Impact
By Douglas Preston
Published January 5, 2010 (Hardcover) Forge Books
Douglas Preston and I talked this morning about his latest thriller Impact. Douglas is an adventurer, like his main character Wyman Ford. You get it – the old author adage write about what you know.
One of my favorite interview questions — I want to know the inspiration for the book. The spark for this thriller, which Douglas hopes is a “ripping good read,” is an experience the author once had while working for National Geographic. Douglas tells me they were looking for a lost temple — and, in doing so, their expedition penetrated Khmer Rouge territory. That dangerous thread is just one of the three. His voice lights up when he discusses another thread — a Thelma and Louise pair. The third — is the science. It is real.
Check this out: in researching the book, Douglas learned about quark matter. It’s basically a space event called strange matter. Strange matter is so dense, it could convert our planet Earth to the size of a baseball. That’s the threat.
Holy crap, I think, and “That’s for real?” I ask him.
Oh, yes, he tells me. “This science is real. It’s cutting edge.”
Yes, Douglas, Impact is a ripping good read — and interviewing you is quite the adventure.
