Hello and welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview where I’m delighted to welcome Adrian Tchaikovsky to the site for the first time, to talk primarily about his upcoming Warhammer 40,000 novel Day of Ascension, as well as two more books he’s publishing in 2022. As a well-established, award-winning and incredibly prolific science fiction and fantasy author, it’s great to see Adrian turning his hand to writing for Black Library as well, and with his amazing ability to write compelling non-human characters a novel featuring both the Genestealer Cults and the Adeptus Mechanicus sounds like a perfect fit! Day of Ascension is due out at some point in January, so ahead of its release you can find out a little more about it here – along with a few details of two more sci-fi books coming in 2022 from other publishers: Ogres and Eyes of the Void.
Without further ado, let’s get straight on with the interview.
ToW: To start things off, could you give us an overview of what Day of Ascension is about?
Adrian Tchaikovsky: On a grim industrial planet ruled by ruthless cyborg overlords there is a hidden cult ruled by the inheritors of alien blood trying to pave the way for the ascension of their horrific masters. Meanwhile, a cyborg scientist has detected the existence of the cult and weighs up the merits of exterminating them or making them part of his malign experiments.
ToW: Without spoiling anything, who are the main characters and what do we need to know about them?
AT: The action is split between a junior member of the cult operating undercover as a servant who becomes a lynchpin of the sect’s imminent uprising, and the scientist who bucks against the mockery and short sightedness of his superiors and plots to usurp them.
ToW: What sort of story would you say this is? Are there any non-spoilery themes or ideas you could tell us a bit about?
AT: This is a story of revolution and struggle, and about whether, when your chosen destiny is to be nothing but a tiny cog in a monstrous galaxy-wide human machine, whether any fate might be better, and any creed might be more hopeful, even something unthinkably alien and hideous.
ToW: Of all the 40k stories you could have written, why this one? Why choose to write about genestealers and the Adeptus Mechanicus?
AT: I was sold on the Genestealer Cults when I saw the artwork at the Birmingham Board Games expo a couple of years ago. Some of the art sold the cult as heroic rebels as much as ghastly infiltrators. The cult hasn’t been explored as much as many parts of the canon, and I felt there were some interesting stories to tell from their point of view.
ToW: For readers who are familiar with your work but not 40k, how accessible would you say this book will be? Would it be a good place to start with 40k?
AT: It’s hard for me to say, to be honest. I think you could dive into it, but some of the background details about the Imperium and the setting aren’t explained because I’ve assumed the reader is familiar with the basic axioms of the Imperium.
Day of Ascension is Adrian’s first BL novel, but his first short story – Raised in Darkness – is in Inferno! Volume 6
ToW: You have a history of writing great non-human characters – what is it that draws you to writing about aliens or spiders or hybrid bioforms?
AT: Honestly I was always interested in the monsters, the aliens, the non-human races, far more than regular humans. As a kid I owned every Cantina alien SW figure but no Luke. Writing from nonhuman points of view is always an interesting challenge too.
ToW: How does writing about genestealers compare to writing about other non-human characters you’ve explored? Were there any particular challenges, opportunities or research requirements this time around?
AT: With the Genestealer cultists, one thing I wanted to do was explore how very human such a cult could be, especially contrasted to the brutal exploitation of the masses that the Imperium is built on. A fourth or fifth generation cultist has a human mind and a human life even if they are driven to serve the cult and its goals. Who’s the more human, that cultist or a tech-priest willing to throw the workforce into the furnaces for another half a percent efficiency?
ToW: Are there any other genestealer-related 40k stories that provided any inspiration for your take on them?
AT: Honestly I mostly found my inspiration in the Genestealer Cults Codex itself. I did get recommended some stories for the Adeptus Mechanicus elements as those are covered more in the existing library.
ToW: Is this, alongside your short story Raised in Darkness (in Inferno! Volume 6), your first foray into IP fiction? How are you finding writing 40k stories compared to your normal work?
AT: Definitely my first, and it’s been an interesting journey. I’m used to having all the creative freedom, and with Black Library obviously I have to fit into canon, which leads to some back and forth discussions of fine details. I had to amend the original Raised in Darkness concept quite a bit from its original incarnation. I was more on target with Day of Ascension but there were still quite a few elements that needed tinkering with to properly fit – not so much the Genestealer Cults parts as there’s a lot of variety in the individual cults, but in the way the Adeptus Mechanicus orders itself.
