Why I love Kheris Burning…
…so much so that it’s the first Thieves’ Guild book to make it to
audiobook format. The answer is complicated, as always… when is it ever not complicated?
Kheris is LC. It’s first person LC so this is him telling his story. And
not only that, but he’s telling the story in the middle of a battle when
they’re surrounded by Bhenykhn. It’s the line in BD when he says he owes Mendhel so much… the one liner
in that second book when he says his knee doesn’t hurt anymore after hurting for
so long… why he hates AIs and that nightmare he has of kneeling in the dust
with a gun to his head…
And the reason why Kheris was so significant? Yeah, you don’t really
find out why until Book Five, or seven… or one, depending which way you look at
it, and even then it’s not the whole story… when would I ever tell the whole
story?
But back to Kheris Burning… I love it because it’s raw. I almost didn’t
release it because it was too raw, and too real. It’s a kid growing up in a war
zone. It’s ‘if Romeo and Juliet had a kid, on a scuzz bucket, war-torn mining
colony in deep space, this is what happened thirteen years later’. It’s about
not belonging. It’s about lying and deceit. It’s YA sci fi, alien invasion
adventures, my usual fast-paced military science fiction stuff, but this is
also LC, and anyone who knows me, anyone who has read any of my stuff, knows how
important LC is to me.
And that’s why Kheris Burning is so important to me, and why I had to
take time out of the main series to write it. Thank you to everyone for
humouring me while I got this out of my system. Thank you to Clinton Herigstad
for bringing it to life for the audiobook. And thank you, as always, to Hatt
and the munchkins, and the rest of my family and friends, for putting up with
me.
I’m back with Hil for Book Six (eight? two?)… and I must admit it’s
weird because neither of us are where we were eleven years ago. There is going
to be a young LC Book Three at some point, and Redemption is next on the list
for Clinton and the audiobooks. But for now, it’s the big stuff so I’m stocking
up on rum and listening to old Linkin Park.
Will be in touch again, and maybe it won’t be a year from now… or maybe
it will. Who knows?
Cheers,
CGH
ps. And yes, Book Five, Darkest Fears, is out… at last!
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