Elf Preservation – Part Two

A long time ago (two novels ago, in fact), I conducted a brief survey of Hamsterites’ thoughts on fantasy tropes in preparation for a panel at SFXWeekender3. There were not too many surprises when one considers the results and looks at the fantasy books on the shelves these days.

The current trend in fantasy is for realism, with a definite move away from the ‘traditional’ fantasy of elves and dwarfs over the last twenty years. As with a lot of SF, characters and plot have taken over from concepts and images, the pure escapism that was fantasy has been replaced by a more solid fayre, for better or worse.

Traditional? Really?

All too often we see elves and dwarfs  and orcs and dragons as old hat, a fantasy tradition that has been done to death. It’s easy to forget that there was fantasy before Tolkien.  For me one of the fantasy heydays was the rise of swords and sorcery authors like Robert E. Howard and Fritz Leiber. These were definitely not worlds populated with fey wood-dwelling point ears and bearded gold-loving miners.

These were worlds of men (and particularly men, rather than women, unlike the more modern gritty fantasy of today) where strange creatures existed, but not really as distinct species, but rather ephemeral story elements as they were in old myth – most non-human creatures are distinctly magical in origin, being djinn and demons and strange children of demi-gods. Those mortal creatures that were not regular humans were often off-shoots, and half-breeds, manifestations of regressive fear or divergent evolution.

And then the Professor wrote a huge literary mythology, reinvented the old legends of elves and dwarves, and a new type of modern fantasy was born. And after The Lord of the Rings came a slew of imitations, some better, most terrible, and the wagon started rolling. Wizards had pointy hats, elves were mysterious and cool, dwarfs became beer-swilling party machines. Sort of.

There was an awful lot of it, and a lot of it was awful. This type of fantasy spawned a sub-genre of fantasy romance (not romantic fantasy, that is a different tradition altogether) where princesses fell in love with dragons that turned out to be cursed handsome princes. Lacking the morality of fairy tales, these insipid stories pushed the fantasy genre to heights of popularity – amongst middle-aged women of a certain disposition. Yes, the average fantasy reader was not the spotty D&D player, or the bookish librarian, but your mum. My mum, if I am being honest. Mums were the demographic of fantasy and more and more of semi-romance drivel hit the shelves.

At some point the genre was bound to spring back, with all the power of the pendulum in the pit.

Sproing!

So we have a fertile ground for new authors in the late eighties, early nineties. There is still some good stuff about, enjoyable if not ground-breaking, and there are a few powerhouses leading the field like Terry Brooks, David Gemmell, Raymond E. Feist and David Eddings. Tad Williams comes along, and Robert Jordan, and others, starting these huge arcing epics that would last for decades, in the real world as well as in their imagined universes.

The elves were booted out, the dwarfs sent back to the their tunnels and men (and women this time) stride onto centre stage. A Song of Ice and Fire begins, slowly revealing these traditional tropes but in a different way.

The romance fantasy doesn’t disappear, and over time the meerkatters work out how to compensate for the growing blood and guts of the fiction being demanded by a changing readership – a lot of books that would have traditionally been labelled fantasy, and back catalogue that was, starts to slide in to the Young Adult section. Young Adult is the place for fairies and dragons and princesses now.

Now there’s barely an elf to be seen on a cover in Waterstone’s; nary a dwarf pops his bearded little face into view on Amazon. Joe Abercrombie, China Miéville, Adrian Tchaikovsky create empires of men, where culture and society replaces species as the divide.

Guilty, M’lud

And I have done the same. The Crown of the Blood is a very modern fantasy. Hell, I don’t even have knights and castles in it. It is the ambitions and wars of humans that drive the plot and world, against a backdrop of a universe where a sort of dangerous, subtle magic exists. The only non-human sentient are the nemurians, a race of large mercenaries that would likely batter an elf or dwarf if they saw one. It’s a dirty, squabbling, backbiting tale of treachery and self-promotion, without a hero or dark lord in sight.

I didn’t decide deliberately to turn my back on that Tolkienesque fantasy that I grew up with, and still love deep down. My influence was not the Professor or his contemporaries, but later writers like Gemmel, the founders of swords and sorcery like Howard, and modern TV like HBO’s Rome and Starz’ Spartacus. This is modern fantasy for a modern audience and I am part of that audience.

