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 Chris Wraight about his new Horus Heresy novel Valdor: Birth of the Imperium, which was briefly available to pre-order as a Limited Edition hardback before it quickly sold out. If you’re interested in knowing more about Constantin Valdor and the role he played in the early stages of the Imperium, this looks like being the book for you – read on to find out a little more about what to expect from this new novel!
Track of Words: What’s the elevator pitch for Valdor: Birth of the Imperium?
Chris Wraight: Before the primarchs, before the Heresy, the Custodians marched with the Emperor to conquer humanity’s birthworld. But what kind of empire were they created to build, and what secrets do they still carry with them into the Age of the Imperium?
ToW: It seems safe to assume that Valdor is the main character, but without spoiling anything can you talk a bit about what we need to know about the key characters overall?
CW: Aside from Valdor himself, almost every character in this book will be unfamiliar. It’s set a long time before most of the people we know about were born. So it’s possible to read this without having much of a background in the cast of the Heresy series, though some general 40k lore knowledge will be helpful (see below).
ToW: Where and when is it set?
CW: The story is set on Terra, during the final phases of the Unification Wars. Some of what’s depicted will be familiar, but a lot won’t be. We’re in a world before the Crusade, a place just about recovering from a literal apocalypse, when many core concepts haven’t been developed yet and virtually everything is still up for grabs. We get an insight into some of the key formative events of the Emperor’s unfolding plan. Some of these have been glimpsed before through other eyes, some are fleshed out for the first time (as far as I know).
ToW: Is there anything you’d suggest fans check out before reading this? Is it important to be familiar with the Heresy, Valdor and the Custodians beforehand?
CW: I’d say it’s fairly important to know something about the broad sweep of 40k history. That is, it would be good to know what the Custodians are, and what their function is. It would be good to know the basic story of the Thunder Warriors, and the history of the primarchs to some degree. Having an immersion in the Heresy narrative will probably help, too. That said, there’s no definite ‘reading list’ needed here, and I hope the story makes sense and is interesting on its own terms.
For anyone interested, my two Valdor short stories, Magisterium and Two Metaphysical Blades, touch on many of the same issues as the book.
ToW: As far as I know this is the first Black Library book to be set pre-Unity. How did you go about bringing to life a period that’s had so little written about it before? Was that fun?
CW: Huge amounts of fun. I hope people enjoy the snapshots of another world, at once well-known, but also very strange. I haven’t attempted to give a complete picture of pre-Unity Terra, just some impressions of what it was like in some of the world’s many places. There are plenty of other locations, events and conflicts all going on during this time, all of which have their own character. I felt it was important to leave a great deal to the imagination – this is an era that’s been almost entirely forgotten by the time we get to 40k, so keeping a fair degree of obscurity is deliberate.
But it’s always more enjoyable writing about something where very little is known, rather than trying to find something new to say about a world that’s had a hundred stories set in it. Having the chance to do some world-building on a basically blank canvas is a writer’s dream!
ToW: What appeals to you about Valdor and the Custodes as characters to write about?
CW: The basic hook for me with Valdor is his sheer invincibility. He’s totally selfless, totally incorruptible, almost impossible to best in combat, without pride or ambition. What room does that leave for character? Will he not be incredibly boring? In some sense, that remorseless perfection is his weakness – he’s so much less human than the primarchs. His imagination is stunted, his capability for independent action is so limited. He’s at once the pinnacle of human achievement and a nightmare vision of its curtailment.
That’s what I’ve tried to home in on with the Custodians in general, too – they’re both demigods worthy of adoration and slaves deserving pity.
ToW: Of all the possible stories you could have written about Valdor, what made you go for this one?
CW: Difficult to answer without spoilers, but I think this is really the only story that I thought fitted the bill. There’s very little known about what the Custodians were doing before the Imperium was born, so the hope is that we’ve given some juicy detail on those episodes here, without ruining the mystery of it by spelling everything out.
ToW: How did writing this compare to working on the Primarchs series? Was it a similar experience, or did it bring different challenges?
CW: Very similar. This is basically a Primarchs book for Valdor. He’s not a primarch, of course, and I’ve always tried to show that whenever I’ve written him, but he’s in a similar bracket of power and influence. So the story, in length, conception and style, is very much the same kind of project as, say, the Khan’s Primarchs novel. I’ve tried to give an insight into his character and deeds before we encounter him in the main Heresy novel series, so we can understand what he does in those stories a bit more.
ToW: What do you hope Horus Heresy fans will get out of this by the time they’ve finished it?
CW: I hope that Horus Heresy fans (and 40k fans) will have their imagination fired up for some of the seminal moments in the Imperium’s pre-history. I hope they’ll see the events of the books in a richer light, and appreciate how some of the features of the world we know came into being. And I hope they enjoy Valdor’s role, and appreciate the unique part he plays in everything, right from the start.
ToW: Do you see this as a standalone novel, or are you planning on writing more about these characters?
CW: This is a standalone book, and I have no plans to write another novel in the series with Valdor as the subject. However, we are writing and planning the Siege of Terra books at the moment, and of course it would be crazy if he didn’t play a large role in that, so I doubt we’ve heard the last of him. And there are other major players in the Imperial and Traitor ranks who really deserve a Primarchs-style novel too, so we may get the chance to tell some juicy stories about those guys at some stage, if we’re lucky…
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As always, thanks so much to Chris for taking the time out of his busy schedule to chat to me about this new book! If this has stirred your excitement for Birth of the Imperium but you didn’t get a copy of the LE hardback, hopefully the ‘standard editions’ (hardback, ebook, audiobook) will be available to buy in a few months.
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.
This sounds amazing. Chris always gets to the core of his characters and Valdor is kinda like a blank slate. Can’t wait!