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WORK TITLE: Medusa Uploaded
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S): Thomas, Maggy; Hogan, Lee
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.emsjoiedeweird.com/
CITY: Phoenix
STATE: AZ
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
Married to artist/writer Ernest Hogan.
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married Ernest Hogan (an artist and writer).
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ, on staff.
WRITINGS
Also author of The Night Shifters, 2011, and Spirits of Glory, 2011; contributor to journals, anthologies, and websites, including Clarkesworld, Asimov’s SF, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Uncanny, Cicada, and the Mammoth Book of Kaiju.
SIDELIGHTS
Emily Devenport is a writer and aspiring geologist. She has contributed fiction to a number of journals, anthologies, and websites, including Clarkesworld, Asimov’s SF, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Uncanny, Cicada, and the Mammoth Book of Kaiju. Devenport works at Phoenix’s Heard Museum and volunteers at the Desert Botanical Garden to sate her interest in gardening.
In 2018 Devenport published Medusa Uploaded. Oichi Angelis works on the generation ship Olympia for subsistence-level food. Her bosses, the Executives, have programmed her to be only able to see and hear what they want for her to. But Oichi’s handicaps turn out to be her greatest strengths. Her parents had encoded within her their plans for an insurgency against the Executives, which is all the more meaningful for her after the Executives blew up the Titania, a generation ship that her parents were on. The secret message her father left her is hidden in a huge database of classical and folk music. But it also allows her to communicate and even bond with the Medusa AIs. Together, they can drastically alter the hierarchical social structure on Olympia. Oichi becomes part robotic octopus, allowing her to become a lethal killing machine, plucking off Executives as they aim to prevent her from carrying out her mission.
Devenport discussed the origins of her protagonist, Oichi, in an interview in the Illustrated Page blog. Devenport admitted that “Oichi showed up in a dream. The scene that plays out in Lock 212 at the beginning of book was largely sketched out in that dream. Why Oichi turned out to be the person she was, I can’t say exactly. I think she may have been partly inspired by the character in the Japanese movie, The Crimson Bat. And there may be a bit of Dexter Morgan in her, too.”
In an interview on the Unbound Worlds website, Devenport talked with Matt Staggs about the significance of the setting on the Olympia and how Oichi interacts with it. Devenport shared: “I believe a good setting is a character in its own right. Olympia is an unfolding mystery, partly because it revealed itself to me in parts — and it’s so huge…. It’s a place of contrasts: The airy Habitat Sector where the executives live and craft their laws; the endless, narrow tunnels where the worms live and work; the man-made mountains and valleys of the hull, where few people venture.” Devenport appended that “Medusa and her sister units can interface with Olympia‘s systems, and so can Oichi. So I can’t say they’re separate. When they’re all linked together, you could think of that as a sort of consciousness. In my opinion, consciousness is always a composite creature.”
A Kirkus Reviews contributor claimed that “sci-fi fans will love exploring the world of Oichi’s spaceship home and living inside the head of a not-quite cold-blooded killer.” A contributor to Publishers Weekly observed that “the home lives of her characters are as important to the plot as their occupations, further balancing and deepening the depictions.” Booklist contributor Erin Downey Howerton described the novel as being “a chilling tale of class warfare in deep space.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, May 1, 2018, Erin Downey Howerton, review of Medusa Uploaded, p. 68.
Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2018, review of Medusa Uploaded.
Publishers Weekly, March 19, 2018, review of Medusa Uploaded, p. 57.
ONLINE
Emily Devenport website, http://www.emsjoiedeweird.com (July 9, 2018).
Illustrated Page, https://theillustratedpage.wordpress.com/ (April 30, 2018), author interview.
Unbound Worlds, http://www.unboundworlds.com/ (May 14, 2018), Matt Staggs, author interview.
