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Spotlight Feature

(Dec. 3, 2003)

In his brilliant debut novel – an edge-of-your-seat thriller about life on Mars, a government cover-up, and frozen alien remains – Gary Tigerman has created a fascinating (and disturbing) page-turner that seamlessly weaves real-life events from history into its imaginative plotline. The result is a roller-coaster story so exciting and immediate that it reads more like breaking news than science fiction.

Tigerman talked to B&N.com about the difficulties in writing his first novel, how his past experiences played a vital role in the novel, and the next installment in the Orion Protocol series.

Paul Goat Allen: Gary, first off, congratulations on an amazing debut novel. The thing that made The Orion Protocol such an unforgettable read for me was the incredible sense of realism – all the historical and political references, figures, documents, etc. Did you run into any problems because the line between fact and fiction was so gray?

Gary Tigerman: I did go through a brief paranoid period, chasing down classified documents about E.T. crashes, the Majestic 12, and stuff. My wife felt like she was living with a meth dealer. Also, just opening the daily L.A. Times became a continually harrowing experience: Every day there was some new space weapon hip-fake that threatened to box up my story. And I love having Jimmy Carter doing a cameo in the book, but it means I now have to pray every night that he will live long and prosper. At least long enough to play himself in the movie and, hopefully, get a bang out of it.

PGA: How much did your past experiences – being a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War and volunteering as guinea pig for a NASA experiment – play into writing this novel?

GT: Being against the war was very politicizing, and I've been a politics junkie ever since – something I suspect is more than a little evident in The Orion Protocol. For me, being a C.O. meant opposing the war by nonviolent means – even refusing induction and going to jail, when it came to that. But no matter what lands you in prison, the best thing that anyone can do for you is to help get you out. So even though NASA may take a few hits in the book, I'll always be a big NASA fan because they came to the Arizona work camp I was stuck in and recruited me into their zero-G study at the Presidio in San Francisco. I actually think of Orion as something of a valentine to what was once great about NASA, something I believe it can and will be again.

PGA: Another remarkable quality about this novel was how much it read like a movie script. The paragraphs were fast-paced and the subplots tight and lean. As I read, I could so easily visualize this novel playing out on the big screen. Not surprisingly, I've heard that may well happen. How close is The Orion Protocol to becoming a movie reality?

GT: The Orion Protocol actually began as a film project I was developing for Richard Dreyfuss's production company, so it's no surprise it has a movie feel. The late NBC wizard Brandon Tartikoff read the story early on and saw it as both a book and a movie, and was the catalyst for my getting a book deal. I've written the screen adaptation; but forgive me, I'm not free to talk about which actors or directors or studios are interested. Dreyfuss's producing partner, Judith James, is doing the heavy lifting, and I'm confident we'll get it set up somewhere soon. Richard's got first dibs on doing the audiobook, too – and people can hear him reading the prologue on my web site.

PGA: Information on your web site states that this is just the first book in a series. Can you tell your readers a little bit about Book Two, and when can they expect to see it on the shelves?

GT: Yes, The Orion Protocol is the first book in a trilogy. I don't know what the next president of the United States is going to decide about sending a manned mission to Mars, or what NASA may choose to set in motion by the end of 2005. But that's about the ETA for Book Two, which has no title yet. And in Book Two we are definitely going Mars, big time. So anyone who enjoys The Orion Protocol is invited to suit up and come along for the ride. In the meantime, I'd like to invite everybody to sign the petition on my web site, which calls for a manned mission to Mars in this decade. Let's blur the line between fiction and reality even more by going to the Red Planet for real!