Hello and welcome to this Rapid Fire interview here on Track of Words, where I’m delighted to be welcoming author Steven B. Fischer back to the site – this time to chat about his latest Black Library novel, Broken Crusade! Steve and I have chatted before about his excellent BL debut Witchbringer, and after reading and loving Broken Crusade I was keen to pick his brains again, and get a little insight into another fantastic 40k novel. One of my personal favourite BL novels of 2024, Broken Crusade was a fascinating read, and it was great fun digging into it with Steve, discussing Black Templars, second novels, melancholic Space Marines, unusual World Eaters, and loads more.
Hopefully you’ll enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed working on it!
ToW: To start things off, can you give us an overview of Broken Crusade and what readers can expect from it?
Steven B. Fischer: Hiya there, Michael. First and foremost, thanks for putting this interview together and giving me a chance to chat about Broken Crusade. It’s always a pleasure talking with you, and I’m really looking forward to this!
Broken Crusade is the story of Castellan Emeric and his fighting company as they struggle to rejoin the Second Dorean Crusade on the shrine world of Tempest after being separated from their crusade fleet. It’s a classic Black Templars plotline full of zealous – and sometimes Foolhardy – heroes, vicious close-quarters combat, valiant last stands, and devotion to the God-Emperor of Mankind. On a deeper level, I hope that it’s an exploration of faith, loyalty, and the profound individual costs of war.
ToW: Without giving anything away, what can you tell us about the main characters of Broken Crusade?
SBF: Oh man. Listen. I’ve known Castellan Emeric for a few years now, and I love the guy, but he could also be a real challenge to write. Before I ever started the synopsis for the short story Consecrated Ground, and long before I ever dreamed of writing Broken Crusade, I was brainstorming character ideas for a Black Templar protagonist when a piece of dialogue popped into my mind one night. I rolled over in bed, typed it into my phone, and then went back to sleep, knowing it would form the core of Emeric’s character. I still have the note.
“Perhaps I was chosen, once, as you claim. But I squandered that blessing, though I do not know how. What kind of angel cannot envision the face of his god? What kind of son has never heard the voice of his father?”
That dialogue didn’t survive precisely into Broken Crusade, but it bounced around in my head while I was writing the novel, and that conflict – a character driven by faith, but consistently unable to find faith in himself – forms the core of Emeric’s arc. Externally, he is zealous, confident, and decisive, but internally he is harried by doubt. Broken Crusade is as much the story of that internal war as it is the story of the physical battle for Tempest.
I also really wanted to include a handful of counter-perspectives in the story. Like we talked about in a previous interview, I’m a big believer in giving the bad guy a fair shake, so the story spends quite a bit of time in the fractured mind of a World Eaters Eightbound. I won’t give too much away, but his scenes were some of the most fun to write. I had just finished reading Cormac McCarthy’s excellent The Passenger before I started writing Broken Crusade, and I tried to pull some of those vibes into a 40k perspective.
Finally, I wanted to tell a portion of the story from the point of view of the Black Templars supporting characters. I wanted to show the costs of war, not just to the Templars themselves, but also to their mortal (and non-biological) servants. Throughout the story, Emeric repeatedly makes costly decisions for the sake of tactical and strategic objectives, as well as for personal honour. Those decisions have very real, and very immediate, impacts on the mortals that support his fighting company. I wanted to show the reader some of those costs, and how those mortals’ impressions of their Black Templar leaders (overlords? enslavers?) change as those costs accrue.
ToW: You’ve mentioned the shrine world of Tempest – what can you say about this world, as a setting?
SBF: I can say that you probably don’t want to visit for a holiday. Long, long ago, Tempest was a beautiful place, but millenia of war (and rule by the Imperium) have made it little more than a wasteland outside of the massive shrine-arcologies that dot its surface. In that way, maybe it’s a bit of a microcosm of the Imperium itself – a few islands of stability and occasional beauty created at the cost of mind-boggling desolation.
I love stories that make the environment a character (particularly when that environment reflects the themes of the story itself), and I tried really hard to do that in my first 40k novel, Witchbringer. I worked hard to make Tempest its own character in Broken Crusade as well, although maybe with a little less success. That said, I hope that the images of pristine, soaring cathedra, endless sun-blasted desert, and ancient, shadowy catacombs permeate everything that happens in the story.
