The Big Idea: Jonathan Maberry

Where does the soul go when the body perishes? In Jonathan Maberry’s new novel, they get implanted into robot mechs to fight in an alien war. Is this the best option? Or is heading into the light the better option? Soldiers in Ghosts of the Void have to decide whether or not to make the ultimate sacrifice, the one beyond even death. JONATHON MABERRY: I grew up weird. I was poor, lived in a terrible neighborhood, and had monsters as parents. My escape was to use books as doorways to worlds where people fought monsters…and sometimes won. The stories that enchanted and encouraged me were those where ordinary people found themselves pitted against extraordinary threats –monsters, plagues, aliens, all of that. I read those tales to see how they were able to level up to confront those threats and maybe even triumph. It was through those adventures that I first cultivated optimism for my own survival with the monsters at home. When people ask me why I write about monsters, I say that I…