THE SAINTS OF SALVATION
Peter F. Hamilton (http://peterfhamilton.co.uk)
Pan Mac (https://www.panmacmillan.com/)
£20.00
The fine people at Macmillan have asked me to say a few words about the experience of writing Saints of Salvation. And I hope you’ve been enjoying the series so far too! So after publishing over twenty books, I still find finishing a story to be the most difficult part of the whole process. Finishing Saints of Salvation, book three of a trilogy, was even more difficult than usual due to certain complexities. Although for every book, as I’m writing the closing scenes, I’m always referring back to my original notes to check the plotlines are coming together in the way I’d planned. These notes are often made years earlier. I also know I need to keep any inconsistencies locked in the cells where they belong. Then I have to check any additional notes made on the original notes – these made when I put those ideas (new at the time) into those first two books as I was writing them. There’s a lot of ground to cover. And people wonder why I write large books…
This time, however, the Salvation Sequence formed a shorter and hopefully tighter tale than in many of my previous series. A development I felt was necessary for a story with two major plot lines set ten thousand years apart. In terms of my writing, this has probably been the most complex narrative I’ve ever attempted. Keeping it clean and simple was the only way I could tell it, a philosophy that became my guiding star. Bringing those two timelines together for the final scenes was a challenge. Having finally managed this, to quote Colonel Kilgore from Apocalypse Now, it ‘smells like victory’.
I felt great relief when I reached the end, to find my notes all tied together after all. Hopefully your enjoyment will match that sense of relief!
Peter F. Hamilton
Somerset, August 2020
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