SoB Novel

[Dark Dajin]

Hammer and Anvil

 

The Sisters of Battle are the Emperor’s most devout worshippers, fierce warriors preaching the purity of the Imperium and scourging their enemies with bolter and flamer. On a distant world, the Ecclesiarchy outpost of Sanctuary 101, was wiped out by an implacable foe - the fearless, soulless necrons. Now, a mission of the Sisterhood has returned to reconsecrate the site - but the metallic nightmares still lurk in the darkness, guarding a secret that has lain dormant for millennia. A vicious battle will be fought - one that can only end in the total destruction of the unrelenting xenos, or the annihilation of the proud Sororitas.

 

September 2011 • 416 pages, softback • ISBN 9781849700658

 

James Swallow

 

Incase you missed it in the news section of the BnC :D

[Azezel]

When this was first anounced, it was rumoured to be about the fall of Sanctuary 101 (that story being, suddenly, Necrons. Everybody dies.) and was greeted with much derision.

 

Now that we know it's about a mission to retake 101, I'm cautiously optimistic. Swallow dropped the ball with Faith and Fire - but the fact that he's the only Black Library author willing to do anything but than snuff-fic with the Sisterhood counts for a lot - he deserves a second chance.

 

God help him if he screws this one up too...

[Inquisitor Fox]

Eh, snuff it or not I'm still totally buying the thing. Faith and Fire wasn't that bad all things considered, a novel of decisions between conflicting duties and hidden agendas. Almost an Inquisitorial-lite novel, and it was a refressing change from standard battlefield depictions of hordes of angry Sisters. Fluff on the Sisters is few and far between that doesn't involve a smoking ruin of a destroyed last stand covenant and hordes of dead Adepta Sororitas...

 

Er.. wait a minute.. doh! <_<

 

Either way, it's still totally on my list. :)

[Dark Dajin]

I agree that Snuff is part of the 40k universe, however how come all the main characters that get to survive are male *cough* "Cain" *cough* and all the 'heroic' female characters are punished? In Faith and Fire, Enforcer and even Nemisis it never seems to end well with them :tu:

[Chengar Qordath]

I agree that Snuff is part of the 40k universe, however how come all the main characters that get to survive are male *cough* "Cain" *cough* and all the 'heroic' female characters are punished? In Faith and Fire, Enforcer and even Nemisis it never seems to end well with them :lol:

I would put the lack of well-handled female characters down to three issues:

 

1: Too much Marine-centricness:

As you might have noticed, Marines are all man, and a lot of authors constantly go on and on about how vastly superior they are to squishy little humans, male or female. It also tends to leave us with a much smaller pool of prominent female characters, since most of the books are sausage-fests.

 

2: The 40k fanbase:

The big problem here is that the 40k target fanbase has always been young teenage males, and a lot of things that get marketed towards them don't treat women very well (a lot of comics and video games have the same problem). There's still a pretty widespread idea that women will never like or play 40k, which encourages a bad tendency towards downright leaving them out, or sometimes ending up with downright misogynistic portrayals of them. As any SoB fan is no doubt aware, there's a chunk of 40k fans who think that the primary purpose of Sisters of Battle is to be sextoys for Marines and Guard.

 

3: Authors:

Have Abnett, A-D-B, or Mitchell do a series with a female main character, and we would almost certainly get a substantially awesome character out of it. For that matter, actually having a woman writing any of the 40k books would probably help too. Swallow's willingness to write female characters is offset by his rather lacking ability to do so. As for the Enforcer series, it was actually pretty good if you just ignore the third book.

 

As for the book itself, I'll certainly buy and read it, but I'm not exactly optimistic about it after reading Swallow's other books.

[A D-B]

3: Authors:

Have Abnett, A-D-B, or Mitchell do a series with a female main character, and we would almost certainly get a substantially awesome character out of it.

 

(Apologies for the quick hijack - and this isn't hideous self-advertising - but this is a literary topic dear to my heart. In the Grey Knights novel I'm working on, the two main characters are one of the GeeKays, and a female Inquisitor.)

