Welcome to this instalment of my Rapid Fire series of author interviews, where today I’m delighted to be talking to the legendary Dan Abnett about his new Warhammer 40,000 novel Penitent, the second book in his Bequin trilogy for Black Library. It’s been nine years since the first book in the series – Pariah – was released, but the wait is finally over, with Penitent available to pre-order today in all the usual formats! For those who aren’t already familiar with the whole ‘Inquisition Cycle’ I’ve asked Dan to talk a bit about the whole thing first of all, before giving us the lowdown on what to expect from Penitent.
Without further ado, let’s get on with the interview.
Track of Words: For anyone who isn’t familiar, could you give a quick overview of what the Bequin series is about, who the main characters are, and how it links in with your Eisenhorn and Ravenor books?
Dan Abnett: The Bequin trilogy continues the adventures of characters who first appeared in the Eisenhorn and Ravenor trilogies, and also in the standalone book The Magos (which serves as a kind of prologue to the Bequin sequence). The whole series, unofficially called The Inquisitor Cycle, is about the ongoing mission of Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn to rid the Imperium of the blight of Chaos…though he himself may be a heretic. His former pupil, Gideon Ravenor, is now an Inquisitor too, and both command warbands of capable and colourful characters.
By the time of the Bequin books, those warbands are now in opposition, with Ravenor actually hunting down his former mentor. Beta Bequin is a young woman with mysterious talents and an enigmatic past, who gets caught up in events: she is clearly somehow linked to Alizebeth Bequin, one of Eisenhorn’s most trusted former comrades. Beta is torn between the opposing forces, trying to decide which side she belongs on. Her books are told first person, from her point of view.
ToW: Where and when is this series set?
DA: In a very odd city called Queen Mab, on a mysterious, ancient Imperial world called Angelus, several hundred years after the first Eisenhorn novel (Xenos). In Queen Mab, it’s quite possible that nothing is what it seems to be.
ToW: We all know we shouldn’t judge books by their covers, but it’s great to see Pariah get brand new cover art to match the new Penitent cover – both by the talented Lorenzo Mastroianni. What were your thoughts when you saw the new artwork? Did you have much input during the commissioning process?
DA: The covers are awesome. We had a great cover to Pariah (the first in the series) but that came out a while ago (I’ve been trying to get back to the Bequin series and the Horus Heresy kept getting in the way). So a refreshed series of covers was called for, to make it clear they were a series (and because people have been crying out for a re-issue of Pariah). I was consulted a great deal (a really enjoyable process), and my main thing was that we should actually see Beta on the cover, because she is the main character and the narrator. The covers – which are truly wonderful – depict her at different stages in her ‘life’. They are also full of tiny significant details and ‘easter eggs’ for the sharp-eyed.
ToW: Bearing that in mind, how would you describe Penitent?
DA: It’s more of the same…and a lot more besides. It’s a rich, often very violent, often very scary adventure into a deep, strange culture, full of intrigue and disguise, and it’s also a detective story: Beta has to solve a puzzle, actually the sort of complex, symbolic puzzle I haven’t put in my work before. The answers, and revelations, are – I think – going to really shock readers.
ToW: Are you introducing any new characters here, or will it mostly be the same cast as we saw in Pariah?
DA: All the favorite characters you would expect and want to see are here, though sometimes in different alignments. There are also some great new characters, and some particularly exotic new enemies.
ToW: It’s been a while since Pariah came out – did you find that the finished version of Penitent changed much compared to the plans you originally had back then?
DA: Inevitably a little, but only because some concepts had evolved in the meantime, and I was able to incorporate some exciting new ideas I’d had spontaneously during the hiatus. I believe that when you sit down to plan something out, you don’t get all your good ideas in one day. New thoughts can suddenly strike deep into the writing process, and I try to be flexible enough to accommodate them. Sometimes that turns a book on its head. Though the gap between Pariah and its sequel has frustrated readers, for which I apologise, I think it was ultimately worth it in terms of the “additional thinking time”.
The original cover art for Pariah, when it was first published
ToW: There must have been lots of novels you could have chosen to write next (I’m sure plenty of fans are still hoping for Interceptor City, for example), so what was it about Penitent that made you want to tell this story now?
DA: I had been away from it too long, and the story had been left hanging! I was painfully aware of that and very keen to get back to it. The Bequin books have a style and ‘voice’ that is very different, and I really enjoy working on them. I wanted to get the series moving again, and hope to write the final part soon. Likewise, Interceptor City, the long, LONG awaited follow up to Double Eagle…as the Heresy comes to an end, I’m finally getting to finish what I started 🙂
ToW: A lot of your recent Black Library novels have involved the dramatic conclusions to series, complex collaborative processes, or both of the above. How did you find the writing process for Penitent – was it a change from the previous few books?
DA: Yes, refreshingly. As I said, it involves a very different style. The prose has a deliberately contrasting quality to both my ‘regular’ 40K work, and to the other Inquisitor trilogies, and the type of adventure is very different too. I had a lot of fun doing it, and I’m very pleased with the result.
ToW: Since Pariah there’s been a lot of speculation about various mysteries in this series, not least the identity of ‘the Yellow King’. What have your thoughts been on this sort of speculation?
DA: Well, that’s one of the key mysteries. I love it when readers speculate. To me, the really interesting part of the Bequin books is that Beta doesn’t know as much as the other characters, or indeed, as much as any 40k fan or regular reader of the series. She is making discoveries her own way, seeing things with fresh eyes. Sometimes the reader will want to shout out and warn her that someone or something is more dangerous than she realises, because they know and she doesn’t. At the same time, Beta is learning things that no one else – not even Eisenhorn – knows. I think a lot of the appeal of the books is that they handle the lore in an unconventional way.
ToW: What do you hope 40k fans will get out of this by the time they’ve finished it?
DA: An awful lot of fun, some mind-expanding concepts, a few jolts of pure terror, and some huge surprises.
ToW: You’ve written a lot of short stories that fill in some of the gaps between novels in your Inquisition series, including Perihelion as a prequel to Pariah. Can we expect any further short stories to fit in between the Bequin novels?
DA: Yes, I’m sure we can. In fact, there’s one already – a new Medea Betancore story – that will appear in the deluxe edition of Penitent [the wonderfully-titled Lepidopterophobia (Medea Unbound)].
ToW: Is there anything you can tell us about the third book in the Bequin series at this point?
DA: It’s going to be big, it’s going to be significant, it’s going to change everything…and I’m going to write it soon…the wait for the third part will not be as long!
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As always, I’d like to say a massive thank you to Dan for answering these questions and taking the time to chat about Penitent! I don’t know about you, but after all these years I’m more excited than ever to finally find out what happens next…can’t wait!
See also: my guide to Dan Abnett’s entire Inquisition series.
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When will the next rapid fire with dan arrive?
I don’t have any plans for more interviews with Dan to be honest, not least because I’ve no idea when his next book will be published. Sorry!
We want Dan, we want Dan!