I remember joining my first clan in Mechwarrior 2 and playing multiplayer over a 9600 baud modem on a Pentium x286. I remember the sound of shotguns in Doom and the watery grunt of imps as they died. The panic of hearing the sonar ping of an enemy Alfa in 688 Attack Sub. I remember the satisfaction of putting my disk through the eye of a Recognizer in Intellivision’s TRON Deadly Discs. Here are some examples, many of which are decades old:

There isn’t one single moment of inspiration that can take credit for the entire novel. These are some of the origins of the Tabit Genesis. He brought perspective to the lasers and light sabers, building a bridge connecting fantasy with the achievable, and inspiring an endless wonder for what’s next for us. I was, even at the age of seven, completely awestruck by the words and profound wisdom of Carl Sagan. Then my parents introduced me to Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. The toys in my room were arranged such that they resembled the bridge of the Millennium Falcon, or if I was in a bad mood, a Star Destroyer. Legos were a thing even back then, and I only played with the space-themed sets. I was thinking about spaceships all the time after that. I did not see Star Wars in theaters, but I watched it at least 40 times from home. That was 1980, the same year they subscribed to cable television for $15 a month. My first gaming system was an Intellivision, which my parents regretted immediately because of their inability to detach me from Space Battle. In the gaming world, I guess I’m considered an old man. We are delighted to welcome Tony Gonzales to the Gollancz Blog for a special guest post about the influence and inspiration video games had on his new book The Tabit Genesis.

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