Today I’m more than happy to put a glaringly bright spotlight onto E.C. Myers and the SOS series! Myers is one of my favorite authors, both because his writing is consistently amazing and because he’s just a wonderful person overall.
If you haven’t yet had the opportunity to discover his books, please do yourself a favor, and do so! It’s great timing too, because Against All Silence just released exclusively in B&N stores yesterday. So you won’t even need to wait patiently for the sequel. You lucky duck, you.
The Silence of Six (SOS #1)
Paperback, Released May 31st
WHAT IS THE SILENCE OF SIX, AND WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?
These are the last words uttered by 17-year-old Max Stein s best friend Evan just moments before he kills himself after hacking into the live-streaming Presidential debate at their high school. Haunted by the unforgettable image of Evan s death, Max s entire world is upended as he suddenly finds himself the target of a corporate-government witch-hunt.
Fearing for his life and fighting for his own innocence, Max goes on the run with no one to trust and too many unanswered questions.
Max must dust off his own hacking skills and maneuver through the dangerous labyrinth of underground hacktivist networks, ever-shifting alliances and virtual identities all the while hoping to find the truth behind the Silence of Six before it s too late.
Against All Silence (SOS #2)
Hardcover, B&N Exclusive Release August 24th
After being a key figure in the exposing of government corruption, Max Stein has spent a quiet semester abroad in Paris, studying, staying off the Internet, and looking for his long-lost mother. But just as he is about to fly back to the United States for the holidays, trouble manages to find him once again.
Max receives a call from Penny, his on-again-off-again girlfriend who is part of the expert hacking duo DoubleThink. She wants him to meet with Ada Kiesler, a high-profile whistleblower hiding out at a foreign embassy in Berlin. Max has no interest in getting drawn into another corporate conspiracy. But when airport security suddenly detains him on suspicion of cyber-terrorism, he has little choice but to get involved. Soon Max and Penny are tangling with a new group of shadowy figures who are determined to control how the world shares its information. And some figures from Max s past resurface, including his own mother, whose life has mirrored his own in more ways than he d realized.
In this action-packed follow up to “The Silence of Six,” Max and his hacker friends must fight to expose a corrupt corporation that has been systematically taking control of the Internet.”
Now, please enjoy an interview with the wonderful E.C. Myers! He was so kind as to let me grill him a bit, and I so appreciated it. As always, don’t forget to leave some love in the comments and go add the books to your reading list!
1) Lightning round! Please fill in the blanks:
* If I had to choose one word to describe myself, it would be diligent.
* My favorite color is blue.
* I’d describe my “currently reading” bookshelf as expansive.
* Time is something I definitely need while writing.
2) As a reader, what would you say is your favorite genre to read? Do you have any book recommendations for us?
I tend to read more science fiction than anything else, and of that most of it is young adult. I haven’t had time to read as much as I’d like in the last two years, so I’m still catching up on a lot of recent releases, but I always have many books to recommend! The YA SF book I recommend most is Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve, the first book in an amazing quartet that everyone should read. The last science fiction book that completely blew me away was The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu. More YA recommendations: the Colors of Madeleine series by Jaclyn Moriarty and Gwenda Bond’s Lois Lane books, Fallout andDouble Down. If you like middle grade, read The Greenglass House by Kate Milford and Omega City by Diana Peterfreund.
3) What kind of research did you have to do for this series? Was there a lot of digging into conspiracy theories?
I read much more about conspiracy theories for the first book, The Silence of Six. I’m sure some of that research stuck with me, along with my extensive review of books (fiction and nonfiction), films, and documentaries on hacking and social media. For Against All Silence, I was more interested in learning as much as possible about whistleblowers and people who have leaked confidential information such as Edward Snowden. I also tried to dig more into the dark web and darknet markets like the Silk Road, and get a better grasp of how the internet was developed and how it actually works—and doesn’t work.
4) Was there anything that you learned while writing this series that really surprised you?
Probably the same thing that surprises many readers: just how fragile the internet and online security and our privacy truly are. Pretty much everything and everyone can be hacked given enough time and effort, even if you have good security practices—and most people don’t. How secure are your online passwords? When was the last time you changed them?
5) Finally, what would you say to readers who are looking at picking up your books?
First of all, thank you! I hope you enjoy my books, whether you buy them or borrow them. (If your library doesn’t have what you’re looking for, please request it!) I also would very much appreciate it if you took a few minutes to post even a quick review in as many places as possible. If you really like the book, please tell your friends and spread the word on social media. These are the best ways to make sure I can write more books for you. And, by the way, I always love hearing from readers, and I try to respond to every message I receive (eventually).
E.C. Myers was assembled in the U.S. from Korean and German parts and raised in Yonkers, NY by his mother and the public library. He is a graduate of the Clarion West Writers Workshop and a member of the prolific NYC writing group Altered Fluid. In the rare moments when he isn’t writing, he blogs about Star Trek at The Viewscreen, reads constantly, plays video games, watches films and television, sleeps as little as possible, and spends far too much time on the internet. His first novel, FAIR COIN, won the 2012 Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy.
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