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 Darius Hinks about his latest Black Library release – the Blackstone Fortress audio drama The Beast Inside, which is Darius’ first Black Library audio! It’s available to order in CD or MP3 formats right now – if you’re a Blackstone Fortress fan, now’s the time to explore it even further.
Let’s get straight to the questions and Darius’ answers.
Track of Words: What’s the elevator pitch summary for your new audio drama The Beast Inside?
Darius Hinks: Rogue Trader, Janus Draik, is back on the mysterious star fort known as the Blackstone Fortress. He’s racing to hunt down a fearsome beast known as an ambull, before a rival explorer gets there first. Draik is an experienced alien hunter but, as usual on the Blackstone, things do not pan out quite as he expected.
ToW: Without spoiling anything, who are the main characters and what do we need to know about them?
DH: Captain Janus Draik is an aristocratic Rogue Trader from Terra who has come to the Western Reaches of the galaxy to restore his fortunes and regain his rightful place in House Draik. The hunt for the ambull is a frustrating distraction and he’s determined to deal with the matter quickly and decisively.
Dahyak Grekh is a Kroot tracker who has sworn to keep Draik alive. He’s got his own reasons for coming to the Blackstone Fortress but, in this tale, he’s effectively Draik’s bodyguard.
Victrix is another Rogue Trader who has come to the Blackstone Fortress seeking to make her fortune. She and Draik are old rivals. She has no intention of letting him kill her prize.
ToW: Where and when is it set?
DH: This is ‘current day’ in 40k terms. The warp storms of the Great Rift have unearthed a Blackstone Fortress at the far edge of Segmentum Pacificus, in the Imperium’s Western Reaches. This particular expedition takes place shortly after the events of the Blackstone Fortress novel and features some of the same characters.
ToW: How important do you think it is for fans to check out your Blackstone Fortress novel before listening to this? Does it work as a standalone story?
DH: It’s definitely a standalone story but if you enjoy it, dig out the novel to learn more about these characters.
ToW: What appeals to you about writing Blackstone Fortress stories?
DH: I like the weirder corners of the 40k universe and Blackstone Fortresses definitely fall into that category. I also like the way this setting throws together character types and races who wouldn’t usually been seen together. I love that kind of Mos Eisley vibe.
ToW: Why this story? What was the inspiration for this particular tale?
DH: I wanted to show off the hunter aspect of Draik’s character. He’s like one of those pompous, fearless, Victorian adventuring zoologists and I didn’t get to cover that part of him much in the novel. Also, the ambull is a cool throwback to the earliest origins of 40k that I remember from when I was a nippper (around the time of the Boer War).
Original Rogue Trader-era ambull artwork
ToW: You’ve written about Janus Draik and the Blackstone Fortress before – what did you want to do differently with this story?
DH: With this being an audio drama, I wanted to explore the strange, ominous, alien atmosphere of the fortress. It was great fun writing descriptions of the SFX for the production team, almost like working on a Blackstone Fortress movie (which totally should be a thing, by the way).
ToW: This is your first Black Library audio drama – how did you find the process of working on this? Did it challenge you to do anything different to usual?
DH: It was really useful, actually. As a writer, I often indulge myself with loads of waffly scene-setting and descriptive passages, but in a script everything has to be done through dialogue. It felt very different from writing a novel. It’s such a lean form of writing. Everything has to be inferred through the characters’ words. There are also lots of technical, formatting considerations to ensure the actors can use the script. I really enjoyed the process though and I’d like to do more.
ToW: What do you hope 40k fans will get out of this by the time they’ve finished it?
DH: A sense of how strange and dangerous the Blackstone is. And also an idea of how relentlessly determined Janus Draik is.
ToW: Blackstone Fortress looks to be turning into a proper sub-setting for Black Library. Do you have any plans to write more about Janus Draik or any of the other characters from this story?
DH: Yes, definitely. I’ll keep writing about him as long as the BL team let me! I’m just coming to the end of writing another Blackstone project and I’ve been talking to the editorial team about others in the future.
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As always, thanks so much to Darius for taking the time to answer these questions. I’ll hopefully get a review ready for this soon, just as soon as I get hold of a copy!
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.