Ask the Author! (Please!)

Use this forum to discuss the April 2020 Book of the month, "Project Tau" by Jude Austin
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Jude Austin
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Re: Ask the Author! (Please!)

Post by Jude Austin »

Priyanka2304 wrote: 30 Jun 2020, 05:36 Hey Jude, it was a fun read! Are you planning to write another piece and when can we expect the book to be out? Science fiction like this has always been my favorite.
Hi Priyanka2304! :tiphat:
Thank you so much! The second book, "Homecoming," has been out for some time already, and you can read more about the sequels and the future of the series in this post! :D
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Post by Vic Chimezie »

Hello Jude,
I am yet to read this book due to one I currently reading. I love science fictions but often wonder where these engulfing imaginations stem from. Please, what inspires you to tell a particular story. What inspired this particular story?
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Vic Chimezie wrote: 03 Jul 2020, 03:09 Hello Jude,
I am yet to read this book due to one I currently reading. I love science fictions but often wonder where these engulfing imaginations stem from. Please, what inspires you to tell a particular story. What inspired this particular story?
Hi Vic Chimezie! :tiphat:
It's a long story ;) So long, in fact, that it had to be given its own post to answer it. You can read all about the inspiration for Project Tau here!
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Post by Rodel Barnachea »

Hi, Jude.
I want to ask, do you plan to write novels in other genres? If so, what literary genres?
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aaurba wrote: 08 Jul 2020, 00:11 Hi, Jude.
I want to ask, do you plan to write novels in other genres? If so, what literary genres?
Hi aaurba! :tiphat:

Does comedic fantasy a la Terry Pratchett count? (Note: I am not implying for one minute I'm on a par with Sir Pterry, but he is one of my greatest inspirations ;) ) Anyway, I have plans for a comedic fantasy series in the works that pokes affectionate - and hopefully very gentle - fun at RPG cliches. The problem is that I have too many ideas for that; I have several characters who all want their stories told, and they're all from different parts of that world and, in some cases, different times.

I also wrote a terrorist/thriller called Tsunami, which is out of print. I might rerelease it as an ebook, but there are a lot of problems with it: notably the fact that technology marches on, and a lot of things wouldn't work now. IIRC, it was written just before I wrote Project Tau, way back in 2006. One of the MCs - Alex Fox - has been on the streets since she was 14, and is 23 at the time of the book. She has very little knowledge about things like the internet beyond emails. Fair enough when it was set in 2006 and she would have been born in 1982-1983 (I was born in 1982 and didn't go online for the first time until I was 14 and didn't get internet at home until I was 16).

If I published that now, though, that character would have been born in the late 90s, grown up in the 2000s/2010s, and so that level of technological ignorance would make no sense to readers. There's no plot-related reason to set it in 2006, but there are a few plot developments and hooks that rely on Alex's lack of IT know-how.

So I might rewrite that and release it in ebook format, but I really don't know. It doesn't help that I don't much like Tsunami, so I'm in no hurry to work on it ;)
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Post by rahilshajahan »

Hey Jude. Your book was so awesome, I binge read it. I am big fan of sci-fi thrillers and this book played like a movie in my head without any flaws. Congratulations on such an awesome book!
"Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until they speak." - Steve Wright
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Post by Jude Austin »

rahilshajahan wrote: 30 Jul 2020, 14:30 Hey Jude. Your book was so awesome, I binge read it. I am big fan of sci-fi thrillers and this book played like a movie in my head without any flaws. Congratulations on such an awesome book!
Hi rahilshajahan! :tiphat: Thank you so much! I'm so happy to hear you enjoyed it :D
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Hey, hope I'm not asking something that someone else asked, but I recently read Project Tau and I was wondering what your thinking was in setting your prologue late in the story? I thought it was really interesting being thrown into things without really knowing what was happening, but I found myself wishing I didn't know about the future as I continued reading so I was curious about why you made that choice.
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Banette wrote: 06 Aug 2020, 23:11 Hey, hope I'm not asking something that someone else asked, but I recently read Project Tau and I was wondering what your thinking was in setting your prologue late in the story? I thought it was really interesting being thrown into things without really knowing what was happening, but I found myself wishing I didn't know about the future as I continued reading so I was curious about why you made that choice.
Hi Banette! :tiphat:

Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed it...or at least, didn't hate it too much (Okay, okay, I confess: I was lurking on the Review boards - authors aren't allowed to post on them - where I read your review for Opaque and have been existing in a low-key state of fear and trembling ever since :P )

