Welcome to this instalment of Rapid Fire, my ongoing series of quick interviews with 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 veteran Black Library author Nick Kyme about his new Warhammer 40,000 novel Knights of Macragge, which is available to order right now in paperback, ebook and audiobook editions.
Without further ado, let’s get straight to the questions and Nick’s answers.
Track of Words: What’s the elevator pitch summary for your new novel Knights of Macragge?
Nick Kyme: It’s part survival horror, part mystery. Cato Sicarius faces near impossible odds as his ship, the Emperor’s Will, is lost in the warp. The Ultramarines as well as the crew face both literal daemons and the demons of their natures. In this story, Sicarius must come to terms with his own fallibility and what it means to be a leader as well as a hero.
ToW: Without spoiling anything, who are the main characters and what do we need to know about them?
NK: Cato Sicarius is the lead. He’s the captain of the Ultramarines Second Company and is facing something of an existential crisis in this novel. He’s an older, more experienced Sicarius from what we’ve seen in previous stories, and he’s fighting a war he can’t win and trying to live up to being the saviour everyone believes him to be.
Retius Daceus is Sicarius’s closest friend and a sergeant in the Chapter. He acts as his conscience and counsel. An older veteran, he sees the emergence of the Primaris Ultramarines as the end for warriors like him. He’s a rough and ready soldier.
One of the main Primaris Ultramarine characters is Justus Pillium. Convinced of his own strength and ability, he is arrogant but with the skill to back it up. He is on a journey of self-discovery, one that will end with him learning the true meaning of courage and honour.
Arna Reda is a lieutenant of the armsmen aboard the Emperor’s Will. She’s tough, believes in her crew and in awe of the Ultramarines. She’s a career soldier and brings in the human element of the story.
Madame Vedaeh is a historian and chronicler, but ends up being Sicarius’s confidant and confessor in the absence of the Company’s Chaplain. She’s not a soldier or even really a fighter but offers a very human, non-military perspective.
ToW: Where and when is it set?
NK: The book is set at the start of the Indomitus Crusade, so it’s current era 40K. Much of the first part takes place aboard the Emperor’s Will, trapped in the warp and effectively besieged by daemons and Traitor forces. The second part takes place on a mysterious world called Agun and its last known city, Farrodum…
ToW: Is there anything that you’d recommend fans check out before reading this, in order to get the most out of it?
NK: If you’ve read or decided to read Damnos beforehand, this lays a little groundwork in terms of Sicarius’s character. I don’t think of Knights of Macragge as a sequel though. It’s very different in tone and can/should be taken on its own. I wrote the book specifically with this in mind. Sicarius, all of the characters, have history. This shapes their beliefs, which in turn shapes their actions and decisions throughout the novel. If you’ve read Damnos you’ll get some of that early history (for a handful of the characters) but that’s it. I wanted to present a different Sicarius, an evolved version of him, that we haven’t seen before, as well as a host of other, new and diverse characters.
ToW: What appeals to you about Sicarius as a character to write about?
NK: I like the fact he’s ostensibly brilliant, a gifted tactician and warrior but that, ultimately, he’s really flawed. When I wrote both Assault on Black Reach and Damnos, readers reacted to him. Some didn’t like him very much, or at least, some aspects of his character. He was arrogant, dismissive. He had a justified swagger but wasn’t afraid to let people know it, but he was (and is still) also brave and a good leader, albeit one with a political agenda that divided his supporters and critics (both in and out of the Chapter).
I like that he has depth and that his story has been a journey for him. He’s racked up victory after victory, growing in prominence, until the point when he suffered a serious defeat that nearly killed him. This changed him, or started to. He had to become more self-reflexive, weigh up his deeds on and off the battlefield and think about the legacy he was going to leave. Suddenly, he’s gone from the poster boy of the Ultramarines, to a darker, more jaded character on a bit of a redemptive arc and this makes him interesting to write about.
ToW: Why this story? Of all the possible stories you could have written about these characters, what made you go for this one?
NK: There’s a mystery to it, a nugget of new lore, just a tiny box out really, which established that Cato Sicarius had been lost in the warp. I wanted to write a story that felt current, not reflective, something that explored this mystery and answered some of it. This is coming after Dark Imperium (by Guy Haley), so we know that Sicarius gets out. That’s not the tension, it’s what happens to him when he’s in the warp and how it changes him and those around him. It felt like there was a deep story in that and I liked the idea of exploring what happens to a crew that is becalmed for so long (they’re in the warp for years, relatively speaking).
It was the perfect vehicle to do something different with Sicarius, as well as seeing him through different human perspectives. I wanted to take away a lot of his certainty and put him in situations he was less well equipped to deal with. And the same for the characters around him. This book also allowed me to add a host of new characters, several of which are human and come from very different backgrounds. That felt like a rich environment to me, somewhere I could be creative but also develop some of my existing characters in new and interesting ways.
ToW: Did you draw on any particular influences when writing this, whether from within 40k or elsewhere?
NK: Obviously I read Dark Imperium; that takes place after this story and Sicarius is in it (albeit briefly and as a cameo). I think I definitely took some inspiration from Know No Fear, not in terms of how that story is told but the way Dan injected some personality into the Ultramarines. It’s probably still my favourite Horus Heresy novel and had a big impact on me.
I read a lot of horror, which was especially useful for the first half of the narrative, as I was trying to evoke that claustrophobic feel of being inside a spaceship, venturing down its corridors, thinking about it as living, breathing organism, dependant on its concomitant parts for survival. Of course, I also re-read sections of Damnos and Assault on Black Reach for character continuity.
ToW: What do you hope Ultramarines fans will get out of this by the time they’ve finished it?
NK: A deep and fulfilling story that has enough twists to keep them guessing all the way to the end. It’s unconventional in some ways, so I hope that fans embrace that and it makes them think differently about what it means to be an Ultramarine. I hope also that they get a deeper understanding about what makes Sicarius tick. He’s one of the most famous Ultramarines characters, outside of say, Marneus Calgar (and yeah, okay, Guilliman), and this was a great opportunity for me to explore the facets of his character.
ToW: Have you got plans to write more about Sicarius, or is this the conclusion to your telling of his tale?
NK: There is an ending of sorts about Sicarius’s tale in this book. He’s still running around the Dark Imperium though, so there’s always an opportunity to do more should inspiration strike. This is very much a ‘one and done’ book that’s very self-contained and seeks to tell a great story and do a bit of a deep dive into the characters, especially the lead. It’s not part of trilogy or setting up anything for the future.
I still think Sicarius is a fascinating character. He provokes opinion whether positive or negative (or a blend of both). There’s undoubtedly more stories to tell about him but I definitely wasn’t thinking about that when I wrote this book. If it proves popular and people buy it then who knows, but if I did return to the character it would be doing something new, something different that I hadn’t done before.
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Thanks so much to Nick for taking the time to answer these questions. Hopefully you can tell that this is an Ultramarines story with a different tone to what we’ve seen before – check out my review for more details!
Click here to buy Knights of Macragge (or here to buy the audiobook version).
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.