On 28th June, the first novel in epic sci-fi saga series Hell Space will be released by father-son duo D J and D S Sangster. We’ve already reviewed the book here, and now we’ve sat down with the authors themselves to get an insight on how the book came to be, the writing process, and some exclusive news on what will come next in the series, whilst trying to avoid spoilers along the way.

So, Hell Space is your first novel. What inspired you to write a book?

D J Sangster: So, I grown up with a father who just reads all the time, and mainly sci-fi. I mean, he does read a lot of stuff, but I’d say probably 70-80% sci-fi. There’s always been sci-fi books in the house, and we’ve always watched sci-fi because I got into it and I love it as well. And when I was lucky enough to be able to retire, I thought, my dad’s got this database of sci-fi in his head. He’s read thousands, and I mean, literally thousands of books. So I thought, why don’t we sit down and see if we can come up with an original story? And we sat down and we were drinking a bottle of wine and I said, should we have a go writing a book?

D S Sangster: And I said, yes.

D J Sangster: I thought there might be some resistance but he was up for it straight away.

D S Sangster: I never thought that I could write a book, but when David asked me to, I thought I’ve got all these things floating around in my head. Why not? Let’s go for it. So that was it!

At the centre of it, it’s a story of exploration of the universe and all these different species that live within the universe. What made you choose the alien side of sci-fi?

D J Sangster: I think it was always going to be that given what we both enjoy in sci-fi. It was always going to be that kind of thing, like a sci-fi space opera. For me, it’s also about human nature as well. I love things like Game of Thrones, so I like analytical sides of things and machinations. And he loves all the technical battles.

D S Sangster: Correct. And I love dystopian things so I thought we’d get that going. And I also love authors who create a universe and thought, why can’t we create our own universe? Because then it gives us so many arcs, so many options we can go down then, so many roads.

Agreed, and it’s such kind of a rich kind of story world that you’ve built. What kind of research and work went into that? How did you build your world?

D J Sangster: I think we both agreed we wanted to start with something in the real world rather than set it in a completely different universe. We were both aware of the WOW signal and the Oumuamua. And we thought, wouldn’t it be good to start with that? And incorporate that. So we did a bit of research into that and then started talking about the story and where we wanted it to go. And then we realised, obviously, there were going to be aliens in there, and we decided to go down the road that not all life may be carbon base. Research wise, I think it was more to do with the actual science on Earth and where it might go now, because the beauty of the aliens is, they can do whatever, you can explain that in whatever way you want later on. So, I would say the research I did specifically was about Yellowstone as part of the book is set there. And then with the aliens, he had very strong ideas about what he wanted them to look like, even now he tries to explain to me what they look like.

D S Sangster: Yes I do, because we haven’t actually met a lot of aliens yet, and that’s all I can say at the moment. There’s a lot more in the melting pot. I’ll give you an exclusive. We have not met the Graxx yet.

Can you give us that description of, in your mind, what the Graxx look like?

D S Sangster: Not yet, because it gives the game away. If I tell you, it’s too much information. And we haven’t got to that point in the series yet. What you see at the moment are basically androids. They are the Graxx servants. Again, there’s a lot more to their story as well. So there’s all these strands, and rabbit holes to go down. It’s exciting.

D J Sangster: I think because it’s book one, you’re kind of laying the foundation. So there’s lots of things that are left. We’ve introduced lots of Easter eggs, lots of characters that then we just don’t talk about again in book one. But there’s a reason, they’re going to be coming back or you’re going to hear from them again, definitely.

D S Sangster: But we want to keep that sense of suspense as well. The ending of book one is a hell of a suspense ending because you just don’t know what’s going to happen. So we want to carry on that sense of suspense.

Absolutely. That’s why I’m going to try and ask questions that aren’t too spoilery for those that haven’t read the book yet. It’s very obvious that it’s a series, how many books do you envision telling the story in?

D J Sangster: So, I think we originally talked about doing a trilogy. However, we’ve opened up so many boxes and we’ve sparked off each other, we could have spin-offs.

D S Sangster: It’s a bit like Larry Niven’s universe. He actually has other science fiction writers write in his universe about what’s happening around there. I envision something like that, not in the sense of others writing it but with how big our universe is.

Obviously you have said you’re a fan of sci-fi. So what authors and television shows have influenced your writing? Reading it, I got quite a Battlestar Galactica feel.

