Author Interview: MANNA FRANCIS

Manna Francis is the author the Administration Series, which I started reading on the recommendation of Kris from Kris 'n' Good Books. These are some of my favorite books of the year--they take place in an alternate world (governed by the Administration) and focus on the relationship between Val Toreth, a government investigator, and Keir Warrick, a corporate developer. I was thrilled when Francis agreed to an interview to answer some of my questions about the series!

Heidenkind: You say in your GoodReads profile that you identify as an "original slash" fiction author. For people not familiar with slash fiction, yaoi, etc., can you explain what you mean?

Manna Francis: Slash fan fiction is fan fiction which features a sexual/romantic relationship between two same sex characters.  It's a genre that's primarily written by and for women, and it generally has a different and distinctive style to m/m fiction written by and for men.  Rather like porn, it's hard to explain but 'I know it when I see it'.

So for me, the original slash label was something of a marker for slash fanfic readers that this could be something that they'd like to try. I first put the Adminstration series online in 2002, when the original  m/m fiction scene wasn't anything like as large as it's become today.

H: Would you call the Administration a dystopian world? Is there a specific event in the history of the Administration that diverted it from our own?

MF: Well, it certainly isn't a utopia! It's described as a dystopia in a couple of places on the website.  I like dystopia as a description, because it packs in a lot of tropes for the reader to expect.

I've never been specific about when the Administration world diverged from the real world, as it's something I haven't yet fixed in a story. I wouldn't like to speculate about it, lest I narrow my options for future stories.

H: Why is Warrick so obsessed with creating an artificial world that feels real?

MF: I think that kind of obsessive approach is in his nature.  The ultimate evolution of the Sim would be something in which there would be no way to tell if it was real or not, so that's the goal he sets himself. Whatever he ended up doing with his life, he'd approach it in the same way as he does the Sim. When he was working on Administration security systems, he had the same dedication, and that's one of the things that caught Carnac's eye. If he'd become, say, a chef, he'd be an Administration Heston Blumenthal, engineering every dish to absolute perfection.

If guess that if you wanted to, you could make a connection between his growing up in an essentially artificial family and his desire to create a perfect world under his control.  Or something along those lines.  I don't generally go down that path with characters, though, as I don't find it helpful in writing them.

H: Do Sara and Warrick feel morally superior to Toreth?

MF: Morally superior in the sense of feeling that they actually have morals, or morally superior because he's a Para and they aren't?

I think they both feel that he's missing something that they have.

Sara doesn't see anything wrong with being a Para. Warrick never makes any secret out of his distaste for I&I.  On the other hand, he's happy  to take advantage of his corporate perks, and happy to see Toreth, so I don't think that he'd want to give any lectures on his moral superiority within the Administration. Not that Toreth would care if he did.

H: In several of the books, people accuse Toreth of being psychotic. Do you think he is?

MF: They accuse him of being a sociopath, which isn't the same thing. He has a very firm grasp on reality.

This is something I get asked a lot about Toreth, and I always say the same thing -- read the books, and make up your own mind about it. I think it's the kind of topic about which it's very unproductive for an author to shove in her two penn'orth. Certainly, no one has ever changed their opinion of Toreth's mental state because of what I said about it.

(The other question I never answer is 'does Toreth love Warrick?'. Because, really, where's the fun in giving people a flat yes or no about that?)

H: You make a lot of classical references in the books, especially in Quis Custodiet. Are you drawing from classical literature for your novels? Is the story of Toreth and Warrick's relationship going to follow the format of a Greek tragedy or comedy?

MF: No, and no. I really just liked the title.

Bonus question: Would Toreth ever be able to handle owning a pet?

MF: Ha! I can't imagine how he'd get it in the first place. It would have to be a very robust pet that could handle total neglect.  The closest thing I could imagine would be maybe a wild rat living in his kitchen--where at least it would be able to find plenty to eat.

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions, Manna! 
To find out more about Manna Francis' novels, please check out her website at http://www.mannazone.org/, or go to her GoodReads Author profile page.

