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WORK TITLE: Noumenon
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://lostetter.wordpress.com/
CITY:
STATE: AR
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married; husband’s name Alex.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, short-story writer, and novelist.
MEMBER:Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America.
WRITINGS
Contributor to anthologies, including Aliens: Bug Hunt: All-New Tales from the Expanded Alien Universe, edited by Jonathan Maberry, Titan Books (London, England), 2017. Contributor to periodicals and websites, including Galaxy Edge and Uncanny magazines.
SIDELIGHTS
Marina J. Lostetter grew up in the Pacific Northwest in Oregon. Her short fiction has appeared in periodicals and on websites. She is also the author of tie-in materials for the “Star Citizen” and “Aliens” game franchises. Lostetter began to write in 2010 after graduating from college. In an interview with a Qwillery website contributor, Lostetter noted her writing influences, stating: “Books I read early that still resonate with me include A Wrinkle in Time, Holes, Wolf Tower, and The Giver. As I grew, sci-fi like Hyperion, Vellum, and Calculating God hit themes that I explore in my own work.”
In her debut novel, titled Noumenon, Lostetter finds humankind in the year 2088 ready to start exploring outer space beyond the Earth’s solar system. The story follows the original crew and then subsequent clones of the crew as they embark on a deep space mission that will ultimately take eons to reach an anomalous star that appears to defy the laws of physics. Commenting on the novel’s title, Lostetter noted in the Qwillery website interview: “A Noumenon is the flip side of a phenomenon. It is a thing in and of itself, the unmeasurable reality,” adding later in the interview: “In the book, the convoy’s mission is designated Noumenon because its end is an untouchable reality for its founder.”
The idea for the mission was developed by astrophysicist Reggie Straifer, who wants to find out if what he has observed occurring on the distant star is due to some unusual natural phenomenon or if it is being manufactured. It seems that something is surrounding the star and obstructing its light. The original crew, including Straifer, was chosen based on an analysis of their DNA and review of their personal and family backgrounds. Those picked are chosen in large part due their psychological stability, considering the length of the trip and the fact that, as the mission progresses over many years, subsequent generations of clones will be created. The hope is that these subsequent generations will maintain the traits of their forbearers to ensure the mission’s success.
However, the clones prove not to be perfect copies, leading to many changes in the society on the nine ships that are part of the mission. With each subsequent generation the clones form new relationships. “Everdeen Mason, writing in the Washington Post, noted: Noumenon provides “a dreamlike exploration of evolving societies and the … ways humans can control, fight and love each other.” In addition, two sets of the same individual exist for a time simultaneously on the ships as the previous generation raises the clones that will ultimately replace them when they die. Part of the reason the decision was made not to rely on natural reproduction was the fear that the subsequent generations may not have the same qualities as the original crew and thus threaten the mission’s success. “Every aspect of life in space, including sustainable materials, cultural development, personality quirks, and life and death among the crew members has been painstakingly accounted for to ensure mission success,” wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor.
Lostetter tells the story in a series of individual vignettes that provide individual personal viewpoints, including that of an artificial intelligence. The vignettes depict how the generations of crews learn to live together as the original crew is born again and again into new lives. Meanwhile, the space travelers ponder what they will find when they finally reach their destination. They also know that Earth society will have changed in many ways and they wonder what will happen when the final generation of clones returns home.
“Lostetter handles a complex and fractured narrative masterfully, never allowing her novel to become confusing or unconvincing,” wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor. Booklist contributor Lucy Lockley recommended Noumenon “to fans of hard science fiction who enjoy speculating about the possibilities of the human condition.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, August 1, 2017, Lucy Lockley, review of Noumenon, p. 42.
Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2017, review of Noumenon.
Publishers Weekly, June 26, 2017, review of Noumenon, p. 161.
Washington Post August 7, 2017, Everdeen Mason, “Book World: Best science fiction and fantasy books in August.”
ONLINE
Marina J. Lostetter Website, https://lostetter.wordpress.com (April 16, 2018).
Qwillery, http://qwillery.blogspot.com/ (August 2, 2017), “Interview with Marina J. Lostetter, Author of Noumenon.”
The open skies and dense forests of the Pacific Northwest are ideal for growing speculative fiction authors--or, at least, Marina J. Lostetter would like to think so. Originally from Oregon, she now resides in Arkansas with her husband, Alex. When not writing or drawing she can often be found reading spec-fic, or playing it (she enjoys a good zombie-themed board game now and again). And she does it all while globetrotting. Please visit her online at www.lostetter.net.
