Hello and welcome to this Rapid Fire author interview, where today I’m joined by Black Library author and Track of Words regular David Guymer to talk about his latest Age of Sigmar novel – Verminslayer. It’s been a while since David’s last novel-length contribution to the fan-favourite Gotrek Gurnisson series (or as I like to call it, the Nounslayer series), with the previous four novels coming from the pens of the excellent Darius Hinks and Richard Strachan. With the release of Verminslayer though, I had the chance to ask the really important questions: what can we expect to see in this latest instalment, from the author of Kinslayer, Slayer and Realmslayer? What was it like returning to such a beloved character? Who’s Gotrek’s new companion? And of course, what makes the skaven such great antagonists in this series?
So if you’re a fan of the legendary slayer, and you want to find out the answers to all those questions and more, I’ve got you covered! Without further ado, over to David.
ToW: To start things off, can you give us an overview of Verminslayer and what readers can expect from it?
David Guymer: To borrow from the WarCom page announcing the release…
“Deep in Ghyran lies Greywater Fastness, a city of industry that belches black clouds into the sky, its streets packed with peril even while the Dreadwood Sylvaneth battle against its creeping expansion. Gotrek arrives in this city with questions to ask about his mysteriously waning Fyreslayer rune, hoping he might find answers in its teeming streets. Below this bustling city, madcap skaven warlocks are building a contraption. Perhaps this is the device that will provide Gotrek with what he’s been looking for all along – a worthy death.”
With Verminslayer I wanted to steer Gotrek back towards the character Bill King once described to me as (and I paraphrase slightly) “a mid-level hero on an adventure just slightly too advanced for him.”
With the Master Rune of the Unbak Lodge faltering, and taking much of Gotrek’s supernatural prowess with it, he senses that the chances of a glorious death in battle might be his at last. You can expect thrills, explosions, canal-boat chases and Doomwheels in crowded places. Expect heroic underdogs foiling nefarious skaven plots in (I hope) the finest Slayer series tradition.
ToW: I can’t imagine there are too many Black Library fans who aren’t familiar with Gotrek Gurnisson, but just in case could you give us a quick recap of who he is and why he’s such a fan-favourite character?
DG: He’s a Slayer, a dwarf who has sworn to seek death in battle in order to gain absolution in the afterlife for a shame committed long ago. This ambition has been complicated by the fact that he’s an absolute beast in battle, and that some higher power has clearly marked him with a great destiny. Even so, there have been occasions down the years when he might have found the end he claims to desire, only for his own stubborn refusal to accept an UNWORTHY end to keep him searching.
Fast forward about a dozen books, through the destruction of the World-that-was (which he ironically survives, trapped inside the Realm of Chaos), and Gotrek stumbles into the Mortal Realms as a relic of a dead world, alone in a place he doesn’t like and doesn’t understand.
While the world around him may have changed, Gotrek certainly hasn’t. He is still seeking the most terrible monsters to fight, still hoping to find the doom that has eluded him for so long.
ToW: Presumably this follows on from Richard Strachan’s Blightslayer – for anyone who either hasn’t read that or could do with a recap, could you talk a bit about where Gotrek is up to in his journey by the start of Verminslayer, and how he got there?
DG: It does indeed follow Blightslayer, although reading that book isn’t strictly necessary to understand what’s going on as this story picks up with Gotrek some time later, in a different corner of Ghyran and with a different cast of characters. Verminslayer will explain everything!
To briefly summarise where Gotrek is at this point… Blightslayer finds Gotrek still reeling from the tragic events of Soulslayer, joining forces with a lapsed warrior-priest called Amara to battle the forces of Nurgle. Verminslayer then picks up some time after a falling out with Amara sees the two parting ways. Amara has followed a prophetic vision to Hysh while Gotrek (rejecting any notion of gods or destinies or sucking up to the Lumineth) stumbled aimlessly across Ghyran before winding up in the literal gutter in Greywater Fastness.
This is where Verminslayer begins.
ToW: Who’s that cool looking character standing behind Gotrek on the cover? Can you tell us a bit about Gotrek’s companion(s) in Verminslayer, and what we need to know about them?
DG: That’s Elsworn Killebrook, a freeguild cavalier from the new (at the time of writing anyway) Cities of Sigmar range and a citizen of Greywater Fastness. She’s brave, devil-may-care, and hungry for glory, as freeguild cavaliers tend to be, but she’s also never left her home city so we find her frustrated by a craving for glory and ever so slightly naïve about the wider Realms. Black Library were really keen to have someone that Gotrek could respect as an equal, and Elsworn isn’t shy about getting stuck in at his side. Her primary interest though is her duty to her city, which leaves her and Gotrek pulling in different directions more often than not.
If you want to know more about Elsworn (and the period between Blightslayer and Verminslayer generally), she appears in my short story, The One Road. It’s set before the events of Verminslayer but I wrote it afterwards, so had to contrive a scenario that introduces Elsworn and includes Gotrek (because it’s a Gotrek story!) whilst ensuring the two never actually meet because you see this in Verminslayer. It’s a prime example of how a restriction like this can give you a great twist – in this case a comedy of errors in which Gotrek and Elsworn keep on just missing each other amidst a battle with the sylvaneth.
