Frequently asked questions

I don’t know. I conceived the series as a long one, but whether there are more books depends strongly on the publisher. Publishers are most impressed by sales. In the meantime, you might be able to sate your hunger for Dread Empire stories with Investments, a novella set a few years after the events in Conventions of War, found in Between Worlds and Gardner Dozois’ Year’s Best Science Fiction.

In point of fact, I already have, at novella length. Solip:System was published as a limited edition by Axolotl Press in 1989 and reprinted by Asimov’s in 1990. It begins minutes before the conclusion of Hardwired and follows the downloaded computer personality Reno, showing how that world evolved into Voice of the Whirlwind. It is now available in the collection Frankensteins and Foreign Devils from NESFA Press.

There will be eventually, but the editor of the first two books was fired and his line cancelled. Writing the third book involves getting the first two back from the publisher and packaging them with the third. But really. I’ll get back to Aiah and Constantine as soon as I can.

No, not really, though I like both the film and the song. I just thought City on Fire was a great title.

It’s a fantasy.

I’m tempted by the idea, but there are other books that need to be written first.

See above.

Mataglap is an Indonesian word meaning “dark eye” or, probably, “dilated eye.” It indicates that someone is about to go berserk and start killing people at random. In Aristoi, it describes a berserk form of nanotechnology that devoured the planet.

It refers to the character Reno in Hardwired. In the future world of Aristoi, the novel is a classic and personality-endowed artificial-intelligence programs are called “reno” after its character.

It’s impossible to earn a living writing short stories. I have to write novels in order to afford to write shorter works.

I really love writing short stories.

That’s my current theory.