ToW: If someone enjoys Day of Ascension and wants to check out your wider work, where would you recommend they start?
AT: I think the closest work is amongst my other novellas – perhaps Firewalkers or Walking to Aldebaran, or else the Expert System’s Brother.
ToW: What do you hope readers will get out of this by the time they’ve finished it?
AT: For all readers, hopefully the story of struggle will make for a good read in and of itself – the lowly against the mighty, the alien against the human, the flesh against the machine. For 40k players there’s also an extra bit of the universe revealed, a new planet, plus there’s always the fun of spotting the units from the game turning up in the book.
ToW: You’re known as a pretty prolific author, and 2022 looks like being no exception with at least two other books that I know about already confirmed. Could you tell us a bit about Ogres (due in March from Rebellion)?
AT: Ogres is a hard one to talk about without spoiling it as at the heart of the book is the mystery of what is actually going on. There’s a pleasant rural landscape right out of the 1700s where the villagers are awaiting the arrival of the local landlord, except the landlord is a massive ogre and he turns up in a modern motorcade. The village headman’s son gets on the wrong side of the landlord and goes on the run, and in doing so begins to unravel just how this state of affairs came about.
ToW: How about Eyes of the Void (due in April from Tor)? That’s book two in a series – what can you tell us about The Final Architecture series, and what can readers expect from book two?
AT: The Final Architecture started with Shards of Earth this year. It’s a space opera series where the Earth was reworked into abstract sculpture by a moon-sized entity called the Architect, killing everyone who wasn’t able to get off-planet. The Architects pursued humanity from colony to colony until surgically-altered ‘Intermediaries’ were able to make contact, after which the Architects just… left. Now, fifty years after the end of the war, Idris Telemmier is one of the last of the original Intermediaries, hiding out as the pilot of a salvage ship, when he and his crew find evidence that the Architects are coming back to finish the job. Eyes of the Void picks up where the first book left off, with the return of the Architects in full swing.
ToW: I can’t quite believe I’m asking this, given you’ve already got three confirmed books for 2022, but do you have anything else in the pipeline for next year?
AT: I don’t have definite confirmation of the date, but it seems likely that the third Children of… [following Children of Time and Children of Ruin – ToW] book will be out around the end of 2022. There is also a fantasy book in the pipeline, which might be out in late ’22 or the next year. In 2023 there will definitely be the final Final Architecture instalment, and another novella, currently titled And Put Away Childish Things.
ToW: You had at least five books out in 2021, and clearly there’s plenty to come in 2022! This is great for readers, but what keeps you motivated to write so much, so quickly?
AT: I think I have a fairly efficient writing process – I plan a lot with most projects, and so my first draft and my submission draft are fairly close unless I go seriously off the rails.
ToW: Lastly, if you had to live as part of one of the various empires and cultures in the 40k universe, which one would you choose and why?
AT: T’au. Honestly, I’m sure they have their problems, but they seem to be the only culture in the entire galaxy that isn’t xenophobic or insane.
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Adrian Tchaikovsky was born in Lincolnshire before heading off to Reading to study psychology and zoology. He subsequently ended up in law and has worked as a legal executive in both Reading and Leeds, where he now lives. Married, he is a keen live role-player and occasional amateur actor and has trained in stage-fighting. He’s the author of the critically acclaimed Shadows of the Apt series and his novel Children of TIme was the winner of the 30th Anniversary Arthur C. Clarke Award.
You can find Adrian on Goodreads, Twitter or on his website.
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Thanks so much to Adrian for taking the time to talk to me, and for giving us the lowdown on not just Day of Ascension but also Ogres and Eyes of the Void.
See also: all of the Adrian Tchaikovsky reviews here on Track of Words.
Day of Ascension is due to go up for pre-order from Black Library at some point in January, and is currently listed as available in early February via the book trade – note that this looks like it’s one of Black Library’s ‘short novels’ in the small hardback format.
Check out the links below to pre-order* your copy of Day of Ascension!
*If you buy anything using one of these links, I will receive a small affiliate commission – see here for more details.
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