But…

But the elves still live. The dwarfs continue to dig. My heart is with these races, who were as much a part of my teenage years as Sonic, Space Marines and Judge Dredd. I yearned to write a Tolkienesque fantasy. And then I had a moment of clarity, provided by the veteran Bill King at a seminar for Black Library Live! 2012.

Warhammer.

Warhammer has its cake and eats it. It has orcs and dwarfs and elves, and treemen and dragons and goblins, and daemons and vampires and giants and barbarians and sorcerers and necromancers and yes, even Halflings and dark lords. By the nature of its original purpose and slow evolution, Warhammer is chock full of pretty much every traditional and not-so-traditional fantasy trope one could throw at a world.

And it also has realism. It is gritty and dark, with themes of power and ambition (the lure of Chaos) as well as a blurred sense of good and evil. Heroes abound, of both the knightly charging-about-slaying-dragons variety and the more modern flexible-morality-fighting-to-survive kind. It has villains of equal diversity. And it does this with depth, humour and a very British sensibility. It is both High and Low fantasy, of epic battles and desperate sewer struggles.

For those not initiated into the fandom, Warhammer seems nothing more than a derivative mish-mash of ideas thrown together to sell some toy soldiers. That is, after all, how it started, blending fantasy and historical at a time when that was not the vogue. Yet it has become much more, and its success makes the novels far more than simple tie-in pulp for Games Workshop. That success has gone beyond the bounds of gamers to create a readership amongst the fantasy-buying public. What some see as reason for denigration is in fact the great strength and appeal of the setting and the stories. It is with Warhammer that fantasy fans can find all the dwarfs, orcs and elves they can handle, while the ‘mainstream’ lets loose another faux-medieval landscape populated by backstabbing bastards and conniving princesses who would sell a dragon quicker than fall in love with it.

I get to write Warhammer novels, and I am proud to do so. It draws on all of that literary pedigree I’ve just buzzed through, as well as the vastness of real world history. Traditional fantasy may not be quite what it was thirty years ago, but it has not died out. It just has a different name.

Completeness

In my lightning-fast and basically amateurish flashback through fantasy I have mentioned only a few puddles in the great ocean that is fantasy of the last century. It would be remiss not to mention the likes of Gene Wolfe and Anne McCaffrey, Michael Moorcock and Jim Butcher, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett – all them also influences on Warhammer to greater or lesser degree. The focus at the moment is on the human-centric dark epic, but times will change and tastes will move on. Fantasy is such a broad church there are only ever swells in the seas, never tidal shifts.

I am planning to do something on the far end of the fantastical if I can. I want to create a world that is not an analogue of our own, but exists purely by its ability to provide rich and colourful stories and characters.

Humans may even be in the minority. There’s a thought.

Deadlines, deadlines and deadlines.

Just a quick one, because as you may have guessed from the cobwebs and tumbleweed on the blog, I’ve been busy doing the writey stuff lately. I’ve just handed in The Crown of the Usurper to Angry Robot and I’m working on Ravenwing for Black Library. I have called this period ‘Deadlines of Death’, because although the workload hasn’t impacted too badly on the writing, it as meant I’ve not had time to be mooching about writing blog posts, cruising forums and the like. And the one thing I don’t want to do is develop tunnel vision. It’s important to look up from the keyboard to see what fans are dicussing, what events are going on and, maybe, even get some reading in.

Hopefully the work will ease off over the next couple of weeks and I will be able to write the second installment for my post-SFXWeekender post, in which I shall throw a few foxes amongst the chickens. I think it will stir up some discussions so I want to make sure I have time to follow the comments and conversations, hence not posting it just yet.

So, thanks for your patience, I’ll be back and more consistently very soon. Wish I had more time to enjoy this lovely weather we’re having. I’m sure it will be raining again by the time I’ve can get out and about. Ta ta for now.

 

BLLive! 2012

On Saturday, the hordes of Black Library fandom and authorage (and artists and editors and salesfolk and everyone else) will be descending upon Warhammer World in Nottingham to take part in the annual celebration of Warhammer and 40K literature that is Black Library Live. It’s one of my favourite events of the year, packed with opportunities to talk to readers of BL fiction on a variety of topics, as well as signing latest releases and old favourites. It’s a packed day – if I were a visitor I’m sure I’d find it hard to decide between some of the seminars – and they keep us guests busy. If you want to listen to me blather on with other writerly types, here’s what I’ll be doing.

