We interview Ree Soesbee, author of the new Guild Wars novel coming June 25th.

The undead fall into the recent popularity of zombies. Was there anything that bugged you about the undead as the main protagonist and why were they chosen?

I think there is a native human fear both of death and of creatures that rise relentlessly from death because it is such a great mystery to people. It is not uncommon that a variety of different stories would come out of that from vampires which are also very popular right now to zombies.

What we wanted to do with Guild Wars 2, at the time zombies were not as prevalent, but we wanted to show them in connection to this larger supernatural force. They are like fingers on a hand more than they are an unknown relentless wave. The creatures of Orr act at the dragon’s direction and we never wanted to lose the sight of the dragon is the real threat. If the dragon didn’t exist these zombies wouldn’t be here. They are supernaturally raised solely by that power and that is different other zombie games or zombie movies.

In my book I also focus very heavily on the people themselves that became zombies. As I mentioned, the main character was a part of Lion’s Arch, and throughout the course of the book old friends and people he knew very well came back to fight him and he had to face them knowing what he knew then. I think that is the most tragic part of any zombie story. You are killing someone that under any other circumstance you would love or want to protect, but under these circumstances they become more horrible that only bears a resemblance.

I also had the good fortune that my book is a maritime adventure, so I got to play with undead ships. I got to explore what a rotting ship that can sink into the water and come back up again might be like to fight, which is very different from most of the modernist zombie stories that we are seeing today that have a world in decline after an apocalypse. This was very much a seagoing force that is being fought in a different way.

And lastly, are there any plans to create an expanded universe around Guild Wars by hiring more authors to write more novels?

We can’t announce anything like that right now, so I can’t really give an answer to that one. Sorry.

Sea of Sorrows comes out next Tuesday, June 25^th. The first release of the novel will only be available in English, but localized translations will come out in future prints.

Matt "Mattsta" Adams