Hello and welcome to this Rapid Fire author interview where today I’m chatting to the excellent Denny Flowers about his new Black Library book Outgunned, which is a 40k novel exploring the Aeronautica Imperialis from an unexpected angle. Outgunned is out now, and I would urge you to check it out – I was lucky enough to get hold of an advance copy (thanks Denny!) and I loved it, and I think this is really going to be one to watch for a lot of Black Library fans keen to get something a little different to what’s gone before. Luckily, you don’t have to take my word for it, as you can read on to find out more from Denny about what to expect in this fast-paced story of planes, picts and propaganda (including the influence of Blackadder on both characters and tone)!
Without further ado then, over to Denny.
ToW: To start things off, how would you describe Outgunned, and what readers can expect from it? What sort of story is it?
Denny Flowers: Outgunned is the story of Propagandist Kile Simlex’s attempts to produce a cinema-pict depicting the brave pilots of the Aeronautica Imperialis. Simlex has lofty aspirations for the pict, envisioning it as his magnum opus, featuring the fearless Flight Commander Lucille von Shard’s victory over craven ork invaders.
But on arriving on Planet Bacchus, Simlex discovers the war is not going well for the Imperium. Bacchus is a vast swamp, so viscous that troops and armoured vehicles can barely function. The ork attackers are not the knock-kneed simpletons portrayed in old propaganda picts, but devious killers poised to conquer the skies. The Aeronautica Imperialis are all that stand between the greenskins and victory, but they are bedraggled, outnumbered and outgunned.
But the greatest disappointment is Shard herself. She is not the steadfast hero he’d envisioned, merely an embittered soldier who holds him and his project in contempt. Without her, Simlex fears his pict will be a disappointing failure… assuming he survives long enough to complete it.
I really love that cover – art by Jan Drenovec
ToW: Without spoiling anything, what else do we need to know about the main characters?
DF: The story is told from the perspective of Simlex. He is a protégée, having produced numerous acclaimed picts employing a rather unorthodox approach. For Simlex strives to capture the true face of Imperium, rather than the tightly controlled facsimile favoured by his peers. He believes the God-Emperor is the custodian of truth, and a propagandist’s duty is to reveal it. This naivety blinds him to the political ramifications of his work; many of the Imperium’s servants strive to shroud the truth and will take whatever steps are necessary to ensure his work does not expose their own misdeeds.
Though Simlex is the semi-reliable narrator of the novel, the hero and star of Outgunned is Flight Commander Lucille von Shard. A fighter ace of consummate ability, Shard’s skills are matched only by her disdain for her foes, peers, superiors, acquaintances, and virtually everyone and everything else she encounters. In fact, were she a less capable warrior, she would have long since been consigned to a penal colony. Or more likely an executioner.
Though an exceptional pilot, Shard is not the only hero in her family. Her parents were martyrs who served in the Imperial Guard, and her brothers and sisters are renowned servants of the Imperium, excelling in disparate roles. Though each sibling is an asset, the family’s greater value is as a propaganda tool. The von Shard line is idolised as exemplars of honour, sacrifice, and service to a higher cause. Simlex had previously served in the field with the noble Commissar Tobia von Shard, and it was his recommendation that saw him assigned to Bacchus. Unfortunately, Simlex discovers that Flight Commander Shard has little in common with her brother, and cares nothing for his approval.
ToW: Where and when is this set?
DF: Outgunned is a contemporary tale that takes place in Subsector Yossarian, a backwater collection of planets mercifully removed from the dangers of the Great Rift. Normally Bacchus’ priorities amount to little more than producing wine, meeting tithes, and culling the bands of feral orks that periodically emerge from the swamps. The sudden increase in ork activity is a cause for concern, but Planetary Governor Dolos is adamant the insurgence will not affect the distilleries or impact Bacchus’ ongoing prosperity. After all, the war is going splendidly well. The orks are on the backfoot, the Imperial forces are in no way overstretched, and there is zero possibility of the escalating conflict spilling over onto neighbouring planets and consuming the entire subsector. That is why citizens should volunteer for activity duty as soon as possible, so they may partake of the glory before it is too late….
ToW: What appealed to you about writing an Aeronautica Imperialis story? Are you a particular fan of planes and/or aerial combat stories?
