My Favorite Things with Rachael Robie

They might not be raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, but that doesn’t mean that we love them any less. Welcome back to My Favorite Things, the weekly column where we grab someone in speculative circles to gab about the greatest in geek. This week, we sit down with Rachael Robie, whose debut novel, Sisters in Sorrow, was released last November from ChiTeen!

What does Rachael love when she’s not writing about telepaths with secrets? Spoiler alert: a nineties SF show that still holds up today, women who rise above the mire of abuse to take power, a certain bald elf, a YA trilogy that might’ve inspired Passengers but is way better, and our celestial red neighbor. Curious? Read on to learn more!

When it comes to my favorite things, and picking speculative topics, I realized pretty much everything I love fits that description! Shouldn’t be too surprising when you consider I am such a nerd that at six I was trying to breed grasshoppers (with success!), all because I wanted to see what their babies look like. And by twelve I was impersonating my dad online playing Half Life. Let me tell you, the coworker he played with was shocked when he realized it was me who blew him away with a shotgun! So, as a gal who had one foot in the Geek Age and one foot in the old days when we were uncool, I have a lot of favorite speculative things! I’ll stick to my longest running and biggest faves here.

Babylon 5 is a 90s sci-fi TV show written by the very talented J. Michael Straczynski. I don’t know how to do justice to it, because it is brilliant. Conceptualized as a novel for television, Babylon 5 is that rare unicorn that stays with you for years and years after you watch it. For me, who first watched it as a kid, I didn’t understand the full depth of its genius until I binge-watched it as an adult. Only then did I realize that Babylon 5’s story is one that is always relevant to the time you’re living in. Even though it’s happening hundreds of years from now, in space, and often with aliens, there’s a message that speaks across time. Moral dilemmas, cultural conflicts, civil wars, wars of ideology and propaganda — this show has it all. It’s so deep that I even wrote a term paper on it for a graduate class on Myths and Rituals, examining how Straczynski used ritual to characterize an alien race, with great results. I totally got an A on that paper, too. Nailed it!

Aside from being so generally awesome, I can definitely say looking back that Babylon 5 shaped my view on telepathy. I won’t say any more than that for fear of spoiling it, but seriously, I could gush about this show for hours.

Game Of Thrones is another favorite of mine, and not exactly a rare one, I suspect. I don’t think it needs much introduction, but it’s a fantasy based on George R.R. Martin’s book series A Song of Ice and Fire. While I love this show for all its delicious twists and turns, I especially love that there’s a strong female presence. And not just that this show has female characters in positions of power, but that many of these women overcame terrible abuse to get where they are. We see them at their lowest, suffering abuse at the hands of people who are supposed to protect them. And they rise above it. I think this is a great message, and it’s one I tried to portray in my own novel. We need real survivors to see life goes on and there’s hope for them.

Dragon Age is a fantasy video game RPG series by Bioware and has been my obsession for about…four years now? I forget exactly, but basically after I acquired Dragon Age Inquisition, the most recent game in this series, I spiraled into straight-up addiction. There’s a specific character in this game, a bald elf, who fueled my obsession. If you’re familiar with this game at all, you’ll know who I’m talking about. It’s the characters in this series, and all Bioware’s games actually, that really make me a fan. I’m not ashamed to admit I cried while playing Mass Effect 3, the final game in Bioware’s amazing SF RPG saga. I’ve sunk probably thousands of hours into Bioware’s games, not just Dragon Age Inquisition. I adore the depth they put into their lore, their settings, and all their characters. And that’s why I still sit around (though sometimes I play while riding my stationary bike) romancing all these different characters, doing the same adventure over and over again. But the one that takes the cake for me is that darn bald elf I mentioned, for so many reasons I can’t get into without spoiling you.

Across the Universe is a YA trilogy by Beth Revis. It’s about a generational ship, traveling hundreds of years to a habitable planet to make a colony there. Of course, things have gone awry. It sounds on the surface a lot like that crappy movie Passengers with Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence, except let me assure you it is 100% better. For one thing, the main character who wakes too soon is not utterly alone except for the one selfish dick who woke her. This generational ship has an entire population of people who stayed awake to care for the ship during the journey. As a result there’s a lot more happening in Across the Universe than in Passengers. I can’t say too many reasons why without spoiling it, but there are some great reveals I did not see coming. This series also has a far more satisfying conclusion. My favorite book is actually the last one, Shades of Earth. There’s a particular scene that just horrified me, and I still shudder thinking about it.

I’m going to throw in one arguably non-speculative thing, and that’s the planet Mars. I mean, is there any other planet that draws so much fascination? Other than Earth, of course. From the supposed canals that early astronomers thought they glimpsed through fuzzy telescopes, to Elon Musk’s plans to send people there for a permanent colony in the next few years — it’s clear we are obsessed with this little world. I certainly was! While writing my book, Sisters In Sorrow, I buried myself in Wiki entries describing Martian geography and names. It might sound boring, but Mars has some impressive natural wonders. Like canyons that make the Grand Canyon look like a scratch. And there’s the largest volcano in the solar system, the appropriately named Olympus Mons, and a huge crater called Hellas.

I also did some morbid research into what pseudo-vacuum does to the human body so I could accurately portray what that sort of gruesome death looks like. I’ve seen countless space movies, and some Mars movies, that get that really wrong. If you’re wondering what does actually happen, well, all fluids (and air) violently leave the body. It’s totally made for horror. But the good news is you’d only be conscious a few seconds. Anyway, for all our fascination with Mars and our dreams of colonizing it, it’s a terrifying, dangerous place. Still, I hope we visit soon!

Author photo by Stephanie Dunn

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