The other important group to know about are the Loose Cannon underjacks.
These are the lowest of the low: thugs, mercenaries, thieves, and anyone who, for whatever reason, can’t find respectable work elsewhere. While the freeguild patrol Greywater Fastness’ streets, the underjacks police the canals and sewers beneath them. To them goes the thankless task of battling ghouls, monsters, deadwalkers and, of course, the skaven. It’s probably no great surprise that Gotrek starts Verminslayer in their company. Again, you can find more about the Loose Cannons and the washed-up former freeguild soldier who commands them, Sorrol Tun, in the short story Beast of Grey Garden. It follows Gotrek on his first mission with the Loose Cannons where the routine clear-out of some deadwalkers takes a decidedly monstrous turn…
ToW: Where does Verminslayer take place, and what part(s) of the Mortal Realms you got to explore with this book?
DG: This book is set entirely within the bounds of Greywater Fastness, a Free City at the edge of the Everspring Swathe in Ghyran, which gave me the opportunity to go deep in exploring it. Think Nuln in Skavenslayer or Praag in Beastslayer.
Every great city in the Age of Sigmar has some feature that makes it unique, which is part of what makes the setting so diverse and fun, and the standout feature of Greywater Fastness is its industry. It’s the armoury of the Mortal Realms, manufacturing weapons and war machines to supply Sigmar’s armies across his thousands of unending wars. Its dark, it’s polluted, its overpopulated, but this is no Forge World of the kind you might be familiar with from Warhammer 40,000 – there’s an entrepreneurial spirit to the people who live and work here, an energy and a dynamism, and no shortage of people looking to get rich quick or invent the next contraption to turn the tide against Chaos.
There’s a sprawling public transport system, mechanical beasts to replace the horses and oxen that don’t long survive the dingy conditions, and automation at every level of society, all powered by an abundance of geomantic energy and Ghyranite realmstone.
I pictured it as a grungy Victorian megalopolis with an Age of Sigmar twist, with all the good and the bad that comes with that.
For all its vigour, however, it’s hemmed in by the Dreadwood and a horde of sylvaneth who loathe it and the pollution it pumps into their forest. A treaty between Sigmar and Alarielle prevents the sylvaneth from wiping the city out, but it also prevents the city from expanding its borders. Neither party is particularly happy with the status quo.
Trust me, this is all relevant!
Seriously, there’s nothing I love better than immersing myself in a corner of the lore and teasing out the stories. What looks like a nice bit of scene dressing ends up inspiring this really great plot hook, or that nugget of backstory for a side character dovetails nightly with this twist. I worked in much the same way on my Iron Hands novels and Court of the Blind King, basically letting the lore take me by the hand and show me to where the story is. There’s no better feeling.
If you want to learn more Greywater Fastness, I’d highly recommend the Blackened Earth supplement for Age of Sigmar: Soulbound. The Cubicle 7 guys did a fantastic job of fleshing the place out and, frankly, made my job easy.
ToW: It’s been a while since you last wrote a Gotrek novel. How did it feel returning to tell a new story about this beloved character, and picking the series up after Darius’ and Richard’s contributions (compared to when you wrote Realmslayer, and essentially started the whole series off anew)?
DG: So, I actually had the opportunity to write Ghouslayer, but I’d already agreed to work on Shield of Daqan for Aconyte and unfortunately had to turn it down. I regret it occasionally, but Darius did such a great job with his trilogy and they’ve been so well received by the fans that I can’t begrudge passing on the Slayer baton.
Anyway, I honestly thought my time with Gotrek was done, but then I wrote the novelisation for Realmslayer and just fell in love all over again. It reminded me of the unexplored ideas I’d had for Gotrek and Maleneth after Blood of the Old World, and found myself inspired with all new ones while reading Gitslayer and Soulslayer (and cried along with every other reader at the end of the latter).
I just HAD to write another Gotrek story.
So I emailed my editor, Hannah, to beg for one, and the stars must have aligned for me because the opportunity was there to do one after Blightslayer.
Richard and Darius took the series to places I never would have, places I never would have dreamt of, and that’s great. If I’d written every book since Realmslayer I would probably be all out of ideas now. Instead, Richard and Darius have brought new ideas and fresh perspectives that I now have the chance to build on and play off.
As I say, it’s great. Writing can be a lonely business, and I love seeing other writer’s takes on my characters.
ToW: You’ve written a lot of Gotrek stories, with three Old World novels, the Realmslayer audio dramas and their novelisation, loads of short stories and now this. What is it about this character that keeps you wanting to come back and write about him?
DG: He’s such a strong character. By that I mean he has a strong sense of what he wants and will suffer no obstacles on his way to getting it. There is also a depth of tragedy to him, both from the shame that drives him and from his continual failure to find the death he thinks will make it better.
