Derrick - Another thank you. There are times, to be fair, when the Gaunt’s Ghosts series (now 12 volumes long) becomes unwieldy for me. It’s well over a million words, it’s a lot of characters, and I am constantly looking for new things to do in it (within the fairly defined limits of a series about infantrymen in space). For the readers’ sakes, I don’t want to end up doing the same thing over and over. I’m very grateful for the fact that my imagination has dreamed up some chunky ideas for the next batch of stories at least. But I do have to wait for them, and they seem to come from the characters, when they’re good and ready…

Adam - fair points, well put, though I believe that any writer, no matter WHAT they’re writing, should be operating under (perhaps self-imposed) limits or rules, or there is absolutely no rigour to what they’re doing. Doesn’t matter if you’re master of the universe, or somebody else is, the universe still has to work.

That stigma is hard to shift, and it’s hard to shift for any work that can be classified as ‘tie-in’, no matter how appropriate for transition the source material seems. There is a difference, of course, between a tie-in and a novelization: a novelization transfers a two hour movie into novel form and certainly could feel underweight. A tie-in set in the same movie’s universe might be much richer and paced to suit the format. It’s also worth remembering that 40K books come from a very rich source: the almost role-playing density of a gaming universe as opposed to the leanness of a movie. I hope Graham and I do change your mind. At the risk of being really cheeky, pick up (borrow!) a copy of one of our Horus Heresy or 40K novels: they may not be your cup of tea, but they prove to you that they’re more than ‘the book of the toy soldier’.

Jay - The dark ages of the Heresy? Why that’s next on our Big List Of Scary Things To Do.

The next Gaunt’s Ghosts novel will be called Salvation’s Reach. I have been slightly waylaid recently by illness (I was diagnosed with epilepsy, which has changed my life a little), but normal service will be resumed soon. This has also bumped along Interceptor City (the sequel to Double Eagle) and the first of the Bequin Trilogy (the third and final Inquisitor trilogy, subtitled Eisenhorn versus Ravenor), but they are still very much on my to do list.

It’s the same with movies. Films based on games are traditionally looked down upon (with good reason, it has to be said, since most are dross) but even if a good one were to come along, it would come with a whole lot of baggage and negative perceptions to overcome. Though let’s not forget that Pirates of the Caribbean was a ride at Disneyland before it became a rollicking fun ride of a movie. We’ll ignore the sequels for the sake of argument, eh? In other words, we need to forget the baggage of origins and appreciate a book or film or whatever on its own merits.

Jay: To have someone say our work defines what 40K is to them…I feel all tingly inside. I don’t plan to leave the Ultramarines in the lurch any time soon, but as it happens, I do plan to take a little bit of a break from them to venture to sectors new. But. I’ll definitely be back to them, after all the whole grimdark needs some leavening with true heroes now and then. And it’s just fun writing about seven foot tall, genetically-engineered killing machines…

As to what I’ll be tackling instead, well, I’ll let you know in due course, but it’s one I think will have a lot of folk frothing into their space mead. 101010011.

Graham

So when are you guys going to be able to reveal what you meant by the “dark ages of the Horus Heresy”?

Also Dan - when can we expect the next GG novel and what is the title?

Also (and I know you always get asked this so keeping with tradition) - when can we expect the Bequin trilogy and Interceptor City?

Graham - It would be great to see you move on from the Ultramarines and tackle another aspect of W40k. How about something less obvious than SMs of IG, perhaps Arbites or Navy or Rogue Traders or Astra Telepathica?

Speaking of Ultramarine (last question honest) - it’s great Dan has been involved in scripting the forthcoming movie. What ideas do you both have for possible future W40k movies?

Thanks

And, you know, I share that whole stigma of “oh, he’s not a real writer” if they write in forgotten realms or warhammer or any not-originally-novelised IP, but like you mentioned, I don’t have the same abhorrence of comics writers, or even TV writers. I think part of the problem is the original conception of whatever the IP might be: generally, I don’t think novelizations of movies or video games work well, because the conception of the world was for a completely different medium. Star Wars, for instance, works well for movies, because the plot is breezy and uncomplicated enough to fit into convenient 90 minute runtimes, and though I like the Thrawn series, any true moves forward in the series are inevitably shackled because they can’t change the delicate balance of kid-friendly space adventures mixed with for-real SF/F.

So in short, my opinion of the matter is confused. But I’ll stick around and see if you can change my mind.

I never really thought of it that way - writing in another person’s universe that is. To be honest, I’ve always thought of Gaunt’s Ghosts and Eisenhorn; and all of your other work for that matter, to be in fact your universe marketed (and approved of course) by the franchises. Not to swell your head; but both your and Graham McNeill’s novelizations (as well as many of the other authors in BL) in 40k have been my primary interpretation of 40k.

It makes sense though, coming from the author. Shamefully; I’ve not read much of your work outside of 40k, but am excited to get Triumff when it does come out in the states. Anyway, more of a praise than questions! But I do have one…

Do you ever have difficulty digging into new ideas for Guant’s Ghosts? Or has it sort of taken on a life of it’s own as a series?