Book Review: QUIS CUSTODIET by Manna Francis

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?--a Latin phrase traditionally attributed to the Roman poet Juvenal, which is literally translated as "Who will guard the guards themselves?" or "Who watches the watchers?" It is frequently associated with the political philosophy of Plato and the problem of political corruption, but the original context had nothing to do with Plato and instead referred to the problem of ensuring marital fidelity. (via wikipedia)

Toreth is looking forward to his assignment auditing the Greek branch of Investigation and Interrogation, where he can catch some sun, enjoy the per diem, and basically do no work for three or more weeks. The only thing he isn't happy about is leaving Warrick behind in New London for that entire time. When he finds out our old pal Carnak is in New London working for Warrick's company while Toreth's away, he has a spaz and starts obsessing over Warrick cheating on him. Meanwhile, the Greek office actually does require some investigating. Worst paid vacation ever!

Quis Custodiet was a definite improvement over Control. I liked the new setting of Athens, and getting some stories from other characters' eyes gave the series a much-needed change-up. As the title indicates, the stories in this book are basically all about trust and leeway allowed, both politically within the Administration and in personal relationships. Both Toreth and the Administration are paranoid about betrayal because they themselves can't be trusted. On the flip side, Warrick and the other average citizens of the Administration don't even expect fidelity and honorable behavior; it's simply not going to happen (although it does seem like Toreth's slowing down quite a bit in this novel--he must be getting old). They're just happy if they get what they want out of the bargain, which in Warrick's case is sex. So by that analysis one could say that Toreth's and Warrick's relationship is a synecdoche of the Administration's politics.

That being said, I do still think Warrick's being shunted into the background more and more, and his character is becoming much harder for me to connect with. He just seems way too accommodating and not very autonomous, whereas Toreth still pretty much does what he wants. Not that he would be Toreth if he didn't!

In any case, it seems like this series is refocusing on the outside world of the Administration now and not exclusively on Toreth and Warrick's relationship, which is probably a good move on the author's part.

Book Review: CONTROL by Manna Francis

In the fourth Administration series novel, Toreth and Warrick both face issues of control--or lack thereof--in their lives. For the most part these short stories address PTB's (for those of you who are not Buffy fans, that's the Powers That Be--the dominating forces of government and corporates that the average citizen in this dystopian world has very little protection against), but they also show Toreth and Warrick figuring out who is in control of their relationship, and which of the two men can better control himself.

Aside from the first story, I didn't feel like there was a lot of character development happening in this volume. At one point Toreth grumbles that he's bored, and I can't help but wonder if Francis wasn't thinking that herself while writing this. I hope that's not the case, but it definitely feels like there's not as much thought put into this book as there was in the other three. It seems like Warrick just gets more accommodating and Toreth gets more possessive, and everyone (except Annoying Dilly) is hunky-dory with that. That didn't bother me in the previous books because 1. I wanted Toreth and Warrick to stay together, and 2. I understood why Warrick put up with Toreth and vice versa. But in this book I had more and more trouble sympathizing with either of them or understanding why they're still together.

One of the more interesting revelations in this book was Toreth's attitude toward Warrick's job. It's been obvious since the first book that Warrick has major issues with Toreth working for I&I, for very good reasons as we find out; but in this novel it becomes obvious Toreth hates corporates as much as Warrick hates the Administration. Really both corporates and the Administration can get away with whatever they want, so there's not much difference between the two, other than corporates have more money.

Overall this book was okay, but I hope it's just an aberration in the series and the next novel is more interesting.



Musical notes: "Helena Beat" by Foster the People

Book Review: GAMES AND PLAYERS by Manna Francis

Proposed alternate title: Val Toreth and the Challenge of the Really Real




In this Administration novel, both Warrick and Toreth deal with how whacked their perception of reality is... then again, what perception of reality?