That’s an absolute gift to any writer. You can drop Gotrek into almost any situation and know exactly what will happen.
Give me another character who could be sighted in Altdorf, Albion, the Realm of Chaos, and Hammerhal Aqsha, and still be the same ultra-violent misanthrope we first encountered hitch-hiking through the Drakwald Forest back in Trollslayer. I doubt it would be a very long list.
ToW: What challenges does writing a Gotrek novel bring compared to other Black Library books – is it a different sort of process?
DG: The basic premise of every Gotrek story is pretty much the same every time – Gotrek finds monster, Gotrek kills monster. On top of that, there are certain restrictions on what needs to happen and the sort of stories you’re allowed to tell. Finding ways to keep things fresh within that remit is probably the biggest challenge to writing a Gotrek novel.
As Gotrek himself never changes, this comes down to having a strong cast of returning characters around and regularly refreshing the situation and setting. Gotrek’s companion always wants something that Gotrek is keeping them from getting (think of Felix and his budding relationship with Ulrika from Daemonslayer through to Vampireslayer) and there’s a reason that a Gotrek story never visits the same location twice.
ToW: We can’t talk about a book called VERMINslayer without also talking about the skaven. The loathsome ratmen seem to be something of a favourite faction for you, and they’ve featured in quite a few of Gotrek’s previous adventures. What makes them such good antagonists for a Gotrek story (and, presumably, so much fun to write about)?
DG: They absolutely are my favourite faction!
I played them when I first got into Warhammer as an eager twelve year-old, and slipped comfortably back into them after a brief hobby hiatus in my twenties where I fancied myself too cool for that sort of thing. They were the stars of the novels I read (Gotrek and Felix, of course; C.L. Werner’s Thanquol series) and so of course they became the subjects of my first forays into published fiction with The Tilean’s Talisman and my debut novel, Headtaker.
I just know them. I get them. Writing them feels like second nature for me.
And yes, they are fun. Good, clean madcap fun.
They are shameless cowards. Their weapons are awesomely powerful, but spectacularly unreliable. Their schemes for world domination are labyrinthine, only to unravel under their weight of their complexity or the skaven penchant for paranoid backstabbing. For all that though, they are a terrifying foe, effectively without number, but also hidden in the filth and shadows of human civilization. The sort of adversary that professional forces can’t see or would rather ignore make the perfect villains for a rogue hero like Gotrek.
A Gotrek novel also has a particular tone that’s distinct from most other Black Library fiction (dark, but without being too serious; occasionally humorous but morbidly so, and always tongue-in-cheek) that fits so well with the skaven. Put them together and you have pulp adventure gold.
ToW: Speaking of skaven…might a certain Grey Seer and rat ogre duo make an appearance in Verminslayer (and if not, why not?!)?
DG: I’m afraid not!
Grey Seer Thanquol returned to menace his arch-nemesis already in Realmslayer, and that felt right for the story I was telling then, with Gotrek making his stumbling return to the Mortal Realms.
This is a different story, set in the industrial powerhouse of Sigmar’s kingdom, and Clan Skryre felt like the perfect antagonists to explore it properly.
ToW: Finally, if you could visit anywhere in the Mortal Realms for a day as Gotrek’s companion, where would it be and why?
DG: Settler’s Gain appeals to the academic in me, but there’s the unpleasant prospect of getting brainwashed by the Realm-Lords. Azyrheim sounds nice and safe. And full of glorious sights too. I hear that Clan Eshin have managed to sneak a few agents even there, but I’m sure it’s fine. Azyrheim it is. I’m sure Gotrek couldn’t get into any trouble there…
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David Guymer’s work for Black Library includes the Warhammer Age of Sigmar novels Kragnos: Avatar of Destruction, Hamilcar: Champion of the Gods and The Court of the Blind King, the novella Bonereapers, and several audio dramas including Realmslayer and Realmslayer: Blood of the Old World. He is also the author of the Gotrek & Felix novels Slayer, Kinslayer and City of the Damned. For The Horus Heresy he has written the novella Dreadwing, and the Primarchs novels Ferrus Manus: Gorgon of Medusa and Lion El’Jonson: Lord of the First. For Warhammer 40,000 he has written Angron: The Red Angel, The Eye of Medusa, The Voice of Mars and the two Beast Arises novels Echoes of the Long War and The Last Son of Dorn. He is a freelance writer and occasional scientist based in the East Riding, and was a finalist in the 2014 David Gemmell Awards for his novel Headtaker.
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As ever, massive thanks to David for taking the time to chat to me for this interview. Having read this, I’m sure you’ll agree with me that Verminslayer sounds fantastic – I can’t wait to find out more about Greywater Fastness, and the Loose Cannon underjacks…and, of course, catch up with my favourite grumpy Slayer.
If you’re looking for more Gotrek-related content, here’s some further reading:
All of the Gotrek (and sometimes also Felix) related reviews and interviews on Track of Words
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