ABOUT ME
My photo
EMILY DEVENPORT
I've had three pen names during my career; I'm currently writing as Emily Devenport. I've been published in the U.S., the U.K., Italy, and Israel. My novels are SHADE, LARISSA, SCORPIANNE, EGGHEADS, THE KRONOS CONDITION, GODHEADS, BROKEN TIME (which was nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award), BELARUS, and ENEMIES. Look for ebooks, THE NIGHT SHIFTERS and SPIRITS OF GLORY, on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Goodreads, Kobo, Sony, Apple, and Smashwords. I've got two novels coming out from Tor: MEDUSA UPLOADED in May 2018 and an untitled sequel in 2019. I'm married to artist/writer Ernest Hogan -- check out his Mondo Ernesto blog. Like most writers, I have an eye for the weird, and that's what I like to blog about. You can contact me at emdevenport(at)gmail.com. Please, no spam or death threats.
Author Interview: Emily Devenport on Medusa Uploaded
Posted by COOLCURRYBOOKS onAPRIL 30, 2018
Ever since I read Emily Devenport’s short story “Postcards from Monster Island,” I knew I had to read more of her work. And then I heard she was having a new science fiction book released, one with a fantastic concept! Medusa Uploaded will be released on May 1st, and I’ve brought Emily Devenport herself in to chat with us about it.
36245705Can you tell us a bit about your new release, Medusa Uploaded?
Medusa Uploaded is the story of people living on Generation Ship Olympia. It has become a pressure cooker – seemingly because of the power structure, which favors the people who have traditionally enjoyed the most privileges. It’s told from the viewpoint of a young woman with hidden talents and resources: Oichi (Oh-EE-chee) Angelis, who was trained from a young age by her parents to be an insurgent. When Oichi’s parents are killed with the destruction of Olympia’s sister ship, Titania, Oichi believes she is alone in her activities. That turns out to be far from true. There are A.I.s hiding in the research towers on the leading edge of Olympia, the Medusa Units. The Prima bonds with Oichi. But that’s the least of the secrets that are eventually uncovered in Oichi’s quest to overturn the status quo on Olympia. Before it’s over, she will question everything, including her very humanity.
From the sounds of it, Oichi is a bit of a revolutionary. What inspired hecharacter?
Oichi showed up in a dream. The scene that plays out in Lock 212 at the beginning of book was largely sketched out in that dream. Why Oichi turned out to be the person she was, I can’t say exactly. I think she may have been partly inspired by the character in the Japanese movie, The Crimson Bat. And there may be a bit of Dexter Morgan in her, too. The thing I find easiest to relate to in Oichi is her determination to resist, and her patience in pursuing her goals.
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Why did you choose to set Medusa Uploaded on a generation ship? Was that always part of your idea for the story?
I had been talking about the idea of a serial killer on a generation ship for years, with my writer buddies (in coffee shops, over onion rings). We all thought it was a cool idea, but no one got an idea that really jelled. It wasn’t until I had my dream about Oichi in the airlock that I realized what was missing from the concept.
What’s the most interesting thing you learned while writing Medusa Uploaded?
I learned how quickly you would pass out if you were exposed to void conditions. The air vents from your nose and mouth, because of the pressure difference. I also learned that you can survive the experience relatively undamaged if you are rescued quickly enough (within 30 seconds or so).
I first discovered your work through your short fiction, specifically the story “Postcards from Monster Island.” Which of your short stories would you recommend as starting places to readers unfamiliar with your work?
I would look for the stuff available online for free, like “Postcards from Monster Island”, on the Clarkesworld website. You can read “Now is the Hour” on the same site, or the novelette version of Medusa Uploaded, titled “The Servant” (which has a very different ending). On the Uncanny magazine website, you can read “Dr. Polingyouma’s Machine.” I’ve got a story in the May/June issue of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine titled “10,432 Serial Killers (In Hell).”
What books would you recommend to readers who enjoyed Medusa Uploaded?
