Feathered Quill Book Reviews

 #AuthorInterview with Colin Searle

Today, Feathered Quill reviewer Lily Andrews is talking with Colin Searle, author of The Call of Abaddon.

FQ: Why science fiction and not any other genre?

SEARLE: Thanks for the interview and the thoughtful questions—your review was top-notch, and I really enjoyed reading it.

Sci-Fi has been my favorite genre since I was a kid. In Grade 8, a student teacher named Mr. Parks gave me a reading list—mostly sci-fi and fantasy, but also some thrillers, mysteries, and literary classics. That year, I read Ender’s Game, Halo: The Fall of Reach, 1984, The Silmarillion, Old Man’s War, The Forever War, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Childhood’s End—and many more. Reading those books at that age cemented my love for speculative fiction, and that hasn’t changed since.

Later that year, a friend of mine told me that he was “writing a book”. That was the last straw for me. I had to do it too. A decade and a half later, the dream has become a reality.

I’ve said before that speculative fiction is uniquely suited to reflect our world through bold, imaginative lenses. The best sci-fi asks the wildest questions but always through believable human perspectives, which invites readers to engage, reflect, and imagine themselves in those scenarios. It’s a very participatory genre—and that’s why its fanbases are so passionate. Just look at Star Wars or Star Trek—decades later, people still cosplay and debate those characters like they were old friends. That’s called commitment.

Often, great sci-fi only needs one truly “fantastical” element — “The Force” in Star Wars, “Magic” in most fantasy settings, “Spice” in Dune, or “Element Zero” in Mass Effect—to make their worlds as distinct as they are. What matters most is what creators do with those elements, and how they affect characters and story. That’s what makes sci-fi (and fantasy) such fascinating genres to read and write.

FQ: Science fiction is one of the most creative genres in literature, I must say. How did you manage to execute this novel so well, and especially in building a suspenseful story that resonates deeply with readers?

SEARLE: Thank you—that’s high praise.

Stories like this one don’t come into being in the first draft, or even the hundredth. They’re developed gradually over many passes and many hours of consideration, planning, trial and error, and then allowing others in to give feedback. Sci-fi allows for limitless creativity, which means you have to impose structure: rules, logic, limits—just like in real life.

Characters need structure too. Are they behaving in character based on who they are and what they’re going through? Does the story flow and escalate in a way that feels earned? These are hard questions, and I leaned heavily on my excellent editors to help keep things balanced. If a character steps outside their personality, there’d better be a good reason—or it’s back to the drawing board.

All these layers—worldbuilding, character arcs, pacing, tension—combine into something that, with enough work, resonates. Not everyone will love it, but I worked hard to make it as accessible and emotionally grounded as possible. A good story, at its core, should transcend genre. That was my goal.

Author Colin Searle

FQ: Some of your characters seem to have been plucked right out of real life. Is Jason, the main character, a figment of your imagination or inspired by a real-life person?

SEARLE: Like most writers, I draw from personal experience—but none of my characters are direct self-inserts. Instead, they each carry facets of who I am.

Jason embodies my hopes, fears, battles with anxiety/sanity and my reluctance to be in the spotlight. David and Avery are my cynical side, the cautious voice of reason who always wants to be right, even when they know they’re wrong. Sam is my determination and my care for my friends and loved ones. Anne is my guilt for past mistakes (who doesn’t have ‘em?), and Zeke represents my brash, hotheaded side. Hadrian Mariko is one of my favorites, representing the flamboyant, theatrical side of my personality. There’s obviously a LOT more to these characters, as anyone who has read the book can attest, but these are the lenses that I view them through to keep their personas consistent.

Jason’s story follows the classic hero’s journey—he’s a bit of Aang, Frodo, Odysseus, and Luke Skywalker. But what sets him apart is that his power is intrinsically tied to the villain. Abaddon didn’t just awaken him—it chose him. That connection is both a curse and a path to redemption.

Jason represents potential. If he breaks free from Abaddon’s will, he could become something truly mythic. If he fails... it might doom everyone. Even at the end of Book 1, he’s only taken his first step. There’s so much further to go—and the journey will get darker and more challenging from here. He and the rest of the cast will have no choice but to grow and change in the face of such immense odds.