Anyway, yeah, the prologue has been kind of divisive among reviewers. Some people say they love it, others say that knowing the potential outcome helped them get through the darker parts of the book (I say 'potential outcome' because there's nothing in the prologue to say that some kind of emergency beacon isn't automatically activated with the security systems, or that Chatton didn't fire off a call for help, or that those people who weren't in the line of fire aren't mounting a rescue...you get the idea. The point is that it could still all have turned sour for Kata and Tau at the eleventh hour ;) ) and a few people's reviews ran along the lines of, "Great story; too bad about the prologue." :P

The reason behind it was actually very simple: I wanted to start out by trying to mislead the reader into thinking that Tau and Kata were the bad guys and have them root for Dennison, before turning it on its head and showing that things aren't always that black and white. This occasionally backfired on me, as a couple of people's reactions have been, "Oh, ANOTHER recapture-the-evil-monster story. Yawn. Moving on."

In a moment of true Epic Fail on my part, however, I didn't stop to consider the idea that so many people would revile Dennison in their reviews, which completely nixes my attempts at misleading future readers before they even get past the dedication :D Project Tau was written back in 2006, when I was much younger (early 20s) and not thinking too much about the impact reviews can have, not just on whether or not people read the book, but on whether or not the writing techniques can survive those reviews. I like to think my style and technique has improved a little for the sequels.

I can definitely say that this particular technique is one I won't be using again. That said, if I wrote Project Tau now for the first time, I'd still do it the same way :D
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JudasFm wrote: 07 Aug 2020, 00:14 Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed it...or at least, didn't hate it too much (Okay, okay, I confess: I was lurking on the Review boards - authors aren't allowed to post on them - where I read your review for Opaque and have been existing in a low-key state of fear and trembling ever since :P )
I definitely enjoyed Project Tau! I just happened to get a book that I really didn't like for my first review. Sorry for scaring you!

And thanks for explaining your thinking! It was my biggest gripe with the book but I still gave Project Tau 3/4 stars because all of the best parts were just so good!
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JudasFm wrote: 01 Apr 2020, 10:59
Twylla wrote: 01 Apr 2020, 09:40 Hello, Jude! I loved your book! So far cloning has been used in two different avenues: reproductive cloning, mainly to improve livestock breeding; and therapeutic cloning aimed at growing cells, not whole humans, that could be used to treat diseases. Do you think whole humans will actually be cloned at some point in the future? Or do you think the ethics of doing that will prevent that from ever occuring? Thanks!
Hi, Twylla! Thank you so much!

I think yes, we will clone whole humans in the future, as there are always people out there who want to push the boundaries in the name of science. That's not necessarily a bad thing. As you say, therapeutic cloning can help cure disease, and in the book's universe, most of GenTech's financing comes from cloning things like bone marrow and organs for transplants; Projects are a very new development and Projects that can think and talk are even rarer. Tau is only the second such to be created, as most Projects have been incapable of speech and any real coherent thought (think Project Epsilon but without the crazy :P )

Unfortunately, I also think that clones will have no rights to begin with. I think the whole procedure will go something like: "Ha-HA! Success! Ladies and gentlemen, today we have successfully created the first human clone! Erm...what now? It's got no ID, no history...wait, which country does it belong to again? Because we're all Country A, but the clone was created from a Country B national and it was done in a lab that was funded by Country C." Then they'd want to check if it was a success (are allergies carried over in cloning? How does a clone react to being shown a spider or a snake? What's its learning capabilities? Let's test it! Let's see if we can mutate it, because if a clone can take the mutation, so can a normal human! No more tests? Okay, well, we got a few dozen diseases that we don't have cures for. Let's pick one, give it to the clone and get as much research from it as we can to save lives!)

On the other hand, I don't know how the future will pan out. The history of the human race in the book's universe is explained a little more in Book 2, but part of GenTech's rationale for creating Projects is that robots and AI are both a huge cultural and legal no-no on every single world and space station. And I do mean HUGE, as in even the worst of the worst or the brightest minds or most extreme zealot would never even consider trying to create one. Since our future might not pan out the same way, we might not have the same reasoning and, once we've created a clone just to prove we can do it, we'll turn our attention to refining robots and machinery.

