Earth has been gone for almost three thousand years when sixteen-year-old Artemisia Le’Formier and fifteen hundred other teenagers are sent down from their overcrowded space station to settle the first habitable planet humanity has found since a catastrophic war.
What they land in is a medieval world torn between warring gods, rival kingdoms, and a marcher lord who will have their fealty by any means necessary. Azaz Chickee’s The Skylords is sweeping, sharp-witted epic science fantasy, told by an author who is very funny about how seriously he takes it.
Q&A with Azaz Chickee
Q: What is The Skylords really about, underneath the epic scope?
A: In essence, the future of humanity, and how the youngest among us are tasked with not only preserving it, but pushing it forward, while that future grows more and more uncertain as the years go by.
What we were told as children to help us build a better life (get a degree, put on a suit and go shake some hands to get a job, this industry will never go out of fashion) is less stable and less certain as we go onwards. With A.I., the cost of living crisis, and the general upheaval all over the world, a book about a group of teenagers and young adults tasked with building a society out of what they were taught, and finding it still left them grossly unprepared, feels fitting. It is a great indicator of the biggest problem facing Gen Z today: how to strive for a future with tools that are very quickly becoming obsolete? I also like writing and stuff, I guess.
Q: When did you start writing?
A: It’s a good question that I never have the answer to outside of maybe “as long as I can remember.” Not to make it all flowery and romanticised, but truthfully, I cannot put it down to a year even if I had a gun to my head.
I worked on this book as the second series I ever started writing (Batman himself could not beat me into letting the first series EVER see the light of day), and the passion and dedication to this one versus the first one is light years apart. Maybe it was realising just how much I want people to read this one that got the fire going. If the first series could not be waterboarded out of me, then I would waterboard YOU to read this second one!
Q: Which character was the most fun to write?
A: Fun-wise, it’s between Castian and Artemisia. The former involves more wit and hijinks, while the latter is where the courtly intrigue most goes wild. Honestly, my answer depends on the day and how I’m feeling. Goofy or serious are my two most consistent moods, so you can guess what my answer would be on a goofy day versus a serious one. If you’re reading this, you know who my favourite character was on this day.
Q: What theme do you most hope readers come away with?
A: That what divides us is often not nearly as deep as what can connect us. In the book you’ll find a hyper-religious medieval world, and characters from different places and regions, more often than not, form bonds and friendships once all the surface-level stuff is out of the way.
A tacky and cliche message, maybe, but to put it another way: why is the fact that one can find comfort in prayer not something two people can relate to and connect over, versus the importance placed on how and to whom they are praying? I don’t know if that made sense.
Q: Were there real-life experiences behind the story?
A: Boy, was there! I once went on crusade, sold everything I owned, horse died, got dysentery, all around a bad time. We took Acre though, so that was nice. But still, 2 out of 10, would not do again. As for the characters, I think they are all, in some way or shape or form, influenced by my life. If there’s a character who is a dreamer, it might be because I did not grow up with much and so I dreamed. If there’s a character who likes drawing, it’s because I once liked drawing, and so on and so forth. Nothing hectic, just the little everyday things that make a person a person, manifesting in these characters.
Q: Is there a question about the book you wish readers would ask?
A: I would like a million questions about my book, even if it’s just from one person. But if I was lucky enough that a random reader cared enough to have a question in the first place, it would be “Is there a sequel ready to go?” And my answer would be, “Nope, sorry! It doesn’t exist, never mind not being ready to go.”
Q: Do you have a favorite moment from the book?
A: There is a moment when a character with a name is on horseback, wielding a spear, and she goes “Ahhhh!” and the person she’s fighting, who also has a spear and presumably also has a name, goes “Ahhh!” and then there’s a cling cling and a clung, and maybe even a wham. The onomatopoeia were flying, I tell you what! Damn the book, that moment is easily top three in all of fiction!
Q: What was the biggest challenge in writing or publishing it?
A: Writing was easy, thankfully. I had bouts of writer’s block but nothing heavy, because this was always an escape and something fun and therapeutic for me, so I never really stressed about it. Publishing was the true challenge. I care, like, A LOT.
Pair that with a deep hatred of leaving myself vulnerable and you can see why putting my work out to be critiqued scared me senseless. All the rejections started to eat at me too, making me wonder if the book actually is good (it is, I am 75% sure of it!). That stuff was a little heavy.
Q: What is next for you as a writer?
A: After that, I’ll kill some time hammering home that sequel I lied to you earlier about not having ready.
Author Bio
Azaz Chickee is a fantasy author and lawyer based in parts unknown (to you, at least). An avid reader, sports fan, and lover of all things history, they are as personable as a private person can be, and write underneath a pen name.
Buy the book here: Amazon UK
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