Sam Sykes Answers Questions Five

Sam Sykes is a young debut author who has hit the SFF scene hard – right in the balls (sorry to be crass, but this is a Sam Sykes interview and it’s not for the faint of heart – or someone overly sensitive to language). And to add a bit of trivial info to this introduction – Sykes is actually a pen name that Sam uses in part to distinguish himself from his mother, writer Diana Gabaldon. Sam’s debut novel is Tome of the Undergates, the first book in the Aeon’s Gate Trilogy (Book Depository, Powell’s Books, Indiebound, my review). Book 2, Black Halo (Book Depository, Powell’s Books, Indiebound) should hit the shelves in 2011. Sam’s distinctive public persona is a breath of foul air in the world of SFF (and I mean this in the best way possible).

Thanks again to Sam for submitting himself to Questions Five (and for producing arguably the most entertaining entry in this interview series)!

Joe Hill, a magical pug, a Mexican, Joe Arpaio, and Lou Anders go on adventure seeking the Tome of the Underpants. How do things go?

“Oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god,” Joe whines. Tears are in his eyes, blood is on his hands. It’s getting hard to keep track of the fluids.

“Shut up, just shut the fuck up,” Lou says. He’s wanting to rub his head, wanting that brief clarity of mind that only comes from hand-to-head-sans-hair contact. But he can’t take his hands off the wheel, not until they reach Mexico, not with a dead body in the trunk.

“Jesus fuck, Lou,” Joe says, “I killed him. I killed that guy.”

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“The fuck it wasn’t my fault! I said I was just going to talk to him!”

“Look, man, it’s not like you did too bad. It’s Joe Arpaio. He provoked you. You…you know…you’re kind of blameless.”

“Then why the fuck are we going to Mexico, huh? Why the fuck is he in the trunk?”

“I don’t know, dumbshit! Why the fuck did you kill him for having the same first name?”

“You don’t know what it’s like, man! You’re not a Joe. You don’t. Fucking. Know.”

“Gentlemen, please,” a voice, deep and bass, speaks up from the backseat.

Neither of them look back. Neither of them want to see the pug in the tuxedo. Neither of them want to believe it can talk, just like neither of them want to believe that those pills they took at the gas station were anything more than aspirin. But they look into the rear view window and the pug is still there, still talking, and it’s getting harder to believe anything else.

“Do I look like a young lady?” the pug asks. “Do I have curly golden hair? Do I wear a pretty little dress and dream of vampires instead of wearing this fine Armani and long for a day when I can put you both far behind me?”

“I guess not,” Joe says.

“Man, don’t fucking talk to it,” Lou snaps.

“No,” the pug says. “Because I am not a fucking little girl. I’m fucking more man than either of you little pieces of shit, so when I say to do something, you fucking do it like a man told you to, comprende?”

“Fuck is…is he Mexican?”

“Well, what the fuck do we do, then?” Lou asks. “You’re a fucking talking dog, what the hell do we do?”

A pug can’t smile. This is fact. But as they look up into the rear view, neither of them wants to believe that they see a pair of canine lips curling up into a broad grin.

“Have either of you heard, by chance…of the Tome of the Underpants?”

If Tome of the Undergates were a fortune cookie, what would its fortune be?

“Your god is deaf. Your heaven is a lie. Go to the water. Drink deeply. We will meet you there and we will all go to a world of endless blue and oblivion. Together.”

How would you interpret this fortune if it were your own?

Well, I guess I’d go drown myself. I mean, I’m not dumb. I’m not going to piss off a fortune cookie.

Please describe one reason Tome of the Undergates would inspire a reader to strip naked and run screaming into the forest?

If that reader is a fantasy reader: they would do so because the sheer amount of imagination would cause them to realize that nothing in life could possibly be as cool as a dragonman fighting a ten-foot-tall emaciated demon and the only way to live life to the fullest would be to go to that world and, going by the Terminator principle, one needs to strip naked and run around and hope for the best.

If that reader is a romance reader: they would realize that Tome of the Undergates’ awkward, often violent romance between two people who love and hate each other at the same time is probably closer to reality than anything read in a book and, not wanting to live in such a world, would go in search of the nearest bear and hope for an end to the misery.

If that reader is a horror reader: they would be moved by the idea of horrific beasts that view mankind as a pitiful thing in need of release from an uncaring world and view drowning as the quickest way toward a caring deity and, out of gratitude, would strip naked and run through a forest directly to my house to thank me.

If that reader is a guy named Stephen: you fucking owe me twelve bucks, you shit. If I catch you naked, I’m going to be pissed.

Why should Tome of the Undergates be the next thing that everyone reads?

Because it’s a new way of thinking: hateful people bound together by self-loathing instead of heroism, hateful people learning to overcome that and be bound together by something more…but not heroism, villains who are possibly more kind and loving than anything else on earth, character development taken in a way that can be sometimes hard to digest, but ultimately rewarding and engrossing.