10am – Space Marines panel in the canteen.

11.15am – Warhammer panel in the canteen.

12.30pm – Audio drama panel in the boardroom.

3.00pm – Horus Heresy panel in the canteen (expect this one to be rammed full!).

4.15pm – Signing desk. I believe there will be copies of The Primarchs available if you want to get hold of my novella, The Lion, currently being serialised in Hammer and Bolter e-magazine.

All of this is subject to change, obviously, but is correct as far as I am aware. See you there and I hope you have a great time – I will.

If you aren’t one of those attending BLLive!, I am also a guest at Discover festival near Leicester on 18th-20th May. There will be a host of authors and publishing types holding forth, so for fans and would-be writers alike it’s a great chance to speak to those who try to make a living in this industry. Details can be found on the Discover website.

New Interview

Hello all. I’m busy writing The Crown of the Usurper* at the moment, but to keep you informed and/ or entertained and/ or distracted from an impending apocalypse, here is an interview I have just finished at The Shell Case. Go on, take ten minutes and have a read.

http://theshellcase.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/an-interview-with-gav-thorpe/

*One of the questions is about whether I get muddled up between Warhammer and my own created world. I have just written ‘Path of the Usurper‘ for about the tenth time. Make of that what you will. Next I’ll be talking about The Crown of the Outcast… Aiyiyi.

Elf Preservation – Part One

Malekith and his dear old mum. Courtesy of Stef Kopinski, for The Sundering omnibus.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I attended a panel at the SFXWeekender entitled ‘Elf Preservation’. The theme of the panel was whether fantasy needs to include ‘magic and monsters’ to be considered fantasy. To prepare for that panel, I posed a short series of questions to visitors to give me an idea of what sort of reading they have done and what they like to see in their fantasy. In this first tie-in post I am going to publish the results of those polls and just say a little bit about what that might mean. In part two, I will discuss in some more detail a few of the issues raised at the panel.

Caveats: Small sample size, self-selecting participation, etc etc. It’s not proper science, I know.

As we can see, the reading of just over half of respondents sometimes or often does not contain traditional fantasy tropes. Fantasy as a genre has moved away from simply being Tolkien wannabes and stories about wizards and goblins. Lots of people like this ‘new fantasy’, even if 9% of people who took part have only read books containing traditional fantasy staples.

That’s a pretty conclusive three-quarters of readers who took part preferring even their traditional fantasy elements delivered with a new twist. That’s not really surprising, because although everybody likes some familiarity in what they read, fantasy is about exploring new ideas, even if they are simply new versions of old ideas. This certainly came up in the panel, with the consensus being that re-hashing old ideas without putting anything of yourself as an author into the idea or image is counter-productive. Authors, fantasy authors for sure, want to be identified with their ideas, and so we each try to find something unique to bring to our work that sets it apart from the rest, even if we’re trying to tell a classic fantasy tale or use a well-established fantasy image.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that nearly two-thirds of respondents had read books with no human characters in. Of course, I have written The Sundering and Grudgebearer, so I have vested interest in this, but it must be more than just my books that account for this. Something that I wanted to mention on the panel but didn’t get a chance is the growing prevalance of non-human-centric fantasy. Stan Nicholl’s Orcs series springs to mind, as does Dwarves by Markus Heintz – note the Tolkien spelling on the latter, though. As we’ll see later, Elves are always popular, but I can’t think at the moment of a non-Warhammer elf-based book or series along the same lines (a quick online search shows that James Barclay has had a go at claimign this one). Please show up my ignorance in the comments section (Silmarillion?). With a fair number of Warhammer readers taking part, I guess this also shows that although there is an Empire-centric theme to the novels a lot of the time, the exploits of dwarfs, skaven, lizardmen and such have an audience.

You can tell that I had an agenda (agendum?) with this question. This did come up on the panel and I will talk about it a lot more in my next post, but I find it staggering that 60% of respondents thought that some or most of the books they read had non-human characters in them that were not really non-human. I expected this, of course. I also think that while people protest that dwarfs are just short humans, and elves are just humans with pointy ears, (physical characteristics will be covered in my next piece too) it doesn’t seem to stop people reading quite a few books with non-human characters. That suggests to me that there is a part of writing and reading fantasy that does want to see the fantastical – dwarfs and goblins and whatever – for the sake of it, even if those fantastical elements have no bearing on the plot. It’s a matter of setting and the desire for the alternate world-building.

