Gav Thorpe's Blog, page 28

November Q&A

This is a compilation of questions that have been emailed and messaged to me recently. If you want to ask about anything, you can post a comment here or get in touch through the contact page (and newsletter subscribers can just reply to any of my emails).

Harry Chamberlain asked: Thanks for being so approachable, Gav! I was curious if you had a list (that you would be willing to share) of recurring characters from across your Dark Angels fiction.

There’s no master character list, in that regard, but I can help you out. Firstly, if you’ve not seen it yet I’ve created a handy reading guide which details the best order to read the books and short stories. That might help.

Secondly, here’s a rough round-up of the major Dark Angels characters in my stories and books (and a few in other people’s, for the sake of helpful continuity)…

Horus Heresy Era
(Descent of Angels and Fallen Angels – The Lion, Luther, Nemiel, Zahariel, Astelan, Lord Cypher.)
Call of the Lion – Astelan and Belath.
(Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s Savage Weapons – The Lion and Paladin Corswain.)
The Lion – The Lion, Corswain, Nemiel.
By the Lion’s Command – Corswain, Belath.
Guardian of Order – Lord Cypher, Zahariel.
Master of the First – Astelan, Luther.
Angels of Caliban (forthcoming…) – Astelan, Luther, Belath, Zahariel, the Lion, Lord Cypher.

40K Era
Purging of Kadillus – Chaplain Boreas, Master Belial, Sergeant Naaman, Apothecary Nestor.
Angels of Darkness – Astelan, Chaplain Boreas, Apothecary Nestor.
Ravenwing – Annael, Telemenus, Sergeant Cassiel, Grand Master Sammael, Librarian Harahel, Apothecary Gideon.
Master of Sanctity – Annael, Telemenus, Grand Master Belial, Supreme Grand Master Azrael, Chaplain Asmodai, Chaplain Sapphon, Astelan.
The Unforgiven – Annael, Telemenus, Grand Master Belial, Supreme Grand Master Azrael, Chaplain Asmodai, Chaplain Sapphon, Chief Librarian Ezekiel, Astelan, Cypher.
Accept No Failure – Grand Master Belial, Chaplain Asmodai, Supreme Grand Master Azrael.
Holder of the Keys – Chief Librarian Ezekiel
All Must End – Librarian Harak, Grand Master Sammael.
Battle Brothers – Sergeant Cassiel, Apothecary Gideon.
Honour of the Third – Master Belial.
A Hunt in the Dark – Grand Master Sammael, Supreme Grand Master Azrael, Chief Librarian Ezekiel.

Morvael asked: My question is related to the Mark of War project. I was eager to see it completed, unfortunately that didn’t happen. The authors promised that they would try to finish the game, even without Kickstarter funds. Social accounts of Warpforged Games seem dead, and web domain is now owned by someone else, displaying some stupid links. Do you know the status of this project? Does some work happen behind the scenes?

Work has been ongoing on the Mark of War game, I’ve had several updates. They are still looking to get a playable demo together from which they then hope to raise further funding, Without the injection of money from a successful Kickstarter or other investment that has had to coincide with regular day jobs and other commitments, so progress has been solid but not swift. Regarding the website and such, they have deliberately allowed the existing terms to lapse, due to unfortunate similarities with a certain freemium game plastered over everyone’s social media in the last few months, and will be relaunching with a new title at some point.

In the words of creator Mike McTyre in his latest email to me –

“Yes things are going well with the team, we brought on a lot of new coders fresh out of college to help us get this done. We now have movement, attacking, casualties, shooting, magic, panic and army deployment working. We are at a point where we are iterating on the implementation to make it fun / feel good. We also have loads of new character models in the game. We are also finally beginning the code for networking and AI which will be a big win. We are very close to a point where we can start showing this off to everyone, but the art isn’t quite ready to show yet. Getting close.

We have the new website in the works right now, it’s close to being complete, [we’re working] at the moment to get enough done that we can launch the site and announce again what we have been working on.”

Dan Morley asked: The thing that foxes me the most is the planning stage. I read your blog post on it and embrace your advice to do some planning. You hear about all kinds of approaches (hero’s journey, 7-point structure etc) but what I’ve never seen is an explanation of the nitty gritty of these. How long do you plan (hours/days/weeks/months)? Do you sit and stare at a structure diagram for a couple of hours and then off you go? What I’m really asking is what a regular day’s planning looks like and whether it’s a case of repeating it the next day.

