Bagoole

If you walk into your kitchen and see a bowl of scrambled eggs on the counter, you would know that they were previously unscrambled eggs.

If you walk into your kitchen and see a black hole on the counter, you couldn't have any idea what it previously was from the black hole alone. Could have been hydrogen, eggs, bacon sandwiches, Ford F-150s, umbrellas, a mixture of all of these things, who knows. Also you're super dead.

Hi Peter, thanks for doing this AMA. I'm a big fan of your work, though I was a little late to the party. Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained were formative works for me that inspired me to (try and) become an author myself. I've read and re-read them several times and they don't seem to get old. Many of the chapters play vividly like movies or shows in my head. Oh right, questions:

1) Would you ever consider granting the rights of your works to film or TV, given adequate proof of concept you think they could be translated? Why or why not?

2) You've spent quite a bit of time in the Commonwealth universe, despite that break with Great North Road. Will you move on to a new universe after Chronicle of the Fallers duology?

3) (Possible Spoilers!) I recently finished Great North Road (enjoyed it very much, thanks for writing it!), and I got the distinct feeling the timeline of the world spawned from same ancestor as the Commonwealth, with the "universe variables" tweaked slightly here and there. Wormholes are still the thing, but we never shrugged off our oil addiction. Rejuvenation doesn't quite take off so smoothly, but cloning has its day. Anarcho-socialism gets to save the human race instead of capitalism ruling us for several centuries. Then add a couple technologies that weren't quite so popular back in 2004. Any truth to that, or was that just my feeling while reading it?

4) Don't be shy, your fans in Canada want you to visit sometime too! It's a big Commonwealth, isn't it?

5) Thanks again, you are an inspiration for me and I suspect, many others.

6) Super bonus question. The Cat is a serial cannibal, isn't she? Isn't she?!