(As an aside, even if a reader might think my characters act just like humans – which they don’t – in the Sundering and Grudgebearer, I will point out that those novels take place over decades, centuries and millennia, so even just in terms of timescale the characters do something that humans could never do – live long enough!)

Elves. Elves. Elves. By a margin. And then (hurrah!) Dwarfs. Are fantasy writers being lazy and hackneyed by returning to these tired old tropes? Or are fantasy writers tapping into something quite fundamental about a lot of fantasy readers – they like elves and dwarfs! Perhaps too many of us were hit on the head by a copy of LOTR as infants, or something, but there is an appeal to even these most tried and tested fantasy staples. Also, I would think that if I had replaced the ‘Undead’ entry with ‘Vampire’, I would have had much the same result. I also suspect that the Nac Mac Feegle probably account for the lion’s share of their vote in that category too.

Nice to see some suggestions for other races too. They were (one vote each): Tyranids (pretty sure they don’t count as fantasy…), Melniboneans, Tinker Gnomes, Halfling/ Hobbit and Seerkind (so we have a Clive Barker fan taking part – was that you McNeill?).

I would be grateful if folks could post in the comments their favourite non-traditional fantasy race (and from which series) and/ or their favourite non-traditional portayal of a traditional fantasy race in the comments. For my money, I really like the Vodyanoi from China Mieville. Part of me wants to say that 40K Eldar are the best non-traditional take on elves, but I don’t want to open that door. Erm, instead I will opt for… Okay, I’m going to say Terry Pratchett’s elves, but really they are not ‘new’ elves, they are very old elves, the kind of elves that were around before Lord Dunsany and Tolkien got their hands on them. Recommendations in the comments please.

Hopefully I’ll have time next week for part two, in which I will talk about points raised during the panel, such as why and why not to include non-human races, whether you can have a conversation with a dragon, and if magic needs to be explained or stay mysterious.

Bow Down Before the King!

As I mentioned in my SFXWeekender post, I bumped into Paul Young, who has has been working on the latest cover for my series The Crown of the Blood. Here it is!

As Marco so succintly put it on the Angry Robot Website:

Looks like Ullsaard has finally flipped out under the evil control of the demonic crown and is about to unload an entire can of whuppass on his priestly minions.

The Brotherhood had it coming…

For those interested, we mostly talked about the Brother on the right who has his mask showing.

The Obligatory #SFXWeekender Post

Proof! I am an artist.

As I may have mentioned once or three thousand times, last Friday and Saturday was the SFXWeekender event in Prestatyn, Wales. I attended and so it is now mandatory that I write a blog post telling everybody what I got up to, in the hopes of making them jealous and thus ensuring that they attend next year and make the SFXWeekender 4 an even bigger success. In return, I hope that I come to the attention again of the powers that be and get invited back, thus taking one more step on the road to author godhood*. We all play our part in the machine that is publicity.

*Attending genre events does not guarantee godhood, but it will get you readers. Please tell me this is true. Please.

I am sure that there will be plenty of ‘What I did on my holidays’-type accounts of the weekend, and the schedule was well-publicised in advance, but frankly I can’t think of any better way to do it, so I’ll be doing much the same.

What I did on my Weekend

Actually, I just can’t bring myself to do a whole travelogue. Here are the highlights instead…

Friday

Departed later than expected but made good time to North Wales. Thanks to my lovely, very understanding girlfriend for being a lovely, very understanding chauffeur for three days. We played ‘Spot the Nerd*’ as we got closer to Prestatyn, and really some people do make it too easy… ON arriving, we saw a caravan pretending to be a TARDIS. Nuff said.

*I include myself in this category and so do not think this game is demeaning to nerds.

I turned up with enough time to have a quick spin around the venue to acclimatize and find locations of importance: toilets, stage, bar. Erm, yup. Just those three. Oh, and then there was finding the Angry Robot and Black Library stands in Bartertown (the SFX name for the trade hall; those jokers have all the fun). Having waved hello to publishing and sales types, exchanged customary abuse with Graham McNeill and Aaron Dembski-Bowden, I hit the stage for the Elf Preservation panel. I will be blogging more about this in a couple of days’ time, so will say no more here (except – go to my last post and vote on the polls please, I’m still collecting data).

