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 Black Library author David Annandale about The Dominion of Bones, his second Age of Sigmar novel featuring the vampire Neferata, which is available to buy in hardback, ebook and audiobook right now!
Let’s get straight to the questions and David’s answers.
Track of Words: What’s the elevator pitch summary for your new Age of Sigmar novel The Dominion of Bones?
David Annandale: Neferata is rebuilding her empire, and she has set her sights on Angaria, which is ruled by the daemon prince Graunos. Her enemy is a formidable one, and she must also contend with the presence of the Anvils of the Heldenhammer in the same region, as well as plots against her from within, plots that have been in preparation for generations.
ToW: Without spoiling anything, who are the main characters and what do we need to know about them?
DA: Neferata, of course, is the lead. In the wake of the events in Mortarch of Blood, she is consolidating her power base. She is very conscious of the shifting winds of war, and of the delicate balance she must walk between loyalty to Nagash and focus on her own self-interest.
Her primary enemy is Graunos, a daemon prince of Khorne. He is not a creature of blind, unthinking rage, however, and is a formidable strategist himself. At his right hand sits Kathag, one of the few survivors of the attempt to besiege Nulahmia in Mortarch of Blood, and so is very conscious of what Neferata can do.
Then there’s Skarveth Lytessian. He too has links to events in Mortarch of Blood, and is a warrior for whom honour and loyalty are supremely important. His particular context puts him in a rather unusual position in Neferatia.
ToW: Where and when is it set?
DA: The action is set not long after the events of Mortarch of Blood, and after the necroquake in Shyish.
ToW: How important is it for readers to check out Mortarch of Blood (and/or some of your Neferata short stories) before starting this?
DA: There are a number of threads from Mortarch of Blood that are picked up here, so familiarity with that book would help, but isn’t absolutely necessary. Graunos, meanwhile, first appeared in my short story The Prodigal (set in Hysh, and showing him before his ascension to daemon princehood).
ToW: Of all the possible stories you could have written about Neferata, what made you go for this one?
DA: The idea of Mortarch of Blood was to establish Neferata and her situation in the Age of Sigmar. With her control of her city restored, I wanted to write about her wider, more epic ambitions.
ToW: While this isn’t part of the Warhammer Horror range, do you think the introduction of this new imprint has had an impact on how you’ve written The Dominion of Bones, or how far you were able to push the horror elements of a vampire story?
DA: I wrote this between The Faith and the Flesh [from The Wicked and the Damned] and The House of Night and Chain, so horror was certainly on my mind. But then, it always has been, and it probably isn’t a revelation to anyone that I skew towards horror in a lot of what I write. So I would say the horror aspects of the book were always going to be there. I had, for instance, planned the characters that are my little tribute to Tombs of the Blind Dead a year before I even knew there was going to Warhammer Horror range.
ToW: How would you say Neferata – as a vampire in the Age of Sigmar setting – compares with the traditional ‘gothic horror’ vampire?. Do you draw a lot from other literary vampire characters when writing Neferata?
DA: I suppose we might be able to see some traces of Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla in Neferata, given that character’s cunning, but overall I see Neferata as being very much a creature of a gothic world, but less so having direct models in traditional gothic fiction, because she is also an empress, deploying vast armies.
ToW: While Mortarch of Blood was relatively short, this is a full-length novel – what impact did the longer word count have on this book, and the story you wanted to tell?
DA: This gave me the chance to develop the characters at greater length, set up longer arcs, and explore much more of the world. Not to mention working out a much more ambitious scheme for Neferata.
ToW: What do you hope Age of Sigmar fans will get out of this by the time they’ve finished it?
DA: My goal was to give them a mixture of gothic horror and epic battles, as well as a sense of complicated the alliances and loyalties and betrayals in this realm can get. Neferata’s Machiavellian features might as well be as contagious as vampirism.
ToW: Can you tell us anything about what you’ve got lined up for Neferata and this series in future?
DA: I can’t really say anything yet other than we haven’t seen the last of a number of the characters in this story.
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Thanks as ever to David for taking the time to talk about Neferata again. If you haven’t already, you can check out my review of David’s first Neferata novel Mortarch of Night here – I’ll make sure to post a review of The Dominion of Bones once I’ve read it!
Click this link to buy The Dominion of Bones (or this for 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.