Gav Thorpe's Blog, page 8

Interview With Four Dads Of The Apocalypse – February 2017

Read my ‘Star Dads’ interview over on the Four Dads of the Apocalypse website, where we discuss how my hobby has changed since becoming a parent, and who is my favourite Primarch!

Read The Interview

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Asurmen: The Darker Road – Round-Up

In case you haven’t been keeping an eye on my blog this week, you may have missed the following posts about my new Phoenix Lords audio drama Asurmen: The Darker Road.

Audio CD: 978-1784965358

MP3: 978-1785725531

Buy Asurmen: The Darker Road

Author’s Notes

“Mythic Cycles

My main aim with all of the Phoenix Lords works has been to bring the mythic element of the characters to the fore. These are not traditional war stories, but the enactment of ancient mythic cycles based upon the legends and lore of the Eldar people.

Like the elves of folklore and myth on which they are based, the eldar stand with a foot each in reality and unreality, the mortal and immortal. Their existence, their psychic potential, the webway and technology they utilise charts a course between magic and physical.”

Read More

Read Along Script Extract

“The script extract I published for The Thirteenth Wolf proved popular, so here’s another – this time for Asurmen: The Darker Road which was released this week.

The script below matches the audio extract you can hear over on the Black Library website, so you can follow the script, reading the stage directions as you listen along to the finished audio. See if you can spot the changes that were made between script and final recording!”

Read More

Top Tips For Creating An Audio Drama

“With my latest Black Library audio Asurmen: The Darker Road just released, it seems like a good time to talk a bit about what goes into writing an audio drama. More specifically, we can take a look at what makes a good audio drama different from a good prose short story.

In form, the audio drama is similar to the short story. A typical BL audio drama like The Darker Road is about seventy minutes long, including intro, scene breaks, credits and such. This translates to about ten thousand words of a prose story, which is quite a lot of narrative you can fit in. So, structurally speaking, any advice or thoughts that apply to short stories can equally be applied to constructing the story for your audio drama.”

Read More

Interview With Cover Artist Alex Boyd

“How would you describe your painting process? Do you have firms ideas of the finished image or do you focus the ideas as you are painting?

My painting style was always to make a mess first and tidy it up as I worked through. With traditional mediums this was about quick dip pen drawing and ink washes then working over in opaque paints. I love the accidents that happen with washes and the monsters that form out of the shadows. I always have an idea of the main characters and the feelings that I am trying to get across – the power of space marines, the speed of elder, the horror of chaos or tyranids – that sort of thing, but around that things change and ideas develop especially on the verges of the painting.”

Read More

Interview With Voice Actor Penelope Rawlins

“You have appeared in an impressive number of Black Library audio dramas, and narrated a fair few stories too. How much of the universe of the Horus Heresy and Warhammer 40,000 do you think you have absorbed along the way?

I’ve been very lucky to play so many varied roles along the way, it’s been a great treat as an actress and voice artist, and without fail you can’t help but get absorbed in the world because they are so well written, my days recording these projects are some of my favourites. Saying that, I do find I have to switch off and back into the roles in quite a concentrated way as each character tells a very different story in what they are saying – each journey is different and thus the experience of voicing each is different.”

Read More

And don’t forget, you can read more about Asurmen in my novel Asurmen: The Hand of Asuryan. My book page for Asurmen also has links to more resources such as my Authors Notes, an interview with the cover artist, and the music playlist I used while writing the novel.

You can also find more details about my next Phoenix Lords novel, which is due out in May – Jain Zar: The Storm of Silence – over at Black Library.

Review for Asurmen: The Darker Path

“Gav Thorpe’s cerebral and wonderfully realised drama incorporates elements of Greek and Japanese mythology into a plot that feels like a reimagined version of Kelly’s Heroes – if said film had been written by Larry Niven and Gary Gygax. And was, you know, set in the far future, in space and featured an ancient alien race as its main characters. That said, Thorpe’s tale plays a rather clever trick on its audience and somehow, and don’t ask me how he does it but he does, anthropomorphises and humanises his hero and those accompanying him to the extent that you almost forget that they’re Eldar. But then, he wouldn’t reveal how he did it would he? Because the best magicians never tell you how it’s done.”

– Tim Cundle, Mass Movement

“All told this is an impressive, thought-provoking package that combines careful storytelling with the sense of experience that you can only get with an audio product.”

