Welcome to this instalment of Rapid Fire, my ongoing series of quick interviews with Black Library authors talking about their new releases. These are short and sweet interviews, with the idea being that each author will answer (more or less) the same questions – by the end of each interview I hope you will have a good idea of what the new book (or audio drama) is about, what inspired it and why you might want to read or listen to it.
In this instalment I spoke to Chris Wraight about his new 40k novel The Lords of Silence, which sees him turn his attention to the Death Guard. You can order The Lords of Silence right now!
As usual, let’s get straight to the questions and Chris’ answers.
Track of Words: What’s the elevator pitch summary for The Lords of Silence?
Chris Wraight: The Great Rift has split the galaxy in two. We know what that means for the Imperium, but what does it mean for the Other Guys? Now that they’ve got what they’ve been working 10,000 years for, is everything going to be plain sailing from now on? (Spoiler: no.)
ToW: Without spoiling anything, who are the main characters and what do we need to know about them?
CW: We follow a warband called The Lords of Silence who inhabit a living ship called Solace. There are hundreds of warriors on board – the warband is virtually Chapter-strength – but the story focuses on just a few of them: Vorx, the leader; Dragan, his champion; Slert, a Putrifier; Kledo, a Surgeon; Philemon, a Tallyman, and Garstag, the master of Terminators. Some are ancient, some are recent additions. They all have different ideas about what they ought to be doing and where, which leads to the usual tensions and rivalries present within all Chaos factions.
ToW: Where and when is it set?
CW: It skips through time a bit, but the main action takes place before and after the fall of Cadia, showing events on either side of the Rift appearing. We get a glimpse at the Plague Planet and the Eye, and are then thrown deep into the Dark Imperium, a wasteland where all the old rules are broken.
ToW: Is there anything that you’d recommend readers check out before reading this?
CW: It would be good to know just a bit about the ‘new now’ in 40K, and what the main players, such as Guilliman and Abaddon, are up to. In terms of BL fiction, Guy Haley’s Dark Imperium would be a great start, or even my own Watchers of the Throne: The Emperor’s Legion. The Gathering Storm campaign books would also be worth reading. But none of this is essential: the book stands alone, and tells its own story.
ToW: Why this story? What made you want to write this in particular?
CW: I didn’t, originally! Nick Kyme suggested a Death Guard novel, and it took me a while to work out how I could write one. I’d portrayed them a little before, notably in the Horus Heresy series, but never as protagonists, and never with the same depth as, say, the White Scars. I had to do a lot of research and a lot of thinking before deciding on the angle to adopt. As ever with 40K factions, the more I read, the more I wanted to write. By the time I was into the drafting, I was hugely enjoying it, and now have lots of ideas for future stories with these guys.
ToW: What were your main influences when writing it? Did you draw upon any real-life experience to help you plan or write it?
CW: The main inspirations were the classic BL Traitor Astartes novel series, such as Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s Night Lords trilogy and Anthony Reynolds’ Word Bearers series. I also took a lot from some of the old WHFB Nurgle imagery and ethos – my Death Guard are possibly a bit grittier and nastier than their presentation in the current model line-up, though there are Nurglings galore of course and some (fairly dark) humour here and there.
ToW: You’ve written 40k-era Death Guard before as antagonists, but as far as I can tell this is your first full novel focusing on out-and-out bad guys as protagonists. Was it any different tackling characters on the other side to usual?
CW: Yes, because the motivations of Space Wolves and White Scars (for instance) are much closer to real-world ideas of heroism than the Death Guard’s. The Death Guard have a strange and complex ideology, one that involves them deliberately infecting themselves full of all sorts of horrific things in the name of their religion, thereby becoming both stronger and weaker at the same time. Of all of the Chaos powers, I think Nurgle is the strangest and least easy to understand the appeal of, and I really wanted to explore this and make it credible. As always, the first question to answer is: what’s their motivation? What do they want, and why? Only then can you start to make sense of how they act.
ToW: How does the final product compare to your original concept? Has anything changed much from your first ideas?
CW: In this case, very little. I had some really good discussions with both Nick Kyme and Guy Haley about how this book would fit into the current line-up, particularly as other great Death Guard stories (such as Guy’s Dark Imperium: Plague War) are also on the slate. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t duplicating anything that was going on elsewhere, and that meant stepping back from some of the big, galaxy-changing events and looking at the smaller scale. A few details emerged during the writing, as always, but the end result feels pretty close to what I had in mind.
ToW: How does this story compare to the rest of your work? Is it a familiar style, or a departure?
CW: It’s got a slightly different prose style. It’s written in the present tense, which I ended up really enjoying, to add to the vague air of oddness that the Death Guard ought to have.
ToW: Is this a one-off novel or will we see more from these characters in future?
CW: I sincerely hope there will be more to come.
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Thanks once again to Chris for taking the time to answer these questions. Keep an eye out for a review of The Lords of Silence coming sometime soon.
If you fancy taking a look at some other Rapid Fire interviews, just click here. If you’ve got any questions, comments or other thoughts please do let me know in the comments below, on Facebook or Twitter, or by emailing me at michael@trackofwords.com.