Part Two of our interview with Myke Cole continues with the powers and characters in the Shadow Ops series. Myke answers the questions of a Shadow Ops Comic book, about missing powers that are forever gone from the Shadow Ops series and about the growth of characters that is a rare and amazing surprise to many authors. His second book, Shadow Ops: Fortress Frontier is coming to store shelves this winter and the third is going through editing and rewrites at the moment. Myke Cole is certainly an author on the rise.

Toonari Post (TP): Is there a power you feel has either helped or hurt the story? If so which is it?

Myke Cole (MC): There *was* a power, in the original draft of Latent (the book that would later become Control Point). I had a school of magic called Mentamancy, which was essentially telepathy. But the narrative relied so strongly on the ability of characters to keep secrets that something as simple as mind reading made the whole story come apart at the seams. In the end, I had to ditch it. There are no mind readers in the Shadow Ops universe. That you know of. So far.

TP: You’ve made mention in other interviews that Oscar’s POV isn’t the only one we can expect in the next book, who else can we expect and how are they different from Oscar?

MC: The protagonist of Fortress Frontier is Colonel Alan Bookbinder, a high ranking administrator who is thrust into the role of combat commander. Bookbinder comes from a strong foundation. He had an intact family growing up, and has a loving wife and children of his own. His position in the army is far more secure than Britton’s, his Latency coming at the end of a long and successful career. As a result, Bookbinder’s path is far more. That path has some twists, and the road is long and dangerous, but the Bookbinder is a man much less at war with himself.

TP: Has there been a moment during the writing of this series where a character has evolved so quickly that he or she took on a life of their own?

MC: Absolutely. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll just say there’s a conversation in Chapter XIX in Control Point where Scylla is talking. That is actually her talking. All I was doing was writing it down. All of my favorite writers describe knowing their characters so well that they just put them in the scene and write down what they say. That never happens to me. I put my characters in the scene and they look at me asking, “Dude. What do you want us to do?” Except this one time. It was amazing, but I’m not holding my breath for it to happen again.

TP: What is the status of the 3rd book? Will you be attending a ton of stuff for the launch of the second in a few months time and then be totally swamped?

MC: Breach Zone has a completed 1st draft at roughly 125,000 words. I am really, really unhappy with it. But that’s okay. This is part of my writing process. I have to put down a lousy first draft to have something to edit. The marketing push for Fortress Frontier may be more muted than Control Point since I no longer have the glow of a debut author, but I am certainly going to be pushing the hell out of it. I’m very proud of it, like it better than Control Point, and am really excited to see reader reactions.

TP: What are your thoughts on a Shadow Ops comic book? Would that be a great joy or a stressful time given that the second book is on the way out to the public and the 3rd on the way as well.

MC: It would be a joy beyond joy. I have dreamed of writing comic books since I was a kid. I’m a huge fan of them and would be honored to see my material be used as the basis for one. My fingers are crossed that someday someone will want to do one, and I would spare no effort to help make it happen.

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Toonari Post, in addition to talking to Myke Cole about his first three books, also answered questions about his developing author experiences and growing fan base. Included in the interview is information about Myke Cole as an author, fantasy nerd and military officer. Spanning three tours in Iraq and plenty of dungeons in MMORPG games,  Myke Cole now writes for a living while keeping an eye on the state our country. If current affairs make it into his books, it is because he has a keen eye for details and talent for articulating a situation.

Toonari Post (TP): The magic system in Shadow Ops covers many of the standard and even substandard schools of magic in the fantasy genre but is there one that you wanted to add or change after the first book was published?

Myke Cole (MC): There is, and I added it. You’ll find out more about that in the second book in the series, Fortress Frontier. The thing you have to remember is that the system of “schools” currently used by the government is just a way of trying to categorize a phenomenon that nobody fully understands. But magic in the Shadow Ops universe isn’t interested in being categorized. It’s an iceberg that runs very wide and very deep beneath the surface. We only see the tip.