I'd hope that the issue would be seriously discussed before any real attempt was made, and the results of that discussion presented to the world before the men and women in the labs even pick up a test tube. Success carries with it just as many consequences as failure, after all ;)

On a less serious note, thank you even more for listing Project Tau as your favorite book :D Suffice it to say there was much squeeing when I first saw it :D
The idea of cloning whole humans is scary to me. Although it would open whole set of research opportunities, but the ethical concerns stay in place, would the clone not feel the same way as other humans? How can we put a clone through a deadly disease, intentionally? Even guinea pigs do not deserve such treatment.
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Post by R Lefler »

Hi! I'm reading the book to review right now. I can say it surpassed my expectations, because I'm doing my first, free review. I thought initially, if it was a good book, it'd be roped off for the people with more experience, right? But this book is a thrilling page-turner and I could totally see it becoming a movie, too! :D I like stories that explore cloning and clone rights issues. There's been a few, but they've rarely gotten mainstream attention even within sci-fi which is already a niche. I think people worry more right now about AIs, robots killing people, and people getting sucked into video game worlds gone awry. A clone and an AI is similar and they both bring about the question of what rights do artificial living things have? A clone is an artificial human body, and an AI is an artificial human mind.

One thing I like is how the story brings about issues to do with education and training. I think even with humans, there's a lot of debate about how training for dangerous jobs should be and shouldn't be done, and to what extent recruits in the military should be pushed during the training.

The book also calls to mind real-world problems like animal rights, human medical experimentation, and slavery. We don't even have a long history, as a planet, of granting all humans all the same basic rights. And many groups today struggle to escape torture disguised as training, such as LGBT+ youth and autistic children being trained with behavioral modification techniques used to train animals, disguised as "therapy". It made me think about slavery too, because literacy was a threat to Dennison in the book as much as it was to slave owners in the past. And some slaves, ex-slaves, and abolitionists did teach other slaves how to read as part of helping them plan to escape, and when caught doing so would obviously be terribly, severely punished.

I bet this book could create good fodder for book club discussions! And I like that it's a fast, easy read. I also like that the characters and dialog seem realistic, and the differences between the scientists' personalities makes them interesting, not just blending in into being interchangeable, forgettable, defined only by their roles, which is something that happens in some books with several characters with the same title working in the same place. A lot of the conflict between the scientists made me think of Neon Genesis Evangelion, in fact the training stuff made me think about Kata and Tau's training sessions, and how different scientists had different ethical opinions about what was and was not acceptable as a method of training and/or punishing them.

The last book I got through a program similar to this (but not this site) was a plotless slog. I won't name it, but it was a lot of description of things that happened, very little talking, without commentary, no feelings of the narrator expressed, it wasn't really a story even though it was classed as fiction. It was like a memoir, but written in a clinical, police report style that bored me. That's what I mean when I say this book surpasses my expectations, they were set low, because the last time I got a book to do a review of in a similar manner, it was a pain to read and I couldn't get through it! Maybe this site is better. I do like that they give you so much information on which to base your decision to review the book. I appreciate it, because no book is for everyone. Even though I really like this book so far, it won't be for people who don't like the same kind of books I do. Similarly, I don't think even a really well-written mystery or spy thriller would interest me much because I just don't like those genres much. But I think this one does offer something new and fresh to sci-fi fans! And I'm very impressed by the fact that the book actually causes me to have visceral and strong emotional reactions. Because well, I've kind of seen it all, I have a blog about anime, movies, and TV with a specific focus on sci-fi. I'm probably in the top 10 people in the world for Star Trek trivia. I find it hard to like new sci-fi because I know all the tropes, and if someone is copying a master like Phillip K. Dick or Isaac Asimov, I'll know right away. But I love to see real originality and innovation in the genre! I'm a writer too, but the novel I'm working on is fantasy. But similarly, I hope that my current work will exhibit similar levels of freshness and originality, in a genre that, like sci-fi, has many well-worn tropes and settings people are getting tired of.
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Post by Jude Austin »

R Lefler wrote: 12 Aug 2020, 12:10 Hi!
Hi, R Lefler! :tiphat: And thank you for such a long comment :D Long comments/questions make me happy :P (They do, however, take a bit more time than usual to respond to, which is why my reply's a bit later than I intended :o )
R Lefler wrote: 12 Aug 2020, 12:10 I thought initially, if it was a good book, it'd be roped off for the people with more experience, right?
You'd be surprised. I read some high-reviewer-level books when I was a reviewer here at OBC that I rated 1/4, and probably the best book I ever read was one where the reviewer was only offered $5. (I wasn't intending to review another book so soon after the last one, but I saw the blurb on that $5 request and my one thought was to snatch it up before someone beat me to it :P Like I say, it was one of the best books I've read, both on the site and off it).
R Lefler wrote: 12 Aug 2020, 12:10But this book is a thrilling page-turner and I could totally see it becoming a movie, too! :D


