{"id":5530,"date":"2012-09-22T14:43:56","date_gmt":"2012-09-22T14:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.warlandia.it\/blog\/?p=5530"},"modified":"2018-08-01T15:35:41","modified_gmt":"2018-08-01T13:35:41","slug":"interview-to-stan-nicholls-author-of-the-fantasy-trilogy-orcs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.warlandia.it\/magazine\/2012\/09\/22\/interview-to-stan-nicholls-author-of-the-fantasy-trilogy-orcs\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview to Stan Nicholls author of the fantasy trilogy Orcs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost every user of\u00a0warlandia.it<\/a> knows my special love for the Horde. Orcs is my favourite race among the fantasy creatures. Some years ago I found a trilogy whose title is ORCS by Stan Nicholls. I think I\u2019ve finally found my bible! In a few months I read the three books falling in love with Strike and his friends. Mr. Nicholls has written more than 30 books, not just ORCS. His wife writes too (fantasy books of course).<\/em><\/p>\n

Just few days ago I asked Mr. Nicholls (http:\/\/www.stannicholls.com\/<\/a>) to make a short interview and he was glad to accept. I did not believe to my eyes when he wrote me back his YES. Thank God he is a very nice man. Let\u2019s have some fun together. This article will be in english and in italian too.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Napoleonardo: How did you get the idea of writing books about orcs?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Stan Nicholls: <\/strong>It\u2019s interesting that I\u2019ve had thirty books published and only six of them, plus a graphic novel, have been about orcs.\u00a0 But my gravestone will probably say \u201cHe wrote about orcs\u201d.\u00a0 Not that I\u2019m complaining!<\/p>\n

The basic idea was quite simple.\u00a0 My thought was \u201cWhat if orcs weren\u2019t the way we were lead to believe?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Suppose they were ferocious, peerless fighters but not actually evil?\u00a0 History books are usually written by the winners, and they tend to demonise the losers.\u00a0 Suppose this had happened to the orcs.\u00a0 Suppose they had a bad press, that they were the victims of a kind of character assassination.\u00a0 I always felt a bit sorry for orcs, maybe because I have a certain sympathy for those who don\u2019t fit into society – like many writers.\u00a0 Traditionally, orcs have been depicted as mindless, savage beasts, whose only function is to be cut down by the heroes\u2019 blades.\u00a0 They were one-dimensional.\u00a0 But what about their hopes and fears, their culture, history, customs and beliefs?\u00a0 I thought the orcs deserved to have these things, and tried to provide them.<\/p>\n

Once you have the idea that orcs are your heroes the next logical step is to see humans as the villains.\u00a0 Turning things upside down in that way can bring\u00a0 interesting results.\u00a0 It gave me the chance to look at some of the less appealing things the human race is capable of, like blind faith, the destruction of the environment and the way outsiders are treated.\u00a0 The orcs books are action adventures designed to entertain, but these kind of serious concerns are there too.\u00a0 The fantasy genre is now mature enough, and flexible enough, to address topics like this.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Stryke is the hero of the orcs series.\u00a0 He is a warrior, but doesn\u2019t like the idea of being a hero.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t like to guide his people.\u00a0 Can you try to explain to us more about Stryke and how he was born in your mind?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The word hero has become debased.\u00a0 These days it\u2019s applied to people like footballers and contestants on TV reality shows.\u00a0 But it seems to me that the attributes of a hero are bravery, resourcefulness and modesty.\u00a0 A true hero isn\u2019t someone who rushes into danger in a gung-ho way.\u00a0 I think a good definition of a hero is someone who overcomes their fear in order to do the right thing.\u00a0 As orcs go, Stryke\u2019s pretty intelligent, thoughtful even; another way in which I wanted to give orcs some credit.\u00a0 He\u2019s a ferocious fighter but he isn\u2019t a fool.\u00a0 I suppose that I wanted to give him all the positive virtues we expect of a human hero.\u00a0 Whereas most of the humans the orcs encounter in my series are lacking those qualities.\u00a0 It\u2019s that upside down way of looking at things again.<\/p>\n

Stryke and his band live in a very hard world.\u00a0 They seem to be resigned to their condition as slaves, but something happens to break the balance and they decide to live or die but stay free.\u00a0 Is there any relation with your personal experience?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I could argue that it has relevance to everyone\u2019s experience, depending on how free you think we are.\u00a0 Politicians don\u2019t listen to the people, vested interests hold sway and the gap between ruled and rulers grows ever wider.\u00a0 Exactly how free are we?\u00a0 But advances in technology, particularly in giving ordinary people the means to communicate on a global scale, is exposing and undermining many of the old assumptions.\u00a0 So people are becoming aware that democracy is something of a sham, politics is corrupted, the mainstream media tells us lies, corporations are more powerful than governments and the financial system has proved to be smoke and mirrors, benefiting only a privileged elite.<\/p>\n