[Validar]

The big problem here is that the 40k target fanbase has always been young teenage males

 

uhm, you've got sources on that one? Just this morning I confirmed that I am in the young half by far with my 21 years through a thread on these very boards ;)

[Lucifer216]

Awesome news. I look forward to reading about a strong, intensely intelligent and professional female character from the Black Library. Any chance you've already thought about her hair style, measurements and cup-size? ^_^

 

More seriously, it will will be interesting to see how you approach the Grey Knights. I've often thought that they pose more of a challenge to authors than even standard space marines, given the extreme levels of brainwashing and psycho-indocrination involved, along with the lack of moral ambiguity that they probably possess (due to the all-encompassing nature of their faith and their absolute devotion to the God-Emperor).

 

Are you going to explore the problems that occur when you put a relatively squishy human into an otherwise tightly knit combat unit of superhuman killing machines? Will the Inquisitor as the weak link in terms of daemonic temptation or will she end up saving the group by proposing an idea that the Grey Knights would never have thought of?

[River Black]

I dont know about you guys but Stg Criid is one of my favorite 40k characters. Granted the series isnt named after her but her roll is just as prominent as those of Mkoll, Larkin and Rawne.

[Captain Malachi]

Tona's a sweetheart. In that 'I'll kick your arse and laugh at you while I do it' kinda way. :tu:

 

In all seriousness though, this looks interesting, I just hope Swallow gives the girls more character than 'For the Emprah! Burn burn!'.

[chaplain belisarius]

ill give this a look...it had better be good though!

[Dark Dajin]

(Apologies for the quick hijack - and this isn't hideous self-advertising - but this is a literary topic dear to my heart. In the Grey Knights novel I'm working on, the two main characters are one of the GeeKays, and a female Inquisitor.)

 

I hope she survives :D

 

As for great female SF writers, I'd point you to C.S. Friedman (In Conquest Born, The Wilding, etc.).

Hmm, maybe you could pull her into the Black Library fold A D-B? :P

 

edit: Oh and her main female characters are awesome, especially in her fantasy series, Feast of Souls, Wings of Wrath, etc.

[Azezel]

Swallow - and I am willing to forgive him a lot simply because he's the only author willing to touch the sisterhood - made some serious errors, from both a technical and characterisation standpoints, in Faith and Fire.

 

A couple of things that stick in my mind are when someone sneaks up behind a battle sister and grabs her 'round the neck - which, given the design of Sisters' Power Armour is, at best, iffy. It's a minor point, but there was lots and lots of stuff like that that would've been all of five minutes to fix.

 

Also: 'This machine was built by the Emperor himself!' 'I must destroy it!' These are pretty much consecutive thoughts and strike me as massively out of character for a Battle Sister.

 

One suspects that all of the errors stem from an understandable lack of familiarity with the Sisterhood - god knows there is little enough information out there and gathering it all in one place is a herculean task. It seems likely that Swallow will be better informed this time around.

 

Having said that, if more than half of the sisters survive the book and less than half of them fall to chaos he'll still be miles ahead of every other BL author there is, so good luck to him. I'll definately be buying the book.

 

 

Female characters should be a non-issue. I've never believed that only a woman can write proper female characters (or that only a man can write proper male ones) - In fact, I'm not even convinced that a writer is more likely to write their own gender better.

 

This should especially be the case in the black library. Put a gun in someone's hands, tell them to go shoot that nasty monster and I don't see where gender comes into the equation.

 

Which is of course the point, female characters should be neither stronger nor weaker than male ones, should succeed and fail in the same proportions, should die horribly just as often, and just as horribly*.

 

How often is it important to the story that Gregor Eisenhorn or Arvin Larn are men? Very, very rarely. They are men, and conceivably it may matter once in a while, but it's hardly important. It certainly does not define them. Same thing should apply to female characters. That's why I liked the Shira Calpurnia series. Calpurnia is a woman, but the stories would have played out exactly the same were she a man, because her gender is irrelevant to the job she's doing.

 

 

* I don't object to Battle Sisters dying horribly, they have a dangerous job. I object to them always dying horribly. With the exception of Faith and Fire (sort of a no-score draw) I don't think they've won a battle in the fluff since their own 2e Codex.

[Inquisitor Fox]

* I don't object to Battle Sisters dying horribly, they have a dangerous job. I object to them always dying horribly. With the exception of Faith and Fire (sort of a no-score draw) I don't think they've won a battle in the fluff since their own 2e Codex.

To be fair, they Did hold the Imperial Palace against multiple Chapters of attacking Space Marines, enough that the Custodes themselves had to intervene. Granted they were fighting for what ended up being the wrong side at the time, but that's hardly their fault for not knowing that :lol: That does sort of put their defensive skills on par with the Imperial Fists to a degree.

