Interview with Robin Kirk for The Hive Queen
The Hive Queen (The Bond Trilogy, #2)
by Robin Kirk
Publisher: Blue Crow Books
Release Date: September 1st 2020
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, SciFi
Synopsis:
In the second book in the INDIE-award-winning Bond Trilogy, warrior Fir leads his brothers on a quest for salvation that will threaten everything he holds dear.
After the battle that toppled the Weave, warrior Fir leads his brothers east to escape servitude, or worse—death at the hands of rival warriors. They search for the fabled Master of Men who promises freedom for men in the Weave. But their quest leads them to a foe more dangerous than they could have imagined.
When the beautiful Hive Queen, Odide, bespells Fir, he’s compelled to betray his brothers—and risks dooming them all to an unspeakable fate. To survive, Fir must choose between his loyalty to his brothers, his allegiance to the Queen, and his love for Dinitra.
But salvation is not what it seems. When the worlds of the Hive and the Master collide, it triggers a devastating betrayal that leaves Fir with an impossible choice: can he sacrifice his brothers for the love he thought he could never have?
Can you briefly describe THE BOND trilogy, its characters and what’s happening in THE HIVE QUEEN?
The Hive Queen follows Fir, a warrior created by his mother to fight. Readers of the first book, The Bond, will remember him as the warrior that Dinitra, The Bond’s heroine, fell in love with. At the end of that book, Dinitra helped free him even though she knew this means they’ll be parted. The book starts as Fir and his brothers escape a ravenous pack of hybas, a lethal mutant cross of battle dog, tiger, hyena, and baboon. They’re trying to reach a mysterious city of men to the east and are willing to brave many dangers to get there. But along the way, Fir meets the Hive Queen, Odide, part human and part honey bee. She’s desperate to have him stay with her and create a new generation of human-bee mutants. I’ll leave the rest of the story to readers – if Fir can escape her and if he’ll ever see Dinitra again.
Could you describe your story with emojis?
😱🏃🗻🌸🐝🐝🏃💪🌄⚔🍻😵💀😍👫
Who would you say is your favourite character from the story and why?
Definitely Queen Odide. She is beautiful, smart, dangerous, and desperate. I love it that she tries to get what she wants without, in her mind, hurting anyone. She comes off as a bit of a villain, but really isn’t. That’s part of the dynamic of the third and final book in the series.
How did the story occur to you? Did you find inspiration anywhere?
I’d originally written The Bond as a stand-alone, but then my son, about eight at the time, said, “Why not write more?” I’d always been fascinated by gene technology and what we already do to “improve” plants, animals, and even humans. These books just push that a little harder.
If you could choose one song to describe your book, which one would it be?
That’s an easy one. My story is loosely based on the classic The Aeneid, by the poet Virgil, written between between 29 and 19 BC. The Trojan hero, Aeneas (my Fir), flees Troy and the Greek attackers. He finds Queen Dido, the powerful founder and Queen of Carthage, and they fall in love. But then the gods meddle and he leaves her, her heart broken. Henry Purcell’s opera “Dido and Aeneas” is based on this story and has a haunting aria, “Dido's Lament” or "When I am laid in earth." In case you think this is too esoteric, here’s a magnificent production by Los Altos High School in Los Altos, CA. I basically played this on loop.
If your book was going to be made into a movie, who would play your characters?
This is so deliciously decadent. One friend cast Amandla Stenberg as Dinitra, the heroine of The Bond. For Fir, I’d be thrilled with a teen Jason Momoa. I was actually inspired to write the Hive Queen character by the gorgeous high fashion model Malaan Ajang, originally from Sudan and now based in Australia (her Instagram is terrific)
What drink and place do you think will go with your book to have a perfect book date?
I think something honey-themed, obviously. Maybe start with a lemonade sweetened with honey, in a field of blooming summer flowers – but a pretty threatening looking thunderstorm in the distance.
Can you recommend your readers any other books in case they are left hungry for more once they finish THE HIVE QUEEN?
I love books that make you think twice about your assumptions, which I try to get readers to do in my books. Naomi Novik’s Spinning Silver is this immersive, Russia-inspired fantasy that is terrific. Like my books, Novik upends notions of traditional female roles. Another wonderfully immersive fantasy is G. Willow Wilson’s The Bird King, with a very grumpy djinn. And of course, anything by Madeline Miller (Circe, Song of Achilles)
What would you say is the most difficult part of writing a book?
Getting enough time. There’s never enough time.
What’s next for you?
Right now, I’m finishing the third and final book in the trilogy, due out in 2021.
Kirk is the author of The Bond, the first in a fantasy trilogy published by Blue Crow Publishing. Foreward Reviews awarded The Bond its Bronze award for best YA in 2018. Book II, The Hive Queen, is due out in August 2020. Kirk's other books include More Terrible Than Death: Massacres, Drugs and America’s War in Colombia (PublicAffairs) and The Monkey’s Paw: New Chronicles from Peru (University of Massachusetts Press). She coedits the The Peru Reader: History, Culture, Politics (Duke University) and is an editor of Duke University Press’s World Readers series.
Kirk is a Faculty Co-Director of the Duke Human Rights Center at the Franklin Humanities Institute and is a founding member of the Pauli Murray Project, an initiative of the center that seeks to use the legacy of this Durham daughter to examine the region’s past of slavery, segregation and continuing economic inequality. An author and human rights advocate, Kirk is a lecturer in Duke's Department of Cultural Anthropology.
More of Kirk's work is available on her Scribd site. Kirk can be reached at robinkirk.com, through her Facebook Page or on Twitter at @robinkirk.
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