Who Is Crawford Kilian? by Kyle R

!i ,-.- •^^ftm>mm^vm^m^m?^mfi^^m^^^**^^^m^m^^^ «#%b-N^. UBC Archives Serial Who is Crawford Kilian? by Kyle R. Kirkwood problem because they are anti- Semitic, and that means they get Without brutish violence, or unthink rid of most of the early Christians ing jingoism, Crawford Kilian has as well because most of the early crafted an exciting SF adventure story in Christians were Jewish. The job Rogue Emperor ($5.50 from Del Rey my hero is stuck with is to try and books). Kilian viciously assaults the figure out what these guys are up American fundamentalist church, with to, and stop them from doing it, or out reverting to atheism or anti-religious at least delay them until his own rhetoric. side can get adequate forces into This is the Vancouver author, colum the 1st century to overthrow these nist, and educator's best work to date. A hijackers. So in one respect it's joy to read, it is obvious the writer took kind of a straight historical novel as much delight in writing this work, as about what life was like in ancient you will reading it. Rome, but it has been modified Sitting behind a fold-out table at with a certain amount of science White Dwarf Books, Crawford Kilian fiction element. signs copies of his new book, the third in 432: Reading the book is a lot of his series, the Chronoplane Wars. fun. One gets the feeling you en joyed writing it and doing the 432: Can you tell us about your new research. book, Rogue Emperor"? Kilian: Yes, indeed, very much Kilian: It's a fairly dull account of a so. It was a great deal of fun to find time-travelling spy who finds himself in out —: I thought I knew a lot about ancient Rome, witnessing the assassina ancient Rome. I had read Gibbon tion of the Emperor Domitian by an anti and this and that and so on. But tank missile, in the middle of a gladito- when I really got to do some con rial combat. It's part of a series of stories centrated research, I found a great in which early in the 21st century we deal I had not known, and I was have discovered how to travel to what struck by how much like our own amounts to series of parallel worlds, time ancient Rome was. Not that which are very much like our own except they were decadent or anything, that they are at different points of his but just that cultural forms are tory. A couple of them are more ad very slow to change They had vanced in time than we are; most of them gladitorial combats, we've got are in our own past. And you travel back hockey andRambo, which serve a in one of these worlds without changing very similar function, which is to your own world's history, but you cer give us a vicarious taste of vio tainly change the subsequent history of lence. They built apartment build the world you arrive in. So in this world ings which were not very much there is a chronoplane, as I call it, which different from today's slums. is at the year A.D. 100, where the Roman They had the problems of being a Kilian autographing his work at White Dwarf Books on West 10thPHOTO BY KYLE KIRKWOOD Empire is still going strong and where a large and fairly stable society, end of the cretaceous, with Pierce as a certain amount of limited trade is going being in effect not so much infiltrated you were living in a barbarian tribe in witness to the extinction of the dino Germany, or southern Russia. So I was on between the 21st century and the but gently invaded by people who saurs. Another might involve Pierce really struck by these similarities. Romans, so diat the Roman courier serv wanted a piece of the action. They are not discovering a chronoplane very close to 432: In the novel itself, you at one point ice has bicycles, and flashlights are a big much differe™ from the barbarian inva* his own, probably sometime in the 70*s refer to some of the early Christians as item, so forth and so on. sions, [which] were really more like the or 80's, and in which he might find antisocial terrorists. ... You had some I won't go into all the details of the plot, people crossing the border from Mexico, himself actually having to deal with a but it deals with an attempt by militant, I or trying to claim refugee status in Can thing to say about modern fundamental ists which is very strong too. younger and very bloodthirsty version of suppose you could say neo-Nazi Chris ada. Because this, you know, North himself. Butwe will see if that develops, tians to hijack the Roman Empire and America, is an island of relative peace Kilian: The Romans certainly saw the early Christians as a bunch of antisocial, that is still some years away. I got a new Christianize it a couple of centuries and tranquility compared to the rest of book just underway and couple of other ahead of time. They have a bit of a the world, and that's what Rome was if potentially subversive types. Anyone who did not, in effect, go with Imperial projects after that so I won't be saying Law was seen as a socially threatening hello to Jerry Pierce again for at least a sort of person. What I did then was to couple of years. In this issue concoct a modern fundamentalist group 432: What are some of those other who are — not, let me put it this way, projects? Academics 8 Puzzles. 2,5 they are very much like a lot of funda Kilian: Well, the book I'm just getting AMS Report.. 5 Puzzle Answers 7 mentalist groups except these guys were going on is a fantasy novel for Del Rey Christmas Exams... 2,5,6 Science Past 2 violent. books called Green Magic and it is just under way.achapter or two done andl'm Credits .....2 Sports 8 432: What can you tell us about the working on the plot and so forth. After Dik Miller 2 Sun tanning 3 future of the Chronoplane Wars, and that there is the possibility for a story set Homophobia 5 Technology... 8 Jerry Pierce? in the present, but involving a three- I.N. Stein .....8 Uncle Rusty... 6 Kilian: Rogue Emperor is the third of Interview 1 Wack M. Good 7 thousand year old man who looks about the chronoplane boods, I am thnking Killer Whales 3 twenty-five and dealing with the sort of fairly seriously of probably one or two Letters 6 Interested in contributing? problems he runs into in his life. Li more which would, I expect, follow P Sync .....A Meetings: Thursdays 12:30 Pierce's career after he quits being a hit The Moon. '""1 Check Scarfe 9 for location. man with the Agency for Intertemporal See Kilian, page 2 Development. One might be set at the Volume 2, Number November 23,1988 SCIENCE U.B.C. NEWSPAPER SPORTS - PAY UP OR DIE! Kilian Speaks! Science PastH Dik Miller, Campus Cowboy From page 1 by Allan Sharp It was a sunny day. Cold, but sunny, face. I winced in anticipation. 432: You are also heavily involved in like lemon sherbet. Or maybe that was a At that very moment, the door burst the education of writers locally, what Bishop Isadore of Seville had the bad simile. Anyway, it was cold and open and a flood of second-year students sort of education other than learning how honour of being considered the foremost sunny - winter on the UBC campus. I was piled in, carrying my assailant away and to write does a writer need? scholar of his generation. However, as cruising around in my souped-up, lean- pitching him through the lab window Kilian: I think what a writer mostly he was living plumb smack in the middle mean-patrolling-machine, royal blue and down to the liquid nitrogen tank needs is a sense of that writing, whether of the Dark Ages this was less of a Traffic and Security Chevy Bel Air, with below. He hit with a dull "blut" sound. it is an article or novel or short story is an distinction that might otherwise have the Ventures cranked on the stereo and One of the students looked at me, crazed, achievable act That you can in fact get been expected. my sunglasses on. I had just come from ripped off my gag, and spoke. a book, or a story, or an article in to His main work, for which he was to be berating someone for trying to drive up "Is this where the Chem 230 Christ saleable shape and then sell it. So many remembered by future generations, was University Boulevard past Main Mall, mas exams are?!" he screamed. writers stall out somewhere along the his ambitious Etymologies, intended to and was feeling good about it That dis "I don't think.."." line between idea and publication. What be an encyclopedia of everything known turbed me; I had not been with the Patrol Another person yelled, "I found I encourage them to think is that if you by man, which was presumably com long, and already I was beginning to them!" There was a tumultuous roar of keep going, if you keep pushing, you are posed sometime between his unknown enjoy embarrassing people.

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