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 David Guymer about his latest 40k novel The Voice of Mars, which is his second 40k Iron Hands book. It’s available to order right now, so do check it out!
Without further ado, however, let’s get straight to the questions and David’s answers.
Track of Words: What’s the elevator pitch summary for The Voice of Mars?
David Guymer: It’s the sequel to last year’s critically acclaimed blockbuster (sic), The Eye of Medusa. Where that book was set largely on and around Medusa, and with an almost all Iron Hands cast, Voice is all about how the Iron Hands play with others.
ToW: Without spoiling anything, who are the main characters and what do we need to know about them?
DG: Kardan Stronos is still the hero of the piece. He’s slightly more empathetic and open-minded than your usual Iron Hand. He’s risen to prominence against the backdrop of dysfunction and schism within the Iron Hands and he’s determined to change things from inside the Iron Council. This book sees him on Mars, with a bunch of aspirants from other Chapters, to be trained as a Techmarine and Iron Father.
The Eye of Medusa’s other stars, Arven Rauth and Melitan Yolanis, are also still around. Yolanis is a mortal Tech-Priest and apparently something of a reader favourite. She’s been dispatched to Mars to check up on some elicit technology that the Iron Hands may or may not have stashed away. Rauth’s name will be familiar to old school Iron Hands readers, but at this point in the timeline he’s a Scout who’s been attached to a Deathwatch kill-team, tracking xenos technology on another world.
And then there’s Iron Father Kristos. He’s the guy that Stronos is basically set against, the guy with all the power, and whose extreme ‘flesh is weak’ view he’s set on challenging.
ToW: Where and when is it set?
DG: It’s set around the middle of M41 so about five or six hundred years before ‘present.’ The action is scattered across three locations. Two story strands take place on Mars, a third on a Knight World called Fabris Callivant, and it’s all neatly pulled together by a fourth story strand set on Medusa
ToW: Is there anything that you’d recommend readers check out before reading this?
DG: The Eye of Medusa, obviously, but Chris Wraight’s Wrath of Iron would also be worth a look as I use younger versions of a few of his characters here.
ToW: Why this story? What made you want to write this in particular?
DG: I’ve always been drawn to characters and factions that I feel have been underserved or poorly treated by the lore. With Star Trek I always want to see more about the Nausicaans or the Bolians. With 40K it’s the Iron Hands.
My intention on writing the trilogy was to try to reconcile some of the discontinuities between the Clan Raukaan Codex and the old Index Astartes lore, and in doing that research was struck by the character of the Voice of Mars (a senior Tech-Priest who basically has a sort of chairman role on the Iron Council) and the awesome amount of power he wields. All the Iron Hands lore material naturally emphasizes the power of the Iron Hands, but it seemed pretty obvious to me that compared to the might of the Adeptus Mechanicus the Iron Hands are nothing. This trilogy then became an exploration of how, by controlling its information, by training its leaders, and by rewriting its history, Mars has made the Iron Hands what they are today.
ToW: How do you get into the mindset of an Iron Hand, when writing something like this?
DG: It’s tough. Being cold and emotionless is part of their thing but no reader is going to relate to something like that. I have always imagined the Iron Hands as being like Star Trek’s Vulcans, completely controlled on the outside but seething with bitterness and rage on the inside, and that’s pretty much how I dealt with it. Their lack of empathy and passion also helped me to depict their brutality (because the Iron Hands are probably the most unpleasant Space Marine Chapter) without ever justifying the acts with emotion.
ToW: How does the final product compare to your original concept? Has anything changed much from your first ideas?
DG: It’s pretty much exactly as planned, although my editor did make me take a lot of characters out. Before writing this I’d just read Aaron’s Night Lords trilogy; I loved how he’d often deploy a new a character for the purpose of setting a scene (usually just prior to getting killed horribly) and got slightly carried away.
ToW: How does this story compare to the rest of your work? Is it a familiar style, or a departure?
DG: The Eye of Medusa was a pretty ideas-heavy sci-fi novel, and whereas The Voice of Mars does, of course, carry those ideas forward, this is probably a more conventional 40K novel in that it’s mostly about the action. If you want to see Iron Hands fighting Eldar, Knights fighting Orks, void battles, ground battles, then this is the book for you.
ToW: Do you have plans to continue any aspects of this story, or is it a standalone piece?
DG: There should be a third book to the trilogy, Sapphire King, that will finish off the story. That said though, I’d love to write about Kardan Stronos post Dark Imperium.
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Thanks once again to David for taking the time to answer these questions. I’ll hopefully get a review of The Voice of Mars ready just as soon as I can get hold of a copy! 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.