TP: I laughed myself hoarse when I saw “Gate-Fu” for the first time, what other funny titles for powers in the series might have been held back in order to shape a more gritty and realistic portrayal?

MC: I don’t know about gritty and realistic, but I did hold one back because it sounded silly. Hydromancy, the magical school that governs water, used to be called Aquamancy. Ahem. How I missed that is beyond me, but fortunately one of the beta readers gently noted that I might want to change it . . .

TP: Looking at the combat now and its plausible applications in a real world environment, are there times in the book where your training has warred with your instinctive ideas on how to make the characters more appealing?

MC: Military training, done right, results in instinctive reactions to crisis where military members act according to policy. That’s efficient, that’s predictable, that’s safe. It’s also incredibly boring. Good stories hinge on conflict. They revolve around the times when things go wrong. “The enemy came over the hill. We were ordered to fire. We fired. After the battle, we accounted for spent rounds and cleaned our weapons.” Not a whole lot of drama there. The story gets interested when the guns jam, or when the soldiers refuse to fire, or when one of the enemy turns out to be a relative, etc . . . My training informs my writing, but in the end, I have to be “less military” in order to be more dramatic.

TP: The application of gate powers and many of the other Shadow Ops powers certainly changes the logistics and tactics of the military; Oscars is essentially a very ground combat capable pilot, was that a conscious move to make him both support and frontline fighter right off the bat?

MC: It was definitely a nod to the all-important power of logistics and maneuver in battle. We spend a lot of time ooohing and aaahing over the latest technology (this new fighter jet, that new anti-missile laser, etc . . .). Cyber warfare is the new sexy that everyone is obsessed with lately. But the truth is that all of this pales in comparison to the all important, but far less sexy bedrock factors: Relative position. Supply lines. Terrain. Portamancy speaks directly to that stuff.

TP: Additionally will Oscars set of skills grow with the next two books? What can readers expect as far as character skill and personality development?

MC: I want to remind folks that while Oscar Britton is a major character in Fortress Frontier, he is not the main character. I think he’s coming more into his own in book 2, beginning to realize how he can best further his goal of finding a new path for Latent people, one where they don’t have to choose between being either criminals or government agents.

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Myke Cole (MC) is a new and emerging author of the Shadow Ops Series. Across many literary genres Myke’s characters have found themselves at home with history buffs, fantasy fans and military thriller readers. In many ways, this is a new avenue of book writing, one that has great potential. With the second book “Fortress Frontier” due out at the beginning of 2012, ToonariPost (TP) caught up with him at New York Comic Con 2012. In person Myke Cole is personable and welcoming. He has no problem talking to fans who walk up to him as long as he’s not creating a traffic jams at conventions. It was a pleasure to be able to speak with him on his convention experiences and about his growing fan base as well.

TP: What did you think of this year’s New York Comic con as opposed to 2011?

MC: NYCC just gets bigger and bigger every year. On the one hand, it’s great to see the things I love finding a wider and wider audience. On the other hand, it takes longer and longer just to walk ten feet, and the place starts to smell like a monkey house earlier and earlier.

TP: What do you find the most interesting about New York Comic Con in particular?

MC: That geek is now chic. *All* of this stuff: comic books, fantasy novels, video games, cosplaying, tabletop gaming, etc . . . It was all grounds for being shunted into a social corner when I was growing up.  There’s a temptation to be resentful of the Johnny-Come-Latelys. Clan membership is all about inside jokes, exclusivity and a sense of having a space that’s all your own. But the truth is that clannishness sucks, and if I love something, I want to share it with as many people as possible. Being a “geek” used to mean that you were part of a small group. Now, being a geek means that you have access to pop culture in some way. And that’s a good thing.

TP: Where do you see improvements for how New York Comic con can be executed?

MC: Eliminate bottlenecks. The escalators funnel people into packed cattle-chutes that create a trampling risk and make exiting the hall take a frustratingly long time. This could be fixed by replaced the narrow escalators (and the column between them) with a broad staircase. You’d need to install elevators for those with disabilities to have access. It would cost a lot to make these changes, but it would be worth it, and it’s not like NYCC (and the Javitts Center) isn’t turning a profit.