– Michael Dodd, Track of Words

” If you’re a fan of the Eldar then I definitely recommend giving this a listen, and it’s a great listen for any 40k fans in general.”

– Tyler M, Mengel Miniatures

Buy Asurmen: The Darker Road

**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.**

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Happy World Book Day – 2017!

Firefighter Sammy!

Today, March 2nd 2017, is World Book Day. For many this means an evening frantically learning blanket stitch, and cobbling together a Harry Potter costume out of an old pillowcase and a wooden spoon.

Fortunately for us Sammy wanted to go to nursery as a firefighter, and we already had a fancy dress outfit, so we’ve averted that particular parenting stress for another year.

For one day only, Black Library are also celebrating World Book Day by selling the eBook of Asurmen: Hand of Asuryan at a reduced price:

£3.49

€4.49

US$5.99

CA$5.99

AU$6.49

So if you haven’t yet delved into the Phoenix Lords series, today is a perfect opportunity to start. And if you enjoy the novel, or have already read it, you can follow up with my companion audio drama Asurmen: The Darker Road, and register with Black Library for a reminder of the publication of the next novel, Jain Zar: The Storm of Silence (due for release in May).

There are lots of great resources on my website for Asurmen: Hand of Asuryan, including my Author’s Notes, an interview with cover artist Mike ‘Daarken’ Lim, and the music playlist I used while writing the novel.

Buy Asurmen: Hand of Asuryan at Half Price!

**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.**

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Interview with Voice Actor Penelope Rawlins

Voice Actor, Penelope Rawlins

One of the great things about writing audio dramas is hearing how the production team have interpreted my script, to bring the story to life. A major part of that is obviously the voice actors themselves – they bring personality and emotion to the characters, much more than words on a page can.

Voice Actor Penelope Rawlins, who plays Farseer Shar-telion in my new audio drama Asurmen: The Darker Road, was kind enough to answer a few questions about her work.

You have appeared in an impressive number of Black Library audio dramas, and narrated a fair few stories too. How much of the universe of the Horus Heresy and Warhammer 40,000 do you think you have absorbed along the way?

I’ve been very lucky to play so many varied roles along the way, it’s been a great treat as an actress and voice artist, and without fail you can’t help but get absorbed in the world because they are so well written, my days recording these projects are some of my favourites. Saying that, I do find I have to switch off and back into the roles in quite a concentrated way as each character tells a very different story in what they are saying – each journey is different and thus the experience of voicing each is different.

You have played a wide variety of parts, but do you have a favourite role, or type of role?

I’m very lucky as I get cast in a wide range of roles from small children, to old ladies, and of course monsters and aliens too along the way! What I love about the voice world is that it allows more variety and versatility in ones casting range. One’s physical look doesn’t restrict your casting in the same way in vision work does. I have to say that’s why I love the work I do so much, it’s always varied, and every day and week is different. Baddies are always fun because we don’t tend to behave like that in real life – so I suppose characters further from me are enjoyable in a different way to emotionally fragile and fraught characters. If it’s written well, it’s a joy whatever the character!

Your acting CV is very broad, from stage to cartoons to video games. Do you have to think differently for voice acting for audio dramas, knowing that there will be nothing visual at all to accompany your words?

Yes you do, very much. You only have your voice to paint the pictures in peoples head as they listen, so you need to imagine and convey the emotion, the stakes and circumstances, the setting, the costume, the atmosphere – all with just your voice. I work as a voice mentor and I always say to those I’m coaching, if you can’t see it in your head, your listeners won’t see it either. You’re painting the story with your voice.

How many takes does it need to get a full audio completed? How long for those seventy minutes of seemingly perfect delivery? Especially with all of those strange, unpronounceable names…

Ha ha, well the strange unpronounceable names are always decided upon from the outset with collaboration with the producer/director/writer. The trick is to remember them and remain consistent!! It all depends on how long the piece is and whether there is a lot of narration or dialogue. Also the tone of the piece, what sort of pace does it require to set the right atmosphere and tell the story the best way we can. Some can take 2 hours, some can take 3, it really depends on the piece.

How much do you need to familiarise yourself with a script before you hit the sound booth, to make sure that you are getting the tone right for a specific scene? Do you read it through once and then go for it, or do you need to study the lines in detail before each recording?