FQ: How was your world-building process?

SEARLE: Worldbuilding is a hotly debated topic. When beginning a new project, do you start with your world, story, and plot, or do you start with building your characters and scene-writing abilities first? There’s a lot of people who take either side.

For me, it’s a balance. Good worldbuilding supports story and theme. Good characters and scenes make it all matter. You need both, or your book won’t hold together. I’m far from a master in either department, but I’ve learned a lot during the process.

My process was chaotic at first—notes, sketches, scattered lore. I even made an animated short during art school to explore Colossus Station, Hadrian Mariko and Anne’s backstory. In the beginning, when you have no idea what you’re doing, you have to stumble through it long enough to find out what works objectively, and also what works for you.

But as my world grew, changed and became more complex, it eventually needed to be cut back. The process is like tending to a garden where the plants grow fast and can quickly get out of control. This is a natural process during the development of an epic universe. How did things come to be the way they are in the world? Where are things going? How does it all tie back to your tight group of characters and POV perspectives, and how is the world revealed through their eyes (and what are their opinions about it)?

All of this is to say, you can’t build your world without also simultaneously developing your characters, and vice versa. Both are needed for an effective large-scale SFF story, but there are literally thousands of elements, details and factors to balance together.

Once you finally have your characters and world worked out, the final stage of my process was to sharpen everything down to only the necessary details. The Call of Abaddon is half the length that it once was, and that was achieved through careful cutting or combining entire characters, scenes, and elements of the world until everything made sense, had a place and purpose, and all the important elements were tied together.

Adding Abaddon as the central sci-fi element and primary villain was especially useful, because ultimately, all the conflict and fantastical elements in the story are traced back to it. It would be like writing the Silmarillion without Morgoth/Melkor – because in Tolkien’s world (Arda), all the conflict and evil originates from that character. In the Ainulindalë creation myth, Melkor pollutes the music of the universe with his song of discord. Middle Earth could still exist without Morgoth, but you wouldn’t have a story without his presence, or those who inherited his evil.

World and character must evolve together. The setting gives birth to your cast—but your cast needs to feel human. Once those pieces locked into place, it was just a matter of cutting, sharpening, and making sure every detail served a purpose.

All this is to say – I learned a lot during the process of writing this book, and the learning will only continue as I write the rest of the series!

FQ: Your novel takes readers on a tech odyssey, through inventions such as robotic drones and advanced outer space travel. How did you manage to include these and more useful elements into the plot and keep readers invested in the plotline?

SEARLE: There’s a ton of tech in The Call of Abaddon—semi-sentient drones, spacefaring craft, nanotech, cybernetics—but it’s all grounded in story.

Most of the tech traces back to Abaddon itself. The obelisk has been influencing human development for centuries—seeding our society with its technology, all in preparation for its endgame: to annihilate humanity and birth another of its kind. It can’t be bargained with, it can’t be reasoned with, and it absolutely will not stop … until we are dead.

Because of this setup, the Nanotech that the human race relies on is the ultimate poison, and the perfect trap. In Mass Effect, the Reapers do this on a galactic scale, and there are other examples in fiction of similar setups (the Borg, etc). But in The Call of Abaddon, the action is more intimate, restricted to our Solar System. Abaddon doesn’t want the human race to escape the boundaries of our home system, even as it entices our curiosity with the technology to travel faster than light.

At a character level, this means that Jason, David and Sam have to avoid anything infected with the Nanophage, as Abaddon can use it as a vehicle to remotely attack Jason with a psychic takeover of his mind. It means that Anne Oakfield has to continuously treat herself to remove the Nanophage from her body, which is steadily advancing from her cybernetics into her biological flesh.

All of this is to say, the technology of the world isn’t just in the book because it’s cool, or because advanced tech is “what all sci-fi stories have”. The Call of Abaddon wouldn’t exist without Abaddon’s Nanotech, or the obelisk itself.

FQ: Are there any authors in this genre that you pull inspiration from?

