Morning folks, well it’s 2010 now and since it’s still
January, I feel I can still wish you all a happy new year without it feeling
too weird. The Christmas/New Year break always involves a fair bit of
travelling for us, and though we had a great time over the holiday period, it
was good to return home to familiar surroundings and get back to work. I’d
reached a good way through The Chapter’s Due before downing tools, and, as
always, it took a little bit of time to get back into it. But the book’s back
underway nicely, and I’ve been writing some truly titanic battle scenes over
the last few days that I think are shaping up in a nicely apocalyptic way. It’s
been a real challenge to make this book as big as it needs to be without having
it run away from me and become a ten-volume epic, but it’s staying (mostly) on
track and it funnelling into a nice three-tiered climax I’m very pleased with,
though the death toll is going to be something terrible and nasty for a couple
of characters in particular.
Links
Over the holidays, I was sent a few links and did a few
interviews I’d like to share with you. One is in French, so you’ll either need
to be able to read French or have a handy Google translator to hand. With Dead
Sky, Black Sun coming out in France, the lovely chaps at Bibliothèque
Interdite invited me to say a few
words to the French fans, so you’ll find the link to that here.
Continuing on the theme
of Ultramarines, Luke over at Luke Reviews nominated Courage and Honour as one
of his top fifteen books of 2009, which was fantastic, and he invited me to say
a few words about the book, which you can read here.
And last, but by no
means least, Team Preston reviewed A Thousand Sons, and you can read what they
thought of it by clicking here, though you'll need to scroll down past a couple of books to get to it. Jeff was kind enough to send me the link, so
thanks for that!
New Year, New
Competition
I realise I’ve been lax
with my blogging, so to make up for that, I decided to give away a few juicy
bits and pieces that I have in my office and which you might like to get your
mitts on. I’ll tell you what you have to do to win them in a moment, but first
off, here’s what the lucky winners will receive…
First Prize – A signed
hardback edition of the complete run of Fire & Honour comics, signed copies
of all my Horus Heresy books to date (though, sadly, this won’t include A
Thousand Sons, as I don’t have any copies of that to hand), and a signed,
limited edition, poster for The Dark King/Lightning Tower chapbook.
Second Prize – A signed
softback edition of the complete run of Defenders of Ultramar comics, and a
signed Mechanicum poster.
Third Prize – A signed,
limited edition, poster for the Imperial Munitorum manual, and a signed
Heldenhammer poster.
Right, to win one of
these bumper bundles, what I want from you lot is to put your thinking caps on
and mash up Black Library book titles with a theme that sits close to my heart
– heavy metal and rock n’ roll. I want to laugh, to cry, to be
appalled at the punning... You might win
bonus points if they’re my books, but they don’t have to be, any Black Library
title is fair game. I’ll give you a couple of (admittedly terrible) mash ups to
get you started, so how about ‘Manowarriors of Ultramar’ and ‘Mechanicum
Animals’. Like I said, they’re the first ones that came to mind, but I’m sure
you can do better… I’ll announce the winners sometime towards the end of
February, so you’ve a good few weeks to have a ponder and see if you can think
of ones better than what I’ve come up with – which shouldn’t be too hard! Post
your entries in the comments section of this post.
Things going into my
brain
Reading: With a little bairn in
the house, my reading has taken a knock, but I’m gradually getting back to the
printed word in a meaningful way. My mum got me a copy of The Age of Wonder by
Richard Holmes for Christmas, which I’m looking forward to getting my teeth
into, as I think it’ll be great material for Horus Heresy books, with a real
vibe for that 30K era of enlightenment. I just finished ‘Don’t split the
party’, the latest of the collected stories concerning the Order of the Stick.
If you haven’t seen this webcomic then I urge you to rectify that immediately.
Go get the collected books (there’s only five previous ones…) and read them,
laugh at them, and love them.
Music: Not much in the way of
new music has drifted my way, though through my US connection, I’ve picked up a
few new records I’m liking. The new Kittie album is getting a lot of play just
now, which is surprising me, as I was never the biggest fan of all female
bands. But this album’s got me exploring their back catalogue with a more open
mind, and I’m liking what I’m hearing.
TV: Most of the TV shows I
love are on hiatus just now, but will be coming back in the new year. Lost and
24 are starting soon, and who doesn’t love Jack Bauer doing his thing and
kicking major terrorist butt? And the ending of Lost getting closer? My mouth’s
watering just thinking about it…
TV over Christmas was
more or less a non-event, with there being literally almost nothing to watch
except repeats of old shows. Even Doctor Who was a bit of a confused mash of
ideas that didn’t really gel coherently for me, though I did like the addition
of the Time Lords and Gallifrey as the villains of the piece. Yet it all
combined with such fervour and apocalyptic glee that it was hard not to reach
the end without a big smile on my face. David Tennant’s last line almost caused
a tear or two before he began to change, and I’m looking forward to seeing
where Steven Moffat takes the series and what Matt Smith makes of the Doctor. I
just hope folk give him the chance to grow into the role and don’t simply decry
him as ‘not being as good as the last one…’ or somesuch. What do you think?
Games: This Christmas, I was
lucky enough to receive a bunch of games for my 360, so I’ve been shooting bad
guys in Modern Warfare 2, blowing up zombies in Left 4 Dead 2, and zapping my
way through Ferelden in Dragon Age: Origins as a mage. I’ve enjoyed the quick
fix of the shooters, but have been immersed in Dragon Age far too much to be
healthy. As much as it’s about as generic a fantasy setting as it’s possible to
make, it’s sucked me into its world and I actually care about my little party
and the world they inhabit. I love the game, the sense of humour and the level
of detail and richness that’s made it a compelling place to visit (far too
often for far too long and far too late at night…) and swing a magic staff.
It’s a great game and though I’ve played it for nearly twenty-seven hours, I’ve
still only scratched the surface of it.
Though if there’s one
niggle I have, it’s the end of level boss fights. Now I love a good boss
battle, me, but please, for the love of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, when I’ve
beaten it, let it stay beaten. You sweat blood, you swear at the unfairness of
it all and wrestle with the buttons until you finally beat the daemon/zombie
lord/alien king. You’ve won, triumphed against ultimate evil! Except you
haven’t, and you watch with a sinking sense of cheated victory as the boss laughs
maniacally before getting back on his damn feet again with a fully regenerated
health bar in a new, sleeker, deadlier form.
And this can go on for
several incarnations, while I’m burning up health pack or guzzling down healing
potions like an addict. I understand the dramatic impact of a new threat
arising or the bad guy’s sudden resurgence, but it just gets tiresome when you
see it in game after game. I had the same thing with Silent Hill: Homecoming,
with that bloody Doll Monster, Scarlett. And given the hellishly awkward
controls for Silent Hill, defeating that thing FOUR times just got so impossible
that I gave up on the game. So here’s my tip for Games Designers out there.
Make end of level bosses Uber Hard, almost unkillable until you become the
ninja master of the controller, but make it so that when you kill them, they
bloody well stay dead! Okay, rant over.
Right, that’s enough for
now. Get thinking about the competition and try not to let the greyness of
January and February get you down. There’s lots to look forward to, so on that
thought, I’ll say see you later,
Graham