Rene Sears: One of the many delights of A Red Sun Also Rises is the exuberantly weird worldbuilding once our heroes get to Ptallaya. What was the inspiration behind making the Yatsill mimics on a society-wide basis?

Mark Hodder: The principal protagonist, Aiden Fleischer, begins the story with a very ill-formed sense of self, while his companion, Clarissa, had aspects of her identity forged by a dreadful occurrence in childhood. For Aiden, Ptallaya offers an opportunity for growth; for Clarissa, the means to surpass the limitations that were imposed upon her. I wanted to contrast these personal journeys with the Yatsill, who are like innocent children. Where Aiden fears the consequences of his actions and Clarissa has suffered the consequences of someone else's, the Yatsill have little concept of consequences at all, and by making them mimics, I was able to create an environment for Aiden and Clarissa that was familiar enough for them to comfortably live in, yet also so bizarre and disconcerting that they'd seek security in each other and in their internal worlds, which is where the personal growth occurs.

Rene Sears: The friendship between Aiden Fleischer and Clarissa Stark is one of the driving forces of the book, and Aiden starts the book as a rather unlikely hero. In some ways Clarissa is his complement, and in other ways his foil. Was that an integral part of your story planning, or did they evolve that way as you wrote?

Mark Hodder: I'm fairly scrupulous about getting to know my characters well before I start writing about them. I'm confident that, once they're fully fleshed out in my imagination, they will interact realistically with one another on the written page. So with Aiden and Clarissa, it was very much a case of me allowing them to dictate the course of their friendship while I focused on moving the plot forward. As a writer, it was tremendously fulfilling to see how their relationship grew and changed. None of it was planned. They did it themselves.

Rene Sears: What sword-and-planet/ planetary adventures would you recommend?

Mark Hodder: Sword and planet has been pretty much a dead genre for a long time, mainly because it wasn't evolving (which is why I was attracted to it. A challenge!). Edgar Rice Burroughs provided the template, which is "man transported to an alien world falls in love with a princess, is spurned due to cultural misunderstandings, she is kidnapped by monster-things, he rescues her, she returns his love. The End." So, definitely you have to read Burroughs to get a feel for it, but after that you're faced with what, essentially, is a truckload of pastiches by authors such as Otis Adelbert Kline and Lin Carter. Even Mike Moorcock's "Kane of Old Mars" trilogy didn't break the mould. I remember R. E. Howard's "Almuric" with fondness, and Leigh Brackett's John Eric Stark stories pushed the envelope a little, but if I had to pick out one series to recommend, I'd say Jack Vance's Planet of Adventure tetralogy. You can never go wrong with Jack Vance.

"The third novel in Resnick's Weird West series continues to rewrite the history of the Old West in magical style, reinventing famous characters while remaining true to the spirit of the individuals involved. Lovers of the Old West, alternate history, cowboy steampunk, and fantasy in general should flock to this title and to its series predecessors."

"The Weird West Tales series by Mike Resnick has been a fun read and is great for those who perhaps like their Spaghetti Westerns with a dash of science fiction thrown in."

"The Doctor and the Rough Rider succeeds as a piece of Weird West fiction, filled to the brim with guns, alcohol, and dusty expeditions on horseback....Anyone looking for an uncomplicated read about adventuring in the American West, with just a touch of fancy tech, will be quite satisfied."