Following the panel I had an hour to chill out until my signing with Guy Haley on the Angry Robot stand. Said chilling out was done with the aid of a pint of ‘beer’ (I use the term loosely for the fizzy, frothy stuff available at the bars) and Graham ‘New York Times Bestselling Author’ McNeill. Having not seen each other since the Horus Heresy meeting that had finished some 22 hours earlier, we had lots to catch up on. And then after those two minutes had elapsed, and it being too easy to play Spot the Nerd in a bar crowded full of people taking surreptitious pictures of the nice-looking cosplay ladies in attendance, we continued the discussion that had started on the panel. As I had expected all along, we were right and everyone else was wrong. Or something. The world got fixed, either way. Somehow.

My signing followed, and I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I was there as an Angry Robot author* and had no official signing slot with BL. Some fans made discreet inquiries beforehand regarding whether BL books would indeed be signed, and assurances were given that this would be the case, so it is fair to say that I was slightly anxious that I would end up signing plenty of BL books and none from The Crown of the Blood. Such was not to be the case. There were people with Black Library novels and there were, the writing gods be praised, people who had my Angry Robot books too.

*Which, as Adrian Tchaikovsky pointed out, means something very different without the capitals.

I also had time to chat with Paul Young, the artist responsible for the covers of The Crown of the Blood series. He lives in Prestatyn and happened to pop in to the show to see what all the noise was. Anyway, he is a really nice guy, we had a bit of a chat about the cover for The Crown of the Usurper; I was able to sign his sample copies of the first two books and give him my card.* I chatted to people about BL work, AR work, and even a bit of gaming. There were even books sold – thanks especially to the people who bought both volumes at once in a show of faith (some folks were more sensible and only shelled out for book one).

*I have had business cards made up (actually, again, it was my girlfriend who did them) with the Deliverance Lost cover on one side. I have had them for 6 months and this is the first one I’ve managed to give away… I need to network harder, people.

I was looking forward to Friday night. There was much whispering and palpitations concerning the 2000AD 35th birthday party, and it seemed to be the place where all the cool kids were going. The reality was not as exciting as I had been led to believe. There were some speeches, and a cake was cut, and the Almighty Tharg did make an appearance.

The Mighty Tharg waits for his cue, hanging out by the zarjaz toilets. Splundid vur thrigg, indeed.

And then it was like the bar had been before being closed for two hours to make no changes whatsoever. Good company was on hand in the form of Graham ‘I’ve got a Gemmell Award and you don’t’ McNeill, Guy ‘I am the King of the Goblins’ Haley, and Mark ‘I’ve laid out more rulebooks and game supplements than you’ve had hot dinners’ Owen. There was drinking. There was a failed attempt to procure fish and chips. There was a, regretfully, successful attempt to procure southern fried chicken pieces and (in my case) a cheeseburger.* There were other people with whom I had conversations. And then there was bed.

*Special message for Mark and Graham – Dobby. That is all I have to say on the matter.

Saturday

Having wisely procured accommodation in a place with radiators, running hot water and a generous breakfast buffet, I passed the night in more comfort than many attendees. I had nothing scheduled for the day, so as well as showing my girlfriend around to meet some people (and prove that some people are even bigger nerds than me) I actually went off-site and did some sight-seeing around North Wales. In fact, we went to an aquarium and looked at fish and crabs and things, which in a way was probably more educational than studying the nerd flora and fauna.

Anyway, we got back just about the right time to see the opening rounds of the costume competition. And there were many costumes to judge, some downright stunning, some consisting of t-shirts and not much else. The usual suspects (Graham and Guy) managed to intersect with me again, and we had a fine old time – Graham was out-nerded by my girlfriend due to a deficit of Misfits knowledge. Nerd points have been deducted from his running total. The biggest cheer went out for the chap who turned up as Bender. If only he had answered the questions with ‘Kiss my shiny ass’ and ‘Death to all humans’ he would have won my vote*.

*I did not have a vote. Just thought I would clarify that, in case I go again. I do not need to be lobbied by Hawkmen, alien ambassadors and slightly disturbing manga characters.

If there was one event that I was looking forward to (and Kez, my chauffeuring girlfriend was really looking forward to) it was this:

Singalong Screening. Words to live (and die) by.

