Bestselling authors Rob Hart and Alex Segura join forces on Dark Space (Blackstone Publishing, October 8, 2024), a sweeping sci-fi spy thriller that blends the epic scope and character-driven spark of Star Trek with the intrigue of John le Carré.
Rob Hart is the author of Assassins Anonymous; The Paradox Hotel, which was named one of NPR's best books of 2022; and The Warehouse, which was published in more than 20 languages. He lives in New York City.
Alex Segura is the author of Secret Identity, a New York Times Editors' Choice; the YA Spider-Verse novel Araña and Spider-Man 2099: Dark Tomorrow; Poe Dameron: Free Fall; the Pete Fernandez Miami Mystery series; the upcoming sequel to Secret Identity, Alter Ego; and a number of comic books featuring iconic characters including Spider-Man, Superman, X-Men, Avengers, White Tiger, the Question, and his own creations. Segura lives in New York with his family.
On your nightstand now:
Rob Hart: Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance. I bought it from a used bookstore so it wouldn't count for Vance's sales. It's been widely derided but I want to see for myself, especially considering the level of power he could have. I'm about to crack into Assume Nothing by Joshua Corin, which I am way more excited to read.
Alex Segura: I just finished Vinson Cunningham's wonderful novel, Great Expectations. I'm immersed in Lev Grossman's inspiring The Bright Sword, and early copies of Sara Sligar's Vantage Point, Marc Guggenheim's In Any Lifetime, and Rachel Howzell Hall's upcoming romantasy, The Last One.
Alex Segura (photo: Irina Peschan) |
Favorite book when you were a child:
RH: I can't point to a particular book but I can say I was obsessed with the Hardy Boys until about eighth grade, when I become obsessed with Dean Koontz. I was way too young to be reading those books and it probably explains a lot about where I am now.
AS: I read The Godfather by Mario Puzo way too early, but it stuck with me. It taught me the power of a plot twist and pulling the rug out from under the reader. I also really loved Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson and the Holmes stories, plus lots of comic books.
Your top five authors:
RH: Tom Spanbauer, Amy Hempel, Charles Williams, Alex Garland, Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
AS: This is tough. If we're just talking novels, then Jim Thompson, Margaret Millar, Elmore Leonard, John le Carré, and Laura Lippman.
Rob Hart (photo: Michael McWeeney) |
Book you're an evangelist for:
RH: In the City of Shy Hunters by Tom Spanbauer. One of the most beautiful books I've ever read, and one I am pushing on people constantly. Also the best representation of New York City in a fictional work--it really gets down to the city's charcoal heart.
AS: Night Film by Marisha Pessl. I first read this book years ago when it came out, and I still think about it all the time. The way she weaves real cinema into the dark mystery was a huge influence. A more recent choice would be Real Easy by Marie Rutkoski--a "serial killer" novel in name only, that explores the cost of violence and the victims with the same care and nuance authors tend to give to the killer.
Book you've bought for the cover:
RH: Money Shot by Christa Faust.
AS: Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I know Silvia's work well, so I knew it would be great, but the cover just made it a must-buy.
Book you hid from your parents:
RH: I didn't have to hide anything--my mom suggested I read Dean Koontz! I think she was just happy I was reading.
AS: Probably The Godfather once I got a few chapters in!
Book that changed your life:
RH: Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk. That was the book that made me want to do this.
AS: Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. I still remember being on the bus between campuses in college, reading the novel, and dreaming of reading comics based on the superheroes created in the book. I didn't realize that inspiration would roll into my own work, with Secret Identity and Alter Ego.
Favorite line from a book:
AS: "To say goodbye is to die a little" from Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye.
RH: "She was pretty, but not the pretty that made other women want to push her in front of a train," from Land of Shadows by Rachel Howzell Hall. I hope to one day write a sentence half as good as that.
Five books you'll never part with:
RH: They Don't Dance Much by James Ross and In the City of Shy Hunters by Tom Spanbauer--both signed first editions. The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, which my grandmother gave me. My beat-up copy of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.
AS: A Firing Offense by George Pelecanos, Dare Me by Megan Abbott, Beast in View by Margaret Millar, Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley, Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane. Haunting, mesmerizing novels that make me want to be a better writer each time I reread them.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
RH: A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay. I have never been so viscerally terrified by something. I was shaking through the last 20 pages.
AS: The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson. It blew my mind and opened all the doors of possibility.
Books and/or experiences that most directly inspired you to write Dark Space:
RH: I mostly just wanted to jam on a novel with Alex! But as a lifelong fan of all things sci-fi, including Star Wars and Star Trek, and then a later-in-life fan of stuff like Dune and the Expanse series, I thought it would be a lot of fun to write some space stuff.
AS: I read a lot of Star Wars and Star Trek novels as a kid, and Dark Space sprang from that--of wanting to create a future vision of what might be. There are a lot of underappreciated classics that might be ignored because they're "licensed" novels--but the work of legends like Diane Duane, Michael Jan Friedman, Timothy Zahn, and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens was a big part of my childhood. That and the core Smiley novels by John le Carré make up most of the DNA for me, with a dash of Isaac Asimov's great Caves of Steel robot PI series.