Welcome to this instalment of Rapid Fire, my ongoing series of quick interviews with 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 Black Library author Gav Thorpe about his latest Warhammer 40,000 novel, Indomitus, which pits Ultramarines against Necrons and has been released in hardback, ebook and MP3 formats alongside not one but two different special editions. If you want the lowdown on the Indomitus Crusade and how the Necrons get involved, this is a good place to start.
Over to Gav…
Track of Words: How would you describe your new novel Indomitus?
Gav Thorpe: It’s sort of a 40k take on the Kobayashi Maru scenario from Star Trek. What happens when some Space Marines are faced with a battle they cannot possibly win but cannot evade? If they fight, they are doomed and the Indomitus Crusade will falter. If they attempt to withdraw, the very act of not combating the Necrons’ expansion may also bring about long-lasting troubles for the crusade.
ToW Without spoiling anything, who are the main characters and what do we need to know about them?
GT: We have Aeschelus, Captain of the Ultramarines and force commander. He has been ‘fast-tracked’ into the fighting to replace officer losses, with additional hypnodoctrination for the command role. As a commander in Fleet Quintus he feels it is imperative that the reversals the fleet has suffered are pushed into history by new successes and glories.
Serving him are two Lieutenants, Nemetus and Praxamedes. Nemetus is another newish officer, dynamic and forthright in his actions. Praxamedes is the odd-one-out, having served in the Crusade for the nine years since it left Terra. He is far more cautious and pragmatic, having seen widespread losses amongst the Space Marines and fleet already.
The Necrons are commanded by Simut, an arrogant Overlord who believes in life he was related to the Silent King and is therefore of the highest royal lineage. He is aided by a Plasmancer called Ah-Hotep, assigned to him by his superiors to keep the pylon-construction fleet on schedule. With them is a Destroyer Lord called Zozar, intent upon annihilating all biological life.
ToW: Where and when is it set?
GT: In the first decade of the Indomitus Crusade, about nine years after Fleet Primus departs Terra. The exact location is not known.
ToW: Are there any key themes or ideas that you’ve focused on in this book, and which you can talk about without giving any spoilers?
GT: Aside from what I covered in the first question, I return to my popular theme of authority and where it comes from, both on the Necron side and among the Space Marines.
ToW: How does this fit in with other 40k novels in the same sort of timeline, like the Dark Imperium books or the upcoming Dawn of Fire series? Does it provide a different sort of story to the other tales being told?
GT: It’s adjacent, I would say. The events of Indomitus take place alongside the opening events of the crusade, so there is some overlap in overall narrative, but there is no connection between characters or the specific events depicted.
ToW: What appeals to you about Ultramarines as characters to write about?
GT: I like to challenge the stereotype of the flat do-gooders who live by the rules in a book. Indeed, the opening scenes with our Ultramarines characters are focused very much on how different warriors take guidance from Guilliman’s ancient work. Aeschelus, Nemetus and Praxamedes are all undeniably Ultramarines but they certainly are not cast from the same mould.
ToW: It looks like this is the first Ultramarines story you’ve written since Catechism of Hate. How did you find revisiting this Chapter? Did you need to adjust much in terms of your approach?
GT: The injection of the Primaris Marines has allowed me to look at the Chapter cult and traditions in a different way, while the backdrop of the Indomitus Crusade brings with it new opportunities to examine what Space Marines are and what their role is within the wider Imperium.
ToW: What about Necrons? What’s the angle on these particular xenos that works for you as a writer?
GT: I had a lot of fun with the Necrons. Having dabbled with some Necron point of view scenes previously in Wild Rider it was great to have the chance to spend some more time with them. In particular, I wanted to look at how to portray beings with intellect and personality but no soul, as well as their hierarchy principles and how that impacts upon their use of ultra technology. There’s a strange dichotomy between the near-godlike levels of power at their command and a mental imprisonment to their old physical lives and habits. The introduction of the plasmancer also brings in an entirely new perspective, of a creature that views the universe purely as interacting energies.
ToW: What did you enjoy the most about the process of working on this novel?
GT: Firstly, I got to see renders of the new miniatures months and months ago! Some really cool stuff I had to keep secret (especially as one of my – pre-Covid – gaming buddies is a huge Necron fan). This book was very much at the request of Black Library, and with a specific product to act as inspiration too. The challenge was to create an engaging story from what is essentially some broad background material and some very specific troop types (though I was not limited to just the Indomitus box contents, there’s lots more folks fighting on both sides, especially the Necrons).
Black Library had approached me because they wanted a character-focused story, so putting the different pieces together – teasing out personalities like Simut, Praxamedes and Ah-hotep, and even backstory for a vicious slaughterer liker Zozar – was a very different experience to pitching an idea that’s been bubbling away, potentially for years. I needed to find a way to connect to these characters first, rather than already having that because they were my creation, and then working out the means to share that connection with the story.
ToW: What do you hope 40k fans will get out of this by the time they’ve finished it?
GT: Some insight into the wider Necrons and Ultramarines, hopefully, but most of all enjoying a story about characters each striving towards their own goals, whatever they may be.
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Many thanks to Gav for taking the time to answer these questions, as always! If you would like to read more about Indomitus you can find my review here.
Buy Indomitus – including the audiobook edition.
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