Author interview: Andy Remic

The body-horror action story Biohell is reviewed in SFX 179 and we also feature a short Q%26A with the author Andy Remic. Just ahead of that issue hitting the shelves, we thought you'd like to see the MindProbe interview in full here:

SFX: What was your starting point for Biohell's future?
Andy Remic: "I was deeply amused by the comedy pricing of Microsoft's operating systems, and also by the comedy rubber breasts of 'celebrities' such as Jordan. What if, I extrapolated, Microsoft did tits? Well, you have to run with an idea like that, and hence NanoTek was born, along with its savage biomod technology which allow the Jordans of the future to enlarge and reduce their tits with a waggle of a small plastic joypad. And so the future of nano-biomolecular body improvement was born!"

SFX: How much does it flow from your previous books?
Remic: "Biohell is a discrete novel, in that it stands alone as a story and can be read independently of anything else I've written. Biohell does contains the same core characters who starred in War Machine, and is certainly a puzzle piece in a huge story-arc concerning galactic gods gone bad, but it can be read for its own amusement in one neat pie slice."

SFX: Why do you write such visceral, blood-splattered fiction?
Remic: "I have a very low boredom threshold, and as such I adore action and adrenalin, stuff to keep the pace and blood fired high and long; I think the guts and gore I write go hand in hand with action like sausage and mash, tits and tassles, chocolate and beer. I'm also probably highly influenced by early James Herbert stuff, which I devoured as a reprobate teenager. The world is full of real-life ultra-bloody stories, and I feel my writing often mirrors the comedy horror of real life. After all, no media performs gore and violence better than the BBC, I think!"

SFX: Where's the genre at right now - should we all be putting our money on sci-horror as the Next Big Thing?
Remic: "I learnt a long time ago not to try and follow trends. You just end up trailing behind like a three-legged Lassie without a scent. I simply write what entertains me, and if that entertains my readers we have a formula for success. I love all aspects of SF, but find myself leaning more and more towards SF horror, with lots of black humour, and that's what I'm writing now. I'm not sure if it's the Next Big Thing… if I could predict that, I wouldn't be living the life of an impoverished punk-ass author in a tin bath with barely a couple of baked beans to rub together. Sob."

SFX: Do you think this sort of thing is likely to come true?
Remic: "There is certainly a massive preoccupation with vanity which deeply amuses me. Just watch X-Factor, Peter Andre, Take That, Ronan Keating or Gok Wan and you'll see what I mean. As technology advances, surely new tech has to follow the money – and whether you like it or not, there's a helluva lot of money in tits, saggy faces and reducing fat from big bums. However, I'm quite happy with my own tits, saggy face and big bum, so I won't be succumbing to the nihilistic, psychologically abusive mega-corporations when they do hijack our flab and our wallets!"

SFX: What can we expect to see in your universe next?
Remic: "I'm just writing the final scenes of the third Combat-K novel, Hardcore, which again stars the core characters from War Machine and Biohell but can still be read independently of those books. Hardcore is a deeply caustic military SF black comedy, this time analysing the medical world from a very perverse and twisted viewpoint. After that, I've been contracted by Angry Robot (the new Harper Collins venture) to write a hardcore visceral fantasy trilogy, and I'm very excited about that project for the future."

SFX: Thanks Andy!

Read our full review of Biohell in issue 179, on sale from Wednesday 14 January. Visit Andy Remic's website here .