Known for his dark humor and ability to mix the fantasy and SF genres, Bangledeshi author Saad Z. Hossain's fourth novel Cyber Mage releases December 14. Saad is himself a literary cyber mage, a voice for navigating our distinctly challenging 21st-century. Now, if only people would listen.
What was your entry into Science Fiction?
Well it was the Belgariad for the first entry into SFF, but pure scifi, I think I really got into Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, and a lot of William Gibson. I like switching between fantasy and sci fi, and often the best is when you have a mixture.
Is sci-fi popular in Bangledesh?
I think sci fi is popular amongst readers everywhere in the world, specially younger readers as an entry way into reading. I look at my own kids and often its Manga, then fantasy, then sci fi as a path into reading for pleasure.
I recently read Eric Drexler's Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization and got really excited. Drexler talks about how nanotech based carbon capture really could erase the industrial revolution's carbon footprint from the earth's atmosphere. What drew your interest in nanotech for Cyber Mage?
Nanotech is already kind of driving our future technology, and I guess this will continue in a more radical way. The idea of terraforming Mars or other planets is a standard pillar of traditional SF, but if you take that idea to a ruined earth scenario, its clear that many scientists will try to terraform earth itself.
You write SF and Fantasy. Do you find your works ever get cross pollinated, some fantasy in the science and vice versa?
For me, SF and Fantasy should be intermixed, specially urban fantasy. This makes it more interesting, it scrambles the brain looking for normal narrative patterns, and it lets you meld together myth and future tech in interesting ways. The whole point is that if you take SF far enough, it looks like fantasy, and if you break down fantasy deeply enough, it looks like science. For example when I'm writing a magic system, if my world building is on point and very detailed, it will take on a pseudo scientific tone, in the sense that all good magic systems are rigorous, and follow an internal logic or physics. Similarly, if I take any sci fi tech far enough into the future, it begins to look like magic, ie something theoretically possible but not related to anything we have right now. This idea that the two must be strictly separated comes from a specific kind of fantasy and a specific kind of sci fi: sword and sorcery type fantasy and space opera type SFF.
Speaking of science fantasy, did you watch the new Dune movie? What was your impression?
I loved it. I liked the tone, the pacing, the beautiful cinematography. I was prepared to be disappointed, and also hoping for something doomed like the Jodorowsky Dune, but this version was solid.
What's the best piece of writing advice you've ever received?
If you get stuck, read books. It works! Reading is the best way to get out of writer's block, or a plot hole, or just general malaise.
What would Americans learn about America if they were a Bangladeshi not under the constant manipulation of an America-first ideologically biased media feed?
Looking at it from the outside and I think they would notice that America, bizarrely, is the poorest rich country in the world. It seems like you could stop squandering money on the military, or corporate bailouts, and spend that on the actual people, by giving them free healthcare, education, housing. The economy as a whole would benefit and go up, it's only certain sectors like the insurance companies or the arms dealers or massive corporations that would suffer. I think people are slightly bemused that American policies continue to hurt American citizens, and they seem blind to it.
The day is yours. No one demands anything of you for 24 hours except that you have a good time. No limits. What do you do?
Luckily I do get a fair amount of free time, specially with COVID, I've been lucky enough to scale back to a two day work week, with the rest of the time on call trouble shooting. I've found that after the initial flurry of activity, it slowly distilled down to hours on the couch playing games, while reading books, browsing the net on the laptop, and chatting on WhatsApp with my friends. I have easily spent 10-12 hours doing exactly this. Without moving.
What books are on your to-read list?
I am going through the entire Terry Pratchett book list, excluding the picture books. Right now I'm on Reaper Man. I feel extremely nostalgic about Discworld and immensely sad that we won't get any more of the Night Watch or Granny.