ToW: This is your second Black Library novel, after the aforementioned Witchbringer – which is brilliant! How did you find the writing process for this one – did you have any ‘difficult second album’ moments?
SBF: In some ways it was easier. In some ways, much harder.
I came into Broken Crusade with a lot more confidence as a writer. I had done this once before, and that made me more comfortable taking risks with the story and characters. A handful of them didn’t pay off – and got kindly but firmly nixed by my wonderful editors – but some of them turned out wonderfully, and became my favorite parts of the story.
The biggest challenge for me was the characters themselves. Liesl, Missionary Proserpine, even Dravek Soulrender all came pretty easily to me, but it took me a long time to flesh out Emeric’s voice, and those of his brothers.
I’ve never really liked superheroes. Quite frankly, I don’t understand the cultural obsession. Often, I find them overpowered, one-dimensional, and uninteresting. At the risk of being labeled a heretic, sometimes Space Marines can feel a bit like superheroes to me, and I really, really wanted to tell a Space Marine story that decidedly wasn’t a superhero story. That challenge was particularly hard with the Black Templars. These are hyper-indoctrinated, fascist, religious extremists of the most dangerous flavour, and in a world where very real fascism and extremism are on the rise, I wanted to explore the heroism the Black Templars can display without sugar-coating their monstrosity.
ToW: Coming back to Emeric, I can’t think of many BL stories about melancholy Space Marines. What inspired Emeric’s character and how did you find balancing his personality with the expected nature of a 40k story?
SBF: I think it was that conflict I just mentioned. I wanted to tell a Space Marine story about a complicated character. One who saw the flaws in himself and the system he’s a part of. In the context of the Black Templars, that meant telling a story about a crisis of faith. A Black Templar can’t really question his faith in the God Emperor (at least without ceasing to be a Black Templar…), so that left a crisis of faith in himself.
This is probably the most polarizing part of Broken Crusade. I’ve read a number of reviews where readers complained about precisely this aspect of Emeric’s character, and I get that. If you’re looking for a story about a hyper-confident super-soldier who charges forward without doubt or second-thoughts, then Broken Crusade probably isn’t the one for you (and that’s completely OK). On the other hand, I’ve had a few truly lovely emails from readers who connected deeply with Emeric’s struggle to find faith in himself, and those have been – without a doubt – the highlight of my writing career.
ToW: Villainous though he may be, Dravek doesn’t seem quite like the usual World Eaters readers might have come across before. How did you go about creating this character, as an antagonist for Emeric to face?
SBF: In a lot of ways, Dravek is a mirror for Emeric, and perhaps a cautionary tale. He is what happens when a Space Marine fails a crisis of faith. When they fully give in to nihilism and despair. They are more similar than they want to admit, and I think Dravek actually recognises that better (and sooner) than Emeric does.
I kept thinking about what it would be like to be an Eightbound. How painful it would be for something as confident and independent as a Space Marine to be sidelined within their own body and mind. And that led to me thinking about how desperate one would have to be to ever agree to that bargain in the first place.
Honestly, I have a lot of empathy for Dravek. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a monster of the most despicable variety, but a victim of his own actions just as much as his literal victims are. I think he realizes that, too, which makes the futility and tragedy of everything he’s doing even greater.
ToW: For such a popular Chapter the Black Templars haven’t actually had that many BL novels, but they have had one defining book in Helsreach. What was it like putting your own stamp on the Chapter, and exploring their character with both a relative (compared to, say, the Ultramarines or Blood Angels) lack of BL source material and that one seminal story?
SBF: Listen, Helsreach is the gold standard. Not just for Black Templars novels but for Space Marine stories in general. I re-read Helsreach and Blood and Fire again right before I started working on Broken Crusade, and the opening line is a direct homage to ADB’s classic.
Beyond that, though, the decentralised nature of the Black Templars’ crusade fleets gave me a lot of flexibility to carve out some unique elements for Emeric and his companions, which was a lot of fun. My editors Paul and Will really let me run with it, and I hope that readers enjoy the traditions and flavour of the Second Dorean Crusade as much as I enjoyed writing them.
