THE REAL DEAL
Ann Leckie tells us about her new novel, a tale of the future where the past is a constant presence...
How do you follow up the most extraordinary success? It’s not a problem most of us ever have, but it’s certainly affected Ann Leckie whose debut, Ancillary Justice, garnered Hugo, Nebula, Clarke and BSFA awards. One answer, she says, is to remember to stop to be grateful. “I still really enjoy seeing all my awards trophies on the shelf,” she laughs.
Another answer is to keep working and this autumn brings the publication of Provenance (see review on p106), a standalone novel set in the same universe as, but not directly following on from, her Imperial Radch trilogy. It’s a novel, she says, born of wanting “to write a book that had to do with ancient alien artefacts, which is a space opera trope I’ve always loved”.
However, things didn’t go quite to plan. Instead, Leckie found herself interested in “black market archaeologists” who sell objects to unscrupulous collectors. “I thought, ‘Why would people pay top dollar for these shards of clay or bits of stones or statues – what is it that makes those things valuable to them?’”
In Provenance, the answer is bound up with influential “families collecting their own proofs of identity”. For all Leckie is at pains to point out Provenance is intended to be “light and adventure-y”, parallels here with the way Europeans and Americans value Ancient Greek artefacts because of what we think they say about “our cultural descent” are deliberate.
When Red Alert suggests certain objects take on a near-religious significance, she relates a story of when she visited the Louvre in Paris. “It was super-interesting,” she says. “There were particular things that were just totally surrounded by people – the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo – and the rest of the place was completely empty. The important thing was to be in the presence of these particular works – it was as though there was something inherent in them.”
As to what’s next, Leckie has been working on a fantasy novel set in a world not unlike our own – except it’s a realm where gods really exist. “If you could depend on a god to cure diseases, our history would be entirely different,” she says, adding, “that’s something that interests me that doesn’t interest some other fantasy writers.”
Provenance is published by Orbit on 28 September.