 

You've a few good points though. Let's hope that we see some better fluff for ourselves in the book!

[Azezel]

To be fair, they Did hold the Imperial Palace against multiple Chapters of attacking Space Marines, enough that the Custodes themselves had to intervene.

 

That's exactly the battle I was talking about - detailed in the 2e Codex: Sisters of Battle. Less than ten thousand Sisters held of four whole Astartes chapters and the legions of Mars.

 

And it's as though they only had a fine amount of awesome and spent it all in that one battle, so now they can't ever win again.

 

Actually, I have just remembered another story where the sisterhood wins. Ben Counter wrote a short story called Daemonblood - It's about a Battle Sister hunting a traitor Ultramarine.

In the end, she does catch him, and her force of faith is sufficient to redeem him. He still dies, of course, he's a Heretic and must die, but she makes him repent first, her faith and her will are that strong.

.

 

I'd love to see Counter write a full-length version of that story - or a different novel about Sister Aescarion. It might make up for all the sisters he killed in Grey Knights (Which I otherwise enjoyed, the man writes a good book, though grey Knight players seem to have the same fluff issues with Counter as I have with Swallow).

 

Anyway - Daemonblood - highly recomended, it's in Galaxy in Flames if memory serves.

 

EDIT - And by 'Galaxy in Flames' I mean 'Let the Galaxy Burn' - I don't know how I could have got those two titles mixed up...

[Sersi]

Well, its about time...

 

 

 

 

 

I like Sallows writing, and thought "Faith & Fire" was a solid novel that limelighted the sisterhood fairly well. The Sister were not lacking in faith or fighting ability, they were mostly stopped from doing their job but politics and corrupt officials Tm. Their were lots of nice fluff bits such as the "Oath of the Repentia", etc.

 

Ben Counter would do an excellent job with SOB though. As mentioned the short story he did in "Let the Galaxy Burn" rocked. Also in his Grey Knight series the sisters do fairly well against the GK in combat. It should also be noted that the Female inquisitor he created for the first book, was very well handled. While not a fighter, she certainly was no DID <damsel in distress>.

 

 

Martyrdom / Equity for Female Characters:

 

Finally, I know people like to make a point about female characters dying more than male ones. Its not that they die more, it more how and why they die. It they die heroically, or for a purpose other that to inconvenience a male love interest that's fine by me. I don't mind SOB's dying their whole theme is Martyrdom after all. But they should be allowed to pull off unambiguous wins at least sometimes.

[Arkaniss]

I'll be picking this book up definately. Sisters don't get much love so another book is always welcome. As noted before Faith and Fire wasn't as bad as some people make out (though i did read it a long time ago i'll admit, so i could be cherry picking memories!) and it gave occasional glimpses into the background for the somewhat mysterious Sisterhood.

 

As for martyrdom being the theme for Sisters - people get too hung up on that aspect of their fluff (and rules) i think. It's just one aspect of Sisters of Battle and it tends to take over peoples perception of them, especially those that aren't that familiar with them. There really is much more to them than just dying for the Emperor! :)

[Chengar Qordath]

A couple of things that stick in my mind are when someone sneaks up behind a battle sister and grabs her 'round the neck - which, given the design of Sisters' Power Armour is, at best, iffy. It's a minor point, but there was lots and lots of stuff like that that would've been all of five minutes to fix.

On a similar note, I've always been bugged by the scene in the book where a simple thug manages to completely physically overpower a battlesister who is wearing strength-enhancing power armor without any trouble. That just shouldn't happen, especially when its a common street thug against a warrior trained from childhood in battle.

 

Female characters should be a non-issue. I've never believed that only a woman can write proper female characters (or that only a man can write proper male ones) - In fact, I'm not even convinced that a writer is more likely to write their own gender better.

While I agree that men and women can write the opposite gender quite effectively, I do think that having an all-male creative environment and target market can have a tendency to result in less than ideal portrayal of women.

 

This should especially be the case in the black library. Put a gun in someone's hands, tell them to go shoot that nasty monster and I don't see where gender comes into the equation.

 

Which is of course the point, female characters should be neither stronger nor weaker than male ones, should succeed and fail in the same proportions, should die horribly just as often, and just as horribly*.

