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M.R. Carey

Goodreads Author

Born

in Liverpool, The United Kingdom

Website

http://www.mike-carey.co.uk/

Genre

Fantasy, Fiction, Comics

Member Since

June 2014

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/MRCarey

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Mike Carey is the acclaimed writer of Lucifer and Hellblazer (now filmed as Constantine). He has recently completed a comics adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, and is the current writer on Marvel's X-Men and Ultimate Fantastic Four. He has also written the screenplay for a movie, Frost Flowers, which is soon to be produced by Hadaly Films and Bluestar Pictures.

Also writes as Mike Carey ...more

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Hi Mr. Carey, I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to reading your book. It looks so different. Can you say how you came up with the idea for it? Kim

M.R. Carey Hi Kim. It grew out of a very specific commission. I’d agreed to write a short story for an anthology of dark fantasy and horror on the theme of “scho…moreHi Kim. It grew out of a very specific commission. I’d agreed to write a short story for an anthology of dark fantasy and horror on the theme of “school days”. Charlaine Harris and Toni Kelner were editing, and I’d had to back out of their previous collection because of time problems, so I was determined not to miss the boat again.

But having said I’d do it, I couldn’t come up with a single workable idea. The deadline started to loom, and everything that came into my head was sort of a grimdark Harry Potter riff – not the slightest bit original, and not appealing either.

Then I woke up one morning with the idea of Melanie in my mind. There was no story, to start with – there was just her. This little girl sitting in a classroom, writing an essay about what she was going to do when she grew up. Only that was never going to happen because she was already dead and didn’t know it.

Everything flowed from that first image, and it flowed really quickly. I wrote the short story, Iphigenia In Aulis, in four days, and for two of those I was in Norway for a comics convention. It was one of those rare situations where the story obsesses you so much that you use every spare moment to write some more of it down. I was sneaking away to the hotel room in between panels to add a few more paragraphs, and writing in bed before I got up to shower.

And once the short was done, I had the very strong feeling that the story wasn’t. I persuaded my editors at Orbit to vary out my contract so I could write The Girl With All the Gifts. Fortunately they were really flexible and helpful. Of course, it helped that they were sold on the story.
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I am excited to read your book. I am curious about how you came to be writing this story from a younger, female perspective. Did you find any specific elements more challenging that others? Thank you for taking questions. Sincerely, Vesper

M.R. Carey I think one of the reasons for that, Vesper, is that I'd just completed a novel where I was co-writing with my wife, Linda, and our daughter Louise. M…moreI think one of the reasons for that, Vesper, is that I'd just completed a novel where I was co-writing with my wife, Linda, and our daughter Louise. Most of the characters in that book, The City of Silk and Steel, are female, and I enjoyed writing the dynamics of those relationships. I was still in that head-space when I came to write GIRL, and choosing a female protagonist and point of view character felt like a natural and unforced choice.

Of course the other half of your question is why a child - and that arises of necessity from the nature of the story. It's really a coming of age narrative as much as anything else, and Melanie's changing perspective on the world and her place in it is a big part of the point.

The hardest part for me was writing the scene in which Dr Caldwell attempts to dissect Melanie. It was challenging in the sense that I found it hard to put that sequence of events into words. My mind wanted to slip away from it.(less)

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M.R. Carey’s books

Average rating: 3.95 · 337,647 ratings · 36,479 reviews · 30 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Girl with All the Gifts (The Girl With All the Gifts, #1) 3.95 avg rating — 236,948 ratings — published 2014 — 88 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Boy on the Bridge (The Girl With All the Gifts, #2) 3.96 avg rating — 28,553 ratings — published 2017 — 50 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Fellside 3.57 avg rating — 14,659 ratings — published 2016 — 41 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Book of Koli (Rampart Trilogy, #1) 4.02 avg rating — 12,077 ratings — published 2020 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Infinity Gate (Pandominion, #1) 4.15 avg rating — 7,501 ratings — published 2023 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Trials of Koli (Rampart Trilogy, #2) 4.25 avg rating — 6,818 ratings — published 2020 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Fall of Koli (Rampart Trilogy, #3) 4.40 avg rating — 6,340 ratings — published 2021 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Someone Like Me 3.65 avg rating — 5,386 ratings — published 2018 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Girl With All the Gifts: Extended Free Preview 3.99 avg rating — 3,399 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Echo of Worlds (Pandominion, #2) 4.32 avg rating — 2,836 ratings — published 2024 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by M.R. Carey…

Series by M.R. Carey

The Girl With All the Gifts (2 books)
by

M.R. Carey (Goodreads Author)

3.95 avg rating — 265,522 ratings

Rampart Trilogy (3 books)
by

M.R. Carey (Goodreads Author)

4.18 avg rating — 25,235 ratings

Pandominion (2 books)
by

M.R. Carey (Goodreads Author)

4.20 avg rating — 10,329 ratings

For avid readers, the turning of the calendar year always brings about the particular joys of anticipation. But before we all get swept up in...

Polls

November 2017 - Horror

Let Me In by John Ajvide Lindqvist, 472p

7 votes, 26.9%

Kraken by China Miéville, 504p

6 votes, 23.1%

The Troop by Nick Cutter, 358p

5 votes, 19.2%

Fellside by M.R. Carey, 496p

5 votes, 19.2%

The Evolutionist by Rena Mason, 266p

3 votes, 11.5%

26 total votes

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