I’ve been writing for a while, currently plodding through my third novel and had a few short story publications, so I have a bunch of the habits already down. Writing every day is fine, but I’ve usually taken the ‘seat of the pants’ approach with minimal planning. When I’ve tried to plan, I usually end up with a few bullet points under some of the structure headings (mid-point, pinch, plot turn etc) and so my productivity comes in fits and bursts. Writers like yourself who consistently produce quality stories seem to be more towards the planning end of the spectrum and I’d like to shift my own writing towards that.

That’s a really good question, but also a big one, which I can’t answer in a quick response – however I’ll put together a blog post in the near future that looks at my planning and preparation in more detail. Until then, I have a few old posts that talk about planning that might be useful. Hopefully this link will contain what you need, if not, simply go to the writing advice tab and look for the ‘planning’ tag.

It’s also important to remember that everyone’s process is slightly different, and if the seat-of-your-pants has been working out for you then there’s nothing wrong with that. Most of the time when I tell people to plan ahead, I’m addressing those would-be writers that come to me and say they are great at starting but never finish anything. That doesn’t seem to be a problem for you. My process is also heavily informed by the commissioning system of Black Library – they need to know in advance the synopsis for a novel before they will commission it, so a certain amount of preparation is required. In time you’ll find a balance, knowing just how much planning is enough to get you through, and how much flexibility you need to leave yourself.

On something like The Crown of the Usurper, a third book in the trilogy in which I knew pretty well what had to happen, I started writing without a plan and then as I progressed I made notes for future scenes, so the two things happened at the same time.

Hope that helps, keep an eye out for my article before the end of the year

William Wright asked: In the upcoming book Angels of Caliban, you will be going over one of the first times we see the wings in a major detail. In other works, it’s been hinted at with the Dreadwing that they have access to weapons no other legion has from the secret armories of the Dark Angels. Will we see evidence of said weapons, vehicles, etc in Angels of Caliban? (Like when you created the Mastodon?)

I will be taking a look at some of the more specialised wargear of the Dark Angels, but it’s important to bear in mind that I’ve written a novel rather than a background sourcebook. So while there is some illumination on the legion’s history and organisation, I’ve tried to do so within the narrative, which means it won’t be exhaustive – you’ll have to wait for the Forge World book for the really deep stuff!

William also asked: What can we expect to see from the Raven Guard in the future? A Shattered Legion strike force created from the combined army that Corax has created, a mini-empire like Imperium Secundus, an army to strike with the power of a legion, or a strike and fade force like the raven guard?

I need to clarify what the Shattered Legions are. They are not the same thing as Corax’s forces. The Shattered Legions properly refers to the warriors that were left on Isstvan after the massacre – including some Raven Guard but not many. They are mostly Iron Hands and Salamanders. Corax’s army, conversely, is mostly the Raven Guard that managed to leave Isstvan with him along with a (relatively) few fighters from other Legions that he has mopped up along the way.

Corax’s general approach has been to waylay the traitor forces however and wherever he can. He certainly isn’t looking to establish any kind of base – as seen in Ravenlord, he is willing to liberate planets but won’t be stuck garrisoning them. At the end of that novella the force is very much one that has been split into many parts to strike as a guerrilla army, but he will be bringing them back together to attack as a (much diminished) legion before the war is finished…

**To make sure you don’t miss out on any blog posts, you can keep up-to-date with everything Gav by signing up to my monthly newsletter. As a bonus, every other month I randomly pick a newsletter subscriber to receive a free signed copy of one of my books.**

The Day I Met Joe

One of the best parts about being a writer, and before that a games developer for an international company like Games Workshop, is that I’ve had lots of opportunities to travel to interesting places and meet great people.

There are, of course, all the amazing and lovely gamers and readers I’ve met over the years. I’ve been privileged to spend time with other authors and games designers, some of whom have done work I have admired and respected for many years. I’ve been on panels and hung around convention bars with some fantastic writers, and at UK Games Expo I was sat next to Ian Livingstone for a signing and got to chat to him at some length, which was both cool and very informative. At the San Francisco-based event Kublacon many years ago I tested game competition entries with the likes of James Earnest (of Cheap Ass Games notoriety) and had a brief conversation with Reiner Knizia, to pluck one random example out of history.

It’s no secret that I am a fan of professional wrestling, and in the past I’ve blogged about the time I queued up to see the legendary Brett Hart to get a book signed. I was also fortunate enough to attend a phenomenally funny and eye-opening ‘evening with…’ type event with the late, great Rowdy Roddy Piper last year, not long before he passed away. Both were truly memorable occasions.

