Interview with Fallout author Harry Turtledove

Fallout is the next book in your Hot War series. What is next in store for our characters?

Ah, that’d be telling. You’ve got to read the book and find out. 😉

What kind of research did you do when writing Fallout?

The attitudes toward race and sexuality and such things are the ones that were typical here when I was a little kid. I remember them too well; we are somewhat better than that now, fortunately. The history, the technology, are worked up from early Cold War improvements on World War II skills. The Russian Tu-4 bomber program is particularly fascinating. Stalin told Tupolev, “Give me a B-29 copy in two years–or else”–and damned if Tupolev didn’t, in spite of an awful lot of the B-29’s technology being well beyond what the Russians were using themselves in the mid-1940s. And yes, the Soviet A-bomb project had help from espionage, but it was a remarkable achievement anyhow. Our best estimates were that they’d get the bomb anywhere from 25 years after we did to never, and they did it in four.

Who designed the cover for Fallout?

The Del Rey art folks get the credit. I like it.

Are you planning to write any concluding novels, like you did for Worldwar/Colonization with Homeward Bound, with some of your other long-running series?

I hope the third book (working title, ALL THE KING’S HORSES) wraps things up pretty well.

Recently you had a short story in SM Stirling’s Change anthology. Do you have any other short stories coming out set in another author’s universe?

I’ve done three Lovecraftian stories recently, the third of which is forthcoming. A couple of them were ideas I’ve had for a long time; the new one is more closely rooted to current events.

What other projects are you working on?

I have an a-h called GOD WILLS IT! coming out from Tor next year, along with the last book of the HOT WAR series. I’ve been doing some short fiction of my own, too.

Are you reading anything good right now?

A history of the naval campaign that accompanied the American landings on Guadalcanal in 1942. And I’m rereading THREE MEN IN A BOAT for the nine millionth time.

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