Wednesday, August 02, 2017
Interview with Marina J. Lostetter, author of Noumenon
Please welcome Marina J. Lostetter to The Qwillery as part of the of the 2017 Debut Author Challenge Interviews. Noumenon was published on August 1st by Harper Voyager.
TQ: Welcome to The Qwillery. When and why did you start writing?
Marina: Thank you for having me! My love for writing started in the fourth grade. I even remember the first short story I wrote, about my friends and I getting lost in the woods (truth be told, it was more or less a long list of the ways that I was prepared for the situation).
I began to pursue writing professionally around 2010, after graduating from college.
TQ: Are you a plotter, a pantser or a hybrid?
Marina: Plotter, all the way, though my outlines are largely train-of-thought block paragraphs that contradict each other. Outlining is where I get to tell myself the story and not worry if it sounds pretty or makes sense, which means it's the part I enjoy the most.
TQ: What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?
Marina: The upside to plotting for me is the focus it brings to drafting a story--the words flow well once I know where I'm going and what I'm trying to say. The downside is my tendency to try to bend the characters to fit the plot. I often write myself into corners because I want events to happen a certain way, but it doesn’t make sense for the characters to make the choices I want them to.
TQ: What has influenced / influences your writing?
Marina: Books I read early that still resonate with me include A Wrinkle in Time, Holes, Wolf Tower, and The Giver. As I grew, sci-fi like Hyperion, Vellum, and Calculating God hit themes that I explore in my own work. Video games have also influenced me greatly--the Final Fantasy series from Square Enix especially. I also really love history and science, and non-fiction in both subjects have been a boon for me.
TQ: Describe Noumenon in 140 characters or less.
Marina: It's an epic interstellar adventure featuring clones, rogue AIs, alien artifacts, and dubious signals from a far-off star.
TQ: Tell us something about Noumenon that is not found in the book description.
Marina: The ship's Inter Convoy Computer--I.C.C. for short--is a central character, and an anti-HAL 9000.
TQ: Please tell us about the title of the novel.
Marina: A Noumenon is the flip side of a phenomenon. It is a thing in and of itself, the unmeasurable reality. While technically everything has a noumenal quality (philosophically speaking), the example I like to give is thought: we know thoughts and ideas exist, they are realities, we can measure their effects and some of their causes, but we cannot detect or measure ideas themselves as individual things.
In the book, the convoy's mission is designated Noumenon because its end is an untouchable reality for its founder. Noumenon as a theme extends well into book two.
TQ: What inspired you to write Noumenon? What appeals to you about writing Space Opera?
Marina: I love alien artifact stories. And big dumb objects. I love looking at a strange, far off phenomena and coming up with answers to, what the hell is that? I also love solving mysteries, especially those where you realize the fictional universe, or parts of it, function completely differently than you first thought. All of those loves play into the beginning seeds of what became Noumenon (it was a short story long before it was a novel), and my affinity for Space Opera in general.
TQ: What sort of research did you do for Noumenon?
Marina: Most of my research centered around variable stars, genetics (histones especially), and electrical engineering.
TQ: Please tell us about the cover for Noumenon.
Marina: The artwork was done by Steven Messing, the overall design is by Owen Corrigan, and it is absolutely beautiful! It doesn't depict a specific scene so much as important elements of the story. I won't give away too many details, but the large object you see in the center is called The Seed.
TQ: In Noumenon who was the easiest character to write and why? The hardest and why?
Marina: I.C.C. was the easiest to write personality-wise, but a tad difficult voice-wise. Empathy is its greatest virtue, and I let that be my guide. The most difficult overall to write was probably the various clones of Jamal Kaeden, largely because each of them goes through dramatically different circumstances. Staying true to who he is on a base level, while also taking into account how these vastly different experiences would change his decision making, was a challenge.
Truth be told, these are my two favorite characters, in no small part because I feel like I've spent the most time with them.
TQ: Why have you chosen to include or not chosen to include social issues in Noumenon?
Marina: I come from the school of thought that believes the majority of storytelling is partisan in some way. Either it holds up the status quo, or it doesn't, and so fundamentally if you're writing a novel with any kind of depth, it's going to include social issues (either by pointing them out or blatantly glossing over them).
Noumenon outright touches on themes of prejudice, social stratification, and genetic predestination. Also, in an effort to realistically reflect the kind of world that could come together to create the convoys and their missions, I have a vast and international cast of people from different backgrounds, which some people might take as a statement on social issues in and of itself.
It's important to me to try and tell stories that are both fun and thoughtful, and I hope I've been able to do that with Noumenon.