Over the last couple of years I’ve made some great connections on social media – like connecting with the likes of Gary Chalk and Joe Dever, whose work at GW and on the Lone Wolf series was exceptionally formative in my early delving into fantasy (I remember one particular cub scout camp where I spent the better part of the week with fellow geek-in-waiting Graham hacking our way though giak-infested woods with sticks for swords…). It gives me a genuine thrill to think that these creators that were so influential on me might have even a passing interest in my work.

Another surprise but welcome addition to my social media ‘giants’ was professional wrestler Samoa Joe, who is a big fan of the 40K universe, among many geeky enthusiasms.

Thanks to some well-meaning prods from my partner Kez, I contacted Joe when it became apparent he would be touring in the UK with the NXT brand, including a stop in Nottingham. In a shamelessly unEnglish fashion I pointed out that he was within spitting distance of Warhammer World, and it would also be cool to meet up if he was so inclined.

He was.

This week I was able to combine all of my geekisms – wrestling, SF and Fantasy, and toy soldiers – in one great package – meeting Samoa Joe.

Monday night I was invited ‘backstage’ by Joe before the show started and spent some time chatting about the wresting biz, writing books and the joys of toy soldiering. I may have looked cool as a cucumber on the surface as I casually greeted up-and-coming stars like Big Cass and Finn Bálor, and when we stood in the arena itself while several other wrestlers went through their pre-show routines, but inside I was geeking out something terrible! Damn that English reserve, should’ve taken more photos! Next time I’m just going to snap away like a mad person!

The next day I met up with Joe again, and in the company of Adam Troke we toured around Warhammer World. A year ago I would never have thought I would be talking about Horus telling jokes to Ferrus Manus’ head in a jar, standing in front of the Isstvan massacre display of Warhammer World, with the Samoan Submission Machine.

Joe was thoroughly nice despite his well-honed grumpy persona around and in the ring, and sharing his energy for both the squared circle and the Grim Darkness of the Far Future has renewed my enthusiasm for them too.

And if like me you are a fan of fantasy, miniatures and wrestling, you might want to check out Rumbleslam on Kickstarter.

Oh, and here are a couple of sneak peeks of the impressive new Age of Sigmar display.

**To make sure you don’t miss out on any blog posts, you can keep up-to-date with everything Gav by signing up to my monthly newsletter. As a bonus, every other month I randomly pick a newsletter subscriber to receive a free signed copy of one of my books. The next draw is for the new Ultramarines anthology which includes my novella Catechism of Hate.**

Orchestrating the Destruction

When I write I listen to music, like many authors. I have to listen to tracks that don’t include intelligible lyrics, otherwise I find I start unconsciously incorporating words and even phrases from them into the writing – the hypnotic state that comes upon me when I’m in full-flow translates that sort of input directly to the fingers, it seems.

So, I mostly listen to orchestral and soundtrack music to act as a backdrop to the bolters blazing. Each project I work on has its own playlist, often with some overlap from my existing library but often incorporating specific types of music to subtly or not-so-subtly reflect the mood and atmosphere of the setting or story. A recent subscription to Apple Music means that I am now also under no financial constraints regarding the number of albums I put into the library, and can add or take away albums and even individual tracks as and when they prove suitable or not.

At the moment I am working through book #8 of The Beast Arises. All Black Library fiction is action- and war-focused but this series in particular is about massed war, and the volume I am working on is almost continual battle from start to finish. Getting some grand, martial music is a good start for Space Marine drop assaults and Imperial Knights laying waste to their foes, but it’s also important to find some tracks that add a bit of pacing to the playlist; for more reflective scenes, maybe the soundtrack to a stirring speech or creating the mood the stealthy approach of an assassin.

So, here is my playlist for The Beast Arises Book #8, perhaps you might want to listen to it while you are reading.

300 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), Tyler Bates
Aliens, James Horner
Army of Two: The 40th Day, Ea Games Soundtrack
Batman Begins – Original Motion Picture soundtrack, Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard
Battlecry, Two Steps from Hell
Blood of the Dragon, Nox Arcana
Cataclysm vol. 1 – Heroes, Erik Ekholm
Cataclysm vol. 2 – Power, Erik Ekholm
Cataclysm vol. 3 – Kingdom, Erik Ekholm
Dredd (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), Paul Leonard-Morgan
Dune, Toto
Epic Adventure and Action vol. 01, Epic Score
Epic Adventure and Action vol. 08, Epic Score
God of War: Ascension (Original Soundtrack), Tyler Bates
Holst: The Planets, London Symphony Orchestra & Sir Colin Davis
Mad Max: Fury Road (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) [Deluxe Version], Junkie XL
Percussion Power: Intense, Cinematic & Explosive, Tyler Lee Bates
Selected tracks from The Science Fiction Album, various Artists
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), James Horner
The Dark Knight (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard
Verdi: Messa da Requiem, Katia Ricciarelli, Shirley Verrett, Plácido Domingo, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, Claudio Abbado & Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano
Wagner: The Ring Without Words, Berlin Philharmoniker
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II, Doyle W Donehoo
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (The Soundtrack), Sascha Dikiciyan & Cris Velasco

