Ask the Author: David Guymer
Answered Questions (9)
David Guymer
Hello, Edward!
This is a perfectly valid channel, but my engagement peaks and troughs depending on how busy I am at any given time. Be patient, and I'll get back to you eventually.
Unfortunately, however, yes. Though clearly planned from the outset to be a trilogy, the odds of a third book in that series are now decidedly slim.
Back at the start, I think I'd just finished Slayer for the Gotrek & Felix series and was essentially asked: if you could write anything now, what would it be. And I chose Iron Hands because A) I've always had a fascination with the least explored bits of any universe, and B) There wasn't a huge body of pre-existing work on them so I could make them my own without having to stay loyal to dozens of previous authors.
The flip side, unfortunately, is that maybe fewer people are interested in reading books about the Iron Hands than they are about Blood Angles or Space Wolves, and so it proved in this case.
I loved writing them however, and think they were some of the most creative works I've written for Black Library. They are certainly the most talked about! I've always harboured the hope of one day writing a "soft threequel", such as a post-Rift Kardan Stronos story to give a proper ending to some of those characters
This is a perfectly valid channel, but my engagement peaks and troughs depending on how busy I am at any given time. Be patient, and I'll get back to you eventually.
Unfortunately, however, yes. Though clearly planned from the outset to be a trilogy, the odds of a third book in that series are now decidedly slim.
Back at the start, I think I'd just finished Slayer for the Gotrek & Felix series and was essentially asked: if you could write anything now, what would it be. And I chose Iron Hands because A) I've always had a fascination with the least explored bits of any universe, and B) There wasn't a huge body of pre-existing work on them so I could make them my own without having to stay loyal to dozens of previous authors.
The flip side, unfortunately, is that maybe fewer people are interested in reading books about the Iron Hands than they are about Blood Angles or Space Wolves, and so it proved in this case.
I loved writing them however, and think they were some of the most creative works I've written for Black Library. They are certainly the most talked about! I've always harboured the hope of one day writing a "soft threequel", such as a post-Rift Kardan Stronos story to give a proper ending to some of those characters
David Guymer
So... the idea that the Silver Wyrm slain by Ferrus on Medusa (giving him his famous living metal hands) was a C'tan has been in the fandom's collective head-canon for some time. I don't even know what the original source of that idea was, so without seeing this I would've been hesitant about confirming it as official lore - but I guess it's true!
David Guymer
I've actually never read this! Josh Reynolds or Guy Haley are probably your guys for Bile questions.
I honestly don't think the Iron Hands would react in any particular way towards such a Heretek abomination. They would seek to destroy it in the most efficient manner, just as they would for any daemon-possessed god-machine or Tyranid bio-titan
I honestly don't think the Iron Hands would react in any particular way towards such a Heretek abomination. They would seek to destroy it in the most efficient manner, just as they would for any daemon-possessed god-machine or Tyranid bio-titan
David Guymer
I know these questions sound weird but please please PLEASE reply back
You're not wrong, but I'll do my best!
When Skratch cried, did his tears run all the way to the end of his snout/tip of his nose?
Hmmm, I would imagine them running down the side of his face, rather than going all the way to the end of his snout.
Exactly how would Skratch react and what would he say to me if I hugged him, rubbed his back and licked those tears running down his muzzle with my tongue as he cried? Because every time I read that, I fantasize licking every last tear from Skratch's muzzle
I think he would hug you very close for your potential use as a human shield.
Dumb question but on a scale from 1 to 10 with 10 being the saltiest, how salty would Skratch's tears taste on my tongue if I licked them directly from his muzzle?
There are no dumb questions - only weird ones!
A quick Google tells me that human tears are less salty than seawater, so I'm going with a cool 3.
On a scale from 1 to 10 with 1 being freezing cold and 10 being scalding hot, how warm were those tears running down Skratch's muzzle?
Let's say 4. I can't say I've ever noticed tears' temperature, suggesting to me that they're neither overly hot nor especially cold
You're not wrong, but I'll do my best!
When Skratch cried, did his tears run all the way to the end of his snout/tip of his nose?
Hmmm, I would imagine them running down the side of his face, rather than going all the way to the end of his snout.
Exactly how would Skratch react and what would he say to me if I hugged him, rubbed his back and licked those tears running down his muzzle with my tongue as he cried? Because every time I read that, I fantasize licking every last tear from Skratch's muzzle
I think he would hug you very close for your potential use as a human shield.
Dumb question but on a scale from 1 to 10 with 10 being the saltiest, how salty would Skratch's tears taste on my tongue if I licked them directly from his muzzle?
There are no dumb questions - only weird ones!
A quick Google tells me that human tears are less salty than seawater, so I'm going with a cool 3.
