Tag Archives: Matthew Farrer

Hello and welcome to the second part of my in-depth interview with author Matthew Farrer, where we’re taking quite a detailed (but still mostly spoiler-free) look at his Urdesh duology for Black Library. In the first part (which you can read here) Matthew talked about the journey that these books went on (they weren’t originally commissioned as a duology!), and what it was like contributing novel-length stories to the Sabbat Worlds series. In this second part we’re going to look in a bit more detail at some of Matthew’s writing process for these books, from structure and pace (by way of the Discworld) and perspective-hopping to how to really portray the speed and power of Space Marines in motion (by way of Captain America), and what it was like collaborating with both the BL editors and fellow author Dan Abnett.

Welcome to part one of this in-depth interview, where I’m genuinely delighted to be talking to author Matthew Farrer and going into quite a lot of detail discussing his Urdesh duology from Black Library. After something of a long gestation, Urdesh: The Serpent and the Saint was released in June 2021, followed a few months later by Urdesh: The Magister and the Martyr. Between them these two books – telling a single overarching story, really – explore a crucial part of the Sabbat Worlds Crusade from a brand new perspective, as the Iron Snakes and Saint Sabbat lead the armies of the Imperium in the war for Urdesh against the forces of the Anarch. With both books now available in paperback, it seemed the perfect moment to chat to Matthew about the unusual journey that this story has taken and the books that are available now as a result.