I definitely read it through more than once! Several times in fact. It takes time to consider the characters, the scenario, the pronunciations! I also practice out loud to make sure I understand what levels need to be reached and make my mouth familiar with the words. I will also talk with the producer beforehand to discuss with them their thoughts on interpretation so that we’re all singing from the same hymn sheet!! Anything I feel uncertain about I clarify before recording, as anything that’s unclear in my head will come across in my delivery – and I want to be able to absorb myself completely in the storytelling as I tell it!

Huge thanks to Penelope for taking the time to answer my questions. If you want to find more about Penelope’s work, you can visit her website at www.peneloperawlins.co.uk

Buy Asurmen: The Darker Road

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The Darker Path – Interview with Artist Alex Boyd

Cover Art by Alex Boyd

I asked Games Workshop artist, and creator of the cover art for Asurmen: The Darker Road – Alex Boyd – to answer a few questions about his work.

Alex’s pictures will be familiar to anyone who has been part of the hobby for the last twenty years or so, with his work gracing the Battlefleet Gothic & Inquisitor rulebooks, all Warhammer 40,000 editions since 3rd, and a whole host of Codexes from Eldar, Dark Angels, Tau, Tyranids and Blood Angels to name but a few, as well as a similarly impressive body of work for the Warhammer universe(s).

How would you describe your painting process? Do you have firms ideas of the finished image or do you focus the ideas as you are painting?

My painting style was always to make a mess first and tidy it up as I worked through. With traditional mediums this was about quick dip pen drawing and ink washes then working over in opaque paints. I love the accidents that happen with washes and the monsters that form out of the shadows. I always have an idea of the main characters and the feelings that I am trying to get across – the power of space marines, the speed of elder, the horror of chaos or tyranids – that sort of thing, but around that things change and ideas develop especially on the verges of the painting.

I originally painted the Asurman picture in black and white ink taken directly from the figure [you can see this image in the gallery below], the illustration was later tidied up (a bit) and coloured digitally. I always most enjoyed exploring the darker side of the imperium of man – the strange characters like servitors that supported the characters and soldiers – all of the stuff that adds depth to 40k that would never get made as a military figure for the tabletop, but you know dwell in the shadows and behind the scenes of the world – things like the black ships and inquisitor courts.

Drawing of Alex from Inquis Exterminatus

You’ve drawn and painted thousands of images for Games Workshop over the years. I’m not going to ask you to pick a favourite, but is there a subject or theme you like the most – for example, the Imperium, or sweeping landscape scenes, or figure vignettes?

I still have fond memories of doing illustrations for the Inquisitor game. I find I most enjoy and engage with a picture when I make up a story in my head first and then illustrate that, like illustrating an important still in a sequence. Even with a single figure you can imagine say the moment the hero thinks he has defeated the last foe and is standing over the body only to turn and see an even bigger enemy running from cover to attack. In your head you then start to imagine the tension in the pose and the expression that would come over their face.

Is there anything particular you think of when painting eldar, as opposed to, say, orks or space marines? What ideas are you looking to convey about them?

One of the things I like about Asurman and eldar in general, is the inscrutable masks. Especially with things like the harlequin there is something horrific about the emotionless nature of the eldar in battle (I always thought the web spinner weapons and monofilament weapons were truly horrifying). Compared to the other races you always have to think about graceful shapes and dynamics with eldar, the curves of the armour and their vehicles help with this.

Alex’s has been painting his ork army for many years – there’s a lot more than this!

In the ancient days when I was still working in the design Studio, you had an awesome orks army for 40K. Do you still have a special spot for the greenskins, or has another faction caught your eye in recent years?

I still have my ork army – it’s growing and being constantly repainted and messed around with. I recently took my old dreads and kans and updated them with the new models weapons and bitz. I don’t get as much time these days to convert, paint and play as I would like, but still enjoy the occasional dinner break hobbying.

Huge thanks to Alex for taking the time to answer my questions – you can see more of his work below.

If you’ve found this interesting, you may also like to see my artist interviews with Neil Roberts (Horus Heresy), Akim Kaliberda (Azrael), Mike “Daarken” Lim (Asurmen: The Hand of Asuryan), and Victor Manuel Leza (The Beast Arises series including The Emperor Expects and The Beast Must Die).

Buy Asurmen: The Darker Path

**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.**

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February 2017 – Q&A

This is a compilation of questions that have been emailed and messaged to me recently.

If you want to ask 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).

