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 the ever-busy Guy Haley about his latest Horus Heresy novel Titandeath, the 53rd book in the series – which is available to order right now!
As usual, let’s get straight to the questions and Guy’s answers.
Track of Words: What’s the elevator pitch summary for Titandeath?
Guy Haley: Titans clash on apocalyptic scale as the fate of the Imperium hangs in the balance.
ToW: Without spoiling anything, who are the main characters and what do we need to know about them?
GH: The book mostly concerns new characters. These are the members of two Titan Orders, or Legio, named the Imperial Hunters and the Death Stalkers. The Imperial Hunters are all women, with the main character being Esha Ana, who is daughter of the Grand Master (in this Legio called The Great Mother). The Death Stalkers give us our antagonist Terent Hartekk, who does something really quite pivotal in the development of an important aspect of this universe.
I wanted to explore how Titan Legions work and differ. There are a lot of other characters in this, too many to go over them all, but I particularly liked Magos Ardim Protos of the Dark Mechanicum, who is one of the disciples of Sota-Nul.
ToW: Where and when is it set?
GH: It is set towards the end of the campaign for Beta-Garmon, including the Titandeath itself. This is the last large action before the Siege of Terra in the Horus Heresy.
ToW: What would you recommend Horus Heresy fans check out before reading this?
GH: It’s actually fairly self contained. Although it is an important waystone on the road to Terra, and adds to the build up to the siege, it’s pretty clean in terms of the ongoing stories of existing characters, so you could feasibly read this without looking at the rest of the Heresy if you wished.
ToW: How much of a Titans fan were you before you started work on this book?
GH: Oh you know, I was a fan of Titans. I’m a big Warhammer 40,000 fan full stop. I love the Adeptus Mechanicus in general. I’d never played the old Epic 40k, but I have plenty of new Adeptus Titanicus Titans now!
ToW: How closely did you work with Forge World during the planning and writing process?
GH: Very, very closely. They were working on the Titandeath supplement while I was writing this novel. They’d done a lot of work on it already, but as I was planning my book I came up with a bunch of ideas that they incorporated into their material. They gave me the Imperial Hunters and Death Stalkers to focus on, I elaborated on the background for each, which they then incorporated. It’s the closest I’ve worked with a GW department other than BL itself while I’ve been writing novels for them. It was great fun, and enriched both products. I’m doing more of that across the board actually, as it happens.
ToW: It’s interesting to see an all-female Legio – what influences did you draw upon to flesh out the character and culture of Legio Solaria?
GH: I wanted an all female legio because I like women. I like writing female characters. I like female characters interacting with each other. Because of the male make-up of the Legiones Astartes, women in the Heresy are often restricted to lone individuals surrounded by a lot of men. I mean, there are several notable women in the setting with plenty of agency – Jenetia Kroll, Alivia Sureka, Euphrati Keeler and the rest – but, apart from the Sisters of Silence, we don’t get whole organisations of them. So it was a chance to explore female characters in the context of this massive, galaxy spanning war where they had lots and lots of power. You don’t get much more powerful than a Titan Legio.
As to their actual culture, I made most of that up, with a few little borrowings from various places.
ToW: Was there anything that you didn’t manage to fit into this book, which you’d have liked to explore?
GH: Once upon a time, Beta-Garmon was simply a single planet where lots of Titans fought, but the setting developed and it’s now an entire star cluster than hosts an enormous war that lasts from the very beginning of the Heresy until after the Siege of Terra. As you might expect, the Titandeath novel only covers snippets of it. We could easily get a series out of this one setting! But I did try to show as many different war zones and styles of fighting as I could within the context of single novel.
ToW: Are there more stories you’d like to tell around the Beta-Garmon campaign, or these particular characters?
GH: Nah, it’s time to move onto the next thing. Though you may see Esha Ana again…
ToW: If you were a Titan princeps, which class of Titan would you want to pilot and why?
GH: A scout Titan. In life, I either want to be off on my own doing my own thing or be in charge, but I’m not egotistical enough to suggest I should occupy the command throne of a Grand Master!
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As you probably know, Guy is a SUPER busy man, but despite that over the last few months he’s kindly taken the time to answer a lot of interview questions for all the different books and audios he’s released. I’m sure you’ll join me in saying a massive, massive thanks to Guy for once again contributing some really great answers! You can read my review of Titandeath by clicking here.
Click here if you fancy taking a look at some other Rapid Fire interviews. If you’ve got any questions, comments or other thoughts please do let me know in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.