WILL JORDAN on writing REDEMPTION

Written by Will Jordan

   




Trade pbk £12.99
Century
21st June 2012
 
 

Concept and Background

My original desire to write Redemption came partly out of a love for the fast paced, escapist adventure stories that used to captivate me when I was younger, and partly out of a long standing fascination with history. Pretty soon I knew I wanted a story that was set very much in the present day and jumped quickly from location to location, but which also included elements that tied it to the past. This idea eventually led me to create the two main characters; Drake and Maras.

Drake represents the present. He’s younger and still relatively new to the world of covert operations. He certainly has some baggage (much of which will come out later in the series), but he’s still something of a blank slate with lots of potential for growth.

With Drake, I also wanted to get away from the notion that the protagonist must have some special skill or ability to aid him in his journey. Drake’s not physically dominant, doesn’t have a photographic memory or computer hacking skills or anything like that. Instead he has to rely on nothing more than determination, resilience and quick thinking – three things he has to use a great deal in Redemption.

Maras on the other hand represents the past. Her character has its roots in the dark days of the Cold War when East and West faced off across a divided Europe. She’s older and more experienced than Drake, having spent the better part of two decades doing dirty jobs for the CIA. Her experiences have left her jaded and embittered, but also extremely dangerous.

Thrown together in a race to survive, their differing outlooks and experiences allowed me almost endless scope for creating tension and interesting exchanges.

The Story

Ryan Drake, the main character, works for the CIA as a Shepherd – a special operative who finds and brings home lost agents. In Redemption he’s handed the task of breaking into a seemingly impenetrable Siberian prison and rescuing an inmate identified only as Maras. Things seem to go well, until a phone call from a disgraced CIA agent and former student of Maras forces Drake to go on the run with her.

Pursued by his former comrades and thrown together with a dangerous woman he doesn’t trust, his journey for answers takes him from Russia to America, Saudi Arabia and finally Iraq.

Central Themes

For me the story is all about the changing relationship between Drake and Maras. To begin with he’s deeply distrustful of her, which soon gives way to anger and resentment as things begin to unravel for him. Gradually however he begins to see the humanity in her, and the two of them form a bond of sorts through their shared experiences. It’s not exactly a cosy friendship, as the end of the novel proves, but it’s definitely intense.

As the title suggests, this books is about the pursuit of redemption. Both Drake and Maras have done bad things in their pasts, and are each searching for a way to make that right. However by the end they each realise that redemption can’t be given by someone else – it has to be earned.

The novel also deals with people’s desire for power and the danger that goes along with it. More than one character in this book compromises on what they know to be right in order to ascend to a position of power, and while that doesn’t automatically make them bad people, it starts them down a path that there’s no coming back from.

I also love playing with the notion of who the ‘bad guy’ really is. No character should be 100% good or bad in my opinion, and I think that holds particularly true for the antagonists. In Redemption, characters may do bad things but in their own minds (and perhaps even in the real world) they’re serving a greater good. I think that makes them far more interesting because it gives the reader a different perspective.

The Future of the Series

I certainly see Redemption as the first step in a complex overarching story that will develop over the course of five books. There are an awful lot of unanswered questions at the end, both for Drake and Maras, and the next four books will see both of them searching for answers – sometimes together, sometimes apart and sometimes against each other.

The sequel, which I just finished writing a few weeks ago, is titled Sacrifice and will be released next summer. Set in Afghanistan, it sees Drake and his team brought in to investigate the shooting down of a chopper by a radical insurgent group. Naturally though, nothing is ever simple for Drake, and soon he finds himself in way over his head, surrounded by enemies, and with few people he can trust.

Read SHOTS' review here

 

i dream my husband cheated on me catching a cheater how many women cheat on husbands
online women who cheat on husbands why women cheat on men
women that cheat online wife cheated
open infidelity signs online affair
redirect open website
how much are abortions abortion debate online
website having an abortion cost of abortion pills
spy on phones best spyware for android cell phones phone tracking app
letter to husband who cheated femchoice.org why men cheat on beautiful women
why do wife cheat married and want to cheat all wives cheat
how to spy on cell phone phone tracking devices spy a cell phone
viagra 100 mg viagra without a doctor prescription viagra without a doctor prescription
viagra pill gruene-kehl.de thyroxine 25mcg
free printable viagra coupons click free discount prescription card
wifes who cheat storyofcheating.com looking for affair
abortion at 10 weeks click abortion papers
discount prescriptions coupons lilly cialis coupon discount card for prescription drugs
abortion effects saiftec.com abortion clinic chicago
cialis coupons online blog.suntekusa.com prescription savings cards
viagra kaufen viagra online kaufen viagra bei frauen
claritine d claritine claritine d
citalopram hydrobromide high read citalopram hydrobromide and alcohol
how many abortions can a woman have site abortion clinic in atlanta
abortion clinics pictures of abortions abortion pill procedure
motilium cena motilium cena motilium
cialis cialis tadalafil cialis 20 mg
prescription discount coupons slb-coaching.com prescriptions coupons
when can you get an abortion pill 2nd trimester abortion pill abortion pill
best site for coupons free coupons website coupon sites
amoxicillin antibiyotik fiyat albayraq-uae.com amoxicillin antibiyotik fiyat
getting an abortion pill where to get an abortion pill misoprostol abortion
abortion pill costs britmilk.co.uk abortion pill recovery
clomid clomid cycle clomid
cialis coupon 2015 cialis coupons from lilly cialis online coupon
how does abortion pill work price of an abortion pill how much is an abortion pill
viagra torta viagra kamagra cialis viagra helyett
amoxicillin 1000 mg amoxicillin 1000 mg amoxicillin antibiyotik fiyat
abortion in first trimester is abortion painful terminating pregnancy at 5 weeks
what is an abortion clinic abortion stories of regret where to do abortion
naltrexone how long does it last pallanuoto.dinamicatorino.it ldn colitis
dr bihari ldn skydtsgaard.dk naltrexone low dose depression
depade naltrexone link revia and alcohol
naltrexone and alcohol low dose naltrexone side effects naltrexone pregnancy

Will Jordan



Home
Book Reviews
Features
Interviews
News
Columns
Authors
Blog
About Us
Contact Us

Privacy Policy | Contact Shots Editor

THIS WEBSITE IS © SHOTS COLLECTIVE. NOT TO BE REPRODUCED ELECTRONICALLY EITHER WHOLLY OR IN PART WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION OF THE EDITOR.