You can also see this playlist on the iTunes store.

If you’d like me to post my play list for future books, or if you enjoy listening to it as you’re reading along, let me know in the comments.

**To make sure you don’t miss out on any blog posts, you can keep up-to-date with everything Gav by signing up to my monthly newsletter. As a bonus, every other month I randomly pick a newsletter subscriber to receive a free signed copy of one of my books.**

Interview with Mengel Miniatures – November 2015

You can read an interview with Mengel Miniatures, where we discuss all things Legacy of Caliban, my Dark Angels trilogy which has recently concluded with the publication of The Unforgiven.

Read the interview.

I Am Both Educative and Amusing

I don’t understand spam. Well, that’s not strictly true, I understand the spam that says “click this link” and then destroys your computer with a nasty virus. I understand the spam that says “click this link” and then sells your data to the highest bidder. I understand the spam that says “click this link” and promises to make you more attractive to the ladies.

What I don’t understand is spam like this:

“I’m amazed, I have to admit. Rarely do I encounter a blog that’s both educative and amusing, and let me tell you, you’ve hit the nail on the head. The issue is something too few folks are speaking intelligently about. I’m very happy I found this during my search for something regarding this.”

This was taken from my website’s spam comments folder, and has no links to click, no products to promote, and seemingly no purpose. I know it’s spam because the exact same comment appears several times from several different email addresses. So why does it appear? Has someone started spamming positive messages to make the world a happier place? A trawl through the spam comments is always a fun five-minute procrastination tool. Here are some of my other recent favourites.

Oh the irony:

“of course like your web site however you need to test the spelling on quite a few of your posts. Many of them are rife with spelling issues and I to find it very troublesome to tell the reality however I’ll surely come back again.”

Taking the direct approach:

“buy birkenstocks online”

The public service announcement:

“Connecting rod bottom end bolts keep the two halves of the bottom end bearing together. About 10 arc flashes occur every day in the United States-and they cause disastrous consequences. Because earthquakes can strike anywhere at any time, earthquake safety fasteners are your best bet for protecting your electronics.”

How to get electricity in the event of the apocalypse?:

“Cut them to equal sizes then glue them to one of the ends of the tank. Attach the alligator clips to the ends of the wires coming out of the solar panel.”

And finally, I have no idea:

“2016 series ratings reachedONPlace the cost of a $231enjoy around $97 and patrons will turn absent. When you are it accurate the uncomplicated gladness in a bestwill only lead to high”

Does anyone know what the point of these sort of spam comments are? I’d love to know.

**To make sure you don’t miss out on any blog posts, you can keep up-to-date with everything Gav by signing up to my monthly newsletter. As a bonus, every other month I randomly pick a newsletter subscriber to receive a free signed copy of one of my books.**

Guest Special – Side Quest Kickstarter

Hi folks, something a bit different today. One of the things you see on blogs quite often are guests posts, but I’ve been a bit wary of them because a) people usually come here to hear from me, and b) if they are interested in a particular thing or person, they’ll go to that person’s site or FB page.

However, sometimes it’s just easier to let others speak for themselves, so this is a first (and possibly last) guest post. Last year I backed a wonderful-looking game on Kickstarter called Bedtime Heroes. Unfortunately it didn’t fund, but the creators are back with Side Quest, an all-in-one fantasy ‘dungeon crawler’. The project has already tripled it’s original Kickstarter target, which I’m hoping means we’ll get to see Bedtime Heroes again too.

Here is the designer to let you know what it’s about, I’ll let him introduce himself. Let me know what you think in the comments.

Hi, I’m Steve Venezia, a video game developer with a mad passion for board gaming. I’ve spent over 8 years working in the gaming industry on dozens of titles, including the BAFTA-nominated Great Big Wargame, The Language Game and Zombie Pie Defence, which gives 100% of its revenue to the awesome charity SpecialEffect.