I think one of the reasons for fantasy\u2019s current popularity is that it allows readers to escape our increasingly complex, troubling times and visit worlds where issues are more straightforward and morality more clear-cut.\u00a0 Some call that the comfort factor, but I don\u2019t see anything wrong with that.\u00a0 Besides which, fantasy, like the best science fiction, can help us put our reality into some kind of perspective.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Queen Jennesta eats her enemies\u2019 hearts after having sex with them.\u00a0 What can you tell us about how you created Jennesta?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I very rarely base characters on real people, but Jennesta was kind of inspired by a fusion of two real people.\u00a0 Not that either of them wanted to rule the world or ate human hearts.\u00a0 Well, they didn\u2019t want to rule the world anyway \u2026<\/p>\n

Jennesta\u2019s one of my favourite characters.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost always the female characters in my fiction that I like the most, and feel closest to.\u00a0 I\u2019m not quite sure why that is.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s because I was brought up in a practically all female household, and tend to think of women as being the wiser, stronger and more sensible sex!\u00a0 It\u2019s certainly true that at any given time my closest friends tend to be females.<\/p>\n

In the orcs novels the humans fight each other because of their different ideas about religion: Uni vs Mani.\u00a0 Stryke doesn\u2019t understand the reasons for this war.\u00a0 Humans are fragile creatures but they always fight each other; they waste magic and do a lot of things he cannot understand.\u00a0 How much of Stan is part of Stryke?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, of course there\u2019s the argument that all fictional characters contain something of the author, even if unconsciously.\u00a0 Writers put a bit of themselves into everything they create.\u00a0 It\u2019s inevitable.<\/p>\n

Stryke\u2019s certainly right in thinking that human beings can be irrational and violent creatures; you only have to look at our world to see the truth in that.\u00a0 Again, speculative fiction is a good way of holding a lens up to the foibles and shortcomings, and the triumphs, of the human race.<\/p>\n

Some people think that I attack religion in the books.\u00a0 Actually my target is extremists.\u00a0 I know there are good people of faith.\u00a0 I may not share their beliefs but I can respect the path they\u2019ve chosen.\u00a0 It\u2019s the lunatics I\u2019m parodying.<\/p>\n


\nDo you have a favourite book or a favourite author?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t like to single out a particular book or author.\u00a0 So many have given me pleasure, and inspired me, that picking one would be unfair.\u00a0 Also, how would you compare, say, Robert E Howard and Kurt Vonnegut, or Fritz Leiber and Arthur C Clarke?\u00a0 Different authors have different styles and strengths.<\/p>\n

How about a favourite food?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Most things spicy.\u00a0 And Italian dishes, of course!<\/p>\n


\nDo you know Italy?\u00a0 Is there anything you like about our country?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

On our tenth anniversary my wife and I visited Venice, which we liked a lot.\u00a0 It\u2019s a fantasy island!\u00a0 We saw something of mainland Italy too, which we found very appealing.\u00a0 But it\u2019s the only time we\u2019ve been.\u00a0 Last year the organisers of the Milan Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention were kind enough to invite me to be one of their guests of honour.\u00a0 But it clashed with another event I\u2019d already agreed to attend and I couldn\u2019t go!\u00a0 I really regret that; I\u2019d love to see Milan.\u00a0 My Italian readers seem very enthusiastic; many write to me about my books.\u00a0 It\u2019d be good to meet some of them in person.<\/p>\n

Who is Stan Nicholls in his private life?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Probably quite a boring person.\u00a0 Like most writers I spend a lot of time locked away with my PC, having conversations with people I\u2019ve made up and navigating places that don\u2019t exist except in my imagination.\u00a0 Fortunately my wife, Anne, is also a writer, so she understands the process, and supports me in many ways.\u00a0 My advice to any writer thinking of marrying or taking a partner is to chose another writer.\u00a0 You can share the madness.<\/p>\n

When I\u2019m not writing I enjoy walking, travel and visiting historical sites.\u00a0 And I try to master archery, something which you can easily devote your whole life to.\u00a0 My hope is to be reasonably good at it one day.\u00a0 My other obsession is my family.\u00a0 All we can rely on in this world is our family and our friends, if we\u2019re fortunate enough to have them.<\/p>\n


\nIs there any new book coming soon?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve got several projects at various stages of development and can\u2019t talk about them at the moment.\u00a0 But I can say that I\u2019m working on a short story collection that I hope will be published in the Autumn of 2013.\u00a0 It\u2019ll be mostly new stories, along with a selection of reprints.\u00a0 And yes, it will contain orcs stories –\u00a0 three new ones, including a novella of over twenty thousand words.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen on your website that you have an audiobook of Orcs out in Germany.\u00a0 Will there be an Italian version?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The German audiobook is of the original trilogy, Orcs: First Blood.\u00a0 There are also American and English audiobooks of both First Blood and the second trilogy, Bad Blood.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting hearing how my stories are interpreted by the readers.\u00a0 At the moment there are no plans for an Italian audiobook, I\u2019m afraid.\u00a0 But I\u2019m open to offers!<\/p>\n

Italian translation coming soon!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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