Ken Scholes Finishes Hymn and the Psalms of Isaak

I relish in authors pushing the envelope of what has come before.

Ken Scholes is one of those authors, a writer whose Psalms of Isaak is parts fantasy, science fiction, and everything in between.

Hymn publishes tomorrow. It is the conclusion to the Psalms of Isaak, a five-book series that Scholes has written for ten years — through some of the worst hardships a human being must endure let alone an author. The fact that Scholes has been able to deliver volumes in this genre-bending series is remarkable. But it’s the quality of the work that I celebrate here today. Every book from Lamentation to Requiem has been a joy to read. I can’t wait to read Hymn when it hits bookstores tomorrow.

Booklist said it best about Lamentation and I think it is true of the entire series: “a vividly imagined sf-fantasy hybrid set in a distant, post-apocalyptic future, Scholes, already highly praised in the speculative-fiction community for his dazzlingly inventive short fiction, turns his talent up a notch.”

It is that originality in a genre that sometimes must fight for it that matters in the work of Scholes. We talk about it below in a new interview with the author.

Enjoy!

Unbound Worlds: Hymn, the fifth and final book in the Psalms of Isaak, is now published. First, tell readers about the first book, Lamentation, and the characters you’ve created?

Ken Scholes: Lamentation was my practice novel that somehow turned into a five book contract a year after I started writing it. I wrote it on a dare back in 2006, fresh on the heels of my Writers of the Future win, and I based it on a short story. Initially, it follows the lives of four people in the Named Lands – a king, a spy, an orphan, and pope in hiding – as they try to solve the mystery of who destroyed the great city of Windwir (which blows up on the first page.) And of course, there’s the metal man, Isaak, found weeping in a crater at the center of the city. And a war.

Lamentation came out in 2009 to a few awards and some nice reviews. To be honest, I wasn’t as big a fan of that one until recently, when I gave the audio version a listen. I can see all the places where it was supposed to be “practice.” But I learned a lot writing it and in hindsight, I enjoyed the way it introduced us to the bigger story yet stands alone if it needs to. I followed it up with Canticle where I expanded my cast a bit further. And with each subsequent book I’ve introduced more characters and more cultures as their world gets increasingly smaller and the plot, as they say, thickens.

UW: Did you decide early on that this would be a five-book series? Or did it grow in the telling?

KS: I thought initially that it would be four short stories. Then maybe a novella. And then, with the dare, I wrote the first novel in a six week binge and while I was writing it, I thought it might be a trilogy. But after I finished, as I was sketching out how things would expand in the second book, I decided it would be five and that I would write just enough story for that many volumes and no more. There were a lot of big book series that appeared to have no end in sight with long waits between volumes. I wanted to avoid that pitfall. But since there are stories further back and further up the timeline that I could still come back and do more in that world.

UW: The series is set on Earth, far into the future after our civilization has essentially destroyed itself. What made you decide to set it on Earth when so many fantasies do not have that setting?

KS: Funny thing that. There was a lot of speculation in the beginning about whether or not it was Earth but I’ve never confirmed it (much like I dodged confirming whether it was SF or fantasy) and by the third and fourth books, we get more detail about where and when they actually are. Folks wanting to dig back into the “Earth” days of the Psalms of Isaak would want to look for my story, “The Second Gift Given,” over at Clarkesworld. It’s an older story set deep in the backstory of the series.

UW: It’s been a decade since you started Lamentation and it has taken you four years to finish Hymn. How does it feel to bring this series to a conclusion? And do you think readers will enjoy what you’ve done in the finale?

KS: It was a long ten years with a lot of ups and downs. I had so many stalls finishing all but the first of those five books and it felt like I’d never get there. But it feels good to finish. And I’m really happy with the conclusion. It is largely landing where I wanted it to.

I never know how folks will respond. I’ve been fortunate that the series has been so well reviewed. It has a very small fan base that I hope will grow now that the series is completed.

UW: All authors have more stories in their heads than they can tell. What is up next for Ken Scholes?

KS: I honestly have no idea. I’ve been on sabbatical since finishing Hymn after about twenty years of working hard at writing on top of all my other life activities. Prior to this break, I was working on a book about my experience with PTSD. I’ve kicked around some YA ideas and have committed to some short stories but won’t tackle anything until January. I’ve spent the last year researching another non-fiction project that I also may tackle. But taking the last eighteen months off from writing has been good for me.

Hymn by Ken Scholes is in fine bookstores tomorrow!