D J Sangster: Absolutely, well spotted. So for me when I wrote, I saw scenes, because I grew up on the 70s and 80s television series. So yeah, The Expanse, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, all these iterations. So when I’m writing, I’m picturing what it would look like on screen. So definitely lots of visual kind of things for me. Writer wise, modern, like Andy Weir. I love Andy Weir, but I also love comedy sci-fi, like Douglas Adams. I absolutely worship Douglas Adams. Those books are just incredible.

D S Sangster: I’m old school. I started with Ray Bradbury. And Ray Bradbury, you look at his books, and you don’t think they’re science fiction. They are science fiction, but they’re also talking what’s happening on Earth as well. They tell you what’s happening with, like, modern day parables and what’s happening with everybody on Earth. And you look at it now, you think, oh, is that bit old fashioned? But I think Ray Bradbury, as a writer, is just absolutely superb, and that’s what got me into it. And then obviously Heinlein and Asimov, and you know, the robotic rules. There’s just so much there that we’ve sort of taken in and used in our own imaginations, and we’ve ran with it.

We talked seeing the scenes. If it were to be made into a TV series or a movie, what’s your ideal casting?

D S Sangster: Oh, that’s a good one!

D J Sangster: I mean, there’s a lot of characters, as you know. Belinsky is not your typical hero because he’s an older, squat Russian with a big, drooping moustache. Instantly, my mind jumps to Bob Hoskins, but, I don’t think he’s with us anymore.

Unfortunately, he’s not. I love Belinsky, he’s great! I kind of thought Alfred Molina.

D J Sangster: Actually, that could work. Yeah. Alfred Molina would be brilliant!

You have some incredible female characters as well: Verna the president, Jayne the scientist, and the Trine leader. All quite different in their own ways. They’re not necessarily firing guns at everyone, but all have that inner strength and they’re confident with themselves.

D J Sangster: I think for Verna, I mean, obviously, you want someone like Helen Mirren. That would be awesome. Jane is younger but with gravitas. For her, Amy Adams, someone like that maybe. And then the Trine captain, that would be a hard one. Again, spoilers. Maybe a female wrestler.

D S Sangster: Someone with a really strong presence. Not your typical Hollywood actress, per se. I’d love to see Bella Ramsey in that film as well. Actually, I think Bella Ramsey could be a fantastic Jayne.

You have these women in really strong leadership positions. And of course you have characters like Belinsky, Danny and Rajput, but the story does seem to centre on 3 women. Was that intentional from you?

D J Sangster: Yeah, I would say it was. I think we’ve got very strong women in our life, which is my mother and my wife, they’re from the same cloth. So it was a choice that we made, that the main characters would be women and that there’d be a big female voice. We also wanted to kind of extrapolate to the future, so we’ve got non-binary characters as well.

D S Sangster: Yes, we’ve got Marwood.

D J Sangster: We wanted to think of in 150 years time. It won’t be the controversial furore it is now. It will be normalised, as it should be.

Absolutely. And from the start of the book, you kind of have built this utopian world. The environment is healed, there’s no war and poverty is eradicated. There’s rumblings of threats to it like the Hell Spacers but it’s very utopian. Probably my favourite aspect of the book is how political it is and how much social commentary there is. So what you were trying to say with the book?

D J Sangster: Hmm. There’s a lot going on in the world at the moment that doesn’t make me happy. And I think, like I said, for me, the book is about human nature.

D S Sangster: In the book, I think the world came together because of an existential threat from somebody else, which drew the human race together. I think that’s what happens when there’s a threat to everybody, then everybody pulls together. And I think that’s what we were trying to say but it can also be done on a small scale on Earth as it is here and now.

Yes. And for a sci-fi book it was very human. I think the conflict between humans and aliens, it was based on fear, I think most conflicts are based on fear of the unknown.

D J Sangster: Yes. Exactly.

As you’ve said, this is your first book. What was the most rewarding moment for you in the process of writing this book?

D J Sangster: There’s been lots of highlights. Finishing the first draft was incredible. I mean, it’s not easy, writing. Well, I didn’t find it easy. Perhaps some people do. But, when we actually thought we’ve got a story, we’ve got book one, that felt good. Even though, a bit of behind the scenes info, the actual book is draft five. When we finished the first draft we were like yes, we’ve done it. And then we realised we had actually just started.

D S Sangster: So we kept on rewriting, rewriting and rewriting till we were happy with draft 5, which is the book that you have read. But I mean, writing together was absolutely fabulous.

