The Bone Season was an absolutely FANTASTIC book that I adored reading last year and the sequel? Absolutely fantastic. (You can check out the tour post to see my review tomorrow!)
I love singing. I sing all the time when no-one’s around.
The Bone Season is not the first book you’ve written–what was the first manuscript you ever wrote about?
I worked on several writing projects in my early teens, but my first proper manuscript was called Aurora, a sci-fi romance I started when I was fifteen. It wasn’t a very good novel and it was rightfully rejected by every agent I sent it to, but it was a good stepping stone and gave me a handful of strong concepts for The Bone Season.
You’ve done a stunning about of world building for The Bone Season saga–how did you build such a fantastic world? How long did it take?
Not too long. The ideas came to me quite quickly once I had the initial kernel of inspiration, which I got when I was working in Seven Dials, London in 2011. I imagined a version of the city populated by clairvoyants, inspired by the New Age shops in the area. I didn’t plan every last detail of the world before I started the book; it was a process of layering and developing as I wrote, working outwards from the character and thinking about how the world around her would have been formed over the course of an alternate history.
How do you feel about the success of The Bone Season?
It was unexpected, but I’m thrilled it’s found so many readers.
Suppose you could be any character in any book–who would you be?
Hm… probably Hermione Granger. Or Karou from Daughter of Smoke and Bone.
You have fantastic names for both of your novels. How did you come up with them?
The Bone Season came to me quite naturally. It did have a couple of working titles (Luna Moth and Flux), but that one stuck pretty quickly. The Mime Order was a bit harder. I had a different title for the book originally that I loved, but when I discussed it with my editors we decided it didn’t really fit the book as well as I’d hoped. We ended up coming up with The Mime Order together after sitting in Bloomsbury’s offices for a few hours, mulling it over and writing down suggestions.
What are some books you’d recommend for fans of The Bone Season?
If you liked the language, A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. If you like dystopia, my main inspirations were The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and, of course, Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. If you like books with big worldbuilding, try the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas.
Any hint as to what to expect from The Mime Order? (i.e. will you be drinking the tears of brokenhearted fans?)
I take occasional servings of tears. You can expect more time in Scion London, more characters, and lots more mime-crime with the Seven Seals.
It is the year 2059. Several major world cities are under the control of a security force called Scion. Paige Mahoney works in the criminal underworld of Scion London, part of a secret cell known as the Seven Seals. The work she does is unusual: scouting for information by breaking into others’ minds. Paige is a dreamwalker, a rare kind of clairvoyant, and in this world, the voyants commit treason simply by breathing.
But when Paige is captured and arrested, she encounters a power more sinister even than Scion. The voyant prison is a separate city—Oxford, erased from the map two centuries ago and now controlled by a powerful, otherworldly race. These creatures, the Rephaim, value the voyants highly—as soldiers in their army.
Paige is assigned to a Rephaite keeper, Warden, who will be in charge of her care and training. He is her master. Her natural enemy. But if she wants to regain her freedom, Paige will have to learn something of his mind and his own mysterious motives.
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About Samantha Shannon
Samantha Shannon (born 8 November 1991) is a British writer. Born in Hammersmith and brought up in West London, she recently graduated from St Anne’s College, Oxford, where she studied English Language and Literature.
Find her: Website/blog | | | |
Great interview Nikki, that’s so exciting you got to interview her! I really do love her book and it makes me so happy she loves Throne of Glass as well <3
Jeann @ Happy Indulgence recently posted…
The Bone Season has been one of those books that’s been on my list for FOREVER. There’s so much awesome praise on it and she was in my city but I didn’t get to go. I really enjoyed reading this, even though I didn’t really understand a few questions [i’m assuming they’re part of the world?]
great interview, nonetheless.
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