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 John French about his latest 40k audio drama, Agent of the Throne: Truth and Dreams, the second in that series after the excellent Blood and Lies. You can order this in MP3 or CD formats right now.
Without further ado, let’s get straight to John’s answers.
Track of Words: What’s the elevator pitch summary for Agent of the Throne: Truth and Dreams?
John French: An agent of the Inquisition tracking a rogue psyker gets trapped in a military prison with the psyker she was hunting. Violence and dream-quests ensue.
ToW: Without spoiling anything, who are the main characters and what do we need to know about them?
JF: Well, we see the return of Ianthe from Blood and Lies. She is still the same cold killer ex-soldier of the Astra Militarum, but now she has more experience of what being an agent of the throne means. She is starting to see the grey and blurred edges of what she is doing, and ask questions about who she is.
Two other characters that I am really excited to see introduced in this episode are Amestris Zand, who is an ‘Imperial Official’ of uncertain origin and purpose, and Silas Norn – a rogue telepath who is vicious and dangerous. They are both have similarities to, and deep contrasts with Ianthe. They also are the first signs of an overarching plot coming into the Agent of the Throne series…
ToW: Where and when is it set?
JF: It’s set on a planet in the middle of troop levy, so the planet is swarming with military. As things transpire Ianthe’s mission takes her into a Munitorum prison so a lot of it is set there. But… it involves a psyker and has dreams in the title so it wouldn’t be fair if it didn’t have at least one sequence set purely in the characters’ heads.
ToW: How does this story tie in with the rest of the Horusian Wars series?
JF: It is set in the Caradryad sector which is the same region of space as Resurrection, but this is much more about something that is happening at the same time as the rest of the rest of the events of the Horusian Wars.
ToW: Is there anything that you’d recommend someone check out before listening to this?
JF: Blood and Lies! That is the beginning of the Agent of the Throne series so will give you lots of context, but if you want to dive in here go for it.
ToW: Why this story? What made you want to write this in particular?
JF: I love writing stories about unusual characters and parts of the Imperium that you don’t often see – the parts far away from the big conflicts, where small intense battles occur in the shadows.
This story in particular is also about the next steps for Ianthe and the choices she faces. The whole thing is told almost in retrospect, because it is framed by her talking to an unknown person about her past from a point in her distant future, so there is a lot about memory – it’s a running theme for the series, but I wanted to do a story that really put some weight into it.
ToW: What were your main influences when writing it? Did you draw upon any real-life experience to help you plan or write it?
JF: There isn’t really one clear set of influences. I find that ideas tend to accrete over time and add up in all kinds of strange ways. I might remember a single part of single scene of a film, or a tone of dialogue from a TV program, or something I saw while on a walk through a city, and then they combine in all kinds of ways, and change and morph, and… short answer is lots of tiny influences, and no large ones in particular.
ToW: How does the final product compare to your original concept? Has anything changed much from your first ideas?
JF: I got goosebumps the first time I heard the opening scenes. There’s a magic to audio drama – you send words off on the page and they come back almost alive. The script is still there as I wrote it, but things like the telepathic memory and dream sequences are so much better than I could have hoped.
ToW: How does this story compare to the rest of your work? Is it a familiar style, or a departure?
JF: This is peak me, in all honesty. The style is very much that set by Blood and Lies, but it’s also got psykers and mindscapes and, yeah all of the stuff I love doing.
ToW: Do you have plans to continue any aspects of this story, or is it a standalone piece?
JF: It is very much part of the Agent of the Throne arc, so it can be enjoyed on its own, but Ianthe still has a lot of story to go.
***
Thanks, as always, to John for taking the time to answer these questions. You can check out my review of Truth and Dreams here. 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.