RAPID FIRE: Rachel Harrison Talks Honourbound

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 Rachel Harrison about Honourbound, her first 40k novel which follows on from a number of excellent short stories featuring the same characters. Honourbound is available to order this weekend, so check out the interview and then you can look forward to picking up copy of the book very soon!

Without further ado, let’s get straight to the questions and Rachel’s answers.

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

Rachel Harrison: Commissar Severina Raine and the Eleventh Antari Rifles fight to defend the Bale Stars from the growing threat of the Chaos cult known as the Sighted. But as the crusade pushes on and old wounds are reopened, Raine soon realises that she will have to face down more than just the Sighted in order to survive and prove victorious.

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

RH: The principal character is Commissar Severina Raine – it’s really her story. Raine is the regimental commissar attached to the Eleventh Antari Rifles. Driven and dedicated, she will stop at nothing to serve and defend the Bale Stars. Raine always pushes herself to do better, and more. Her bloodline comes with a good deal of baggage, so in some ways, she is always looking to prove herself. (No matter how much she might have already done so).

There are three other principal characters in this book, too, who get a good deal of the story to tell.

Andren Fel is captain of the Duskhounds – the Rifles’ specialist storm trooper unit. He’s a model soldier in basically every respect – unflinching when it comes to his duty, and loyal almost to a fault. He is Antari to his core, but Fel is also the one person in the regiment that Raine can really trust. He’s definitely the only one who can see beyond her role to who she is as a person.

Lydia Zane is the regiment’s Primaris Psyker. The Antari are a notoriously superstitious regiment – the world they come from hates and fears witches, which makes Zane an outsider even amongst her own people. She has already had to pay a high price for her powerful abilities, and knows full well that price will only get higher the longer she serves.

Lastly, Daven Wyck is one of the Antari regulars. Sergeant of the Wyldfolk infantry squad, he’s another character constantly staring his own mortality in the face, though for rather different reasons to Zane – Wyck is haunted by his mistakes and his failures, which only leads to more of the same (exacerbated by his coping methods…). He can be brutally effective in a warzone, but outside of that he’s rather a mess.

ToW: Where and when is it set?

RH: The book is set on the bleeding edge of the crusade to liberate a sector of space called the Bale Stars. It follows on neatly from the other Commissar Raine stories released up until now (including this week’s Trials).

ToW: Should fans check out the Commissar Raine short stories before reading this? What’s your recommended reading order?

RH: You don’t need to read all of the short stories before reading Honourbound – I was careful to ensure the book stands alone in case you can’t get your hands on them, but it will add to the experience if you do. There are definitely call-backs in the novel to events in the short stories, and they all feed into where the characters are and how they feel about one another by the time the novel begins.

Reading order wise, I’d say chronologically (in-universe) is best, so that’s Execution, A Company of Shadows, Trials, Fire and Thunder and then The Darkling Hours [which at present is only available in the Black Library Events Anthology 2018/19].

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

RH: This story has been on the horizon since I started putting Raine together as a character, right back before I wrote Execution. The major themes and conflicts for her have existed since my very first notes. I have always been keen to write a story that takes in the scope of a massive conflict, with big battles (as befits the Astra Militarum), but that has very personal stakes as well as the crusade-scale ones. A story that wouldn’t unfold the way it does without Raine and the other key characters driving it. I suppose it was always the story.

ToW: What were your main influences when writing this book? Did you do a lot of research for it?

RH: I did a lot of research, into all kinds of things. In terms of ‘real world’, I looked at historical accounts and read up on weaponry and armour. I ‘long-term borrowed’ a bunch of little Salamander books from my dad, like the Illustrated Guide to Modern Tanks and Fighting Vehicles. I even did a bit of running around the living room with a wrapping paper tube pretending it was a sword.

You think that’s a joke. It’s not.

Warhammer-wise, I re-read choice sections of the Imperial Infantryman’s Handbook and trawled through the Astra Militarum and Militarum Tempestus books over and over again. I had to build the Bale Stars crusade from the ground up, but I wanted to make sure it all felt germane to the wider setting.

My favourite thing, though, was probably reading up on folklore and mythology for the Antari (not exactly a chore for me). I read a lot of fairy tales and did my best to develop a coherent ‘lore’ that you really feel could arise from the kind of world they come from, and the kind of beliefs they hold as a people.

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

RH: I did a pretty (read as: very) detailed synopsis and chapter breakdown for this book, so it really does follow along with that fairly neatly, to be honest. The only thing that really changed in the writing was how my understanding of just how big some events can really be. Something that’s one line in the chapter breakdown could actually take pages to unfold, and I (perhaps naively) didn’t quite understand that when I set out! It ended up being a very hefty book!

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

RH: If you have read the other Raine stories then the style will be familiar to you – just longer form, more in-depth. It plays into and contains a lot of what I love to write, like vision sequences, stories within stories and difficult conversations (as well as plenty of battles, too, of course). If you have liked the Raine stories so far – this is more and bigger in every way, basically.

ToW: How do you set your characters and stories apart from all the other great Imperial Guard stories and famous Commissars?

RH: I guess I just write them as Severina Raine stories. ‘Characters’ is just another way of saying people, and that’s what they are to me. They all have their own moral codes and beliefs. Their own pasts, and dreams. Stories are driven by those who inhabit them, so that in and of itself should mean a story feels authentic and unique to those characters specifically.

There’s a lot of room within an archetype (like a Commissar) for very different types of characters. You can see that clearly in the Black Library range already with Gaunt and Yarrick and Cain. They are all vastly different, and as such offer distinct and interesting viewpoints on the role and how it fits within the wider Astra Militarum war machine.

It’s just about writing honestly, I suppose, and staying true to your character and who/what they are.

That said, it is something I’m always actively thinking about. It would be bad practice not to.

ToW: How do you feel about Raine getting a Citadel miniature?

RH: Absolutely over the moon.

I can’t articulate what an incredible privilege it is to see her represented that way. I really can’t. I never could have imagined seeing a character I created be reflected on the table-top like that, and so beautifully too. I will definitely be painting my own Severina Raine. I’ve already started painting some Tempestus Scions as Duskhounds to accompany her.

I mentioned it on Twitter, but I really do have to shout about the awesome work that Mike (Fores, miniatures designer) and Simon (Adams, miniature painter) did bringing Raine to life. And while I’m at it on the visual side of things, I have to mention Marc Lee’s cover for the novel, too which absolutely blows my mind. I’m a really lucky author.

ToW: What’s next for these characters? Have you got plans to write more stories about Commissar Raine and the Antari?

RH: I’m always thinking about Raine and the Antari. They effectively live rent-free in my head, so I have a ton of ideas for other stories I could tell, should I have the opportunity. There’s a whole host of new characters who crop up in Honourbound, too, who I would love to dedicate some words to. I don’t want to say too much given the book hasn’t come out yet, but suffice to say that I still have threads to pull on. I just hope that people enjoy Honourbound, and get as much of a kick out of reading it as I did writing it.

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Huge thanks to Rachel for taking the time to answer these questions! If this has got you interested in reading about Raine and the Antari stories, you can find all of my reviews of the short stories right here and my review of Honourbound here.

Click here to order Honourbound.

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.