Hi folks! Today I’m delighted to share an interview I thoroughly enjoyed. This one with Salinee Goldenberg will go down as one of my favourite interviews I’ve shared. Read below and enjoy!
Hi Salinee and a very warm welcome to Spells & Spaceships! How are you feeling ahead of the release of The Last Phi Hunter?
I’m feeling pretty good! I got my nails done, head shaved, I’m freshly showered, I’m dialed in. I stopped stressing about things out of my control, which, spoilers, is almost everything. It feels like a very long journey is finally coming to a head. Maybe it just feels like that because it’s my first book. Feels like my entire life has been leading up to this. Which is true, but I could say that about the cup of tea I’m drinking right now too.
If you could describe your book in 3 words, which words would you choose?
This is tough, but I’ll avoid the buzz word answer and offer a suggestion: “Don’t Read Hungry.” My love of homecooking shows up in the narrative, and I’ve been told by some readers that parts of the book drove them to order takeout. If there was a chance to describe a dish I loved, I jumped on it. But it wasn’t just for flavor, hunger is also one of the themes I explore in the book. Some of the phi are Hungry Ghosts, which are reincarnated humans, cursed with unquenchable hunger and thirst as a karmic punishment for their sins. I took it a step further, and there are a few chapters from the POV of one of the phi, and her journey for redemption. From the way I was raised, food and being fed equates to love, and who is to say a “sinner” isn’t worthy of love?
When I toured Thailand I was struck by an unexplainable aura I’d never felt before. An unknowable sort of magical, spiritual feeling. There will be many western readers who haven’t experienced this; was capturing the inherent magic of South East Asia something you were particularly passionate about when writing the book?
You hit it. You can feel the history in places like that, or perhaps the lack of written history. Some parts of the country, especially in the north, still feel very wild and remote. There’s a vibe that’s hard to capture in words — a sacredness, but at the same time, a sense of freedom, or maybe lawlessness. I knew this setting would be brand new to many readers, who may have read Japanese, Chinese or Indian inspired fantasy before, but not a semi-grimdark tale in a Southeast Asian setting.
I’m very grateful that I can make my first foray into publishing with a setting so personal to me. It was important to keep it authentic, but at the same time, not feel too constrained. It’s not a historical fantasy, or a Thai novel. I’m an American luk khrueng and Ex’s story reflects that feeling of being in the world, but still feeling like an outsider.
I’m getting Witcher vibes from what I know about the book so far. What would you say is the standout way in which Ex differs as a character?
This might get me dragged, but I haven’t read the books, I’ve only played the games and seen the show, but Geralt seems to know that he’s the main character during his adventures. Ex is very much minding his own business, and gets drawn into the plot, which quickly becomes pretty personal. Ex’s first instinct isn’t to be a hero, really. He’s a survivor.
Personality wise, Ex and Geralt are pretty far apart on the spectrum. For one thing, Ex is highly emotional and expressive. He doesn’t think before he speaks, and that often gets him into trouble. He’s also much younger, less cynical. I wonder if they’d get along, I could see it going great, or very poorly. If someone decides to write a fanfic crossover, let me know. I’ll send you a sticker.
There is the potential with ghosts and demons to incorporate some horror elements into the story. Is this something you considered?
It’s funny, I’m not a big horror reader, but I ended up putting a healthy amount of darkness and (what I learned was) body horror into the story. A lot of what makes good horror is constant, creeping tension, which can be hard to do when you have an ultra-competent protagonist. Ex is a hunter, he’s trained to kill things fast without long drawn out battles, so finding compelling ways to build the anticipation of the kill was the fun part. And with high-level characters, you have to find ways to exploit their weaknesses. One of my favorite scenes is when Ex faces a consequence truly worse than a thousand deaths.
How much fun did you have creating Shar-Ala? This demon sounds so intriguing!
Shar-Ala is the only phi in the story who isn’t a known Hungry Ghost found in Buddhist lore like the krasue, pret or kongkoi. I wanted to explore what it might look like if a phi decided to embrace their damnation and became more than just a nuisance, so the idea of “true demons” came about. But like the other Hungry Ghost characters, he still has a human backstory, however conflicting, as is the nature of legends that are passed down. Who knows if it’s true at all…
I liked the motif that these phi were all human once, as that was the original point of the Hungry Ghost stories, to function as a Buddhist parable. But I’m not trying to teach anyone any morals here.
What do you hope readers will take away from your book? Are there any themes or messages you hope strike a chord?
The Last Phi Hunter has some dark moments in it, but ultimately, I think it’s a hopeful story. There’s the idea of love and connections throughout lives, the idea that there can always be a path to redemption, no matter how low you get. There’s the idea that it’s okay to let go of something you want desperately, and letting go of that desire might just be the path to internal peace.
That being said, I never want to be preachy in my work, I’m in the camp of giving the reader space to come to their own conclusions and take what they take from it, even if I just helped them decide what to order for dinner that night. There are no wrong answers in what you get out of art. Part of the fun of storytelling is seeing all the different interpretations of your work.
This is more meta, but I’d be very pleased if anything in the book compels them to go into a wikipedia or youtube hole about the cool folklore and mythology found in Thailand. I hope to see more stories in the speculative fiction genre inspired by Southeast asia.
What were your favourite books growing up? Do any of them still hold a special place in your heart?
I’m a big science fiction nerd. Top of my list growing up were Vonnegut, PKD, Margaret Atwood, Octavia Butler, Gibson. Being more about that dystopian/cyberpunk spectrum is probably why my favorite fantasy novels veer more grimdark. The Fifth Season by N.K Jemisin is a stand out, Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie, The Black Company by Glen Cook.
But one of the first fantasy series I read as a kid, that was actually written for kids, was Redwall by Brian Jacques. Before that it was whatever I found on my dad’s bookshelf like Anne McCaffery or Larry Niven. I remember reading Lucifer’s Hammer in grade school and then laying awake at night with existential dread. It’s probably good we have the Middle Grade genre nowadays.
Anyway, Redwall — I was completely invested in this little zoo of anthropomorphic animals and always begged to go to the bookstore when the newest was coming out. But eventually, I started to realize how much I hated that certain animals were always bad guys. Foxes were my self-proclaimed power animal! It was the first series I ragequit, (after Outcast of Redwall, when Veil was determined to have been born evil,) but it still has a special place in my heart for sure.
Finally, what was the last book you read that you couldn’t put down?
Well I read the entire Expanse series in something like two months over the holidays, but everyone knows about that. A book published last year that I couldn’t put down was Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adej-Brenyah, I love his prose. Right now I’m reading Cascade Failure by L.M Saga, and it’s amazing, really hitting me in the Firefly feels.
Thankyou Salinee for joining me on my blog today. Your book sounds fantastic and I wish you the best of luck with its release!
Thanks! This was a lot of fun!
The Last Phi Hunter is out on April 9th from Angry Robot. You can preorder now!
About the Author
Salinee Goldenberg is a speculative fiction writer and multimedia artist who lives in Washington DC, and is drawn to outsider perspectives. A biracial, bisexual, diaspora writer, Sal often explores themes of identity, obsession and alienation in her work. A gaming industry veteran, Sal has created narrative trailers for titles such as Skyrim, Fallout 4, Dishonored, and Minecraft. When not writing, she likes to paint, listen to records, and play in punk bands.
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