I’ve been posting Q&As for a few months now, so if you’ve found this one interesting, you can look back at previous Q&As here.

Will asked via the website: Hi Gav, in Azrael you mention a table with six symbols. A reference to the Hexagramaton. By which symbols represent which wing? The Hourglass – Dreadwing, Flame – Firewing are the obvious ones, but what about the others? Hope to receive some enlightenment, Azrael was a great read as always.

While the symbols are indicative of the different Wings of the Hexagramaton, I have been careful not to link any specific symbol to any particular wing. I did consult with Forgeworld about whether the other wings had a single identifying sigil but didn’t receive any guidance, so I kept it vague to avoid future contradictions.

Martyn asked on the blog [in response to my Three Top Tips for Black Library Submissions blog]: Can the short stories be about own chapters or preexisting?

Unless the submissions guidelines say otherwise, it’s up to you as the writer. There are benefits and drawbacks to both, but unless you are very confident in the background of your invented Chapter, I would stick to using one already well-established in the lore for your first submission. By using your own invented Chapter you are simply introducing another element into the mix that the editors may not like – with an established faction all you have to do is get your presentation and interpretation right. Also, I find that when writers have invented their own Chapter, Craftworld, etc they tend to use the story purely as a vehicle to show off their creation, rather than concentrating on the basics of a good narrative.

Henry asked via the website: I have a question about the current (or new, depends when your from) Lord Cypher, whom we happen to know is named “Zahariel El’Zurias”. So anyway, after reading ‘Angels of Caliban‘ (which was a fantastic book by the way, though not enough action during the battle of Zepath, in my opinion), we find out that brother librarian Zahariel becomes the new Lord Cypher. However we do not know if this is the same Lord Cypher that appears 10k in the future, that features in ‘Unforgiven‘ novel. Alright, so, remember (of course you do) way back in ‘Descent of Angels’, where Zahariel disrupted an assassination attempt on the Emperor, but he recalled naught of it, because his memory was wiped. So my question is: Does this particular event have anything special to do with Zahariel/Lord Cypher in the future? Will it bring something very unexpected (and special) to the lore, to the Dark Angels, or even the Imperium? Currently, though, it seems like Zahariel is on the road to becoming a very prominent villain.

As you say, while Zahariel is indeed the ‘current’ Lord Cypher in the HH, it isn’t a guarantee that he is ‘Cypher’ from 40K

Top Tips for Creating an Audio Drama

With my latest Black Library audio Asurmen: The Darker Road just released, it seems like a good time to talk a bit about what goes into writing an audio drama. More specifically, we can take a look at what makes a good audio drama different from a good prose short story.

In form, the audio drama is similar to the short story. A typical BL audio drama like The Darker Road is about seventy minutes long, including intro, scene breaks, credits and such. This translates to about ten thousand words of a prose story, which is quite a lot of narrative you can fit in. So, structurally speaking, any advice or thoughts that apply to short stories can equally be applied to constructing the story for your audio drama.

It’s worth pointing out that by ‘audio drama’ I mean a specially scripted piece, performed by multiple actors with a soundtrack and sound effects, much like a radio play. This is not to be confused with an audio book, which is a prose story read out by a single narrator (even if they put on voices or there is incidental music).

First Draft Formatting

However, when we get to the task of putting finger to keyboard the task gets a bit different. Firstly, you’ll likely be writing to a script format. This is like most other scripts, and will vary slightly from recording studio to recording studio. The main reason for such formatting is to make the job easier for the actors, sound designers and editor.

My first piece of advice would be – don’t worry about formatting in your first draft. Break your text into narrator, dialogue, sound effects and such as directed by the publisher, but don’t worry at first about indents, bolding direction text, or any of that. You’ll be chopping bits about and rewriting enough that things will almost inevitably end up in the wrong style.

Get the words right and then, before submission, go through the manuscript and apply the formatting as required. Have a look at these blog posts for the original script extracts, with sound directions etc, from The Darker Road, and The Thirteenth Wolf.

More with Less

While prose is often described as a movie with infinite budget, audio dramas are not. In particular, actors quite rightly like to be paid for their work. This limitation means that you must create your story around only a few speaking characters. Sure, you can have a few ‘Third Ensign from the Left’ cameos and one-line parts that the actors will fill in, but in terms of major speaking roles, you are looking at three or four at best – six as a maximum. The Darker Road focussed on the action around Asurmen and a young(ish) Eldrad Ulthran and these two characters carry the majority of the dialogue.

