1. Is The Prize in the Game a sequel to the Sulien books?
A. No, it's a kind of prequel. It takes place in Tir Isarnagiri, most of it during Chapters 12-16 of The King's Peace. It's about the earlier life of the Isarnagan characters in the Sulien books.
2. Can it be read independently of the Sulien books?
A. It's hard to say. I certainly intended it to be. It's in the same world, and what eventually happens to the characters in it later is in those books, but it's a separate story.
3. Whose point of view is it from?
A. There are four points of view which alternate in strict sequence, Conal the Victor, Elenn, Emer and Ferdia.
4. Is it a retelling of the Tain bo Cuailgne?
A. Yes. Much more so than the Sulien books are Arthurian. But it's a retelling of that story in that world, so it's different too. It also focuses on different characters from the usual way the Tain is told.
5. What version of the Tain were you using?
A. Oh, the Kinsella translation. And the Horslips album. There's a song on the Horslips album The Tain which is absolutely central to the way I think about Darag.
6. Are you going to write a sequel?
A. Not any time soon.
7. Why not? There's a gap between the last we see of Conal and Emer here and where they appear in The King's Peace and it would be really interesting to know what happened between times. Chanerig's conversion, for instance.
A. The Prize in the Game didn't really sell well enough for me to do a sequel. Also, there are problems with writing in the gaps of other things which make it hard. And it wouldn't be a very cheerful book... not to mention that I've moved on and I've had about enough of that world for the time being. Maybe I'll go back and write the sequel when the Brain Eater gets me.
8. When was The Prize in the Game published?
A. It came out from Tor in hardcover in November 2002 and in paperback in November 2003.
9. Is it still available?
A. Amazon and other online stores have it, or you could try ordering it from your local bookshop.