My Interview with Ben H. Winters

Much to my delight, Ben H. Winters, co-author of Android Karenina agreed to answer some questions I wanted to ask him. I hope you enjoy the interview.

1)  Are you the one that came up with the idea to turn Leo Tolstoy’s famous work into a science fiction novel?  If it wasn’t your idea, than whose was it?

Ben: This idea was very much a collaboration between myself and Jason Rekulak, one of the head honchos at Quirk Books. It was Jason who dreamed up the concept of the mash-up novel in the first place. While I was working on Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, my first foray into this strange and wonderful mini-genre, Jason and I discussed a number of possible follow-ups. We both wanted to take on a novel with the breadth and stature of Anna Karenina, and we both loved the idea of the next mash-up being straight-up science fiction.

2)  Have you always been a fan of good science fiction stories?  Robot stories?

Ben: Oh, sure. And even more so than robot stories, I’ve always loved speculative fiction: works that imagine how the world would be different if some significant detail were altered. Works like the Wild Card series, or the books of Harry Turtledove, or the mind-blowing Watchmen comic book series.

And really, more than anything, that’s the kind of book that I’ve written, or tried to write, with Android Karenina. A metal called groznium was discovered, centuries ago, in the time of Czar Ivan, and this metal has transformed all facets of Russian life. For the rest of the book we watch how that one change plays itself out in Tolstoy’s world.

3)  How knowledgeable about robots were you before you wrote the book?  How much research, if any, did you have to do?

Ben: I did a fair amount of research on the history and science of robotics, not necessarily to make the book “realistic”, but to find interesting vocabulary and visual imagery.

I did a LOT of research on classic science fiction, re-reading and re-watching a ton of great and inspiring material to get my mind working properly for this project. I’m talking about everything from Tik-Tok of Oz to Battlestar Galactica to The Stepford Wives.

4)    Before you knew you were going to write Android Karenina, had you read Anna Karenina?  Did you like the original?  Do you think Leo Tolstoy would approve of the way you rewrote it?  Would he be pleased to be named co-author of this work?

Ben: I had read Tolstoy’s book at least twice all the way through, and read bits and pieces at various times. And yes, I absolutely love it, for the same reasons millions of people have loved it for over a century: because it is gripping and action-packed and truly lovely and heartbreakingly sad.

About my book, I think Tolstoy would be angry, and then confused, and finally accepting. Whether he would ever be pleased I’m not sure; I gather from his various biographers that he wasn’t pleased too often, just in general.

5)  I admit that I’ve not read the original story by Leo Tolstoy.  How close to the original did you stick?

Ben: It seems strange to say, what with all the talking robots, lizard beasts from space, and malevolent cyborgian prosthetics, but I think I’ve stayed very, very close indeed. Not only does the structure of the original remain, but I’ve tried to preserve the spirit of the original, also: the spiritual struggle, the philosophical inquiry, the constant and powerful presence of love in all its forms.

Along with the aforementioned lizard beasts from space.

6)  When I run across a word I don’t know the meaning of, I have to look it up.  I couldn’t find the meaning of groznium anywhere.  What exactly is groznium?  Is it actually a Russian word?  Or is it a word made up for the novel?

Ben: Oh, it’s made-up as all hell. Groznium is the mysterious and entirely imaginary metal discovered beneath the Russian soil in the time of Ivan the Terrible. In fact, Ivan the Terrible, in Russian, is Ivan Grozny.

7)  Who was your favorite character?  Who was your least favorite character?  Why?

Ben: I think my favorite scenes to write were those featuring Alexei Karenin (Anna’s husband) and his strange and commanding mechanical Face. Tolstoy’s characters are constantly having long, involved arguments with themselves, and it was through the invention of the Class III robot -- which for Karenin takes the form of The Face -- that I found a way for those conversations to be between two separate characters.

My least favorite character is the smug, condescending Madame Stahl -- but I got to dispatch of her in a way Tolstoy might be envious of.

8)  Which scene was the most fun to write?  Which scene was the hardest to write?

Ben: There is a very famous scene in Anna where the dashing, handsome Count Vronsky competes in a horse race; in my story, he competes in the Cull, where the soldiers of his unit fight in a gladiatorial contest, sheathed inside gigantic, deadly mobile battle suits called Exteriors. It was the most fun thing I’ve ever written, or can ever hope to write.

Another well-loved sequence in the original has Konstantin Levin, a wealthy landowner, threshing wheat side by side with his peasants; terrible, hot work, and part of the character’s book-long spiritual struggle. In Android, Levin owns a groznium mine, into which he descends one day to dig alongside his Pitbots and Glowing Scrubblers.

This scene was hard to write only because I know that the original is beloved by Anna fans -- to many, Levin is the true hero, and the stand-in for Tolstoy himself -- and I wanted to get it just right.

9)  Once you started, how long did it take you to write Android Karenina?

Ben: A little under a year.

10)  Android Karenina is the second book you’ve written for Quirk Classics.  Can your fans look forward to another classic told in your entertaining way?

Ben: For now I am taking a break from the Quirk Classics series, and focusing on my young adult novel, The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman. That’ll be out this fall...my first novel that’s just got my own name on the cover!

Well, thank you, first of all, and thanks to those fans!