Martin Ikedais Reveals the Background To The Archivists, three-part science fiction

by Natalie key | 20 January 2025

The Archivists, a three-part science fiction novel by Martin Ikedais, features people overcoming their fears and enduring hardships to do what must be done. In this short piece, Martin writes about his struggle to become a writer and how he overcame personal adversity to finish this remarkable novel…

Author of The Archivists Martin Ikedais

As a child, I didn't want to write, not by hand; writing with a pen or a pencil was too painful! Why this was, I wasn't sure; I only accepted what I was told: I was 'cack' (left) handed, and the pain was all in my head; I was just lazy and stupid. Indeed, if I needed to write anything of length, only the first few lines would be legible; the rest would soon descend into an indecipherable scrawl that even I couldn’t read.

My penchant for writing remained unrecognised until I started college, where armed with a typewriter, I could escape the cramp crippling my fingers, hands, and elbows and rattle off the words in my head like bullets from a gun. Of course, I had no writing ambitions at this juncture. I worked privately, writing comical vignettes, character studies of my classmates and teachers, or poems, giving them in secret to those girls unlucky enough to be my crushes. It wasn’t until the 1990s, armed with a word processor (spell checker included!) that I realised I could be an author. I just needed a kick…

The idea for The Archivists came to me in a flash. It was mid-2012, and I recall binging on a stack of recent science fiction movies and thinking, "I can do better than that!" but then I needed to calm myself and sleep on it. I didn't want to fall into the trap of having a good idea for a novel only to reach a dead end with no way out. By the morning, I knew, however, that The Archivists was different. The idea had stamina, it had legs, and it continued to run and run. I had a broad idea for the book; I knew how it would resolve and begin, and I knew the story would be long, twisting, turning, and looping. Would this behemoth be a trilogy? At this early stage, I wasn't sure; also, at this time, my health was a concern; something was seriously wrong, and although I didn’t know what, it spurred me into making an immediate start. Jotting notes and plotting a timeline, I researched the relevant historical periods and began to characterise the main protagonists. This process took months and was so enjoyable that I ignored the decline in my health.

By the spring of 2014, the first part was complete. It was rough, raw, and naively written, but all the plot elements and content were in place, so I expanded my notes and readied myself to begin work on parts 2 and 3.

It was here that my deteriorating health could no longer be ignored. I noticed blood when using the toilet, which instigated weeks of probing: I had stage 2 colon cancer. Following major surgery and months of grim chemotherapy, I was lucky enough to make a full recovery. Although, after such an experience, you are never quite the same.

Delayed by my recovery and juggling work, it was another five years before all three parts of The Archivists were complete, and then I sat on it, giving the manuscript no more than the occasional edit. Now that I have this thing, what should I do with it? My friends suggested publication, so I bit the bullet, plucked up the courage and sought a publisher willing to take on a novice.

I needed two bites to publish this beast of a book. My first attempt was speculative; I wanted to go through the process of self-publication and marketing and receive feedback for my work. Would anyone get it? To my surprise, many people did, but I also received criticism for the novel's execution, length, and unwieldiness.

I readily embraced the constructive feedback; it was helpful (the first edition of The Archivists represented my writing ability from over ten years ago), and I took it upon myself to rewrite the novel from scratch and re-release it. I am thrilled with the result. I hope you get the chance to enjoy it.