The Binds of Fate is the second book of the Aletheia series and takes readers across Rome, Parthia, Judea, and the early Christian movement as they follow Cassius in his quest for revenge. How did your vision for the series evolve between Volume I and Volume II?

I actually wrote Volumes 1 & 2 as one story and decided to divide it into two books because it ran into nearly a thousand pages and I didn’t think anyone would pick up a book that long. Which is funny because when you add the pages together of almost any trilogy, that is the least that you get! In addition, after a specifically momentous event – no spoilers – the story shifts almost in the middle by some years, so it was a good place to divide the story. I confess. however, that I deliberately employed a slow and building pace for the early chapters, ramping up the speed of events as I went. This is because I wanted the reader to feel like they had time to get into the lives of the characters and the period in history, much like the epics of the past.

One of the book’s strengths is its atmosphere. How do you recreate the texture of the ancient world without overwhelming readers with historical detail?

That is a good question and if you feel I have the blance right, I’m very happy. But it will not be everyone’s cup of tea in that respect because readers all enjoy different levels of detail, pace, narrative versus storytelling etc. I consciously wanted to inform but not in a teaching way. Something as entertaining and as enlighting as Ken Follett, but with less detail. It was important for me to bring readers into the ancient past and the best way to do that was the use of a form of english that feels of the time – even if people probably didn’t talk like it in reality (it is what we expect based on movies, books etc), and references to things familiar but perhaps not well understood, placed in the story with a purpose. Meaning not just because it might be interesting to explain something. For example, most people of a certain age will have heard of Tyrian Purpple, of the Dead Sea Scrolls, but maybe not know what they are or how they came to be. Where I have used things things from history, they are an important element of the story, not just there because they might be interesting. The same goes for references to historical events, like the battle of Trutoburg Forest. It’s meaning underpins a lot of what goes on and the traits and motivations of some of the characters.

Your relationship with Ben-Hur is particularly intriguing because it feels like both homage and reinterpretation. When did Lew Wallace’s novel become part of your creative vision?

Right from the beginning. My story is something I had wanted to write since my teens because I was so affected by Lew Wallace’s tale and the movie adaptation of it. I didn’t know what story I was going to write, only that I wanted to continue where he [Lew Wallace] left off. There is so much pivotal history being formed at that moment in time, and Judah is a very interesting figure (albeit fictional) being both Roman and Jew. I also felt particularly strongly about the fact that there are not so many stories written about what happened after the crucifixion. I wanted to put some focus on that but in the same was as Lew Wallace’s did, entertaining the lives of a prominent person and family with those of Jesus’ disciples. In that sense my historical fiction is a biblical story of sorts but in a kind of subtext way.

What can readers expect to see in Vol. III of the Aletheia series?

​That’s a good question because I was not going to write a third book originally. As I mentioned, the Aletheia story was written as one. I intended it to be unformulaic in many ways – what happens to heroes and villains, the battle between honour, justice and greed etc. Not what you would expect at all. This includes the ending. However, I wrote an epilogue with an open door in mind because like all good stories, there remain unanswered questions. Aletheia is ancient Greek and speaks to a “truth” which is hidden. Readers can make up their own minds about which truth I am talking about. And whilst I hope the story can be interpreted in many different ways in that respect, I have come to feel that I would like to be more specific about one particular truth, and this is what Volume III will focus on. You can expect some of the same characters but not all, as it takes up the story 12 years after Cassius returns as a simple soldier to the legion. As with the first story which had echoes of contemporary human frailties and flaws – think Epstein files, the futility of collective retribution as a means to destroy an idea, the dominance of hard power in the world, Volume III will touch upon some sinister topics disguised as “for the people”. I don’t want to say more than that! New villains (or are they?!), a continuation of the grey men, and possibly a conclusion as to the true meaning behind Judah’s dream that persists unabated…

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