Taking on the big guns

This’ll be my last post until BL Live, as I’ll be away until then on a much-needed break. In the past few days I’ve been pressing on with the second book of my Sword duology, trying to flesh out the character of Kurt Helborg and bring things to a suitably climactic conclusion. This, and the Schwarzhelm characterisation, have been fantastic opportunities to flesh out major players in the Warhammer world.

It might be worth saying something about this. I’ve been acutely conscious that Warhammer players and readers will already have pretty clear views of what Schwarzhelm and Helborg are like. They have stats in the game, and brief bios in the Army Books. Schwarzhelm is a grim dispenser of justice; Helborg a flamboyant commander of the finest knightly order in the Imperial Army. The challenge for me has been to try and develop these outlines, adding depth without distorting the essential elements.

Obviously, doing so is fraught with danger. Getting it wrong risks making a character that many people cherish look out of place, wrong or foolish. On the other hand, doing nothing but produce a slightly more verbose version of what’s in the Army Books fails to make the most of the opportunities a novel-length treatment presents. So, what you try to do is to develop the character in a way that’s consistent with what we already know while taking him in new directions. When Sword of Justice comes out later this year, I’ll wait for the feedback on Ludwig with more than the usual interest. By the time the duology is finished, he and Helborg will have walked a long and dark path together…

Until then, apologies if I don’t answer any comments until after the 13th – but give me a shout if you’re at GWHQ on the day, and I’ll look forward to posting about it when I get back.

Bl Live Chapbook

From my editor Nick Kyme’s blog, the cover of the BL Live chapbook has emerged, and it looks fantastic:

I had the genuine pleasure of reading Nick’s story when the proofs came in, and it’s another slice of Salamander awesomeness – anyone who’s been following Dak’ir’s development will be in for a treat.

Writing a 5,000 word short story (as they both are, I think) is a surprisingly difficult thing. Most BL short stories in the anthologies are about 8-10,000 words. That extra bit might not sound very much, but it gives a little more elbow room for plot and character development. The best short stories are built around some kind of twist or motif, and setting that up requires room. Squeezing everything into a shorter format was therefore a great exercise in keeping things concise – I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys writing in the Warhammer universe.

Anyway, it’s all short stories for me right now. Death and Dishonour has picked up its first review, and it’s hearteningly good – check it out here. As for Feast of Horrors, I’m really looking forward to discussing the genesis of that on 13 Feb with anyone who comes along for a chat.

BL Live

I see from the BL Facebook site that Death and Dishonour is out now (or imminently). Seems like a while since I wrote my contribution to that anthology, a tale of Katerina Lautermann, the Amethyst wizard who first emerged in Masters of Magic. Like many of the BL anthologies, this is a mix of stories from established authors like Nathan Long and C. L. Werner, as well as talent for the future. Haven’t had a chance to read it myself yet, but it’s sitting on my bookshelf, waiting for the next window of opportunity. In the meantime, nice cover:

Writing-wise, it’s been all short stories for a few days. I’m hoping the chapbook for BL Live goes down well, as it’s the first glimpse of Ludwig Schwarzhelm before his full-length outing in Sword of Justice. Otherwise, I’m trying my hand at something new right now, 10,000 words of it, before getting back to the final half of Sword of Vengeance. Not sure how much I’m allowed to say about that, but if you come along to BL Live and say hi, I might have been given the all-clear by then…

Hunting Souls

Damn, that’s a long time without a post. Not sure where the time went, other than I’ve been *very* busy. Belated New Year’s greetings to anyone out there still waiting for a sign of life. Not dead yet, though after getting through the mid-point of Sword of Vengeance last week, I almost am.

So, what’s going on? Well, a 5,000 short story for the BL Live chapbook is now done. This is sharing a billing with a fantastic Nick Kyme 40K short, and was a lot of fun to write. It was another chance to spend some time with the big, bearded unsmiling one before I sign off on the Schwarzhelm/Helborg duology sometime next month. Gonna miss him when he’s gone, the old curmudgeon.

Sword of Justice proofs are almost done, too. It’s a long one (125,000 words, almost on the nail), and it’s taken a while. Nice to see it heading to completion now. Anyone looking for more info this could do worse than download the sample PDF from the Black Library website.