TQ: Which question about Noumenon do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!
Marina: Ooh, this one is hard! Um, probably: Do you think you've written a dystopic novel?
I ask myself this, because I've seen people categorize Noumenon as a dystopia. But that's not what I set out to write. The book has an overall hopeful and positive outlook. And while there are definitely moments of dystopia, the novel spans two thousand years, and like any other society, the convoy has its ups and downs. There are wondrous highs and terrifying lows, and nothing is set in stone. Their civilization evolves. Sometimes it's ideal, sometimes it encapsulates everything that can go wrong with social constructs. I really set out to write a continuum, to explore humanity at its best and worst.
TQ: Give us one or two of your favorite non-spoilery quotes from Noumenon.
Marina:
"Earth wants to be comfortable. The more comfortable someone is, a society is, the less likely they are to seek change, even positive change."
"They may not appreciate our point of view. We might frighten them, or bore them, or make them uncomfortable. This does not mean we should go away."
TQ: What's next?
Marina: Noumenon Infinitum, Noumenon's sequel!
TQ: Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.
Marina: Thanks again for having me!
Noumenon
Harper Voyager, August 1, 2017
Trade Paperback and eBook, 432 pages
With nods to Arthur C. Clarke’s Rama series and the real science of Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves, a touch of Hugh Howey’s Wool, and echoes of Octavia Butler’s voice, a powerful tale of space travel, adventure, discovery, and humanity that unfolds through a series of generational vignettes.
In 2088, humankind is at last ready to explore beyond Earth’s solar system. But one uncertainty remains: Where do we go?
Astrophysicist Reggie Straifer has an idea. He’s discovered an anomalous star that appears to defy the laws of physics, and proposes the creation of a deep-space mission to find out whether the star is a weird natural phenomenon, or something manufactured.
The journey will take eons. In order to maintain the genetic talent of the original crew, humankind’s greatest ambition—to explore the furthest reaches of the galaxy— is undertaken by clones. But a clone is not a perfect copy, and each new generation has its own quirks, desires, and neuroses. As the centuries fly by, the society living aboard the nine ships (designated Convoy Seven) changes and evolves, but their mission remains the same: to reach Reggie’s mysterious star and explore its origins—and implications.
A mosaic novel of discovery, Noumenon—in a series of vignettes—examines the dedication, adventure, growth, and fear of having your entire world consist of nine ships in the vacuum of space. The men and women, and even the AI, must learn to work and live together in harmony, as their original DNA is continuously replicated and they are born again and again into a thousand new lives. With the stars their home and the unknown their destination, they are on a voyage of many lifetimes—an odyssey to understand what lies beyond the limits of human knowledge and imagination.
Noumenon
Lucy Lockley
Booklist.
113.22 (Aug. 1, 2017): p42+.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Noumenon. By Marina J. Lostetter. Aug. 2017.432p. Harper/Voyager, paper, $15.99 (9780062497840); ebook
(9780062497857).
Humanity is finally going to reach beyond the home planet and investigate deep space in Lostetter's debut.
One project, designated Noumenon, will travel to and return from a variable star that may confirm the
existence of other intelligent life in the universe. The voyage, undertaken by a convoy of nine ships, will
take centuries in ship time, with thousands of years passing on Earth. The crew consists of clones of
individuals selected for their DNA after a scrupulous review of personal and family backgrounds for health
and psychological stability. The story is told in sections recorded from individual points of view, including a
fascinating Inter Convoy Computing personal assistant. The challenges faced will cause the crew to adapt
and change, leading to a new form of human society. Foremost on everyone's mind is--will they make it?
What will they find when they reach their destination? Once the mission is completed, what will they find
upon returning to Earth? Offer to fans of hard science fiction who enjoy speculating about the possibilities
of the human condition.--Lucy Lockley
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Lockley, Lucy. "Noumenon." Booklist, 1 Aug. 2017, p. 42+. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A501718844/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=86aaf832.
Accessed 24 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A501718844
3/24/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1521927176420 2/3
Lostetter, Marina J.: NOUMENON
Kirkus Reviews.
