Five Books That Influenced Embers of War By Gareth L. Powell  With my latest novel, Embers of War, I’ve returned to one of my favourite subgenres: space opera. The story follows the exploits of the sentient warship Trouble Dog as she gets embroiled in a plot to conceal the true contents of an ancient alien vault. As a lifelong reader of stories set in space, I knew some of those books would inevitably end up influencing my writing. After all, we’re all made up of everything we’ve ever consumed. So, after much thought, I’ve prepared this list of the books I feel had the biggest impact.   1. NOVA by Samuel Delany Set a thousand years into the future, NOVA tells the story of Lorq Von Ray, last scion of a powerful and rich dynasty, and his quest to harvest the rare mineral illyrion from the core of an imploding sun. He believes a cargo hold filled with illyrion will be enough to tip the balance of power between Earth and the quasi-independent Pleiades Federation. Operating on several levels, the book explores Von Ray’s childhood and current quest, and relates them to Arthurian Grail lore, while also using the literary…