Aside from all that, I’ve finally found some time to read, and BL recently sent me a copy of Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s Soul Hunter. It’s astonishingly good. The Night Lords are many people’s favourite Chaos Legion for obvious reasons – their moral complexity, their antagonistic relationship with the powers of the warp, their enigmatic, brooding Primarch, the quixotic nature of their war against the Imperium. Soul Hunter captures all of this superbly, and the writing – cliché-free, beautifully descriptive – is consistently excellent. Highly recommended.

Reviews, eh?

Very busy writing at the moment. Sword of Justice has come back from the editors, and I’m pleased to say it’s going really well. There are always little things to change, but it’s nice to feel that it’s going in the right direction. I’m also getting stuck into the sequel, and there’s the small matter of a top-secret short story as well. So I’m basically spending most of my time at the keyboard.

All of which makes me think about reviews and reviewers. Iron Company has been out for a little while now, and the reviews are starting to make themselves known. It’s always nice to get feedback, even if it’s not always uniformly positive. In fact, reasoned negative criticism is probably more useful to an author – it’s good to know what you got wrong so you can fix it next time. No one  wants to have their work trashed after spending months trying to make it as good as possible, but constructive critical comments are always welcome.

There’s a good summary of how criticism works on Gav Thorpe’s blog. He’s been doing this thing for much longer than I have, and it’s all good advice. Of course, one of the problems with picking up (mostly) online reviews is that even some of the most high profile books don’t get that many. Most Black Library titles will pick up less than half a dozen reviews on (say) Amazon, with the exception of the flagship series. That’s all good feedback, but what if you get a few people who just hate everything? Or, almost as bad, a few who love everything? If you took too much notice of the scores there, you could end up with a very skewed impression of your book’s reception.

So, in general, I tend to place more weight on the comments on sci-fi and fantasy review sites like this one. Though the reviews can be quite short, they’re written by people who care about the genre. Most of all, of course, I take note of the opinions of proper Warhammer/40K fans, for whom the setting really matters. Which is why it’ll be good to see the old BL website back up in due course – godammit, I miss those forums!

All Greek to me

As odd as the online world is, sometimes the real world can be even stranger. Some time ago I wrote a book called Dark Storm Gathering. It was set in the Warhammer world, but with a slight twist – the setting was that used by the MMO Warhammer Online. It was a lot of fun to do, but as it’s been out for a while now, I wasn’t expecting to hear much more about it.

Which was why I was very surprised to get a note from Black Library a while ago with details of a Greek edition. I admit that I thought that this would be the English language version, just repackaged for the Greek market. That’s probably typical of an English-speaker – we just assume that everyone can get by in our uncivilised, guttural tongue. But no, it’s a full translation! I’m absolutely delighted – I’m an international author!

BL have put up some pics of the covers here. Needless to say, I’m very chuffed to be in the company of Nathan Long and Dan Abnett – fine master storytellers both. I hope they do very well. If there are any Greek readers of this blog – let me know what you think (in English, please – I’m afraid I wasn’t responsible for the translation).

The Internet is Full of Angry, Crazy People

Well, that’s the common perception. And it’s true sometimes. But not here, or here. It’s been a pleasure to read the various thoughts on Warhammer and moral/cultural differences. I don’t agree with everything that’s been said (of course), but without exception the posts have been courteous and intelligent. Honestly, for a bunch of people who enjoy reading about plague, mutilation and mass slaughter, I’m struck by how nice WH fans are. Is there a link? Hmm.

Anyway, there’s no rest for the wicked. Fresh from dispatching the mammoth manuscript for Sword of Justice, I’m now busy planning a short story before getting stuck into my next novel-length project. The short story is a bit of a departure for me, and I don’t think I can say much about it, other than it involves some [bleeps] engaging with a pack of [censored] on [*&(%!!].

There. Don’t say I never give any spoilers away.

Beyond Good and Evil

Well, that last post prompted some well thought out responses. I read them with interest. The marvellous Pyroriffic also triggered a parallel discussion here. Head over there if such metaphysical musings float your boat.