Also, crotch-stomping. Oh, lord, the crotch-stomping.

Bonus question for inclusion in The SFF Literary Pub Crawl:

Please recommend a favorite pub or similar establishment – it doesn’t have to be local to you, but that is encouraged and if you can’t limit to just one, recommend more, but try to keep it to 3 or less. And don’t forget to say why it’s so great.

I love The Wine Loft in downtown Flagstaff. My hearing isn’t so great and I’m a man who hates the sight of other people having fun, so a bar with good beer, good wine and an atmosphere that doesn’t involve a bunch of people dancing to loud music is one I enjoy.

Also, the owner seems to like my dogs, so he must be a good person.

[For what it’s worth, this is my favorite place for drinks in Flagstaff as well]

Related Posts: Review of Tome of the Undergates

Review: Tome of the Undergates by Sam Sykes

Tome of the Undergates (Book Depository, Powell’s Books, Indiebound) is the debut novel from Sam Sykes, a relatively young writer with a rather distinctive public persona. This tome combines classic Sword & Sorcery with a bit of epic fantasy while inverting the noble band of adventurers as is the first book of the Aeon’s Gate Trilogy. It’s violent, witty, foul-mouthed, and unpleasant – and depending on one’s perception, it’s either perfect or horribly wrong.

Tome of the Undergates could read like the standard Sword and Sorcery adventure quest – there is wizard, a priestess, a shict (elf equivalent), a dragonman (troll/orc/ogre equivalent), and a talented man all following an inspirational leader. That’s where it ends because this merry band of adventures hate one another – not in the we don’t really get a long way, but in the I want you to die a brutal death as I carve out your heart with a spoon kind of way. Most of the characters are morally reprehensible, all are greatly flawed with mysterious pasts full of violence, pain and punishment, and it’s really hard to figure out how they haven’t already killed each other. Under the leadership of Lenk, who is slowly going batshit insane, the band is bonded not by noble mission or even the desire for a big paycheck – the band is bound by their own self-loathing. The only thing the hate more than each other is probably themselves, so the company, however unpleasant, is actually better than the alternative of being alone. And at least together they seem to get the chance to kill a lot.

All of this is told in the distinctive, dark wit of Sykes’ writing. It’s funny, it’s snarky, it’s sarcastic, and it’s over the top. The only thing more over the top is probably the violence – typically described in visceral detail. The violence is in your face from the beginning – not quite gratuitous, but so close it becomes semantic. Let’s be honest – in this, Tome of the Undergates is something a 14 year old boy would love. Or someone with a sick sense of humor. Or someone who wants to read an extended Dungeons & Dragons campaign. But it would be a mistake to dismiss this book simply because one of those doesn’t apply to you.

Sykes displays strong potential with his writing. Under all of the over-the-top humor and violence, there is some real talent. The adventure is one that I couldn’t help but follow – I needed to see it through. I became strangely devoted to the characters in spite of their questionable morality, rampant racism (err….speciesism?), reprehensible ideas, repeated blasphemy, and awful love stories. I wanted them to live, I wanted them to win, I wanted to see them kill some more creepy beasts. And I wanted to know more about their pasts – why are they so devoted to Lenk, why don’t the kill each other even though they really want to, why do they hate themselves, why don’t they kill themselves. And in the moments when Sykes provides glimpses into their pasts, he excels. Sykes underscores this as the real point by continuing the story well past the climactic battle with his most impressive bit of writing, particularly the section from Gariath.

Unfortunately, the writing has a few more downs than ups. This is Sykes’ first book and as a relatively young writer (only 25 at publication) his youth and inexperience show through. The pacing is off – the battles are too drawn out, a bit too clever, and the dialogue can be equally drawn out and overly clever. The points of view tend to shift both gradually and abruptly without warning or break in the text (this is one of my biggest pet peeves). Many will feel the violence is too much, the language too coarse, and the characters too nasty (in fairness, I think a good many people will consider this a positive). He keeps his characters a bit too mysterious, unrealistically so. And this nearly 500-page book could be much shorter without losing anything. But ultimately, these issues diminished in the face of a fun story.

Some books aren’t for everyone, and that is certainly the case for Tome of the Undergates. However, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t for some people – it succeeds well within its goals. It’s a book full of violence, adventurers with questionable morals, nasty creatures, with an interesting out-right inversion of the noble quest. And really, that 14 year old boy who doesn’t like books (but likes comics and/or video games) just may think this is the coolest thing ever. I liked it – with reservations – but overall I think it’s a great start for a promising young writer (and in spite of what my wife may claim, I’m no 14 year old boy and I think this book will appeal to a wider, if still limited audience). 7/10

Related Posts: Sam Sykes Answers Questions Five

Full Disclosure: Sam Sykes lives in the same city I do and I have met him on a few occasions, including one in which he bought me a beer and introduced me to George R.R. Martin as we gossiped about writing, publishing and blogging.