TP: Were there any of your fellow authors that you follow at NYCC? Also, you’ve mentioned Peter Brett but who else do you read in your spare time?

MC: Apart from Pete, I didn’t run into any other novelists who I follow at NYCC, but there are plenty of great writers I can recommend. My current favorites in fantasy/science-fiction are Pete, Daniel Polansky, Joe Abercrombie, Mark Lawrence, Scott Lynch, Pat Rothfuss, Naomi Novik, Orson Scott Card, Jack Campbell . . . there’s a new author named Wesley Chu who has a fun book about to come out from Angry Robot in May.

TP: For the growing base of Myke Cole fans, who do you think they are?

MC: It’s a diverse lot. I am very fortunate to have inherited a lot of Jim Butcher’s fans. There is a core group of die-hard Butcherites who I met at last year’s NYCC, and who became personal friends. They have been avid proselytizers for my work and have helped spread the word among urban fantasy devotees. I’ve also gotten some cross over from fans of straight military SF who follow Jack Campbell (because of a blurb from him). I did a bit guest blogging and interviews in the romance community online, and that helped me net some romance readers (which I’m really grateful for. I was worried that a testosterone-fueled, military story wouldn’t appeal to romance fans, and I’m really gratified to find it does). Peter V. Brett’s blurb (Black Hawk Down meets the X-Men) was perhaps the biggest boost to my career that I could ever hope for. I’ve lost count of how many people have told me they picked up the book based on that blurb.

TP: Similarly who else are you hoping to attract with this book series?

MC: If this series is ever going to be the mega-success I would love for it to be, it has to jump off the genre track and hook the straight military/thriller fans who enjoy Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn and James Patterson.

TP: What other conventions do you attend where fans can find you?

MC: All of them, I think. I’ve done Boskone, Balticon, Arisia, San Diego Comic Con, Lunacon, Confusion, Philcon, World Fantasy Con and WorldCon, just to name a few. I’m always open to more. A hotel full of like-minded people who will hang out, talk geek and even game with me? And it’s a tax write off? Hell, sign me up.

Image Courtesy of  http://mykecole.com

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In a world that is much like our own, with governments that have agendas that no one knows about, there are soldiers that train for missions to hone skills of which the normal average Joe would be deathly afraid.

Author Myke Cole has varied expertise in both the military and law enforcement, and his writing reflects, not only the positive experiences, but also the negative ones of the real fighting world. This is an amazing, fun, and engaging novel and is in stores now. There is sure to be more from this new author.

The magic aspect of the book is a perfect foil for which Myke Cole creates the world of Oscar Britton. Conjuring images of movies such as ‘Avatar’, ‘X-Men’, ‘Black Hawk Down’, and ‘The Matrix’, ‘Shadow Ops: Control Point’ pulls fans in, keeping them guessing at times and at other times, cheering on Oscar’s successes. Lamenting Oscar’s failures are short-lived, as the book is always plugging along at a brisk pace, moving events forward through timelines and dimensions.

Latent, probe, selfer. These are some of the first terms with which readers of ‘Shadow Ops: Control Point’ will become intimately familiar throughout the book. ‘Latent’ is the term for people with the ability and control to do their manifested school of magic. Likewise, a ‘selfer’ is a rogue, or out-of-control, magic user that focuses on any of the 11 schools of magic.

Appropriately sandwiched between these two concepts is a subsection of the ‘selfer’ label which is ‘probe’, a magic user that wields one of the four prohibited schools of magic within the eleven total schools.

The Supernatural Operations Corps, (SOC), is a place where training takes place in all 11 schools of magic, despite the legal standing of certain magic schools within the U.S. population. The permissible schools chiefly deal with Fire, Air, Earth, Water, and the physical body, the latter of which deals with healing, called a physiomancer.

The two restricted practiced schools are Animal Whispering and Offensive Physiomancy, that is, not healing, but instead destroying a body. The four prohibited schools are classified as such because they are generally considered dark or rare powers to possess that are even more valuable and disturbing than the first seven schools of magic.

