Goodreads asked Joseph Rhea:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Joseph Rhea I'm an oceanographer and have always imagined the undersea universe as equivalent to outer space. Novum is a combination of those interests, in that it is a space-styled adventure that takes place under the ocean of a distant water planet (a planet covered almost entirely by water). I also look at it as a sort of ocean version of Frank Herbert's classic, “Dune” in that my characters have spent their lives under water and have created technology to help them adapt to that life. It has been a challenge to create that advanced technology in my head and apply it to the story, but also make it "well used" and not important to the characters themselves. I really want to write stories about people, not gadgets.

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