Gleep! This is always a tough one, for me. Every time I try to tell people that something is like something else, they think Im way off base. I know Scott Westerfeld has written books about trans-humanism – questioning authority is one of his themes. N.K. Jemisin has an honest and unflinching eye. Octavia Butler’s Mind of My Mind is a novel about a young woman fighting against the odds. It depends on which element of Medusa Uploaded you’re talking about.
What are you working on now? Are there any other releases we should keep an eye out for?
I just turned in the first draft of the sequel to Medusa Uploaded.I have a stack of short stories that languished on the back burner while I concentrated on finishing the sequel– my plan is to work on them until I get the editorial letter for the book manuscript. Then I’ll shift gears again and dive in to the rewrites. (And after that I’ll stumble around for a while saying “Where am I? Who am I?)
About the Author
devenport AP_credit ernest hoganEMILY DEVENPORT has written several short stories which appeared in Asimov’s SF, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine,Clarkesworld, Uncanny, Cicada, and the Mammoth Book of Kaiju. Her day job is at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona. She is an aspiring geologist, an avid hiker and gardener, and a volunteer at the Desert Botanical Garden. Find her online at www.emsjoiedeweird.com or at @emdevenport.
Interview: Emily Devenport on Her New Novel Medusa Uploaded
By MATT STAGGS
May 14, 2018
Cover detail from Medusa Uploaded by Emily Devenport/©MacMillan
Medusa Uploaded is the story of Oichi, a young woman transformed via genetic modifications and surgery into a “worm”: a living, breathing component of a massive generation ship. As a worm, Oichi is beneath the notice of the powerful Executive clans that call the ship home, but not being noticed is a gift for a woman intent on challenging the powers that be — one assassination at a time.
Author Emily Devenport recently shared her thoughts about the novel and what it has to say about the world around us.
AMAZON
BARNES & NOBLE
INDIEBOUND
IBOOKS
Unbound Worlds: This is quite a protagonist you’ve come up with: Oichi Angelis is partially deaf, dumb, and blind. She’s practically a slave, and beneath the notice of her supposed superiors. Yet somehow, she has turned most of these conditions into an array of lethal advantages. What was it like developing her? Was it a gradual process, or did she spring to mind whole?
Emily Devenport: Oichi showed up in a dream, and she already knew who she was. What was gradual about the process was the original idea – some writer friends and I were tossing around the concept of a serial killer on a generation ship. But we didn’t come up with anything that sparked, so I forgot about it until I dreamed about Oichi. Even then, I ended up writing it as a novella; I didn’t see the bigger picture until maybe a year after the novella was published in Clarkesworld.
By the way, you can’t take Oichi at her word when she says she’s partially deaf, dumb, and blind. Even before she meets Medusa, she has managed to side-step those restrictions, thanks to her father’s implant. This is part of the reason she’s so dangerous. She seems to have handicaps (in the literal sense of the word), but she can get around them and kill before her targets know they’re in trouble.
UW: I don’t necessarily want to define “generation ship” fiction as its own genre, but there’s certainly a tradition there. As a writer, are there any advantages inherent in such a setting? Any potential pitfalls?
ED: I think “generation ship” qualifies as a sub-genre (possibly a sub-sub-genre?). The advantage of that sort of setting is that it’s fascinating. The very name pushes your “WOW” button. As a writer, you’ve got the advantage of having characters who start out in peril from the get-go — they’re risking everything on the gamble that they’re going to reach their destination and then successfully colonize a new world (or conceivably a solar system with useful stuff in it, if they choose to keep living in space).
I can’t see any pitfalls in the idea. Every challenge is interesting: what will they do to simulate gravity? What drives the ship? Will they be in stasis the whole time, live in a habitat where they grow their own crops? Some combination of the two? And the list of things that can go wrong is a long one. Stuff going wrong is what drives a story.
UW: In science fiction, ships are often “characters” in their own ways. Can you talk about the ship itself, its AI, and how both interact with Oichi? Are ship and character substantially separate?