ToW: The Black Templars’ faith sets them apart from other Space Marines, and this felt like something you wanted to explore in the book (I noted the book’s dedication, too). What was that like, exploring an important 40k theme through an unusual lens?
SBF: At the end of the day, writing is cheaper than therapy.
I got into writing fiction almost a decade ago as a way to process difficult things in the real world. I wrote my very first short story while I was a medical student, the evening after sitting by a patient’s bedside while they died. I had never seen death firsthand before, and that day shook me more than I expected it would. Writing about it helped me process some of that heaviness, and ever since then, that’s what writing has been about for me – using speculative settings and characters to explore real-world questions that I’m struggling to answer.
Broken Crusade was no different. I wrote the story in the midst of my own crisis of faith. Faith in myself. Faith in my choices. Faith in some of the institutions and ideals that I’d been devoted to for my entire life. Call it Imposter Syndrome. Call it a touch of a midlife crisis. I’m not sure I’m completely through this one yet, but writing Emeric through his battle for faith definitely helped me, at moments, wrestle with my own.
ToW: I was really interested in Emeric’s attitude towards baseline humans, and the way it contrasted with at least one of his brother’s opinions on the matter. As most of your BL writing up to now has focused on human POVs, how did you find writing from the perspective of Space Marines, and in particular their views on regular humans?
SBF: Humans are the real heroes of 40k to me. Don’t get me wrong, it takes courage for a Space Marine to face down a Tyranid Hive Tyrant or a daemon, but they were literally engineered for the task. The fact that there are baseline humans willing to do the same reflects a level of selflessness and duty that not even the Black Templars can match.
I wanted to show how human perspectives of the Black Templars changed throughout the story, but I wanted to show the Templars’ perspective evolving as well. For most of Emeric’s fighting company, the humans that make their work possible are – at best – a tool to be used and discarded, and – at worst – creatures to be actively despised for their weakness. That attitude isn’t unique to 40k. I think a lot of us view other humans this way, too. And if the boys in black can develop a hint of empathy for those they view as beneath them, then maybe you and I can, too.
ToW: Speaking of baseline humans, and in contrast to the previous question, I really enjoyed Liesl’s POV sections and her perspective on the Black Templars – how did you find writing her, as both a regular human character and a medical practitioner?
SBF: Just like Emeric, Liesl is facing her own crisis of faith. At the start of the story, she views the Space Marines that rule her little voidship universe as literal angels. But as she watches them fall (and fail) around her, she begins to see their flaws firsthand.
Emeric’s faith in himself and his purpose form the foundation of his identity. For Liesl, that foundation has always been her faith in the Black Templars. But just like Emeric, as her foundation begins to crumble, she has to fight to find faith in something even deeper.
From a medical standpoint, writing Liesl was a lot of fun. It was interesting to translate some real-world medicine into the retro-tech 40k universe, and then to add some superstition and ceremony on top of that, too. Hopefully, Liesl’s perspective also gives readers a chance to see the downstream effects of the violence that litters 40k pages. It takes courage and resilience to charge into battle, but once the fighting is over, it takes a different kind of courage to clean up the mess.
ToW: Finally, if you were to join one Space Marine Chapter (either as a Space Marine, or a Chapter serf of some sort) which one would you choose and why?
SBF: Honest and uninteresting answer: Ultramarines. They seem like they have a semi-meritocratic, egalitarian-ish thing going on that’s probably about as good as it gets in the 40k setting.
Hot take: Alpha Legion. Ploys within ploys sounds like a terribly stressful, but endlessly entertaining way to live. Plus, even when your plans fail, you can always claim it’s just part of a deeper, even more cunning plan.
Thanks so much for talking, Michael. It was too much fun, as always!
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Steve is a physician in the Southeastern US. His short stories have appeared in places like F&SF, Grimdark Magazine, and Flash Fiction Online, among others. His fiction set in the Warhammer 40K universe is available from Black Library.
If you’re looking to get in touch with Steve, the best way to reach him is by howling thrice towards the moon on a cold night. Alternatively, you can email him at steven.b.fischer@gmail.com.
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As ever, massive thanks to Steve for taking the time to chat, and give us the lowdown on Broken Crusade. If this has whetted your appetite for some Black Templars action, I really do recommend getting hold of this book!
See also: all of the Steven B. Fischer-related reviews and interviews on Track of Words
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