Having escaped in search of food that had not been microwaved or required a microwave, we returned in time for the Buffy sing-a-long. We met up with the Black Library crowd and there was singing. It was a shame that there were no words on the screen, or bouncing ball to keep time, but having 800+ nerds all singing along gaily to They Got the Mustard Out was quite possibly the most enjoyable experience of the weekend.

After that it was more drinks (during which I, much to my chagrin, spilt Batman’s pint*), the fun of watching a man with an unbendable steam punk arm trying to play pool, and more costume-spotting. We left on the stroke of midnight (more or less) and our nerdfest was over.

*Quite possibly the scariest experience I have had since my age entered double figures – nobody wants to jostle someone’s arm and then turn around to come face-to-face with the Dark Knight…

Costumed Molestation

Special mention must go to my girlfriend, who over the course of a few hours turned into a nutter magnet. She was harassed twice by the same Star Wars clone trooper, gave a genuine girlish shriek of terror when she turned round to find Darth Vader standing behind her, saw Wonder Woman drying her son under a hand dryer in the ladies’ loo, and was chased across the pub by a scarecrow. I would be lost without her.

How do you like your fantasy?

This Friday, on the main stage of the SFX Weekender, I’ll be taking part in a panel called Elf Preservation (3pm, if you’re going to be around). Rather than just waffle on as I usually do at this sort of thing, I thought I would try a couple of polls to judge the opinion of folks. I would also be very grateful for additional explanation and experiences passed on in the comments – good examples, bad examples, that sort of thing. It’ll be clearer once you’ve seen the questions.

The theme of the panel is whether it is really fantasy if it doesn’t have monsters in it? The quick answer is, “Well, duh, of course it can be!” but I suspect I might need to go into a little bit more detail.

With that in mind, here is the first question. This is quite a broad topic, and what some people think of a traditional fantasy tropes will differ from others. Bearing in mind this sort of individuality, I don’t want to restrict ‘traditional’ to Tolkeinesque, but that’s a good start. Most of us have read quite a bit of fantasy, played fantasy games, and we know what the staples are : dragons, castles, elves, goblins and so on. For the purposes of this question, a novel contains these elements if it uses those names, even if the author’s iteration is different from the norm; if it uses the tried-and-tested portrayals of those elements even if the author has changed the names (for instance, a brutish, bad, warlike race of humanoid monsters called borcs, or sylph-like forest dwellers known as the Fey, or Nomes, or whatever). These are as much about medieval tradition and old folklore as they are modern-day fantasy.

Okay, now for something a little tougher, but requiring less qualifying, I hope. Note there is no ‘It depends’ or ‘I like both’ answers; choose which you prefer in principle. You can explain yourself in the comments.

And just how much do you love the beardies, pointy-ears and greenskins? By character I mean either a viewpoint characters, or non-viewpoint characters that are significant to the plot.

And one last question. Think about this carefully, and try to answer truthfully.

I lied, I have one last question. I will try my best to keep notes/ record the panel so I can pass on my thoughts after the event…

Of the Lion and the Heresy…

Can’t get enough Dark Angels action? Big fan of the Horus Heresy? Desperate to know just what the Lion got up to after his encounter with Konrad Curze in Savage Weapons?

Starting with the next issue of Hammer and Bolter, you can get a preview serialisation of my novella from The Primarchs anthology, The Lion. Not convinced? Here’s what Aaron Dembski-Bowden had to say about it:

I loved The Lion, man.

I just f**king loved it, start to finish. I think it’s the best thing you’ve ever written.

Lots of manlove to you, if I didn’t have a baby on the way already I would want to bear yours,*

Aaron

Of course, Aaron could be going insane, what with his imminent spawning, but the only way to prove him wrong is to read the novella for yourselves. And do you want to wait until June? Really?

P.S. Any comments whinging about digital format and the decline of modern civilisation will be mocked. Take it to the playground (ie the BL Bolthole) if you don’t like the fact that it is an e-preview.

*Later content of email may have been adjusted for comic effect.

Mayan Schmayan – Hello 2012!

The world will not end, at least not in 2012.

As you can tell from the fact that I am posting my New Year entry 11 days into 2012, this year has started off as a busy one. Before I get into that though, let’s take a look at 2011, as is customary at this time. It was, in hindsight, a great year. It seemed very busy at the time, with a lot going on, but looking back as I compiled my notes for this post I was reminded of how enjoyable those projects were. Perhaps most significantly, and away from publishing, the summer of 2011 saw my girlfriend moving in with me… After surviving our first ‘proper’ Christmas together, I think it’s safe to say that the future is looking rosy on that front.