Throughout Games and Players, Toreth is criticized as being a psychotic because he doesn't consider people as "real." It all starts with Carnak, a socioanalyst sent to compile a report on I&I, who just happens to know Warrick from back in the day. He finds Toreth interesting because he knows Toreth does consider at least two people as "real"--Warrick and Sara--which to his mind makes Toreth an unusual parainvestigator. But after witnessing Toreth interrogate a prisoner, Carnak decides Toreth is a terrible person and that he's going to fuck with his mind.

There's a certain irony here of course, because Carnak doesn't consider anyone as real, and is therefore arguably more psychotic than Toreth is. But whatever the reality of the two men's psychology, the nature of Toreth's job allows Carnak to feel morally superior to him; and I think that's true of everyone in this novel, including Sara. Even Warrick feels that way to a certain extent, at least until he realizes he's behaving like a child.

Toreth may not view everyone as a Real Person, but then who the hell does? Do you think of people on the news as being "real," or homeless people, or the person who hands you your coffee at Starbucks? Looking beyond one's own reality is part of learning how to be human and growing up, and even then the whole world can't be "real." In actuality, many people have less of a grasp on reality than Toreth does, and simply use other people to play out what goes on in their own heads--like Toreth's old teacher, Gee, for example. At least Toreth's able to distinguish between reality and fantasy, which Warrick doesn't and doesn't want to.

Like Quid Pro Quo, this novel is organized into shorter stories and novellas that I read for free on Manna Francis' website, and all of them deal with reality and perception to some extent. I have to admit that while I've been enjoying these stories before now, I just considered them fun and gratuitous light reads. But at some point while reading this novel, I suddenly started thinking this was the greatest series ever! Why? I'm not sure. But Francis has a great grasp of her characters and the more I read about them, the more I want to read about them (except for Dilly, she's annoying). Plus, I don't think it's just fluff; I think Francis does have something to say beyond writing a m/m romance. Subtext, yo.

I definitely recommend these books! They're totally glom-worthy.

Book Review: QUID PRO QUO by Manna Francis

Quid pro quo, def. (From the Latin meaning "what for what") indicates a more-or-less equal exchange or substitution of goods or services.

Toreth and Warrick, having bonded over certain secrets related to the Sim-Tech case in Mind Fuck, are continuing their not-a-relationship. But even though it's "just fucking," their lives are slowly entangling and they start exchanging more than just bodily fluids. Addresses, gifts, friends, bouts of jealousy--for two people who have no interest in being in a relationship with one another, they certainly do a pretty good imitation of it.

Unlike the first book in this series, this novel is more or less all about Toreth and Warrick's relationship. Which in one respect is totally fine with me, since I thought the plot to Mind Fuck was boring anyway. But on the other hand, I kind of missed reading a book with a plot (I know, I know), not to mention seeing Toreth at work and catching up on all the office gossip and politics at I&I. That element's still there, just not very much.

To be honest, I also felt like Toreth was occasionally emasculated by removing him from the context of I&I, especially in the "Family" chapter; but then Warrick has moments when he's emasculated as well. He's definitely the Betty Draper in this relationship, but more because the concept of monogamy is as foreign to Toreth as it is to Don Draper. There's a give-and-take between Warrick and Toreth that makes their relationship one of equals (I suppose that's where the title came from). Although the book is very clear that socially and economically, Warrick is a class (or two or three) above Toreth, you've got the whole BDSM thing going on, where Toreth is definitely the dominant, so it's weirdly balanced.

I read Quid Pro Quo on Manna Francis' website, where it's organized into short stories. Mind Fuck had a vaguely yaoi/manga feel to it, but because QPQ is so episodic, it definitely feels like a prose version of a manga. Which I love! The stories are loosely connected, most especially by theme, but take place with unknown gaps of time between them and can stand on their own. My favorite was "Pancakes," partly because I love pancakes (haha--but seriously, I do love pancakes), and partly because that seemed like the major turning point in the book where both characters realize they're together because of more than just sex. It was really well-done and a great piece of writing.