Not only does the budget constrain the number of speaking roles, so does the absence of dialogue tags – the ‘he said’, ‘she exclaimed’ bits of prose that indicate who is speaking. Your script needs to allow the listener to keep track of who is doing and saying what, and a limited palette of voices helps with that instant identification – as does mentioning the character’s name in narration leading up to new instances of dialogue. This is particularly important when introducing a new voice into the mix. For example, from The Darker Road:

The seers turned as one and Shar-telion inclined her head in respect. Her eyes lingered on Asurmen, intrigue in their depths.

SHAR-TELION: Timely is the arrival of the Hand of Asuryan. Proof that the course of action we seek to undertake has merit. Is it not true that the Phoenix Lords arrive upon the eve of great moments?

Use the small cast as inspiration to weave a tight narrative around that handful of characters, pushing the characterisation and conflicts between them to carry the story.

Make the Sound Designers Work, Not The Narrator

It’ll come as no surprise that audio has one big strength over prose… sound! The atmosphere, incidental sound effects and music set a scene every bit as much as the words you pen for the narrator – more so in many cases.

Sometimes it is useful to explain a sound effect – like a door slamming, for instance, that might be misinterpreted by the listener. If that isn’t the case, let the sounds speak for themselves and use narration to add visual cues for the listener– the flash of bolters to go with the crack of rounds that they can actually hear, or the changing colours of the leaves above when the wind stirs them.

[ATMOS: an army of eldar warriors emerge from a warp-portal directly onto the surface of Hiron-athela; it is a strange, dead city, ruined by ancient devastation, and the sky rumbles strangely overhead with echoes of the calamity that struck here; there are fast moving infantry, heavy grav-tanks and lighter scouting jetbikes that wheel and circle]

We engage less of our brain when we are listening, and so absorb and parse verbal information differently to how we take in the written word. As a writer you should avoid long stretches of narration and if possible use a little character exposition instead. Have characters remark on things that are happening.

Eldrad pointed with his staff at the upper windows.

ELDRAD (helmet*): The sun is always in the same position. No matter how we forge across the forest, the direction of light never changes. Always from the right as we enter, casting exactly the same shadows.

*”helmet” is a sound direction referring to the distortion heard as Eldrad speaks through his helmet

Work Smart and Fast

An audio needs to be broken down into scenes like any story. Unlike prose, an audio needs to give actors and the listener little breaks quite frequently. Several short scenes with little jumps of time and location between them, or a scene broken down into continuing sequences with small pauses, work better than one that goes on for a long time. Not only is it harder for the actors, the listener’s attention will start to wander.

Get into the action of the scene as quickly as possible – In Media Res in writerly parlance – and then when its job is done, get out of there. With sparse but effective narration, good dialogue and pointed sound effects, you can tell a lot of story in a short space.

Always remember that your word count in an audio is a hard limit. The length of the piece has to be cut to fit the space – you don’t get to cram just one more minute on a CD… If you are used to putting in a 5,500 word story for a 5,000 word commission you need to be more disciplined. Lines will be cut, perhaps even parts or whole scenes removed if the recording comes in over time.

(There is an entire scene from Raven’s Flight that takes place before Corax returns to the dropsite, which never made it into audio but can be read in the prose collected version in the Shadows of Treachery anthology.)

As a writer you should make those decisions before it gets sent away, to ensure your golden one-liner doesn’t end up on the editor’s hard drive equivalent of the cutting room floor.

If you’re running out of space, then cut narration first. Make the dialogue work harder for its space.

The most important piece of advice is to enjoy yourself. Use the audio format to stretch the way you think about your stories. Think about soundscapes as much as characters, atmosphere as much as plotlines.

From a forthcoming audio…

SCENE 1: EXT. WITHIN THE BLACK LIBRARY– DAY

[ATMOS: An ever-present background cosmic chorus of half-heard sighs, chimes, whispers of forgotten lore and the scratching of terrible entities trying to break in]

If you have any questions about writing for audios, let me know in the comments.

But Asurmen: The Darker Road

**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.**

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The Darker Road – Read Along Script Extract

The script extract I published for The Thirteenth Wolf proved popular, so here’s another – this time for Asurmen: The Darker Road which was released this week.