Thank you so much! Project Tau has actually been entered into the Pipeline Adaptation Contest. If it wins, there's a very good chance it could be picked up by a streaming site like Netflix or Hulu for adaptation into a drama! Or a movie, but personally I favor the drama approach...not that I'll be given any say in it, of course ;)
R Lefler wrote: 12 Aug 2020, 12:10And many groups today struggle to escape torture disguised as training, such as LGBT+ youth and autistic children being trained with behavioral modification techniques used to train animals, disguised as "therapy".


I learned about the shock treatment that was used to "train" autistic children a couple of years after Project Tau was published, but I didn't realize it extended to LGBT+ youth as well. That's truly terrible :cry:
R Lefler wrote: 12 Aug 2020, 12:10It made me think about slavery too, because literacy was a threat to Dennison in the book as much as it was to slave owners in the past. And some slaves, ex-slaves, and abolitionists did teach other slaves how to read as part of helping them plan to escape, and when caught doing so would obviously be terribly, severely punished.
Well, to be fair, Dennison isn't bothered by literacy itself; if a Project is taught to read, that's just fine with him and GenTech. Every single Project up until Tau's predecessor, Sigma, has been incapable of learning (and believe me, GenTech tried!) The threat is that Kalin/Kata isn't just doing things behind his back, but now Tau's started to deceive Dennison as well. In other words, he realizes that he doesn't have nearly the amount of control over them - particularly Tau - as he thought, and that terrifies him.
R Lefler wrote: 12 Aug 2020, 12:10That's what I mean when I say this book surpasses my expectations, they were set low, because the last time I got a book to do a review of in a similar manner, it was a pain to read and I couldn't get through it! Maybe this site is better. I do like that they give you so much information on which to base your decision to review the book. I appreciate it, because no book is for everyone.
Very true! I've seen a couple of posts from people elsewhere on this site saying that they're not interested in reading either Project Tau or Homecoming because of the profanity, and that's absolutely fine with me. I've read another post saying that the reader (not sure if they were actually a reviewer) stopped reading Project Tau very quickly, and I'm fine with that too. Like I said in one of my interviews: my job is purely to entertain, nothing more. If my work doesn't entertain readers or reviewers, I'd much rather they just put it aside and moved onto the next book :D I don't object to getting 1/4 reviews, but in the case where the reviewer talks about how much they hated the book, I do wonder why they kept reading it :lol2: Luckily, most people seem to enjoy my stuff, so low scores don't come up all that often. When they do, I just shrug it off as a, "you can't please everyone" situation ;)
R Lefler wrote: 12 Aug 2020, 12:10But I think this one does offer something new and fresh to sci-fi fans!
It's "sci-fi realism!" :D
R Lefler wrote: 12 Aug 2020, 12:10I'm probably in the top 10 people in the world for Star Trek trivia.
Yay, Star Trek! I have to confess, I shied away from it for a long while, purely because there were so many series and movies that it was difficult to know where to begin. Then I found the original series on Netflix, watched a couple episodes, and my reaction was basically, "How have I not discovered this AWESOMENESS before!?" I'm halfway through the original series 2 now and plan to keep watching ;)
R Lefler wrote: 12 Aug 2020, 12:10I'm a writer too, but the novel I'm working on is fantasy. But similarly, I hope that my current work will exhibit similar levels of freshness and originality, in a genre that, like sci-fi, has many well-worn tropes and settings people are getting tired of.
Ooh, neat! You'll have to let me know when it's published; I'd definitely like to buy a copy! :D I'm also working on the first book in a brand-new fantasy series (think Terry Pratchett rather than Tolkien, not that I'm comparing myself to either of those, of course!) that's starting to shape up nicely.
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Post by Laura Mich »

Hello Jude,
I'm not much of a fictitious tale fun but your book is quite captivating. It's a page-turner.
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Post by Jude Austin »

Laura Mich wrote: 13 Sep 2020, 07:32 Hello Jude,
I'm not much of a fictitious tale fun but your book is quite captivating. It's a page-turner.
Hi Laura Mich! :tiphat:

Thank you so much! I'm glad you like it :D
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