I love dungeon crawlers – kicking open doors, defeating monsters and taking their treasure, but most of them are large games that require a great deal of set-up. And they certainly aren’t portable. So, for something more compact to scratch that itch at home or on the move, we came up with Side Quest – Pocket Adventures, our new dungeon crawling card game that fits in your pocket. Explore dungeons solo or with up to three friends in this cooperative adventure. Built around push-your-luck mechanics, Side Quest features strong decision-making and character advancement.

With just one deck of cards and a couple of dice you battle your way through chambers of monsters, avoid lethal traps and loot as much treasure as you can. Which monsters do you take on and which do you run from? Which comes first, saving the captive or grabbing the jewels and gold? A broad inventory of magic items and gear can help your heroes reach the end of the dungeon, but what weapons will you need when you come up against the daunting boss monster that blocks your exit?

See the Side Quest campaign for yourself here: Side Quest Kickstarter

You can also keep up to date with the Side Quest campaign on Facebook and Twitter.

Cheers,

Steve

**To make sure you don’t miss out on any blog posts, you can keep up-to-date with everything Gav by signing up to my monthly newsletter. As a bonus, every other month I randomly pick a newsletter subscriber to receive a free signed copy of one of my books.**

Interview with Mob Rules Podcast – November 2015

You can hear me chatting to John, Ted and Phil, at the Mob Rules ‘Mobcast’ where I put to rest the question as to whether the Dark Angels are traitors or not, talk about developing games and play a few rounds of “The Points Are Right”. There may also be some wrestling talk.

Unfortunately some of the audio was corrupted and nearly all of the discussion on writing about the Dark Angels was lost, but I’ll be returning to the podcast in the new year to discuss this and The Emperor Expects, my first contribution to the Beast Arises series.

Listen to the interview.

Sometimes You Just Gotta Do it Yourself

Quite often I will be asked or see comments along the lines of ‘Will you ever come to [insert town/ city/ country of person] anytime?’ The answer is most likely no. As much as I love meeting fans and talking books, I don’t have the budget to jet/ train/ drive to every gathering across the globe.

Graham McNeill will attend an event on the promise of a pint of beer and a steak pie, I am reliably informed.

On the other hand, ‘Would You Like to Come to [X]?’ as a proper invite, with travel expenses and accommodation covered, is much more likely to succeed. If you are prepared to look after a guest (not necessarily me, just any guest) then you might be surprised how willing many writers are to come and hang out. We don’t all ask for a fee, either, although that would be even nicer!

Slightly more irritating are the people that complain the absence of such visits – almost universally that Black Library has not run an event in [Location X]. Well, the answer to that is kinda the same as the first. If you want an event in your area (or a club, or tournament or whatever it might be you feel is lacking] I suggest that you and some like-minded friends organise it yourselves. Nothing was ever achieved by waiting for someone else to do the work.

That’s Gemma, with the Mayor of Chestermere dressed as a Sister of Battle!

Black Library Expo

This was why, back in 2012, a whole raft of BL authors shipped out to Chestermere, near Calgary in Canada, to appear at the Black Library Expo. The entire event was organised by a resourceful lady called Gemma Noon, as part of the promotional activity of the local library service (for which she works). Rather than just ask BL to come and run an event, she got in touch, rustled up some authors, convinced BL to run a trade stand… She was helped by having public funding for the project, but she also ended up organising something pretty big. There’s no reason why you couldn’t have just one or two guests rather than half a dozen.

(Games Workshop’s events calendar has been somewhat erratic over the last couple of years due to structural and personnel changes, and there are more alterations to come. Hopefully the revised regime will see a return to more GW and BL-related events not just in the UK but across the world.)

Convention Secundus

And the same has just happened here in Nottingham. Pining for companionship and the chance to geek out over the latest Black Library releases, a group of fans were disappointed that there were no ‘BL Weekender’ events organised for 2015.

Rather than simply wait for something to happen, they got together and created Convention Secundus – a fan-run alternative to the Weekender. These folks can usually be found holding out at the Black Library Bolthole, but many of them (and several authors) have come to know each other in person too through successive Black Library events.

Convention Secundus took place at a hotel in the centre of Nottingham, attended by about thirty fans. As well as me, they managed to lure in Laurie Goulding and Christian Dunn (BL editor/ former editor and writers) as well as writer Rob Sanders, cover artist extraordinaire Neil Roberts, and even a Skype appearance of Canada-based author David Annandale.