On a scale from 1 to 10 with 1 being freezing cold and 10 being scalding hot, how warm were those tears running down Skratch's muzzle?
Let's say 4. I can't say I've ever noticed tears' temperature, suggesting to me that they're neither overly hot nor especially cold
David Guymer
The most interesting thing about the Iron Hands for me isn't the augmetics. It's the coldness. The willingness to get shit done no matter the consequences to other people who, in the Iron Hands' view, are eminently replaceable.
The difference between them and the Iron Warriors would probably be pride. The Iron Warriors *still* carry that old chip on their shoulder, and would gladly fight to the last man to prove their mastery of siege warfare. The Iron Hands are too ruthlessly logical for that. They don't care what other Imperial institutions think of them. They don't look for praise and they don't want it. If the Battle Calculus tells them that a particular engagement can't be won, or that the material cost will be too great, then the Iron Hands simply won't fight it. Sorry guys - have you tried calling the Ultramarines?
The Iron Warriors strike me as a dour lot, and the Iron Hands are similarly introverted and aloof, but I don't think that's by nature. Ferrus Manus was famously short-tempered and I think, that deep down, his sons are the same way. I always pictured them like Vulcans in Star Trek, these great boiling pits of emotion that they are unable to express and release. With the Vulcans, it's down to mental training, but with the Iron Hands its because of the heavy cyborgisation tamping down on those wrathful impulses. But they still feel them...
The difference between them and the Iron Warriors would probably be pride. The Iron Warriors *still* carry that old chip on their shoulder, and would gladly fight to the last man to prove their mastery of siege warfare. The Iron Hands are too ruthlessly logical for that. They don't care what other Imperial institutions think of them. They don't look for praise and they don't want it. If the Battle Calculus tells them that a particular engagement can't be won, or that the material cost will be too great, then the Iron Hands simply won't fight it. Sorry guys - have you tried calling the Ultramarines?
The Iron Warriors strike me as a dour lot, and the Iron Hands are similarly introverted and aloof, but I don't think that's by nature. Ferrus Manus was famously short-tempered and I think, that deep down, his sons are the same way. I always pictured them like Vulcans in Star Trek, these great boiling pits of emotion that they are unable to express and release. With the Vulcans, it's down to mental training, but with the Iron Hands its because of the heavy cyborgisation tamping down on those wrathful impulses. But they still feel them...
David Guymer
Hi Jack, I love science questions. I've been writing full time for 4 or 5 years now and I live in fear that I'm slowly forgetting everything. When I first started writing 40K (as opposed to fantasy) with Echoes of the Long War I was actually asked to take a lot of the science out, on the basis that in the 41st Millenium this is actually unknown magic. For that reason I don't really revise the science as such. But I do think it gives me the basic grounding to write gribbly xenos or monstrously OTT Iron Hands with confidence.
My favourite use of it was probably the massive PCR machines in Echoes of the Long War
My favourite use of it was probably the massive PCR machines in Echoes of the Long War
David Guymer
I'm not sure if it's out in paperback , which might mean it's currently only available direct from Black Library and isn't widely circulating yet. I'll be honest with you, I'm not sure how books end up here on Goodreads!
David Guymer
Hi Mark!
There are loads of ideas that the weird nature of the Warp, a realm where time and space don't exist, make possible. It should be *possible* to travel to distant galaxies through the Warp. It should be *possible* (and we've seen quite often in Black Library fiction that it is) to travel back and forth in time. The idea then, for a short little story like this one, was to use that kind of scenario to ask the question of what Ferrus Manus would make of his descendants in the 41st Millennium. Nick Kyme and Chris Wraight have both looked at that before, but in different ways. The ship and the Space Marine then aren't terribly important then, except for what they represent to the Iron Tenth.
And the Iron Hands are my favourite Legion too, Mark. You've chosen well.
There are loads of ideas that the weird nature of the Warp, a realm where time and space don't exist, make possible. It should be *possible* to travel to distant galaxies through the Warp. It should be *possible* (and we've seen quite often in Black Library fiction that it is) to travel back and forth in time. The idea then, for a short little story like this one, was to use that kind of scenario to ask the question of what Ferrus Manus would make of his descendants in the 41st Millennium. Nick Kyme and Chris Wraight have both looked at that before, but in different ways. The ship and the Space Marine then aren't terribly important then, except for what they represent to the Iron Tenth.
And the Iron Hands are my favourite Legion too, Mark. You've chosen well.
David Guymer
It varies depending on the nature of the blockage. Stepping away from the keyboard for a moment can often work wonders, some of my best ideas come to me three seconds after I put my computer into sleep mode, or else wait for me to be in the shower or in my car and far from the nearest note pad. Conversely however, I'll often find myself procrastinating over the start of a new scene or chapter and the best (only) solution is to just write. A few lines in and those blocks invariably fall right away
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