SEARLE: Too many to list! Some recent favorites include Dennis E. Taylor, Craig Alanson, Matt Dinniman, JN Chaney, and Skyler Ramirez. I’m also a big fan of the Black Library authors—Dan Abnett and Aaron Dembski-Bowden in particular.

Beyond books, I draw heavy inspiration from screenwriters and game designers—Chris Avellone, Drew Karpyshyn, Amy Hennig, Hideo Kojima, Mark Laidlaw. I grew up on their work.

And I can’t forget all the good comics, manga and anime I’ve consumed as well. I have great respect for Hajime Isayama (Attack on Titan) and Hiromu Arakawa (Fullmetal Alchemist), and pretty much everything that Studio Trigger and Madhouse have put out. Those worlds are meticulously crafted, and gave me something to aspire to.

We all build on what came before us, and we stand on the shoulders of giants, who should each be honored for their contributions to the creative mythos of our species.

FQ: You have written a great story that is immersive from the start. Besides offering readers escapist entertainment, what other takeaways do you hope your target audience will gain from reading The Call of Abaddon?

SEARLE: I love that question. While I definitely want readers to be entertained, I also hope the book sparks conversation.

You mentioned ‘escapist’ entertainment. The creator of Evangelion (Hideaki Anno), mentioned that one of the themes of that series is “anti-escapism” – as in, try to spend more time with friends and loved ones than you do consuming entertainment by yourself. I agree with that, but entertainment has always been part of our history across the planet, because it’s one of the few non-work-related things that still has the power to bring people together. Entertainment media can bring people together just as much as it keeps us separated into our own spaces, consuming it alone.

In other interviews, I’ve been asked questions about some of the social commentary aspects of the story. I have tried to keep those aspects timeless, rather than locked into critiques of current events, because the best stories focus on universal themes that almost anyone can relate to or see in their own lives. My hope is that this story encourages readers to examine the harms that various technologies may have in their own lives, the amount of influence that media and entertainment have over their thoughts and opinions, and that while true evil definitely exists in our world, the majority of encounters you will have are various shades of grey.

FQ: What single piece of advice would you give to someone aiming to write science fiction in today’s world?

SEARLE: Have fun. Seriously—don’t lose sight of that.

Writing is hard, and writing well is harder still. To get through the endless hours of work, edits, revisions and sleepless nights as you work through story problems, plot holes and the eventual grind of marketing—make sure that you’re having fun while doing it. Creating an entire novel from scratch isn’t for the faint of heart. If writing is something that doesn’t speak to you, or you find no personal joy in it—consider another creative venture. I found my creative calling in art first, but writing was always my number one passion. Everyone has multiple avenues open to them, so go with the one that gives you the most fulfillment.

Always remember—have fun.

FQ: Do you have another project coming up? Book II perhaps?

SEARLE: Yes—Book 2 is well underway. I won’t say exactly how far along it is, but I plan to enter full production of the manuscript not long after Book 1 launches.

I’ve mapped out the full series, including major plot points, character arcs, and the ending. Each book will escalate in scale, tension, and emotion. Some of the twists coming down the line are going to hit hard—in a good way, I hope.

Book 1 is just the beginning.

FQ: Do you believe you've found your niche in the science fiction genre, or are you interested in exploring different genres down the line?

SEARLE: I’m definitely not against writing in other genres in the future. I’m partial to horror, mystery, thrillers, fantasy and even some straight-up literary fiction (Fredrik Backman, Mitch Albom, etc).

But I owe my readers a complete saga, and with the Abaddon Cycle, I plan to deliver.

That said, the universe is also ripe for further exploration beyond the main series, probably in the form of short stories or novellas. These don’t have to be firmly rooted in the SF genre either, as side stories can be anything and everything, provided that they don’t contradict the main narrative. There’s tons of potential for pre-history or backstory shorts for various characters. As the series grows and new characters/locations pop up in the next few books, that’s even more fodder for exploration.

Thanks again for the interview! I appreciate the opportunity to voice some of my thoughts about the book in such a straightforward format. Cheers!