David kindly took the time to answer our questions

First and foremost, when is the next installment in the trilogy?

Book Three, the final book of the Red Space trilogy is coming out sometime in 2026. Beyond that a lot is still up in the air! I’m still working on the rough draft.

Did you find writing book two a challenge?

I did. Unfortunately I had to write it twice. There were things I really liked about the first draft but it just didn’t fit into the larger story of the trilogy. It just didn’t work thematically, and it was less horror than straight up science fiction where I’ve been trying to strike a balance between the two. So I had to abandon the whole thing and rewrite it from scratch. Same characters, many of the same events but the nature of the threat had to be completely changed so there was no choice but to start over.

Will it be the last we’ll see of Red Space, or will new adventures come from it? Perhaps with different characters and settings.

You know, I never say never. I love these characters and I’d love to revisit them at some point. Even if that means putting them back in terrible peril!

Worldbuilding. Can you tell me more about the Red Space universe, and will we have more fiction from it? What happened to old Earth?
(I know I’d love a Rapscallion and Zhang series.)

Earth is still there, and it’s still in charge–the government in the trilogy is the UEG, the United Earth Government, which runs all the planets and moons of the solar system with an iron fist. Our hero, Alexandra Petrova, works for Firewatch, which is a paramilitary division that serves as both a police force and also enforces political orthodoxy. Petrova just wants to be a detective but she keeps getting pulled into the political machinations of Firewatch’s various directors. Earth, the Moon and Mars are held under a very tight grip, which can feel to the people of those worlds like oppression. Meanwhile there are the outer planets, the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, which are like frontier worlds with minimal law and little oversight until things go really wrong. It’s a system that barely functions even at the best of times and only needs one solid push to tip it into chaos.

Do you have more fiction on the back burner, or do you only work on a manuscript at a time?

I just wrote a short story which I hope to see in print next year, and I have my podcast, Spooky Science Lab, which I do with my friend Nicholas Kaufmann. Red Space is my only book series at the moment.

Are you now fully dedicated to the science fiction genre, and is that why horror is low-key in this book? (I find the notion of living in space and never breathing fresh air, swimming in the sea or walking in nature rather horrifying.)

I try not to get too hung up on genre. I’m doing space horror right now but I have ideas for tons of more traditional horror stories, and some ideas for fantasy series… I have a lot of books in my head, and they cover a lot of ground. Not sure where I’ll go next, honestly!

What was an artistic influence in 2024 that left an impression on you?

Strangely enough, the Foundation television show. I’ve always loved the books and when the show began, at first I was confused because it was so different from Asimov’s stories. But I grew to love it. It’s one of the best realizations of real science fiction we’ve seen on the small screen, and its scale, its scope really inspired me.

And always, what was one question you wished I’d asked but didn’t?

Should people wait for the final book to start the trilogy? And the answer is no. Paradise-1 and Revenant-X are different enough that I think they can be read as standalone novels. While the trilogy as a whole is going to tell one full story, each book is enjoyable in its own right. Don’t wait! Check these out now. You won’t be disappointed.