The Good for Nothings
Danielle Banas
(Rogue Ethereal #6)
Published by: Swoon Reads
Publication date: August 4th 2020
Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult
They’re only good at being bad.
Cora Saros is just trying her best to join the family business of theft and intergalactic smuggling. Unfortunately, she’s a total disaster.
After landing herself in prison following an attempted heist gone very wrong, she strikes a bargain with the prison warden: He’ll expunge her record if she brings back a long-lost treasure rumored to grant immortality.
Cora is skeptical, but with no other way out of prison (and back in her family’s good graces), she has no choice but to assemble a crew from her collection of misfit cellmates—a disgraced warrior from an alien planet; a cocky pirate who claims to have the largest ship in the galaxy; and a glitch-prone robot with a penchant for baking—and take off after the fabled prize.
But the ragtag group soon discovers that not only is the too-good-to-be-true treasure very real, but they’re also not the only crew on the hunt for it. And it’s definitely a prize worth killing for.
Whip-smart and utterly charming, this irreverent sci-fi adventure is perfect for fans of Guardians of the Galaxy, The Lunar Chronicles, and Firefly.
Interview with Danielle Banas
For those
interested in exploring the subject or theme of your book, where
should they start?
Some
great comp titles to The Good for Nothings are The Lunar
Chronicles, The Aurora Cycle Series, Firefly, and Guardians
of the Galaxy. Any story involving a quirky group of misfits in
outer space will do the trick.
How did you become
involved with the subject or theme of your book?
Honestly,
I had no clue what I wanted to write after my debut, The
Supervillain and Me. Some people have a dozen story ideas in
their back pocket at all times, but I’m unfortunately not one of
them. The only thing I knew was that after writing about good guys
saving the day in my first book, this time I wanted to focus on a
group of morally gray characters. I started brainstorming different
movies that I loved and tried to figure out which two I could mash
together and put my own spin on to create a new story. I settled on
Guardians of the Galaxy and Pirates of the Caribbean.
So basically, I told my publisher that I wanted to write about space
pirates, and thankfully they let me.
What were your
goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you
achieved them?
My
goal going into every book that I write is to make sure that the
reader has fun. If you leave the book feeling even a little happier
than you did entering it, then I did my job. Obviously, humor is a
very personal thing, but I think that I packed more jokes into The
Good for Nothings than any other story that I’ve ever written.
Actually, there was one point where I started wondering if I was
making too many jokes, but I don’t really think that’s a thing. I
know that everyone is going through a rough time right now. There are
definitely some serious scenes in this book, but overall it’s very
lighthearted. I hope that my quirky space children can be a bright
spot in your day!
Anything you would like to say to
your readers and fans?
THANK YOU! I know
how many choices you have when it comes to books to read, and if you
even consider picking up mine, know that you likely just made my day.
I hope you have as much fun reading The Good for Nothings as I
did writing it! More than anything, I hope it makes you laugh and
that it brings a bit of light into what has so far been a very dark
year in the world.
What did you enjoy most about
writing this book?
My favorite thing
about writing any book is getting to think up as much witty banter
and snarky one-liners as possible. If I could write an entire book
that was solely made up of silly jokes, then I would probably finish
each draft in half the time. But then there would probably be no
plot; it would just be characters poking fun at everything around
them for 300 pages, and no one wants that.
Can you tell us a little bit about
your next books or what you have planned for the future?
I don’t want to
give too much away, but I’m working on an urban fantasy where the
main character works on a film set. The film industry is something
I’ve wanted to incorporate into a book for years because I worked
as a background extra off and on when I was in college. I have the
outline and the first four chapters done. If I can finish the first
draft by the end of 2020, that would be awesome!
How long have you been writing?
I started writing
for fun a little bit here and there during my sophomore year of high
school. Then I got too busy with school and I don’t think I wrote
anything for about four years. Once I got into college, I needed
something to occupy myself during breaks in between classes because I
was a commuter, so I started picking up every YA book that I could
get my hands on. Eventually, I started writing again, but I didn’t
really take it seriously until I took a creative writing class during
my junior year. After that semester was over, I started writing the
first draft of what eventually became my debut, The Supervillain
and Me. That was just over 6 years ago, but it doesn’t feel
that long. I don’t know where the time has gone.
Can you tell us a
little bit about the characters in The Good for Nothings?
Sure!
The Good for Nothings is about four misfits who meet in prison
and have to unite to locate an ancient treasure in order to get their
criminal records expunged. The main character is Cora Saros, who
comes from a family of famous intergalactic criminals. Her mother is
the head of their crime family, and in order to earn her mother’s
forgiveness after Cora botches a bank heist, she and her android
friend, Elio, attempt to rob a grave – but then they end up
botching that too. Cora and Elio are taken to a maximum security
prison where they meet their cellmates, Wren (a girl from Earth) and
Anders (an alien from the most vicious planet in the galaxy). None of
them get along at first, which was fun to write, but they have to
join together if they want to get out of jail.
If you could spend the day with one
of the characters from The Good for Nothings who
would it be? Please tell us why you chose this particular character,
where you would go and what you would do.
Wren would be the most fun to spend the day with. She’s the most
outgoing and is always talking (maybe more than people would like her
too, but that’s okay). She owns the largest ship out of all the
characters and is the best pilot, so at least I know that if I was
flying with her then we probably wouldn’t crash. It’s really
tough to pick what we would do because most of the planets featured
in The Good for Nothings are home to murderous aliens and
creepy crawly monsters, so they aren’t exactly places where anyone
would want to visit. If Wren could take me to a nice relaxing planet,
that would be good. Somewhere we could sit on a beach and order some
tropical drinks and not have to worry about any of the vegetation
trying to eat us – because (spoiler alert!) that is definitely
something that happens in the book.
Author Bio:
Danielle Banas is the author of THE SUPERVILLAIN AND ME and THE GOOD FOR NOTHINGS. She earned a degree in communication from Robert Morris University, where she spent slightly too much time daydreaming about new characters instead of paying attention in class. When she isn’t writing, Danielle can be found loudly singing show tunes, spouting off Disney World trivia, and snuggling with her puppy. She lives in her hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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