I’m interested in people with very relativist positions about morality (i.e., it’s all just a matter of your point of view, etc.). Not sure I buy that. In the real world, there just are some things that are good or bad. Pork pies are good. Mobile phones in cinemas are bad. Texting incessantly in cinemas while the film is playing is very bad. No debate there.

Anyway, back to Warhammer. One of the complications, with regard to morality, is the presence of radically different races. Humans in the warhammer world embody all the traits we’re familiar with. They can be noble, corrupt, lazy, heroic, and everything else (or all of them at the same time). But Dark Elves have an entirely different moral code. It’s built into their nasty, cold-blooded hearts. Even dwarfs, the closest non-humans, have a very different racial view of the world to ‘us’. So what standards should they be judged by? Their own? Humans’? Or is there some objective yardstick we can use?

Best answers win a prize!*

* And the prize is: no more annoying posts about morality in this blog.

Good and Evil

Here’s a slightly updated version of the cover I was sent a couple of weeks ago. Darius has been tweaking it a bit, and it still looks just as fantastic. Any excuse to post it again . By the way, I should have credited the artist in my original post. He’s called Cheol joo Lee, and has been responsible for some cracking covers for BL already. It’s a real honour to have his artwork adorning my book.

Anyway, there’s been a great response to my last post, and they’ve got me thinking. WHFB (and 40K) has this great tradition of moral ambiguity. This raises the question of what ‘good’ and ‘bad’ actually mean in the Warhammer world. After all, as some posters pointed out, characters like Malus and Horus basically think they’re doing the right thing. There are no ‘cut-out’ evil baddies in Warhammer. Even the most depraved Chaos sorcerer thinks he’s on the side of the angels (so to speak). Does this mean that ‘good’ and ‘bad’ lose their meanings? Is it just one moral system up against another?

Well, no. Not in my conception of it. I love the ambiguity of Warhammer. It’s even more pronounced in 40K – the Imperium can be a terrifying place. But there is – just – a real distinction between the forces of Order and Disorder. The Empire and the Imperium are brutal because they have to be, because the alternatives are ultimately worse. The forces of the archenemy, even though they may have a moral system of their own, have given in to baser, more non-human urges. The reason we care about the survival of the forces of Order is that we recognise that they’re basically part of a moral system we can see as our own (however flawed it may be).

So moral relativity only goes so far, at least as far as I see it. Cue passionate denunciations from Chaos players!

The Warhammer Ethos

Finally. Later than I’d hoped for, Sword of Justice has been sent off for the first round of editorial comments. While it’s a relief to have it finished (I can sleep again now. Maybe even eat.), this is my least favourite part of the process. I’ve been living with the project for months, and now I’ll find out if it works. It’s just too nerve-wracking.

So I’m not going to talk about that. Instead, I’ve been thinking about the whole ethos of Warhammer Fantasy. What makes it tick. What makes it different. Nick Kyme wrote a blogpost a while back on this subject that captures a lot of what I think about it.

The essential thing, it seems to me, is that Warhammer essentially embodies a uniquely British sensibility. That doesn’t mean, of course, that other nationalities can’t enjoy it, or contribute to it, or take it in new directions. But there is something quintessentially UK about the general outlook. Perhaps it’s the fatalism. Most Fantasy is pretty optimistic, pretty uplifting. The good guys win, the bad guys lose. Warhammer’s not like that. Not only do the bad guys win a lot, but there’s a lot less separating good from bad in the first place. Malus Darkblade is a hero, for God’s sake.

The shades of grey, the moral complexity, is what makes Warhammer so interesting. Though there are moments of heroism, snatches of optimism, the overall picture is bleak. And that reflects our national character. We like to see the potential for disaster, the scope for disappointment. Any nation that’s been reduced, within a single generation, from having a world-spanning empire to owning a few islands in the mid-Atlantic and six tanks is going to feel a bit insecure.

But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Being cynical and world-weary has its compensations. It makes a nice change from all that strident confidence out there. And it gave the world Warhammer. If you’ve ever trudged through Bristol city centre on a Monday morning with the wind whipping rain into your face, the buses on strike and the streets still covered with the gruesome remains of the weekend debauchery, then you’ll know all about the Empire. It’s just like that. But with undead, rat-men and mutants too. Brilliant.