The script below matches the audio extract you can hear over on the Black Library website, so you can follow the script, reading the stage directions as you listen along to the finished audio. See if you can spot the changes that were made between script and final recording!

SCENE 1a: EXT. APPROACHING ULTHWÉ – SPACE

[ATMOS: deep space; the faint rumble of a world-sized ship’s engines nearby]

[SFX: an alien warp gate shimmers with power, before opening with a burst of light; Stormlance flies through, setting its sleek sails]

Bathed in the spectral glow of the webway, Stormlance speared into reality. Steed of legendary Asurmen, the ship resembled a dual-pointed dagger. Opening up like a fin, the solar sail at the rear gleamed with energy as the starship slipped into the bathing energies of the local star.

[SFX: Stormlance flies past the POV towards the huge craftworld; continuing under narration]

Ahead of the Phoenix Lord, their destination hung in the freezing void. The craftworld of Ulthwé.

From a distance it looked like the spiraling shell of an ammonite made from silver and white, its surface blistered by shining domes that housed entire landscapes of cloud-swathed mountains, green fields and forests, icy tundra and desert wastes. Towers pierced the vacuum between these domes, linked by slender, arcing transitways and transportation corridors like the tracery of a web.

A cloud of starships followed the craftworld in a glittering trail, moving back and forth between the docking spires and the webway gate. Stormlance extended a secondary pair of solar sails from the flanks of its dark green hull, catching every particle of the solar wind that it could. The ship wove a twisting course, paying no heed to docking protocol or the niceties of berth allocation.

The craftworld seemed stationary against the backdrop of stars but was in fact moving ever so slowly, drifting from one edge of the system to the other.



[SFX: with a sense of dread, an evil warp-anomaly hangs as backdrop to the scene]

Amongst the stars beyond was a bruise against the void. A hungry red-and-purple eye that looked out into the galaxy, desiring to devour everything. A warp storm of such immense proportions it had swallowed the old eldar empire.

SCENE 1b: INT. STORMLANCE COCKPIT – SPACE

[ATMOS: continuous, POV moves inside Stormlance; a small, ultra high-tech bridge space, far beyond anything humanity will ever create]

Asurmen, First of the Asurya, the creator of the Path regarded the storm coldly.

ASURMEN (murmuring to himself): The heart of a god given semi-physical form. She Who Thirsts. The Heart of Death. The Great Enemy. The Womb of Destruction.

His armour was a deep blue, his scarlet helm crested from front to back. He leaned forwards in the inertia cradle that held him, seeing Ulthwé through inputs that owed nothing to biological senses – Stormlance was simply an extension of his immortal will, its suite of detectors more acute than even the hearing and sight of an eldar.

The ship was impressed.

STORMLANCE: It has grown much, since last we visited.

ASURMEN: The Womb of Destruction, or the craftworld?

STORMLANCE: Yes.

ASURMEN: It excites you, does it not? To come this close to all that was destroyed.

STORMLANCE: I am drawn to destruction, fated to bear you into war and strife. There is no greater monument to annihilation than the glaring eye of the god that devoured us. The future holds conflict, if the threads of destiny have brought us back to Ulthwé, which exists upon the brink of our ruin.

If you want to delve further into the world of Asurmen: The Darker Road, you can read my Author’s Notes. And if you’re interested in writing for audio, later this week I’ll be publishing a writing advice blog on the subject, so keep an eye out for that (you can find past blogs on the subject here). If there’s anything else you would like to know about writing audio dramas, let me know in the comments.

Buy Asurmen – The Darker Road

**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.**

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Asurmen: The Darker Road – Author’s Notes

I need to cast my mind back a couple of years to write these author’s notes, such is the nature of publishing schedules sometimes. Asurmen – The Darker Road was originally written to be released around the same time as Asurmen – Hand of Asuryan. For reasons I no longer recall (but likely involving someone in sales and marketing) that release did not happen.

Instead of being a release to support the first Phoenix Lords novel, The Darker Road is out now to whet your appetites for the forthcoming second volume, Jain Zar – The Storm of Silence.

None of which changes the thrust of these notes, but might explain why that are a little broader than had I written them eighteen months ago!

Mythic Cycles

My main aim with all of the Phoenix Lords works has been to bring the mythic element of the characters to the fore. These are not traditional war stories, but the enactment of ancient mythic cycles based upon the legends and lore of the Eldar people.

