The Dawn of Fire is nearly here. This weekend, you’ll be able to order Avenging Son, the first book in this epic new series that will be telling the ongoing story of the Indomitus Crusade and Roboute Guilliman’s attempts to save the Imperium. We sat down with Guy Haley, author of Avenging Son and one of the architects of the series, to find out more.
Warhammer Community: What was the process for building the narrative of the Dawn of Fire series?
Guy: Writing anything of this size is quite the undertaking, and it was pretty daunting to be asked to steer the project. We are talking, after all, about the chief narrative of Warhammer 40,000. It’s the first time that Black Library and the Warhammer 40,000 studio have worked in this way on a series like this.
This is an original narrative largely written by the Black Library but guided by events and ideas being continuously created by the studio. Both these areas of Games Workshop have slightly different needs and both have to accommodate the other, so there’s all manner of things that need to be taken into account.
It’s my personal preference, when writing this kind of fiction, to make everything that has been written ‘true’. Sometimes in other big, shared universes, you’ll see divergence between the various different media but, for me, the Warhammer 40,000 universe is all one place. Key to my preparation was reading everything that has been or is being written about this period of the Imperium’s history, and putting events into a rough, though not definitive, order of occurrence.
As stories by necessity happen in a sequential way and have to preserve an amount of verisimilitude, it’s important we don’t end up with people in two or more places at once, and that dramatic moments have a resolution, as well consequences for the future. This framework is fairly loose – but it has to exist for everyone to perform their roles, so sorting that out was task number one.
Integrating all the wonderful details that the studio and miniatures designers have come up with is somewhat easier, but still needs careful ongoing work. I don’t like contradictions in my universes! Who does?
The other major thing we had to do was to come up with an overall arc for this period. The Horus Heresy is the obvious comparison to this series, but it has one major difference – when we started writing that, we all knew the end. We didn’t know all the details, but the myth was established.
Here, we’ve had to come up with something suitably mind-blowing that fits the tone and story of the universe, as well as its primary existence as a game world, while being a satisfying narrative arc. I think the endpoint is pretty awesome. Only I and a select few others know what will happen… and of course, I can’t tell you!
In short, it’s my job, as I see it, to string together all the bits of Warhammer 40,000 and make them make sense within the rules of narrative fiction as we tell an epic tale.
WarCom: How did you prepare yourself to write Avenging Son?
Guy: Lots of meetings. Lots of reading. Lots of mastering of fear!
WarCom: What can people expect from Avenging Son?
Guy: A pulse-pounding, epic, intrigue-filled opening to the biggest war the Imperium has ever known.
WarCom: What can you tell us about the protagonists?
Guy: There are so many! We want there to be lots and lots of characters, just like in the Horus Heresy. We want a new generation of heroes like Garviel Loken, Sevatar, Garro and all the rest, those characters that writers can follow through this grand undertaking. I introduce a bunch in Avenging Son, some of whom are already known, such as the Lady VanLeskus, Fleetmaster of Fleet Tertius. There are also many completely fresh ones, like Messinius, a grizzled White Consuls veteran, Ferren Areios, a newly-awoken Primaris Space Marine, and Fabian Guelphrain, one of the Founding Four Historitors.
The likes of Roboute Guilliman and Belisarius Cawl also make appearances – Guilliman has a large role – but we made a stylistic choice to only see them through the eyes of others, at least in the early books.
WarCom: What are you most excited about seeing unfurl in the Dawn of Fire series?
Guy: For me, it’s the way we’ve tried to get it all to connect up. Although Dawn of Fire will be a separate series, and we’ve made a noticeable effort to make it accessible and understandable to all readers, it has ties into all manner of current Warhammer 40,000 fiction. It has some interesting links with my Dark Imperium, Blood Angels and Belisarius Cawl novels, and with Chris Wraight’s Terran-set Inquisitor and Adeptus Custodes books. If you follow Dawn of Fire, and explore these other tales, you’ll only enrich an already exciting experience.
WarCom: Did you do anything differently from other books you've written to leave plot hooks for future Dawn of Fire writers?Guy: There was a bit of a top-down direction coming from me and Nick Kyme to begin with, so the plot hooks and narrative strands are kind of built into that. But I’ve left plenty of little ones in Avenging Son as well. Now the series is developing, and we’re getting more and more input from the other writers, I expect these to proliferate, but that’s just the way we work in this shared setting, and is indeed a characteristic of its success – Warhammer 40,000 is far more integrated than many other large shared universes.
WarCom: Do you have any interesting writing quirks?
Guy: I don’t know. When I was a journalist I interviewed scores of writers. We all do it differently but within a fairly well-defined set of parameters. I work fast, I think that’s my ‘quirk’, but if you mean do I have a writing hat or a superstitiously favoured chair then no, nothing like that.
WarCom: Why do you think people should get stuck into Avenging Son and start the series?
Guy: This is the ongoing story of the Imperium of Man, tied into current events and ancient history both. It’s a series for old and new Warhammer 40,000 fans alike. It picks up themes laid down in the Horus Heresy, and strands of deep-time history, and will take them in unexpected directions. If you like Warhammer 40,000 even a little bit, you should read these books.
Thanks, Guy! We can’t wait – if you feel the same (and we know you do!) you’ll be able to pre-order Avenging Son in paperback, eBook, MP3 audiobook and special edition formats on Saturday. Until then, check out some of the other books Guy mentioned have ties to the series, such as Chris Wraight’s The Emperor’s Legion or Guy’s own Belisarius Cawl: The Great Work.