Black magic, death magic, gate magic, and semi-sentient elemental conjuration are the four prohibited schools of magic. Oscar becomes a master of gate magic, called portamancy, to which its combat ability can be referred to hilariously as ‘gate-fu’, the front line fighting potential limited only by the user’s control of the magic itself. As he trains, he joins Umbra Coven, the elite magic group the is behind all of the other magic users.

Status as a selfer usually results in death as the SOC hunts you down, probes even more so, though the SOC does also capture magic users alive and gives them a chance to be indoctrinated into the SOC and serve their country combating selfers and probes. This is an ironic and somewhat venomous twist that combines magical servitude and prison-sentencing as a person manifests magic.

Chock-full of concepts that will thrill any science fiction and fantasy fan, as well as some military jargon, ‘Shadow Ops’ details the life of Oscar Britton as he goes on his journey to first discovering, and then later mastering, control of his latent probe powers. An army man himself, Oscar is the type of character that is very relatable.

He is angry at injustice when he sees it, he is prideful of great accomplishments when he earns them, and he is regretful for more than his fair share of near-death experiences. Rave reviews from readers are justified in their praise of Myke Cole’s first work as this page-turning thriller takes readers on a journey into the mind of a man ridden, not only with guilt and anger, but with a fierce moral code.

Readers will go right along with him on his ethical journey as Oscar comes to grips with the changes in his life, even as he struggles to stay the same person. Find out Oscar’s fear at his first manifestation of magic and struggle just as Oscar does, as he dances all over the fine line between strict military training and smart-alecky heroism.

Oscar knew what life had in store for him after being captured using a prohibited school of magic, chaining him down to be another tool of a government that he has come to despise. He still rebels against that injustice and sticks to his code of ethics. While not beyond reproach, the events that take place in ‘Shadow Ops’ can easily take place in our world, showing us how different, and yet similar, Oscar Britton’s reality is from our own.

One arguable fault in an otherwise excellent book is that while there are a few lessons to take away from Oscar’s journey, chiefly that you should be true to yourself and your own moral code, there is not a life lesson that can be felt throughout the book that is the focal point of the entire story.

Oscar wants his freedom, to live the life that he chooses, but his tale has hopefully not ended yet, with revolution on the rise as a result of his actions. That can be said to be the focal point of the story, but does not feel quite as cohesive as it could have been.

Another arguable fault is that the secondary characters, while vibrant, seem forced. The duty a military officer has to his government is strong, but the bond he has to his squad is even stronger. This concept is diluted in ‘Shadow Ops’, leading to unexpected betrayals that make sense, but do not really create a great deal of emotion. Another secondary character changes so quickly overnight that the level of fear and hate turning into adoration and fanaticism seems improbable.

Still, readers will become fans of Myke Cole’s writing. There is an ease of reading that many will welcome and an approachable style that many will love. There is nothing boring about a book where military meets magic, and while the concept is not new, Myke Cole’s take on it is refreshing and much needed in a genre that is beginning to overlap itself with similar concepts.

There is much work that needs to be done for the next book in the ‘Shadow Ops’ series, entitled ‘Fortress Frontier’. Often times, the books that are published within a given era are a reflection of the real world during that time period.

In a world that is increasingly rebellious against governments that abuse policy and remove rights, ‘Shadow Ops: Control Point’ hits the nail on the head and gives readers a dose of what they want from their fiction. Escape into the world of Oscar Britton for a few days, and watch as his path unfolds before your very eyes.

For all its limited number of faults, the story of Oscar Britton is one that fans eagerly follow, with many readers waiting for the next book to arrive. Hopefully, ‘Fortress Frontier’ will continue to showcase Myke Cole’s evolving talent as a writer of fiction since the few faults that ‘Control Point’ has can be easily fixed in the second book. An excellent debut from a novice writer, this is a series on the rise, so watch out sci-fi/fantasy fans, this one will grab your attention.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/23974478@N07/

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