DF: The initial appeal was less the aerial combat and more the tone. The novel was pitched as a satire somewhat in the vein of Ciaphas Cain. That part really appealed to me, but I actually had reservations concerning the aerial battles. I’ve been a Warhammer fan for a couple of decades, but Aeronautica Imperialis was one of the few games I’d never played (my main experience with Valkyries was being gunned down by them during 5th edition 40k; those things were beasts!).
So I did plenty of research into the game itself, the various aircraft, and how aerial combat worked in real life. The style of warfare is something of a departure from most Warhammer stories, where battles are as much about will and endurance as they are firepower and skill. But aerial combat is intrinsically fluid and somewhat dispassionate. There are no gunlines. Foes are dispatched at vast distances and rarely see their killer’s face. While strategy is important, it is split second decisions that determine victor and vanquished.
In fact, it was so fast paced and kinetic that I struggled initially to figure out how best to portray it. I’d already decided I wanted to write a first-person narrative, but I thought making the POV one of the pilots might normalise these elements. That was when I had the idea to use an outsider’s perspective. That way the narrator could marvel at the events in a manner that would be odd for a fighter ace already immersed in the world.
Denny’s first BL book was the Necromunda novella Low Lives – a much more grounded sort of story!
ToW: What can you tell us about the role of an Imperial propagandist, and the inspirations for the character of Simlex?
DF: Propagandists sit somewhere between journalists and filmmakers, though their outputs must of course align with the interests of the Imperium. The picts they produce act as sanctioned entertainment for the masses, allowing them to witness the glory of the God-Emperor’s forces with their own eyes. Picts also serve as recruitment tools, with viewers aspiring to enlist and become dashing fighter aces. In truth, the closest the majority of them will get to flying is scrubbing promethium stains off the planes’ hull, but by the time they learn the truth it is too late.
Through the novel we learn that there are various approaches to the propagandists’ art, some involving semi-accurate portals of life within the Imperium, others splicing together image and sound to create whatever tale they deem suitable, irrespective of its relation to the truth. Simlex’s insistence of capturing the true face of war is rather unusual, and enough to raise eyebrows amongst his puritanical colleagues. His philosophy is difficult to refute however, as to do so would involve suggesting that the ‘true’ Imperium is a less than ideal place. At the beginning of the tale his star is in ascendance, and he is dismissive of the woefully inaccurate efforts produced by his predecessors. But his philosophy is tested when confronted by the realities of frontline conflict, where idealism clashes with the reality of war.
ToW: Speaking of propaganda, this feels like a theme that’s absolutely ripe for exploring in 40k, but perhaps hasn’t been covered as much as expected by Black Library in the past. What’s your take on propaganda within the Imperium, and how to tackle it in fiction?
DF: At the risk of getting political, I think it would be fair to say we live in a post-truth age. Political parties and the media can craft narratives which have little resemblance to objective fact but reinforce a political cause. Once someone has bought into such a narrative it’s very hard to pull back from it. There is a famous Mark Twain quote about it being easier to con someone than convince them they have been conned. In other words, once someone has fallen for propaganda, they must either propagate it or admit they were fooled. The latter takes considerably more strength of character than the former, and many people choose to double down. And once you have done that your position becomes even more entrenched. It’s pretty depressing to be honest.
The Imperium takes this fallacy to the next level, for while we at least have multiple competing narratives battling for supremacy, in the Imperium there is only one. Of course, the role of propaganda is a little more complicated in a universe where knowing the truth can result in daemons erupting from your ears and consuming your soul, but the danger of persisting with a lie can be just as damning. Warhammer fans may know a great deal about how the 40k universe operates, but the characters within the novel know little. Simlex considers orks the primitive creatures they are portrayed as in old propaganda picts, and has no clue as to the true nature of the warp. Likewise the planetary governors and politicians dismiss the xenos threat as trifling because they believe the Imperium’s armies unstoppable.
Simlex at least has the presence of mind to reevaluate the situation when presented with new evidence. Not all the characters in the novel share this trait. Ironically, this misplaced confidence is one of the reasons the situation is deteriorating, because taking proper steps to solve it would involve admitting that the current approach has failed.
ToW: The (brilliant) cover has a real WWII war movie vibe – was that the sort of tone you were going for with the book? Can you talk a bit about some of the influences you drew upon while writing this?
