penguin Random House (November).

However, Hurley says that her appearance to launch “The Light Brigade” at Books & Co. at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 29, will be her major book event for the year, at least so far. She is eager to focus as much as possible on writing new works in 2019.

This is exciting news for her many fans, and for future readers who are sure to find her, as she has already won the Hugo Award and the Locus Award, and was a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the Nebula Award — to just name a few. She also writes for numerous magazines, blogs, and has a podcast for writers.

You can find out more about her at www.kameronhurley.com.

Awards aside, I asked her why readers who haven’t explored science fiction should consider giving it a try — whether hers or other writers’.

“Science fiction allows us to imagine how the world could be really different. It’s so easy to get stuck in the idea that the world has always been this way and that we can never change it,” Hurley says. “I think any literature that has the underlying notion that humanity has a future is really helpful and hopeful at this point. For readers new to science fiction, I suggest trying stories set in the near future so they have recognizable elements of our world and time to connect to. I’m guessing that for many, that will lead to reading other great works of science fiction — and there is much to choose from.”

That sounds great to me. I hope to attend her Books & Co. event and see you there!

Upcoming literary events

■ Tuesday, March 26, 7-8:30 p.m., The Barrel House (417 E. 3rd St., Dayton) — Dayton Metro librarian Kristen AllenVogel will share selections from this year’s Notable Books List and Read List of genre fiction from the American Library Association’s Notable Books Council. Allen-Vogel was the 20182019 chair of the American Library Association’s Notable Books Council, which picks the best literary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry books for adults each year.

■ Saturday, March 30, 2-3:30 p.m., Dayton Metro Library, Main Library (215 E. 3rd St.), Bassani Theater Off Third, 3rd Floor — As part of the library’s “About the Book” series, University of Dayton Associate Professor Samuel Dorf will discuss his efforts to research the life and works of notable Daytonian Natalie Clifford Barney (1876-1972), who was an LGBTQ pioneer in literature as a playwright, poet and novelist, and a Parisian expatriate who brought together leading artists in salons in her home in Paris’s Left Bank. His book is “Performing Antiquity: Ancient Greek Music and Dance from Paris to Delphi, 18701930,” (Oxford University Press, 2018.)

Sharon Short writes historical mysteries under the pen name Jess Montgomery (www. jessmontgomeryauthor. com). Send her column ideas, book club news, or literary events at sharonshort1983@ gmail.com.