And if you think thirty people in a couple of hotel convention rooms seems a bit small fry, I would point out the other event I attended at the weekend. Novacon is the annual get-together of the Birmingham Sci-Fi Group, and is now in its 45th year. There were, give or take, 200 people descending on the Park Inn in Nottingham over the weekend, possibly more including those like me on day memberships. That event started out with a few folks getting together to socialise and talk about their thing, and it has grown and is thriving.

Many games clubs, tournaments, wargames events, genre conventions, ComiCons and the like started out with modest ambitions. But they were all started… by people with passion and commitment to make something great, and that’s exactly what we had with Convention Secundus.

Even if there are more official events in the coming years, I hope that Convention Secundus returns. It was great to hang out and relax with fellow Warhammer and 40K fans, talk Horus Heresy and books, show off my copy of Betrayal at Calth, and also find out what they are getting excited about or looking forward to in the coming year.

**To make sure you don’t miss out on any blog posts, you can keep up-to-date with everything Gav by signing up to my monthly newsletter. As a bonus, every other month I randomly pick a newsletter subscriber to receive a free signed copy of one of my books.**

New Ultramarines Collection

Having read my sample copy of the new Ultramarines collection from Black Library, Sammy has started organising his toys according to the Codex Astartes.

The new book contains my novella Catechism of Hate, along with stories from Nick Kyme, Graham McNeill, Josh Reynolds, and Steve Lyons.

**To make sure you don’t miss out on any blog posts, you can keep up-to-date with everything Gav by signing up to my monthly newsletter. As a bonus, every other month I randomly pick a newsletter subscriber to receive a free signed copy of one of my books.**

Legacy of Caliban

The Unforgiven, the third and final book in my Legacy of Caliban trilogy has been out for a few months now, and I’ve been really pleased with the response from readers. If you have been undecided whether to take the plunge, here’s what others have had to say:

“An absolute smashing trilogy-closer filled with strong character development and wonderfully descriptive battle scenes that takes the epic story started so long ago in Angels of Darkness and brings it to a conclusion that will leave the reader stunned into silence while also exploring the deepest secrets of the Sons of the Lion. Fittingly the finest entry in the series and an absolute must-read for any fan of 40k and the Dark Angels Chapter.”

– Lord of the Night, Talk Wargaming

“…In fact, it’s most likely the hugest impact on the Dark Angels chapter as a whole throughout their entire history. It might even be the biggest event in 40k at the moment, and rivals a lot of the huge events from the Heresy. I won’t say what it is, but when you read the end your jaw will be on the floor. The Dark Angels are irrevocably changed after this trilogy. Seriously, nothing will ever be the same again… If you had read the first two books or are a Dark Angel fan this novel is a must read, no dispute. I am definitely looking forward to Gav’s first full length Dark Angel book set during the Heresy. It’s honestly the book he was destined to write ever since the Heresy started and I have no doubt that he will deliver on our expectations.”

– Mengel Miniatures, Bell of Lost Souls

And if you haven’t read the first two books, Ravenwing and Master of Sanctity, here are some reviews:

Ravenwing

“When Ravenwing becomes available in January (or probably sooner in ebook format), you cannot go wrong picking up this fantastic, and quick read from The Black Library. This is my favourite of Gav Thorpe’s books so far! Do not miss it. 5/5”

– Carl Tuttle, The Independent Characters

“Fast paced, action packed, Ravenwing is a great opener to the trilogy that will leave fans desperate for more. 4/5”

– Bane of Kings, The Founding Fields

“You will not be disappointed by this deep and revealing look into the Dark Angels and the Ravenwing, and the start of what is sure to be a great trilogy that promises great things to come. 8.5/10

– Lord of the Night, The Founding Fields

Master of Sanctity

“Holy moly WHAT AN ENDING!!!”

– M.R. Shields, Goodreads

“A superb sequel that improves on story, action and characterization as the focus switches from the secretive Ravenwing to the dreaded Interrogator-Chaplains. Master of Sanctity is a sequel that surpasses the original and sets the stage for an even better finale. One of Thorpe’s finest books yet!”

– Lord of the Night, Talk Wargaming

“I am pretty confident in saying this is Gav Thorpe’s best novel since Angel of Darkness and recommend it to all 40k fans. 4.2/5”

– Tyler M, Mengel Miniatures

**To make sure you don’t miss out on any blog posts, you can keep up-to-date with everything Gav by signing up to my monthly newsletter. As a bonus, every other month I randomly pick a newsletter subscriber to receive a free signed copy of one of my books.**