Imagine having the opportunity to create a whole new universe, with new characters, exotic names, your own set of laws for the land and then bringing it to life in the pages of your story.  Eric Van Lustbader opted to put his mystery series on hiatus to tackle such a creation.  Thus, the Pearl Saga was born.

Welcome to Roundtable Reviews.  MISTRESS OF THE PEARL is the third book in your Pearl Saga.  How many books are you planning on for this series?  What is the fourth book going to entail?

Thank you. The series will be six books in length.  The fourth book takes place mainly on the Southern Continent of Kundala and involves the Sarakkon to a far greater degree.

 

Dialogue struck me as a strong point in this book.  Which comes easier for you, the dialogue or the descriptions?

Interesting that you should ask that.  Many years ago, description was far easier for me to write than dialog.  In fact, when I was in the music business and preparing to write my first novel. I used to tape all my interviews with rock stars so that later I could listen to how they spoke and in that way get a better sense of natural cadence and vocabulary.  With MISTRESS OF THE PEARL I often wrote the dialog first and the built up the scene -- setting, description, incidentals -- around the dialog.

 

Before The Pearl Saga, you wrote a series of mystery/thrillers.  Why the change in genre?  Are there other genres you would like to explore?

When I decided I wanted to write about the conflict between technology and spirituality, I saw right away that the subject was too large for a single novel.  If I was to do a series, I felt the best genre would be fantasy.  Besides, I was a Sociology major at Columbia College and have always been fascinated by societies and the mores of the people who make them up.  The lure of creating my own universe was too great to resist.

 

The Gyrgon are technological whizzes.  I understand technology also fascinates you.  Decades ago, the internet, cell phones, laptops, satellite television, etc. were unheard of, what would you most like to see for technological advancements in the next few decades?

That's easy.  I want something that can get me places instantaneously and hassle-free. ("Beam me up, Scotty!") I travel a lot and the getting there takes a lot out of me.

 

In MISTRESS OF THE PEARL , Riane is female but has been merging with the mind and spirit of a man.  This is a first for me, and besides being unique, it's really food for thought.  What led you to have a character that was actually both sexes rolled into one?

Just the fact that you said it's food for thought leads me to believe that I was successful in what I've done.  One of my goals in the series was to challenge traditional notions of gender roles.  For instance, Kundalan society is actually based on the society of ancient Crete , which was the last known "collaborative" society, meaning that men and women shared in everything, it was neither matriarchal or patriarchal.  I think that's a fascinating model, one that had no analog in our modern-day world.  I also wanted a hero-heroine who would have insight into both the Kundalan and V'ornn societies, but in different aspects. 

The basic notion behind the series is that neither technology nor spirituality are good or evil in and of themselves.  It's the people who employ them that are good and evil.  When you first start reading THE RING OF FIVE DRAGONS, the first book in the series, you're sure that the Kundalans are good and the V'ornn are evil.  But the further you read, the more you realize that you can't judge the races from that point of view, because there are good individual V'ornn and evil individual Kundalan.  Isn't this the way real life works?

 

Creating a whole new world must be a huge challenge.  Follow this with having to come up with unusual names for your characters.  How did you decide on these names?  It isn't like there is a book of fantasy/sci-fi baby names - or is there?

LIke Tolkien, I had fun creating my names  -- some of them are jokes.  They all came from my mind as there is no book of sci-fi/fantasy names.  That said, the one criticism sometimes leveled at the series is that the names are too difficult.  The problem I was presented with was this: unlike in many fantasy series, the peoples in my universe are not earth-based.  Therefore, I couldn't very well name them Ted or Bob or Harry.  I had to come up with names that looked and felt alien, yet weren't too alien to read.  I did provide a pronunciation guide at the back of each book for all the completists who simply have to know how to pronounce everything, but perhaps in this regard I didn't do as good a job as I could have.

Tracy's note:  There is no pronunciation guide in the back of my copy of THE MISTRESS OF THE PEARL.  However, readers can go to www.ericvanlustbaderbooks.com and find a complete guide there.
 

Coming up, you will be releasing THE BOURNE LEGACY, which the Ludlum estate asked you to create.  Can you tell us more about this book?  Do you know if there will be others?

Bob and I were good friends, We shared the same agent and accountant.  When we met, we had a mutual admiration society.  He very much admired my first mainstream best-seller THE NINJA and I often told him how much I loved the character of Jason Bourne.  It was because of this connection. I think, that Jeff Weiner, the executor of Bob's estate contacted me.  The tremendous worldwide success of "The Bourne Identity" film, the fact Universal was making "The Bourne Supremacy" with all the same people from the first film, gave Jeff the idea of continuing the Jason Bourne series in book form.  Bob had written three Bourne books (the third is "The Bourne Ultimatum").  I jumped at the chance, because Jeff said I could do my own story and write in my own style.  The result, I must say, surprised even me.  I many ways it's the best novel I've every written.  It was also the most fun to write.  I can't tell you what the novel is about, because that would spoil the surprises!  My editor has already sounded me out about doing another and I know the estate would love it, so let's all buy the book, folks -- that's way better than crossing our fingers!

 

Almost every author I have ever spoken with can name at least one author that inspired him or her to write, who are yours?

Raymond Chandler, JRR Tolkien, Frank Herbert, Don DeLillo, Barry Unsworth.
 

When you are not writing, how do you like to spend your time? 

Thinking up ideas for my next novel!  That's only half a joke.  I also travel to Europe a lot, to clear my head by being in new and unfamiliar surroundings.  I have my garden.  And I'm on the Board of Trustees and chair of the Strategic Planning Committee of City & Country, my elementary school in NYC.

 

Thank you so much for taking time out of your very busy schedule. I know I can't wait to get my hands on THE BOURNE LEGACY. 

Thanks for inviting me to join you.