(July 1, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Lostetter, Marina J. NOUMENON Harper Voyager (Adult Fiction) $15.99 8, 17 ISBN: 978-0-06-249784-0
In Lostetter's ambitious debut, the year is 2088, and humankind is finally ready to explore deep space,
preparing to send convoys of clones on eons-long missions to investigate the outskirts of the
galaxy.Astrophysicist Reggie Straifer is convinced that something funny is going on with a distant star;
there seems to be something surrounding it and obstructing its light. When Straifer convinces the
organization building interstellar convoys to send one of its 12 missions to the mysterious LQ Pyxidis, he
and hundreds of other brilliant experts are chosen to have their genes replicated into generations of clones
who will staff the ships. The clones of idealistic dreamer Straifer, emotional and empathetic computer
programmer Jamal Kaeden, kindly resource specialist Diego Santibar, insightful engineer Nakamura Akane,
and the other humans with genes deemed optimal for deep space travel live out their lives working jobs
assigned to them based on what their DNA says their talents are. They form new bonds and relationships
with each other with every passing generation, even raising the next clones instead of muddying up DNA
lines with natural reproduction; two versions of the same clone are alive onboard at the same time, the
younger training to take over for the older. Every aspect of life in space, including sustainable materials,
cultural development, personality quirks, and life and death among the crew members has been
painstakingly accounted for to ensure mission success, all with an omnipresent AI assistant to keep the
gears running. But algorithms can only predict so much, and the farther the convoy gets from Earth, the
higher the stakes; after all, time is passing exponentially faster for the planet than for the ships, and the
Earth the first clones knew is changing. So far removed from their home planet, are the clones doomed to
repeat the flaws written in their DNA, or will they prove that people really can change, even if it takes a few
lifetimes to get there? This spectacular epic examines everything from the nature of civilizations and
societies to the tension between nature and nurture. Lostetter expertly balances the thrill of discovery with
the interpersonal consequences of an isolated community. The tools of speculative fiction are deployed with
heart-rending attention to emotional reality in this enthralling odyssey. A striking adventure story that could
hold a galaxy in its scope, this is an expedition that delves as deep into the human thirst for purpose as it
does into the wonders of the universe.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Lostetter, Marina J.: NOUMENON." Kirkus Reviews, 1 July 2017. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A497199725/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=7bf1ec4d.
Accessed 24 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A497199725
3/24/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1521927176420 3/3
Noumenon
Publishers Weekly.
264.26 (June 26, 2017): p161.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
* Noumenon
Marina J. Lostetter. Harper Voyager, $15.99 trade paper (432p) ISBN 978-0-06-249784-0
In Lostetter's ambitious and stunning debut, the Planet United Missions of a near-future Earth send a
convoy off to investigate an anomalous star. Astronomical observation shows that LQ Pyxidis is variable in
a way that suggests it's either a unique opportunity to learn about solar system development or something
created by intelligent beings. Convoy Seven travels faster than light, but the journey still takes generations,
so it is crewed by clones of Reginald Straifer, the star's discoverer; Akane Nakamura, the principal engineer;
and Jamal Kaeden, who creates an artificial intelligence to help maintain the fleet. Given the dizzying
timespan of the journey, Convoy Seven itself is in one sense the protagonist. As time passes, grappling with
the individuality of different iterations of the various clone lines becomes as vital and necessary to the crew
as figuring out what is going on at the star. Lostetter handles a complex and fractured narrative masterfully,
never allowing her novel to become confusing or unconvincing. There are no easy answers to the book's
questions, but the lingering sense of wonder and discovery thoroughly justifies its title. (Aug.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Noumenon." Publishers Weekly, 26 June 2017, p. 161. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A497444342/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=8ab33be1.
Accessed 24 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A497444342
Book World: Best science fiction and fantasy books in August
Everdeen Mason
The Washington Post. (Aug. 7, 2017): News:
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Full Text:
Byline: Everdeen Mason
In Marina J. Lostetter's "Noumenon" (Harper Voyager), astrophysicist Reggie Straifer has discovered a strange star that holds the promise of alien life. He works tirelessly to prepare a mission that will take eons to travel to the star, knowing he'll never get to see the fruits of his labor. However, he, and many others working on the project, send their clones to safeguard their plans; these clones are replicated over and over across centuries in space as they journey to the star. Lostetter's book is heavy on the hard science, but it's not overwhelming. It's tempered by very real, sympathetic characters struggling to find meaning in themselves and in their mission. The book is organized in time-skipping vignettes from each character and various versions of their clones. The only constant is an evolving A.I. that watches over everyone, protecting humanity even from itself. Despite heavy subject matter and some complicated science, the book offers a dreamlike exploration of evolving societies and the many ways humans can control, fight and love each other.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Mason, Everdeen. "Book World: Best science fiction and fantasy books in August." Washington Post, 7 Aug. 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A500040864/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=7cdf3bac. Accessed 24 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A500040864