Like MF, Quid Pro Quo has some faults, but overall it's well-written and entertaining. Definitely addicting and worth checking out if you read and enjoyed the first book in the series!

Book Review: MIND FUCK by Manna Francis

Some time in the future, Europe is controlled by corporations and the Administration, a dystopian-like government that has no tolerance for insubordination. Political crimes are sent to Interrogation and Investigation, a FBI-like government agency authorized to employ psychoactive drugs, torture, and even death in the pursuit of anti-authoritarian conspiracies.

One of the best I&I investigators is Val Toreth. Concepts like "rules" and "morality" are pretty flexible to Toreth, which incidentally makes him a perfect I&I investigator, and possibly the only person who can solve several murders at Sim-Tech corporation and live to tell about it.

When I first started this novel, I was under the impression it would be one of those books where the plot was merely a thinly-veiled excuse for the characters to get it on, BDSM-style. Perhaps it was the subtitle of "Original Homoerotic Fiction," displayed a the top of every page, who knows. HOWEVER, I was completely wrong. Mind Fuck is essentially a straight-forward mystery novel whose main character happens to be bi-sexual and in a BDSM relationship with one of the main suspects--Dr. Keir Warrick, the joint-director of Sim-Tech and the creator of the technology being developed there.

I like mysteries, but I have a lot of pet peeves about them, which is why I don't read that many. Two of my biggest pet peeves are when 1., the main character doesn't do shit to solve the case and 2., ignores obvious clues, and Toreth is guilty of both in this book. He gets every break in the case handed to him on a silver platter, and the investigation doesn't feel like it progresses logically. If Toreth had paid attention to clues and figured things out for himself, the book would have been a lot shorter, and I wouldn't have had to sit through boring Sim-Tech interviews that had no point. I also really didn't give a crap who the killer was, and I still figured it out about 100 pages before Toreth did.

So the middle of this book was pretty frustrating. The only thing that kept me reading was Toreth, who is an awesome character. Kris from Kris 'n' Good Books (who recommended Mind Fuck to me) called him an absolute bastard, and he kind of is, but at the same time he also has a great sense of humor--or perhaps it's simply ironic detachment--and he's a total badass. I kept picturing him as Gabriel Macht in my head because the personalities of Harvey Specter and Toreth are pretty similar (as are their secretaries), and I love both of them for pretty much the same reasons. It's impossible not to root for Toreth, and happily he redeems himself--as a sleuth, I mean--in the last quarter of the book, which had several twists I did not anticipate at all and was a very intense, gripping wrap-up the story.

Warrick, meanwhile, is supposed to be the "good guy" in this scenario, but I spent the majority of the book hating him. Like Toreth, I developed a perfect picture of Warrick in my head; except in this case he resembled one of my former professors, and it really creeped me out. I also didn't find him any more ethical than Toreth (although what constitutes morality in this world is somewhat unclear), unless you consider a holier-than-thou attitude to be a sign of virtue. However, by the end of the book, like Toreth, he did redeem himself and I warmed up to him considerably. Both characters do good and bad things for maybe not the best/worst reasons; but they do have reasons behind their actions, which makes them understandable if not sympathetic.

As for the writing style itself, it has a lot of personality and subtle humor in it, which serves to lighten what could be a really heavy and depressing story. Francis also doesn't talk down to the reader--there is a lot of complex science and computer engineering here that's never dumbed-down. Fortunately, as a reader, you don't really need to comprehend the mechanics to get what's going on; it just helps to build the believability of the setting and underscore the danger the characters face.

By far the greatest strength of the novel are the characters, though, who are complex and fun to read about, even the more minor ones like Sara, Toreth's secretary, or Lee in Justice. I am definitely going to read the rest of the series, if only to revisit them.

If you're in the mood for a morally ambiguous, character-driven mystery with sci-fi and dystopian elements, I highly recommend this book. Even though I had some problems with the mystery, overall it's very well-written and entertaining. And, to make it even better, you can read it for free on the author's website.



Musical notes: "Raw Sugar," by Metric