Eric Kruger

Jesse Lawrence
Jan 27, 2024
3 min read

Sci-Fi

Eric Kruger was born in Welkom, South Africa. Before turning his attention to writing books, he tried waiting, pizza making, selling CDs, photography, and being a department manager in a motorcycle shop. He is presently working on the Benjamin Drake series. Eric lives in Australia with his wife and two young children.

Today we have the very talented Eric Kruger here to chat with us about his life as an author and to tell us a bit about his projects. Eric, would you quickly introduce yourself to our readers?

Hey everyone! A quick bio then! Okay, born a long time ago in South Africa, then lived in New Zealand for a few years, before going back to South Africa and finally settling in Australia, where I have now been living for almost 20 years. Been a student, a pizza maker, a music store clerk, a motorcycle shop manager, a photographer, and finally an author. The last little fact is that I write in English, but it is not my first language.

I'm always interested in what makes an author tick. What drew you to writing near-future sci-fi? Have you always wanted to? Or is it something new?

Being creative has always been at of who I am. Throughout my illustrious career of many jobs, the one constant was writing. My writing has always had an element of adventure to it, but when I started my debut, Hauler, it became near-future by chance. I had the idea for some cool gadgets and realized I needed to set the story in the near future to feel authentic. I am a huge sci-fi fan though!

Can you tell us a little about the Benjamin Drake Adventure Series and what inspired you to write it?

Like I said, I love adventure stories and most of my reading falls into the adventure/thriller genre. Most of my TV and movies though are Sci-Fi, so I think once I started writing the two just blended. I wanted to create an everyday man main character. Not an anti-hero, per se, but also not the top ex-navy seal can do anything stereotype (that I love to read 😊). A normal guy, who is thrown into crazy situations and slowly grows into an action hero. Flawed, but relatable.

In your opinion, what makes Mars a unique and interesting setting for a science fiction novel?

Mars is clearly our next big space conquest, and being a near-future story, I thought it would make sense to incorporate it. At the moment, Mars is only a back story, and most of the action takes place on Earth.

Are there any real-life Mars missions or discoveries that influenced your writing?

More the talk from people like Elon Musk who wants to make it a reality. Since I was little, Mars has been the next frontier for humans, and there is a multitude of movies (not all good!) about it. I guess it’s sort of something I’ve grown up with.

I always like to ask an oddball question, so here's yours: If you could travel the stars, looking for new worlds to inhabit, would you leave Earth?

Mmmm… If you had asked me a few years ago, before my children were born, it would have been a yes, for sure. But now, it’ll be a hard sell. Put me down for a maybe!

What sort of preparation did you conduct to write Drake throughout his character arc?

Reading a lot and watching too many movies!

So, I hear you're writing a fourth book now. Would you mind sharing a few tidbits with your fans?

Sure! The relationship between Drake and Jimmy has been at the center of the series so far, as well as the dynamic between Drake and LT. Wells’. Book 4 is about exploring those relationships and putting them to the test.