Like the elves of folklore and myth on which they are based, the eldar stand with a foot each in reality and unreality, the mortal and immortal. Their existence, their psychic potential, the webway and technology they utilise charts a course between magic and physical.

Painted by Clay Saunders

The Phoenix Lords are one bridge across this divide, messengers and incarnations of ancient gods and powers given fresh form in the ‘new’ world of the 40K universe. They are not just heroes like Ibram Gaunt or Marshal Helbrecht. They are not even warp-fashioned demigods in the mould of the Primarchs. The Phoenix Lords have ascended to become immortal concepts rendered in physical form. Their thoughts and deeds shape fate itself and determine the destinies of countless billions of beings.

In this vein my inspiration has come from the likes of Gilgamesh and Hercules, Persephone and Karna, Beowulf and Rostam. They are surrounded by their own sub-culture, legends and beliefs, which have developed over the thousands of years of their existence.

The emphasis is therefore on quests and legendary journeys more than massed battles, though this is 40K so there is some action on a large scale. Yet it is through intimate relationships and interactions upon which the lives of the Phoenix Lords turn. They are revered and dreaded in equal measure, and those whose paths they cross in even the smallest way are forever changed by the experience. It is these moments that I wish to explore.

A lot of these stories heavily involve the webway, itself a mythic realm to my mind. It is not just a series of tunnels that allow ships to move quickly; it is a place between the realm of gods and the world of mortals. It is Hades and the fields of Aaru, Yggdrasil and the rainbow bridge, Lyonesse and Themiscyra. Just as the Phoenix Lords relive ancient cycles, reincarnated anew to continue their existence, so the webway is a constant reinvention, neither warp nor physical, an embodiment of the skein of destiny studied by farseers, as fluid as the strands of fate.

Painted by John Oates

A Different Age

The other thread that ties together the Phoenix Lord stories is the treatment of the timeline. These are incredibly ancient beings, and that necessitates a different approach to chronology. Foremost, it gives me the opportunity to look at the world of the eldar before and during the Fall. On the grand and personal scale we can see through their eyes the loss of an entire interstellar civilisation.

But it is not only that. It’s easy to think that just as the Imperium seems unchanging for ten thousand years so too the craftworlds and Commorragh sprang fully-fledged into being. Such is not the case and the Phoenix Lords let us look at those interstitial times when the Path was being founded, when many different factions strived for survival in the wake of the Fall.

In The Darker Road we meet a younger Eldrad Ulthran than the character we are used to. He is not yet the leader of Ulthwé’s seers, though his psychic potential is stronger than any others. He is yet to learn much about the changing galaxy, and through him we can feel the fears and hopes of the eldar in general.

It is interesting to cast a character that to 40K readers is about as unchanging and part of the universe as the Eye of Terror and the Emperor, and to see him set beside an individual who predates even his existence by a millennia! There is much more of this in Jain Zar and hopefully in more Phoenix Lords titles to come.

Myth and time, two great concepts to play with, and I hope you feel the same wonder that I do when we look at the lives of these immortal warriors.

Buy Asurmen: The Darker Road

If you want to read more of my musings on the Eldar, take a look at the following blogs which were published back in 2010 when Path of the Warrior was released:

Introspections on Perfection

Introspections Pt II

Introspections Pt III

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Asurmen: The Darker Road – Out Now

Today sees the MP3 release of Asurmen: The Darker Road, the companion audio drama to my first Phoenix Lords novel Asurmen: Hand of Asuryan. Physical copies will be on the shelves next Saturday.

Audio CD: 978-1784965358

MP3: 978-1785725531

“It is said the Phoenix Lords arrive on the eve of great moments… Guided by fate, Asurmen the Hand of Asuryan comes to the craftworld of Ulthwé. At the behest of the head of the seer council, he joins the warriors of Ulthwé and the young seer Eldrad on a quest to the Crone Worlds in search of the oracle Hiron-athela. It is believed that this being holds an artefact that could safeguard Ulthwé’s future, but in order to obtain it the eldar must travel a dark road…”

The audio drama is performed by Gareth Armstrong, John Banks, Steve Conlin, Toby Longworth, Penelope Rawlins and Genevieve Swallow.

And if you haven’t yet read it, you can find all the details about Asurmen: Hand of Asuryan, here.

Keep an eye on my blog this week for my author’s notes, an extract from the written script, and more.

Buy Asurmen: The Darker Road

**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.**

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