Red Star Rebels by bestselling author AMIE KAUFMAN is a sci-fi romp about a stowaway girl and the richest boy in the galaxy, racing the clock to outwit a gang of mercenaries.
Good Reading sat down with Amie for a Q&A about where she got her inspirations for this incredible sci-fi romp.
MEET AMIE KAUFMAN
What inspired you to write Red Star Rebels?
The first spark for this book showed up during a visit to NASA, where I found myself talking to some very clever scientists about Martian dirt. As you do! As I do, anyway, it turns out. Martian dirt (called regolith) is different to our dirt here on earth. It’s so fine it hangs in the air, and can turn dust storms into total whiteouts. Or red-outs, I guess. Somewhere in the back of my mind, a little voice was asking what kind of crimes you could commit, if nobody could see you…
I went to Mars in my mind, and I thought a lot about who might feature in a story set there in the near future. The events of 2025 made me wonder more than ever who’ll actually settle the red planet. Countries, or corporations?
So for my characters, I chose the grandson of the man who settled Mars – a literal billionaire who has everything money can buy (except healthy family relationships, alas) and a girl who stowed away and came to Mars illegally. They each represent what the other dislikes the most – but when they’re trapped together at a base and hostile mercenaries start to arrive, they’ll have to work together.
The book is set in 2067 on a transformed Mars. What can you tell us about this world?
The Mars we see in this world is about what happens when instead of heading into space ‘for all mankind’ we instead start allowing corporations to slap their logos on the nearest planet. I spend probably a more than normal amount of time thinking about this.
In Red Star Rebels, a tech bro called Michael Graves and his company, GravesUP, surprised everyone by making it to Mars first. Every major player in the space race was caught with their pants down, and after that, all bets were off. Turns out you actually can panic-buy a space program, if your budget is big enough. This Mars is a patchwork of international alliances and corporate settlements, everyone out for themselves, with the UN in the middle like an exhausted parent, trying to get everyone in the back seat to behave.
And it’s at the UN base that we’ll meet Hunter and Cleo … and the mercenaries they’re about to face down.
Cleo and Hunter are left behind. How did you develop writing their personalities and dynamic?
They sure are left behind. The whole UN base is evacuated, except for these two, who are stuck with the mercenaries who arrive minutes later. What a first date.
I love opposites-attract romances, and in this case, I knew I wanted two characters who were each what the other hates the most. And they both have legitimate reasons to feel the way they do. That genuine dislike makes it so much more satisfying when they each become the person the other can’t live without. In this case, they represent both sides of the debate on how to settle Mars. Do we need to send the well-resourced first, so the planet has a chance to actually be viable for everyone? Or is the whole idea pointless if we exclude those who need it most?
It would have been easy to make Hunter – a super rich trust fund boy – a bad guy, but I wanted to do something more complex than that. Of course, Cleo initially thinks he’s exactly what it says on the box. But he’s also kind. And vulnerable. And more willing to listen than you might expect. And Cleo is nothing like the people he thought his family were excluding. Also, they have great banter, and for me, that’s always a part of two characters falling in love.
Did you draw from any real-world families to shape the Graves family?
I don’t think I can answer this question without getting sued, considering the Graves family are a bunch of conniving, backstabbing billionaires who’ll do anything for a profit. But I suspect readers will be able to think of some real-world examples…
Were there any specific challenges in writing a high-stakes narrative?
Yes, definitely! The challenge I set myself was to write a book that took place in a very compressed timeframe, like the movies Speed or Die Hard. I wanted to see if I could go absolutely full throttle, without sacrificing character depth, or romance. It was a challenge, but I loved it!
Do you have any writing habits or rituals to help you get in the zone?
Yes and no. I can write anywhere – I don’t like to be tied down by the need to be in a particular place, or light a particular candle, or have a particular drink. I like to be flexible. But that said, my happiest place for writing is my little office at the bottom of my garden, which is stuffed with things that inspire me. I also love to go away on writing retreats in my campervan. The place where I camp, it’s about six steps to the beach, and I dunk myself in the sea in my writing breaks.
Are there any questions or reflections you hope this story raises?
Science fiction allows us to take questions about how we’re acting today, and project ourselves into the future to see what the consequences might be. That’s one of the things I love about it. The stories seem to be about distant galaxies or times far from now, but really, they’re about us. I always hope readers reflect, once they’ve put the book down – in this case, perhaps, on the sort of Mars they’d like to see, and who it’ll be for – but I don’t want to give them the answers. I ask the questions, and the rest is up to them.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amie Kaufman is a New York Times, USA Today and internationally bestselling author of science fiction and fantasy. Her multi-award winning work has been translated into nearly 30 languages, and has been described as ‘a game-changer’ (Shelf Awareness), ‘stylistically mesmerising’ (Publishers Weekly) and ‘out-of-this-world awesome’ (Kirkus). Several of her series are currently in development for film and TV.
Raised in Australia and occasionally Ireland, Amie has degrees in history, literature, law and conflict resolution, and is currently undertaking a PhD in Creative Writing. She is the host of the podcast Amie Kaufman on Writing and the co-host of Pub Dates with Kate J Armstrong. Amie lives by the sea in Melbourne, Australia with her family and an extremely large personal library.
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