Exclusive interview with co-authors Tee Morris and Pip Ballantine, with a review of their new steampunk novel
Rating: 3 Stars
By Gabrielle Pantera
“I have been itching to write something in a steampunk setting since discovering this sub-genre of science fiction,” says Phoenix Rising co-author Tee Morris. “Pip wanted to try a podcast-for-pay model, and offered up the idea of a spinoff to this book that had barely a chapter and a half completed. We were going to call this spinoff Books & Braun and produce it ourselves. As we were scripting it out, our agent Laurie McLean said, ‘This steampunk book you all are writing, when can you have it done?’ So, we re-wrote the scripts we had completed from radio script to manuscript formats. ”
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction typically set in Victorian-era Britain when steam power was at its peak. Steampunk has elements of fantasy and futuristic innovations made from dated technology, as in the books of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne.
Phoenix Rising starts off with a bang. There is a rescue and an explosion. Field agent Eliza Braun is rescuing Ministry archivist Wellington Books from where he’s being held in Antarctica. Agents Braun and Books are charming. Eliza is a woman of action. Books is a man of thought. The two agents become unwilling partners to find out why people are disappearing in England. They work well together. Note this book is too violent for children. Sometimes the story slows down when you expect it to be fast-paced. Packing in a few more peculiar occurrences would help. Something to look forward to in the next book?
“The idea originally sparked from an idea Tee had,” says co-author Pip Ballantine. “Tee’s concept was a Victorian X-Files, where all sorts of odd and inexplicable things are investigated. However, the idea that we started talking about in 2008 was not for Phoenix Rising, but for another book written from another character’s point of view. Phoenix Rising is really a spin-off of as yet not written book.”
“Our research was done primarily online, and did we find some gems for this first book of the series,” says Morris. “For the second book, we found actual film of suffragists protesting. The Internet is a treasure trove of research, and Scrivener (the popuplar computer program) is my application of choice.”
“We are both big history buffs,” says Ballantine. “We did a lot of research into the people of the time, because characters are really what makes a historical novel come alive. However we also looked at what daily life was like, what Londoners ate and did, and where they did it. Those little details like specific places or smells add a lot to the experience of reading. So we worked through online resources and also a bunch of excellent books on Victorian daily life.”
There’s interest in developing Phoenix Rising for the screen. “In the best tradition of the Ministry, we cannot give any firm details on that, but it is being looked at for adaption,” says Ballantine. “We’re just waiting for things to develop. We’ve had a few names batted around, which is very exciting, but we’re trying to keep our feet on the ground.”
Philippa (Pip) Ballantine was born in New Zealand but makes her home in the U.S. She is New Zealand’s first podcast novelist and has produced four podiobooks. Tee Morris operates from a secret location. Ballantine and Morris are currently working on the next Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences novel, due out in 2012.
Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris. Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages. Publisher: Harper Voyager (April 26, 2011). Language: English ISBN-10: 0062049763. ISBN-13: 978-0062049766
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