D J Sangster: That was amazing. The process was pretty seamless, really. We would meet up, we would agree the general story. The first few weeks, months even, were us just working out what we wanted to do and almost storyboarding. Again, going back to that kind of television thing, storyboarding the actual thing. And then, I said well I’d like to write that bit, and I’d like to do that character, and he said what he’d like, and we’d go off and write our bits, and we’d share it all.

D S Sangster: And then we’d make suggestions to each other. We’d edit each other.

D J Sangster: Getting the book deal with The Book Guild was a highlight as well because you just don’t know what’s going to happen. So that was a lovely thing. And then, of course, when the physical book arrives, and you actually hold it in your hand for the first time. That was surreal. That was very strange in an amazing way.

D S Sangster: We’ve actually got an unboxing video on our website and social media of when the book arrived so you can see when we opened it up and saw it for the first time.

D J Sangster: So there’s been there’s been lots of highlights. Yeah, and I mean, this is our first ever interview for the book so this is up there as well in terms of highlights.

Thank you, a highlight for me too! I want to go back a bit about characters, because we’ve spoken a lot about it, but who was your favourite character to write?

D J Sangster: I like Belinsky because he’s not your typical hero, but I also like the baddies. So I quite like writing Tranby. He’s a kind of weasly character. So those two. I enjoyed the difference in writing those two.

D J Sangster: I love the leader of the Trine. I also love Jayne Flynn as well. I think they’ve got a journey and it’s such a hell of a journey.

You touched on it earlier, that you set up some characters that may reappear in future books, but you also kill off a character pretty early that was very much set up to be a main character. Were you always intending to kill that character? Were you trying to tell us no one is safe?

D J Sangster: Yes. Exactly that. I love it when you’re watching something or reading something and something just comes out of left field. And like you said, you’re kind of thinking, okay, so I know that the story is going to be about these two and then, oh, no, they’ve just killed one of them. So, it was definitely to keep people on their toes and there’ll be more of that to come.

D S Sangster: But it also had to happen for the storyline. It wasn’t just gratuitous. It’s all about the storyline.

You said that you enjoy writing the baddies, interesting that you put Tranby in that and not the Graxx. Throughout the book, there is the subtle question of, are the Graxx villains? Is there going to be a lot of blurring of the lines of who’s evil, who’s good? And are we going to see more interaction between the Graxx and the Trine, and their history?

D J Sangster: It’s like you’re in our head now, yes, because that’s exactly what’s going to happen.

D S Sangster: And there is no black and white at the moment in the in the book. It’s as simple as that. You don’t know who’s the enemy, and what the motivation is. There’s a lot of explanations to come.

I think sci-fi fans are really going to love the book, but I also think it’s a multi-genre story that other people will enjoy. What would your sales pitch be to people deciding whether to read the book?

D J Sangster: Our elevator pitch? Yeah, I think it would be that it’s not just sci-fi. It’s, social commentary, there’s a political angle, there’s a religious angle, there’s action. It’s cinematic. There’s some twists and turns and hopefully you’ll be wanting to come back for more. It’s going to be a roller coaster.

Obviously it makes more sense when you read it, but there’s a lot going on in the book, so why was this the title you chose?

D J Sangster: It made sense for a number of reasons, it advanced the storyline but we also wanted to bring the religious angle, and also the human supremacists, which is a bit of a political thing and just about human nature as well. So, it kind of summed it all up to me.

D S Sangster: But the title also alludes to something else that is happening. There’s a throwaway line in the book about something that’s happening in the centre of the universe so it links to that. There’s so much to come from it all.

I know you’ve given me certain little bits and hints to what’s coming. Is there anything you can share for the future of this series?

D J Sangster: Book 2 at the moment starts with quite a big shock. And book 2 does not follow directly on from book one.

A lot of budding writers will potentially read this book. What is your advice for any aspiring writers?

D J Sangster: I think just go for it. There’s no such thing as bad writing especially if you’re writing for yourself. Just have a go. Failure, for want of a better word, is a part of the process. You’re going to write something, you’re going to look at it and think that’s rubbish. That’s all part of the process. Don’t give up, just keep going. It’s hard work, but it’s so rewarding.

D S Sangster: And just why not? Really? Why not? It’s taken me 60 years to get to this point. So it just shows you anybody can do it at any time.

Hell Space will be released on 28th June and is available for purchase here.