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.
For this instalment I’ve spoken with not just one but two Black Library authors – Nick Kyme and Gav Thorpe – to get the lowdown on the latest Warhammer Chronicles omnibus, Masters of Stone and Steel. Read on to delve back into the earlier days of the Old World, and then don’t forget to go out and grab your copy of the book, as it’s available to order right now.
Track of Words: How would you describe Masters of Stone and Steel to someone thinking of buying it?
Nick Kyme: It’s a saga of four distinct novels about the slow erosion of a proud and powerful empire. It’s all about the gold hungry, master artisans and arch grudge holders the dwarfs, who are ultimately the victims of tragic fate and their own natures. It’s not all doom and gloom, though. There is heroism and adventure too, the last flickers of glory of a race not quite ready to submit to its decline.
Gav Thorpe: One might say it’s a definitive collection of Warhammer dwarfs fiction. Everything you need to know about these gruff artisans and their lives is contained within these pages, including plenty of battles.
ToW: Could you give a quick summary of each of your stories within this omnibus?
Nick: My two novels that feature in the omnibus are Oathbreaker and Honourkeeper. The former is a quest story, a sort of dwarf version of the Dirty Dozen that has dungeon delving, monsters, volcanic eruptions and hordes of dirty little goblins! It’s an ensemble piece about redemption and the dangers of hubris. The latter is a war story, of two very different cultures coming together to fight a common enemy. It’s a bitter-sweet glimpse of what could have been for the dwarfs and the elves, and acts as a bit of a forerunner to the War of Vengeance. It’s a sly peek at the dwarfs near their prime when they were still a great and powerful nation.
Gav: Grudge Bearer is about a dwarf that inherits a kingship and its grudges – moral debts that must be repaid to the dwarfs. Over a period that spans several human lifetimes he must establish his legacy as a ruler and as a dwarf. On the other side of the coin is The Doom of Dragonback which is set thousands of years earlier and follows a family of dwarfs from the edges of their mountainous empire. Threats are growing, the greenskins are on the move, but the dwarfs of Dragonback are too set in their ways to believe the worst could happen – when it does it falls to Haldi Angbok to lead her family to safety. Ancestral Honour is a different sort of story on the same theme, of a dwarf seeking to atone for a terrible shame by venturing into the goblin-infested depths of an abandoned dwarf settlement. They all riff on the these of family, obligation and obsession that characterise Warhammer dwarfs.
ToW: You’re both known as dwarf fans – what makes them so interesting to write about?
Gav: They’ve one of the richest backgrounds in Warhammer, developed by Nigel Stillman and Rick Priestley. One the one hand they are simple, humorous caricatures of Yorkshire miners, on the other there’s a depth to their personality and society that says a lot about loyalty, acquisitiveness and tradition. The models always looked great too, and I suspect reading The Hobbit at an early aged sowed the seeds for a certain leaning toward bearded adventurers.
Nick: It’s always been the tragedy of the dwarfs that has attracted me to them; that married to the indomitable spirit that sees them endure against odds that would be the end of most other races. There’s a lot of depth here, to their culture, their history and ideas – they’re a really strong archetype and that makes getting into their proud, grumpy, yet heroic mindset a rewarding and fun experience.
ToW: Do you think a new reader could jump straight into these books, or would you recommend reading any other Warhammer stories first, to familiarise themselves with the setting?
Gav: These stories are a prime source of lore for the dwarfs, needing no prior knowledge of the subjects. That said, folks that know of the old history of the dwarfs – in particular the War of Vengeance – will find new layers to explore.
Nick: Each of the books stand alone and don’t require other reading for them to be enjoyed or understood. The characterisation of Warhammer dwarfs is probably one most fantasy fans will be familiar with, so I actually think this would be a good primer for anyone wanting to toe-dip into the setting.
ToW: Can you recommend any other Warhammer novels to read after this omnibus?
Gav: Black Library have just re-released most of the old Time of Legend books as Warhammer Chronicles, as well as others set at later stages in the timeline, all of which are great reads. The most obvious choice would be the War of Vengeance collection.
Nick: If you’re a fan of stories about dwarfs and the dwarf empire, then look no further than The War of Vengeance omnibus. A lot of the tragedy, the fall of the dwarf realms and their severe enmity with the elves can be traced back to the brutal war between these two races. This hefty omnibus tells the notorious story of how it all came about, and my novel, The Great Betrayal, is the opening act in this volume.
ToW: How do these stories compare to the rest of your work? Are they a familiar style, or a departure?
Nick: Oathbreaker and Honourkeeper were written right near the start of my Black Library authorial career, so I suspect my style has probably evolved a little since then. Similar themes might run through into my other books as these tend to be the things that will interest me as a writer, though most of what I write now is part of the futuristic setting of Warhammer 40,000, so naturally there are some differences in tone.
Gav: These are Gav Thorpe works through-and-through. They’re some of my favourites, simply because of my affinity to the subject matter.
ToW: Were there aspects of any of these stories that you had hoped to continue and write more about?
Nick: I think after writing Oathbreaker, I had a desire to potentially continue the story. There are some gentle lose threads I left untied for that. More likely, though, I think I would have told a story from a different era of the dwarf chronology, perhaps during the destruction around the Fall of Karak Eight Peaks and the end of the dwarfen silver age.
Gav: Not a particular thing, but I would have liked to have written at least one more dwarfs novel before the Warhammer World was destroyed. There’s a character in Grudge Bearer called Dran the Reckoner who would have made an interesting protagonist. Actually, that’s not true – I pitched a series of audio dramas based on Josef Bugman…
ToW: If you were to write about duardin in Age of Sigmar, which particular faction would you choose and what sort of story would you want to tell?
Nick: The Kharadron Overlords offer a lot of great opportunity for stories. Something fantastical, in the vein of the Voyages of Sinbad or a tale that evokes the exploratory essence of Jules Verne is really appealing to me.
Gav: I’ve not really looked into their background so I can’t really say, but it seems to be that duardin and dwarfs aren’t quite the same – and I’m a dwarfs fan. It’d be a disservice to the duardin for me to write them at the moment because I’d treat them like Old World dwarfs too much rather than the Age of Sigmar iteration.
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Thanks so much to both Gav and Nick for taking the time out of their busy schedules to answer these questions. I don’t know about you, but I’m now really keen to revisit the Old World and check these stories out.
Click here to buy Masters of Stone and Steel.
If you fancy taking a look at some other Rapid Fire interviews then 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.