DF: I love the cover! Though I think the tone is a little more WW1. I say that because, by WW2, I think most people considered the war a necessary sacrifice to oppose the Axis powers. But in WW1 there remained a romanticised view of war, an expectation that glorious victory would come any day and life would return to normal by Christmas. Only those who had seen frontline combat knew what was really happening.
Outgunned draws inspiration from Oh What a Lovely War, Catch 22, and Blackadder, specifically the fourth season set during the Great War. That series does an excellent job of balancing humour with the heartrending madness of the conflict. But though Shard shares a swagger reminiscent of the great Lord Flashheart, unlike him she has no love for war, her cynical nature being closer to Captain Blackadder himself. Though her skills ensure she has greater value than the common soldiery, she knows she is just as disposable in the face of unending conflict, another cog in the war machine. In that sense her contempt is quite rational, for that is ultimately how the Imperium treats the majority of its soldiers.
Fire Made Flesh was Denny’s first full-length BL novel, part of the Necromunda range again
ToW: This is your second novel for Black Library – how did you find the process of writing this, compared to Fire Made Flesh?
DF: Fire Made Flesh is a novel with multiple plotlines and characters intersecting at a single event. With Outgunned I decided to do the opposite and focus the story entirely from the POV of a single individual. This made it easier in a lot of ways as there were fewer perspectives to balance. The challenge then becomes making sure your sole narrator has enough to say, and managing the scenes that take place when the protagonist is not present. Luckily, I had a bit of a cheat, as Simlex is accompanied by a trio of seer-skulls programmed to act as his eyes and ears. They permitted me to observe scenes in which he was not present and expand the narrative beyond immediate events. Overall I found it an easier process, though in part that might be due to the reduction in pandemic induced anxiety.
ToW: Could you give us an overview of your general writing process, in terms of how (or whether) you plan your writing, when you find the time to write and so on?
DF: I’m a planner. I cannot understand how someone can ‘just start writing’. I’m not knocking anyone who has that approach (if it works it works!), but I need to know where the story is going. Otherwise, I find myself producing well written passages that are ultimately disregarded because they do not service the overall plot. For Fire Made Flesh I produced an Excel spreadsheet which broke down each section, chapter and key events on characters arcs; it had about ninety rows by the end. I started something similar with Outgunned, but found it wasn’t as necessary with a single narrator; there was less risk of a particular plot thread getting lost or character fading into the background.
I tend to write early, sometimes getting up at 4am (I’m a natural early riser/insomniac). Though early starts are brutal, I find my inner critic is still asleep at that time and I tend to be more productive and second guess myself less. I’m also the primary carer for a six year old, so it’s useful to get a start on my work before he wakes up and starts attacking me with foam swords.
I don’t block out periods to write so much as have daily targets for word count (whether writing or editing). Doesn’t matter how quick or slow I work provided I hit the target. Black Library deadlines can be pretty tight, so I schedule work and build in some contingencies. I usually aim to finish a draft a month early, that way I’ve covered in the event of illness or unforeseen events.
ToW Do you have anything else in the works (whether for BL or otherwise) that you can talk about at all?
DF: I have a few short stories for Black Library that I suspect will appear in the next few months, and a slightly longer piece which will hopefully be out by the end of the year; keep your eyes peeled! I’m also in the early stages of a possible third novel with Black Library. The subject is close to my cold black heart and it’s really an exciting opportunity, but I’m not permitted to discuss it further else I incur the wrath of the Inquisitors.
ToW: Lastly, if you found yourself drafted into the Aeronautica Imperialis what position do you think you would end up taking, and why?
DF: I suspect I would be assigned to the Imperium’s equivalent of Lord Flashheart’s Twenty Minuters…
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Thanks so much to Denny for taking the time to chat to me for this interview, and give us the lowdown on Outgunned. You can check out my review of Outgunned right here. If you haven’t already, I would definitely recommend checking out some of Denny’s previous Black Library stories – you can find out more about Denny himself in the Author Spotlight interview we did back in 2019.
See also: all of the Denny Flowers-related reviews and interviews on Track of Words.
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Denny Flowers is the author of the novels Fire Made Flesh and Outgunned, the novella Low Lives and several short stories. He lives in Kent with his wife and son, and has no proven connection with House Delaque.
You can find Denny on Instagram @denny_flowers
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Outgunned is out now – check out the links below to order your copy:
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Subsector Yossarian? Cute reference to Catch-22, another book about an unglamorous air war.