ED: I believe a good setting is a character in its own right. Olympia is an unfolding mystery, partly because it revealed itself to me in parts — and it’s so huge! I deliberately avoided saying exactly how big, because I didn’t want to limit the possibilities. It’s a place of contrasts: The airy Habitat Sector where the executives live and craft their laws; the endless, narrow tunnels where the worms live and work; the man-made mountains and valleys of the hull, where few people venture.
Medusa and her sister units can interface with Olympia‘s systems, and so can Oichi. So I can’t say they’re separate. When they’re all linked together, you could think of that as a sort of consciousness. In my opinion, consciousness is always a composite creature.
UW: The story is set in the far future, but there are plenty of relatively contemporary references in the novel. Oichi’s father quotes media theorist Marshall McLuhan, at one point. It occurred to me that authors always have a choice to make when it comes to including contemporary ideas in their fiction. One way is to put it into action in the narrative and hope the reader gets the message. Another is to directly quote the ideas’ originators. I think you do both, but did you consider it important to name-check your sources, as well? Are you hoping that your readers will check these out?
ED: I think it’s only necessary to check sources if the reference is supposed to be accurate. For instance, Ashur thinks there was a famous schemer named Machiavellia. Distortions and misunderstandings can add flavor to a story. But we did try to check our sources for a lot of things (and I hope we got them right). One thing about it — if you get them wrong, it does prompt people to investigate, and that can be a good thing. (And HOORAY for copy editors.)
UW: Speaking of culture, music is obviously very important to the story. Is it important to you? Could I listen to songs referenced in the novel as a sort of playlist?
EM: Music is very important to me. I’ve always had a profound reaction to it. When I was a kid, music was a device that freed my imagination. In the movie “Fantasia”, the narrator tries to explain imaginative visualization to the audience, beginning with Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.” I had been fascinated that it was necessary to explain something that came so easily to me, but now it makes sense. Not everyone connects with music that way, and it’s a process that can be learned.
I heard a lot of music at home, but one of my best exposures to it was in movies and on TV. The score of a movie is always at least as important to me as the images. The music for “The Day the Earth Stood Still” makes me shiver. And the theme song for the “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” TV show is adventure personified.
You can absolutely listen to any and all of this music. You should be able to find it on Youtube, and also for sale online (in the format of your choice).
UW: Am I off base here, or does Medusa Uploaded also function as a kind of critique of late-stage capitalism? Were you specifically hoping to hit some of these kinds of notes in the story or did it just evolve that way?
ED: That was my bitter resentment leaking through. I actually have nothing against Capitalism – in fact, I think it’s essential for a free society. But I think it needs to be balanced with some Socialism (and vice-versa). Authoritarianism is the thing I consider to be the biggest danger. The freedoms that we currently enjoy in the U. S., the right to vote, the right to spend our money where we choose, and the right to speak/dissent, are the only balances we have against authoritarianism. We shouldn’t give any of them up.
UW: There’s a sequel coming. Do you have a date?
EM: The sequel will be out in 2019, but I don’t have the exact date, yet.
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Print Marked Items
Devenport, Emily: MEDUSA
UPLOADED
Kirkus Reviews.
(Mar. 1, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Devenport, Emily MEDUSA UPLOADED Tor (Adult Fiction) $15.99 5, 1 ISBN: 978-1-250-16934-1
A tense sci-fi thriller about a woman determined to remake her society--at any cost.
Oichi Angelis is supposed to be insignificant. She's part of the working class on the generation ship
Olympia, bionically modified to see and hear only what the Executives want her to, and expected to work
for subsistence-level food and no other reward. But Oichi has her own agenda. She's not out to avenge her
parents, killed when a powerful Executive blew up Olympia's sister ship, Titania. She's trying to continue
their work, to pass on the vast database of classical and folk music her father compiled and spread the secret
encoded within that database--modifications that make it possible to bond with the incredibly powerful
Medusa AIs, modifications that will upend the Olympia's rigidly hierarchical social structure. On a
generation ship halfway to its destination, Oichi is starting a revolution, and she'll kill whomever gets in the
way. Oichi is a fascinating character, cold and implacable in pursuing her goals but capable of deep
emotion. The worlds she inhabits, both physical and virtual, are richly detailed and gorgeously imagined.