Real Books

Enough of that schmaltzy stuff though, let’s talk books. The year kicked off with my first Space Marines Battles novel, The Purging Of Kadillus. I’m big enough to admit that there was some mixed reaction to this one, with some folks appreciating the broad overview it gave of a Space Marine battle force in action, while others would have preferred to concentrate the story on one or two characters. I am always trying something different with my writing, and with Purging I set myself the task of adhering as closely to the previously published scenarios as possible. Was it the right choice? Actually, yes! Despite the criticisms, I still think that the story hangs together and the portrayal it gives of Space Marines in action is one of the most accurate in the BL catalogue.

2011 saw the culmination of one of my most popular Black Library series, the Time of Legends saga of The Sundering, which ended with Caledor in May. This was a really tricky project, with not only a trilogy to wrap up, but an important chunk of elven history to adhere to, some of which at first reading didn’t lend itself to a great narrative for a novel (12 years of battles without anything being gained or lost? That was difficult…) After three bumper books, it was actually a sad experience to say goodbye to Caledor, Alith Anar and Malekith for the time being.

To keep fans ticking along through the summer the Dwarfs omnibus tunneled up from the Black Library back catalogue to bring Grudgebearer to a new generation of readers. In conjunction with Nick Kyme’s novels, and our collaborative effort Grudgelore, which is also included in the collection, this really is a great introduction to Warhammer Dwarfs, as well as a nice, traditional tome of stories for the longbeards out there.

As one pointed-eared trilogy came to a close, another reached new heights. Path of the Seer hit the shelves in September, which turned out to be a busy month. To tie-in with the release, I had the short story The Curse of Shaa-dom in the UK Games Day anthology. On top of that, part two of the The Crown of the Blood released by Angry Robot – The Crown of the Conqueror – came out. Both novels were, I am happy to say, greeted with enthusiastic and generous reviews, and this bodes well for the final titles in the respective series (of which, more at the end of this post).

An actual copy, in my house.

Last, and by no stretch of the imagination least, came a title that had a printed release date of Jan 2012, but was available widely in December. This was a big one, in no uncertain terms, and perhaps one of my most anxious releases since I started this whole writing malarky. I am, of course, writing about Deliverance Lost, my first full-length Horus Heresy novel. As with all books, there are some folks who didn’t like it, either the story or the style of my writing, but for the vast majority of people it seems I have hit the proverbial nail on its heretical head, with a story focussing on Primarchs and the Legiones Astartes, with a bit of Emperor action thrown in, and no small amount of traitor vs loyalist shenanigans. When I set out to write this book, I wanted to make sure it balanced between the Raven Guard and the Alpha Legion – I didn’t want to write a solely ‘loyalist’ novel or a ‘traitor’ novel – and the overwhelming majority of feedback indicates that I succeeded on that score, so I am pleased.

And for those who want more Raven Guard action, there are now downloads for the two ‘prequel’ stories – the first an audio drama Raven’s Flight, and the second a short story from the Age of Darkness anthology also available a a separate e-story, The Face of Treachery (and an narrated MP3 if you want to listen instead).

Digickal

Dead-tree editions were good for 2011, but one of the factors that made it not a good year but a great year for me is the ongoing digital revolution at Black Library. Firstly, in both print anthologies and available separately as downloads, I had a bunch of short stories published. The first two tales in my ‘Avenging Sons’ arc – Renegades and Rewards of Tolerance are available on the BL store, as are two Warhammer tales from the Age of Legend collection being released this month – a story about a nobleman with a strange relationship with the dead in The Ninth Book and a prose version of my Time of Legends audio epic Aenarion.

Speaking of Aenarion, the fall-out tales of the Defender’s actions were digitised in February of last year, with the first two books of the Sundering being made available on the online store. With Malekith and Shadow King downloadable, fans of the elves can catch up with the story before picking up Caledor. I love it when a plan comes together. As if that was not enough to be getting on with, the continuing growth of Black Library’s French division saw the release of the first and second books of  The Sundering too. Now that more and more titles are getting a simultaneous release in French, I look forward to seeing more strange titles with my names under them.

