RAPID FIRE: Chris Dows Talks Titans’ Bane

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 Dows about his latest 40k audio drama, Titans’ Bane, which is available to order right now. I picked this up at a Black Library event a while ago, and I’m really excited to see the response it gets once it’s released. You can have a read of my review as well – suffice to say I absolutely loved this!

Enough from me, over to Chris.

Track of Words: What’s the elevator pitch summary for Titans’ Bane?

Chris Dows: If the relentless onslaught of mutant cultists isn’t enough for Shadowsword Commander Lieutenant Quiller to deal with, her guilt over the fall of her beloved Cadia and a hastily assembled, dysfunctional hybrid crew pose an even greater threat to her tank’s survival.

ToW: Without spoiling anything, who are the main characters and what do we need to know about them?

CD: You’ll see from the astonishingly gorgeous artwork [by Fred Rambaud] the commander of the Shadowsword and main character, Lieutenant Ferdal Quiller. She’s a Cadian (along with two of her original crew, a mouthy driver and his cousin the remote gunner) who are trying to cope with the fall of Cadia in very different ways (or, in the case of Quiller, not). Then there’s a surly Mordian Comms operator and a deeply tech-religious Paragonian gunner who have been drafted in to make up the Shadowsword’s crew. I’m not going to use the phrase ‘functional crew’ because they’re not – particularly the driver and the gunner, who don’t get on. At all.

Then there’s the enginseer, and the Shadowsword itself – who’s got its own (major) problems. In short, there’s more conflict inside Titans’ Bane than outside – and them cultists just keep on throwing all manner of evil at them.

ToW: Where and when is it set?

CD: It’s set in real-time entirely inside the Cadian Shadowsword Titans’ Bane a few months after the fall of Cadia. It takes place on the planet Xalxat, once a verdant garden world and now blighted by an army of mutant Chaos cultists of Nurgle and their disease-spreading Plaguelord-Class Titans.

ToW: Is there anything that you’d recommend someone check out before listening to this?

CD: I sourced Guy Haley’s excellent Baneblade and Shadowsword novels in my prep for writing. They’re great. And Guy’s a lovely fellow.

ToW: Why this story? What made you want to write this in particular?

CD: After finishing the Elysian trilogy (Scions, Renegades and Martyrs of Elysia) I was keen to do a single-part, self-contained story. The idea came from a conversation with the exalted and most excellent Nick Kyme, who was curious to see if we could do a real-time, single location narrative and make it work. I was all over the idea like a badly fitting suit, and when Kate Hamer got on board as editor, things really started to roll.

I wanted to push myself from creative and technical perspectives (see your question on the lack of narration) and I also wanted to see how far I could go with the characters without making them cliché or stereotypical. I wanted them to live and breathe and fight and react as women and men under massive pressure would – and hope I’ve pulled this off while staying true to the 40K ethos.

ToW: What were your main influences when writing it? Did you draw upon any real-life experience to help you plan or write it?

CD: Other than great input from Nick and Kate, pretty much all of this came from my own interest in mechanised warfare. I went over to the Imperial War Museum and had a good, long look at the Sherman Tank they’ve got on static display there, getting a feel for the materials and sheer scale of it (although the Shadowsword is around five times the size at least). I’ve written a WWII historical action novel (Lokomotion, on Amazon) which entailed a lot of research into all types of kit, and I started by investigating modern and historical tank interiors then extrapolating them to the existing Shadowsword model and schematics.

Luckily there’s a lot of non-contradictory IP stuff on the Shadowsword, and I deliberately used Guy’s descriptions of interiors and exteriors to keep the continuity going. Of course, machines are only half the story – I was keen to make the tank itself a character, and from the first draft I had its disembodied voice as a feature which I think works particularly well. For the crew, it’s a story about coming to terms with guilt and realising perhaps the best place for someone to be isn’t where they left their hearts – very much like the Benjamin Sisko character in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

ToW: There’s very little narration in this audio drama. Were there any particular challenges to writing this sort of story that’s so dialogue-driven?

