Archive for the ‘Tade Thompson’ Category
Rosewater by Tade Thomson
Posted on: February 26, 2017
Rosewater, by Tade Thompson
published in 2016
where I got it: purchased new
read my interview with Tade Thompson here
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Kaaro is a finder. Simply think about something you’ve lost, and he’ll tell you where it is. The way he describes how he does this is absolutely incredible – he follows your thought backwards. You’re thinking of a ring you lost? He’ll follow the thread of your thoughts to you remembering where you dropped it, or who you lent it to. Not only can Kaaro follow your thoughts backwards to help you find a lost item, but he can also read your thoughts. His specific talent may not be exactly the same as those of other sensitives in the city, but their gifts are all very, very real.
By day, Kaaro helps fill a bank with useless white noise so mind readers can’t easily pull account numbers out of the minds of customers. By night, he’s an interrogator with the government, pulling thoughts, images, faces, and places out of the minds of criminals and describing them to a forensic artist. In the privacy of his own home, he does his best to forget the violence of his past and tries not to think about what the government does with the information he pulls out of people’s heads.
The city of Rosewater started as a pilgrimage village, and grew into a city. It surrounds a dome known as Utopicity, an enclosed space which is the remnant of a lump of alien something that crash landed about 50 years ago. Once a year, the dome opens up, physically healing people in the vicinity. If you live in Rosewater, the yearly pilgrimage of people hoping to be healed is a completely normal thing. Kaaro knows enough about Utopicity to know he doesn’t want anything to do with it, although the dome is always inescapably in the background of everything in his life.
Rosewater is the strangest and most unique alien invasion story I have ever read. Read the rest of this entry »
First Contact with Tade Thompson: Alien invasions, doodles and scribbles, and death to darlings
Posted on: October 12, 2016
Tade Thompson’s work has appeared in Apex Magazine, Interzone, Escape Pod, African Monsters, and in numerous anthologies. Most recently, his horror novella “The Murders of Molly Southbourne” was acquired by Tor.com. His work combines thrillers with horror, first contact with mythology, and a voice that is purely Tade. His newest novel, Rosewater, out of Apex Publications, will be available in November. Part alien invasion story, part psychological thriller, and all intelligence, this novel is sure to make an impression.
Tade’s debut novel, Making Wolf, won the Golden Tentacle Award at the Kitchies. He’s taught science fiction writing classes, loves the Netflix show Stranger Things, and suffuses his longhand manuscripts with arrows, flowcharts and doodles. All this is to say he’s an author you need to keep your eye on. Be sure to check out Tade’s website and his twitter feed @tadethompson.
Tade was kind enough to let me pick is brain about Rosewater, the joys of writing and brainstorming longhand, and his favorite writers.
Little Red Reviewer: Congratulations on your new novel, Rosewater! What inspired this story, and how did the characters and plot come together?
Tade Thompson: Thank you! The ideas came first. I spent ages ruminating on a particular theme, almost as an exercise. Why would aliens come to Earth? I wrote a short story in the universe many years ago, and kept extrapolating. Then my main character, Kaaro, presented himself, and I started on the first draft. The plot grew around him and it changed quite a bit over subsequent drafts. At one point, for example, it was going to be a dark love story. Let’s just be grateful that didn’t happen. The most important aspect of Kaaro was his flawed character. His personality has been scored and mutilated by life. I fractured the story because that’s what I enjoy. Alejandro Inarritu, when talking about the film “21 Grams”, said that stories are rarely told in a linear fashion in real life. There are always digressions and culs-de-sac. I subscribe to that idea.
LRR: Aliens are so much fun to write, that authors have been writing alien invasion and first contact stories since the beginning of literature. I know there is something that makes Rosewater different, but my blog readers may not. So, what makes Rosewater different from other alien invasion and first contact novels?
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