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 (once again) to John French, this time about his latest Horus Heresy novel – Slaves to Darkness. It’s the 51st book in the series, incredibly, and it’s available to order right now.
As usual, let’s get straight to the questions and John’s answers.
Track of Words: What’s the elevator pitch summary for Slaves to Darkness?
John French: The traitor Primarchs and forces come together to muster for the Solar System while the forces of Chaos pull them apart.
ToW: Without spoiling anything, who are the main characters and what do we need to know about them?
JF: There are a few of them, but there are five Primarchs at the heart of the story: Horus, Fulgrim, Lorgar, Perturabo, and Angron. Then there are Maloghurst the Twisted, equerry to the Warmaster; Argonis, emissary of Horus; Volk, a senior Iron Warrior; Zardu Layak, the masked master daemonologist of the Word Bearers; and Ekkadon, captain of the Sons of Horus Catulan Reavers.
ToW: Where and when is it set?
JF: It’s set just before the siege of Terra, in the very last phase of the Horus Heresy, and it takes place across the Galaxy, from the inside of the Eye of Terra, the Webway, Sarum, to Ullanor.
ToW: Is there anything that you’d recommend readers check out before reading this?
JF: The original trilogy that started with Horus Rising – this is very much a continuation of the themes in those books. And: The First Heretic, Betrayer, and Wolfsbane.
ToW: Why this story? What made you want to write this in particular?
JF: Because it’s a story about Chaos, and what Chaos does and its price and power, its cruelty and its tragedy. And why would I not want to write a story about that?
ToW: How much of a conscious effort goes into balancing the need for a great individual story and the requirements of the overall series narrative when we’re this close to the end of the series now?
JF: For me it has to be a great story even if it is doing the work of pushing forward the overall narrative. That can take a lot of work, mainly in choosing what not to include and what to focus on, but it is vital, because a book like Slaves to Darkness needs to perform a triple trick of moving things forward, setting up future books and being a great read in its own right.
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: I am not sure there are many real life experiences that could inform a book like Slaves to Darkness, unless you have had a very unusual life. My main influences were the early books of the Heresy Series and the classic Realm of Chaos source books. I wanted it to feel like you could see the consequences of those first books reaching their conclusion. And I also wanted to show Chaos in all of its complex and paradoxical wonder.
ToW: How does the final product compare to your original concept? Has anything changed much from your first ideas?
JF: It’s actually very close to how I planned it. Some books come out very different from the vision I have for them, but Slaves to Darkness has this structure of each chapter being split between different characters and that really locked me into following the plan I had, because if I had deviated too much everything would have got out of sync. There were new characters that turned up – Actea and Ekkadon were much less important in the original plan but they became more and more important as it came together.
ToW: How does this story compare to the rest of your work? Is it a familiar style, or a departure?
JF: I guess that if you come to it from books like Praetorian of Dorn, or Ahriman, then it might seem different in that it has a much more direct narrative and much less of me mucking about with readers’ expectations and assumptions. The funny thing is that in form it’s similar to the first novel I ever wrote: The Lies of Solace, for FFG’s Arkham Horror line. So not a departure for me, but maybe less familiar.
ToW: Do you have plans to continue any aspects of this story?
JF: Oh, yes! Watch this space.
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Once again, I’d like to thank John for taking the time to answer these questions. If you’d like to know a bit more about Slaves to Darkness you could always have a read of my review right 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.