CD: This is a great question, and I’m glad you’ve noticed. As I was formulating this story, there was a change of direction in the audio dramas to make them pretty much the same as radio plays. I was absolutely on board with this, as I felt the omniscient narrator I’d used throughout the Elysian stories didn’t make me work quite as hard as I used to as a comic book writer (I would avoid using narration boxes like the plague).It’s far more difficult to have everything explained and avoid exposition with just dialogue, but it can be done – and if you use sound effects carefully too, that can do the work for you (Matt and the team have done an amazing job on the production of this story by the way). From initial draft to finished version, it came together quickly – in no small part thanks to timely, thoughtful and entirely logical suggestions and comments from Kate.

ToW: How does the final product compare to your original concept? Has anything changed much from your first ideas?

CD: This leads us to perhaps the most fascinating – and exciting – part of Titans’ Bane. You will have noticed that Lieutenant Quiller is a woman. That is an absolutely deliberate decision, which happened after I’d written the first draft and it had gone through an editorial read-through with Kate and some of the other editors, who wondered out loud how it’d work if Quiller was female.

Now here’s the thing. When I was a comic book writer, a good percentage of our (I used to write as a team with my good friend Colin Clayton) output were female characters. We didn’t use it as a novelty; in fact I don’t care if the character is male or female, as long as it’s a good one. Black Library are addressing gender imbalance in their output absolutely head-on; there’s a fantastic positive action movement going on, and when I was asked what I thought about Quiller being female, I actually laughed out loud – it was and is a brilliant idea. Think of it. It’s 40K. There are billions fighting, and female soldiers/warriors are pretty well established. So why not make Quiller female?

I checked through my first draft and realised there were no gender-specific traits or aspects. Quiller was Quiller, male or female. The actress who plays Quiller [Penelope Rawlins] is fantastic too; in fact the technical side of the drama is superb throughout. The sound effects are subtle rather than too in your face (or should that be ‘ear’?), and the story is pretty much exactly as I’d written it – except for the ending, which had a ‘tagged on’ explanatory bit which I put in just in case it was needed. Kate emphatically said it wasn’t, so we took it off and it ends exactly as we’d both envisaged. Except better.

ToW: How does this story compare to the rest of your work? Is it a familiar style, or a departure?

CD: They say you’re only as good as your next job…I have to say this is the best thing I’ve written for Black Library so far. It’s a departure from a structural and storytelling perspective, but I felt very comfortable bringing life to my characters with dialogue and emotion – something I used to enjoy very much in my comic book writing days. I love the script/audio drama format, and I’m so happy to be working with BL on really pushing what we can do.

When I was at the Black Library Weekender last November (big hello to everyone I talked with – you lovely people!) it was clear those who listen to audio dramas can’t quite understand why everyone doesn’t dig them. I’d have to agree (and not just to boost my sales – I’m very late to this party!) The care with which these are made and the production values are astonishing – both Kate and I knew this project back to front but when we both first heard it…blimey. Talk about the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. And while I’ve got the mic, I need to thank Michael for the very, very kind things he’s said about Titans’ Bane [You’re very welcome, Chris!] – and I look forward to discussing it with anyone who wants to over the next year’s events.

ToW: Do you have plans to continue any aspects of this story, or is it a standalone piece?

CD: This is a standalone piece, although I want to revisit the whole Cadian guilt thing at some point because I think it’s a rich vein to tap. I also like the idea of dysfunctional crews trying to work out their own issues while surviving with others they neither know nor trust. My next audio drama (currently in first draft stage) is VERY different to Titans’ Bane, but I think brings a whole new aspect to my storytelling – and the newest concept I’m putting together with Kate is… well… REALLY interesting 😊

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Many thanks, as always, to Chris for taking the time to answer these questions. Like I said at the top, I absolutely loved this audio drama – you can check out my review of Titans’ Bane right here. If you fancy taking a look at some other Rapid Fire interviews, you can do so right here.

Click here to buy Titans’ Bane.

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.