Angels of Darkness, my bestselling novel so far (though I expect DL to scoot past its sales figures in short order) is now on digital, ready to offend and intrigue a whole new swathe of Dark Angels fans. It’s interesting that AoD still holds the attention of a lot of fans, even with more and more details about the Dark Angels coming out through the Horus Heresy series. If you’ve not read this book, check it out – revelations from the dark days of the Heresy before those johnny-come-latelies made it cool.

Written around about the same time as Angels of Darkness, my Slaves to Darkness trilogy (The Claws of Chaos. The Blades of Chaos and The Heart of Chaos) has also been digitized. I want to make a bit of a big thing about this, because I did not really blow the trumpet loudly enough when this happened back in October. These were my first Warhammer novels, and though some of the language and style is showing my inexperience in places, I still rate this as a top Warhammer story, dealing with the underlying themes of the Warhammer universe, with a cast of characters that I still rate highly. It’s about Chaos and man’s weakness, ambition and folly – all of the themes that my fans have come to enjoy in my later books. This series is where I cut my teeth on those ideas. Slaves To Darkness is set during the Time of the Three Emperors. In these days in a world of Time of Legends epics and Warhammer Heroes sagas that doesn’t seem so special, but an ‘historical’ Warhammer trilogy was revolutionary back then, you know.

And then the oldies but the goldies, in December the e-store became the new home of a bunch of thieving, murderous, dysfunctional misfits known as The Last Chancers. Bless him, Lieutenant Kage has done me proud over the years, which is surprising, what with him being a battle-traumatised psychopath who is just out for himself. Like Slave to Darkness there is a certain purity to the Last Chancers novels that I still love. It’s a 40K tale for the sake of it, with no extra continuity or bells and whistles, with all the gory action and screwed-up Imperium stuff you can hope for. Plus a bunch of Tau get killed, and that can never be a bad thing. With some encouragement from the fans, I hope that BL will find some time to start putting up back catalogue short stories too, which will mean the full Last Chancers collection will be available again (until I finally get around to writing some more). If you would like a brand new Last Chancers novella, show your support in the comments section…

The End of the Long Count

So, 2012 has a lot to live up to if it is going to come close to matching 2011 for sheer volume. That’s not likely to happen, but on the creative front it does promise to be a very interesting time. Just the other day, Catechism of Hate, the first Space Marine Battles limited edition novella went on sale, and sold out in 17 mins (despite server glitches for some). Apologies to those who did not get a copy, I know the LE status of these novellas is a contentious issue. Given the success of that title, more Chaplain Cassius may need to appear on my schedule.

Also out this month is the Age of Legend anthology I mentioned earlier. The Ninth Book was meant to be a prelude to my next Time of Legends series, which would deal with the rise of the Von Carsteins. As I have mentioned before, scheduling issues mean that I can’t do both the Vampire Wars and my forthcoming Dark Angels series, and so the Vamps have been put back. The Dark Angels series is now officially called Legacy of Caliban, the first title of which will be Ravenwing. Not sure on publication date yet, I am sure it will be announced soon. All I have to do now is come up with the actual story. Er…

The good news is that dropping the Time of Legends for three years gives me time – and release slots – to do something a bit different. Thinking about The Last Chancers and Slaves to Darkness, it will be nice to get away from the ‘big brand’ series for a little while and get back to some honest-to-goodness 40k and Warhammer stories. In the case of the latter, I am hoping to be able to bring you something concerning short, fat brewers with big beards, but it ain’t as true as gold yet, so don’t say nothing or get too excited.

Away from BL, I have just started penning the conclusion to The Crown of the Blood. The Crown of the Usurper is 3,000 words long so far, but it’s a start. Out in August, I am hoping that it provides a suitably epic and jaw-dropping, plus brain-twisting, finale to the series.

Aradryan as a ranger

The reason this New Year post is a bit delayed is because I’ve been finishing Path of the Outcast, which will be out in the summer. Rangers, Harlequins, corsairs, Dark Eldar and the survival of Alaitoc at stake. Need I say more? No, I didn’t think so.

And there is talk of other possible work, not for Black Library or Angry Robot. Some of this is games design fun I have been having lately, of which I hope to post more in the next few weeks. Some of it may be other novels… You will have to wait and see!

Thank you for helping make 2011 wonderful, I wish you all the best for 2012.