Roka | Meet the Mercyblades
Hi. I’m Daniel Bayn. All the top interviewers want to talk to me about my new novel, Mercyblades, but they’re too shy to ask. So, until they muster up the courage, I’ll be interviewing myself…
Meet Roka. He’s the youngest member of a vigilante trio called the Mercyblades. Centuries from now, humanity has colonized the solar system, disassembling Mercury to build a swarm of bottle worlds around the Sun. When these paradises become prisons, the Mercyblades come to the rescue.
With swordplay and fisticuffs.
Roka is the troublemaker. He takes challenges head-on and that makes him enemies… who tend to come looking for revenge at inconvenient moments. His wide-brimmed hat and all-black wardrobe attract the best kinds of attention. He wears his mercyblade on his hip and his heart on his sleeve.
What’s a mercyblade?
It’s two things: people and swords. The swords have blades made from segmented, robotic cable. They’re rigid for blocking and striking, but can also curl and bend. Once it has an enemy hooked, a segment breaks off and tightens around them, turning into handcuffs or other bindings. It’s tactical, humane, and non-lethal.
The capital “M” Mercyblades are my protagonists: Roka, Padre, and Ashe.
What’s his backstory?
Roka was born in orbit around Jupiter. His culture believes that humanity’s destiny is out among the stars and they’re expanding their population to crew generation ships that will make a journey of centuries. Roka was not into it. Why make that long trip, finding nothing but microbes or barren rocks on the other side, when there are so many aliens right here?! Spoilers: The aliens are other people.
So, he built himself a spaceship and headed in-system, toward the Sol Swarm. He found a lot to love, an infinite variety of ways to be human, but he also found a lot of suffering. Needless suffering. He wanted to help people, but not everyone wants to be helped. Most people, it seemed.
Overwhelmed by the scope of it all, he fell into despair until a weeping monk recruited him into a secret group called the Mercyblades.
What’s his spaceship like?
The Cradle is a real Winnebago. It’s boxy, windowless, and slightly curved like a small segment of a much larger circle. When not traveling, it swings in an arc around a small counterweight at the end of a long tether. This simulates gravity inside the ship.
Most of its space is taken up with a hangar, because Roka wants to help people in need. Upstairs, his quarters are modest: a bar, a bunk, a guest room and a dojo. Gotta have a dojo.
What’s his character arc?
Roka begins the novel with a sense of noblesse oblige. He wants to help people, but knows he cannot, not when they don’t want it. The Mercyblades help him find people he can help, people who are being held against their will. It makes him feel like he’s leaving the world better than he found it and, if we’re being honest, gives him an excuse to put his fist through cult leaders’ precious prisons.
He has an experience that shakes his faith in people, making him feel like they’re not worth saving. Once against, he sinks (just little bit) into despair. Simultaneously, he’s struggling with his attraction to a pugilist named Spriggan. He thinks he can convince her to join the team, but her nihilism only disillusions him further.
Ultimately, his faith is restored, but only after he duels Spriggan’s friends while hanging from the outside of a rotating space habitat. It might be my favorite action sequence.
What’s your favorite thing about Roka?
I love characters who act before they think, figure things out as they go. They keep things interesting. Roka’s an idealist, compassionate, and charmingly glib. I guess that’s more than one thing. Maybe my favorite thing about Roka is that he generates plot. When the other Mercyblades might want to take their time, be subtle or cautious, Roka’s always there to swing in on a chandelier and force the others into action.
What inspired Roka?
Zorro! He’s my archetypal swashbuckler and Roka’s inflated sense of self is heavily influenced by my favorite Zorro adaptations. His name is actually taken from a Hungarian surname meaning fox. (Zorro means fox in Spanish.)
He’s also my D’Artagnan, from the Three Musketeers, young and brash. His nobility comes from Athos, another Musketeer. He tends to be quippy in combat, a trait he shares with my favorite smartass supers: Peter Parker and Terry McGinnis.
In many ways, he’s my favorite and I think you’ll like him, too.
Mercyblades is now available on Amazon Kindle.