The revelations about the secret machinations behind the Olympia's journey don't all have as much impact
as they should, but overall this is a gripping and unusual read, with a tense plot driven forward by Oichi's
determination to change her world.
Sci-fi fans will love exploring the world of Oichi's spaceship home and living inside the head of a not-quitecoldblooded
killer.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Devenport, Emily: MEDUSA UPLOADED." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Mar. 2018. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A528960004/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=0e0cc8ab.
Accessed 24 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A528960004
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Medusa Uploaded: The Medusa Cycle,
Book 1
Publishers Weekly.
265.12 (Mar. 19, 2018): p57.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
* Medusa Uploaded: The Medusa Cycle, Book 1
Emily Devenport. Tor, $15.99 trade paper (320p) ISBN 978-1-250-16934-1
Shape-shifting robots have nothing on the chameleon abilities of Oichi Angelis, the main character of this
labyrinthine tale of revenge set on the generation ship Olympia. Oichi's parents died when their ship was
destroyed as a power play by the ruling Executives. Oichi was put into domestic service and rewired so that
most of the data from her senses is sent to the Executives, leaving her "partially deaf, dumb, and blind"; she
primarily navigates the world through taste and smell. She's aided by her cybernetic connection to a sentient
robot, Medusa, who sneaks her forbidden sensory data (which has the unfortunate effect of making her
limitations feel less real and relevant for the reader than they otherwise might). Seeking revenge, Oichi
infiltrates the inner circles of the elite. Dodging both assassination attempts and marriage proposals, Oichi
pieces together the agendas of het Executive opponents and their hidden allies while recruiting more crew
for links to Medusa units. Devenport, a Philip K. Dick Award--winner under her Maggy Thomas
pseudonym, cleverly reveals the underworld of the typical shiny starships of fiction. She has an admirable
willingness to spread out the action and allow her main character to be fallible, which adds depth to the
work and prevents the story from devolving into a "chosen one" narrative. The home lives of her characters
are as important to the plot as their occupations, further balancing and deepening the depictions. As the
revolution begun by Oichi spirals out of her control, readers will be riveted. (May)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Medusa Uploaded: The Medusa Cycle, Book 1." Publishers Weekly, 19 Mar. 2018, p. 57. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A531977352/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=59437c0b.
Accessed 24 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A531977352
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Medusa Uploaded
Erin Downey Howerton
Booklist.
114.17 (May 1, 2018): p68.
COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Medusa Uploaded.
By Emily Devenport.
May 2018. 320p. Tor, paper, $15.99 (9781250169341); e-book, $9.99 (9781250169327).
Oichi toils in the bowels of Olympia, cruising across the stars in service of the ruthless Executive clans. She
hides a dangerous secret: among other modifications, Oichi's parents hid code in her brain amidst the data
of an innocuous music-history module, allowing her to silently wreak deadly havoc among Executives to
avenge the death of her family. After discovering artificial-intelligence units that assist and protect her,
Oichi morphs into a half-human, half-AI kraken. As Oichi pursues justice, she discovers that the Executives
may not be the purebred families they imagine themselves to be. Devenport (The Kronos Condition, 1997)
grounds the reader in current culture that Oichi considers ancient history, weaving it in with classical music
to evoke emotion, as this implanted knowledge makes her a master of such cultural references. There's more
than ghosts in this machine, and as Oichi fearlessly plunges ahead, the reader can nearly feel the grasp of a
tentacle as it reaches down from the ceiling to pluck an Executive to their death. A chilling tale of class
warfare in deep space.--Erin Downey Howerton
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Howerton, Erin Downey. "Medusa Uploaded." Booklist, 1 May 2018, p. 68. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A539647408/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=aedac92b.
Accessed 24 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A539647408