 

How often is it important to the story that Gregor Eisenhorn or Arvin Larn are men? Very, very rarely. They are men, and conceivably it may matter once in a while, but it's hardly important. It certainly does not define them. Same thing should apply to female characters. That's why I liked the Shira Calpurnia series. Calpurnia is a woman, but the stories would have played out exactly the same were she a man, because her gender is irrelevant to the job she's doing.

Have to agree with all of this. In fact, I think part of the problem that crops up with female characters is that some authors feel a need to make female characters more "female" to differentiate them from the men. For what my opinion is worth, you should treat characters as characters, and their gender should not be nearly as important as their skills, background, personality, etc. especially in a universe like 40k that is heavy on action.

 

* I don't object to Battle Sisters dying horribly, they have a dangerous job. I object to them always dying horribly. With the exception of Faith and Fire (sort of a no-score draw) I don't think they've won a battle in the fluff since their own 2e Codex.

Winning is definitely important, and Battle Sisters have had a bad tendency in fiction to end up getting killed in the first act to establish that the villain is dangerous, so that it makes the men's victory that much more impressive. As for senseless death, I think that's probably one of the big issues a lot of people have with Faith and Fire; most of the character death there was utterly pointless "no characters have died in the last 100 pages" kill-offs. While random senseless death certainly has its place in 40k, I've always been of the opinion that when killing off a member of the central heroic group that death should have some meaning, and should generally be accompanied by the character doing something really badass right before they die.

[Azezel]

On a similar note, I've always been bugged by the scene in the book where a simple thug manages to completely physically overpower a battlesister who is wearing strength-enhancing power armor without any trouble. That just shouldn't happen, especially when its a common street thug against a warrior trained from childhood in battle.

 

I don't recal the specifics, but that sounds like something that'd happen in Faith & Fire - like I said, a lot of individually small mistakes that all add up very quickly.

 

In the intrest of fairness, there were good bits - Miriya calously breaking a prisoner's leg under her boot to make him talk was perfect, for example.

 

While I agree that men and women can write the opposite gender quite effectively, I do think that having an all-male creative environment and target market can have a tendency to result in less than ideal portrayal of women.

 

It's tempting to say that Black Library's audience isn't exclusively male, they just think it is. In any event, Black Library can present a satisfying female character from time to time (q. v. Shira Calpurnia, Inquisitor Ligea... um... Well, I never said there were a lot of them.). They can do it, just not very often, and almost never as a protagonist. There certainly are many more examples of bad female characters.

 

 

 

Have to agree with all of this. In fact, I think part of the problem that crops up with female characters is that some authors feel a need to make female characters more "female" to differentiate them from the men. For what my opinion is worth, you should treat characters as characters, and their gender should not be nearly as important as their skills, background, personality, etc. especially in a universe like 40k that is heavy on action.

 

Exactly. This is no doubt why the Adept whose name escapes me right now in Mechanicum was marching about in a damned steel bodice. Christ...

 

Winning is definitely important, and Battle Sisters have had a bad tendency in fiction to end up getting killed in the first act to establish that the villain is dangerous, so that it makes the men's victory that much more impressive. As for senseless death, I think that's probably one of the big issues a lot of people have with Faith and Fire; most of the character death there was utterly pointless "no characters have died in the last 100 pages" kill-offs. While random senseless death certainly has its place in 40k, I've always been of the opinion that when killing off a member of the central heroic group that death should have some meaning, and should generally be accompanied by the character doing something really badass right before they die.

 

I believe they call it the 'Worf Effect' nowadays. Grey Knights was probably the worst for this - Counter killed a pile of Battle Sisters to show how awesome the good guys were, and then killed more to show how awesome the bad guys were. Everybody wins - except the sisters. Ye gods of old Rome.

[Chengar Qordath]

I don't recal the specifics, but that sounds like something that'd happen in Faith & Fire - like I said, a lot of individually small mistakes that all add up very quickly.

 

In the intrest of fairness, there were good bits - Miriya calously breaking a prisoner's leg under her boot to make him talk was perfect, for example.

Indeed; Faith and Fire had good moments too, but the bad ones tend to stick out more in the memory.

 

It's tempting to say that Black Library's audience isn't exclusively male, they just think it is. In any event, Black Library can present a satisfying female character from time to time (q. v. Shira Calpurnia, Inquisitor Ligea... um... Well, I never said there were a lot of them.). They can do it, just not very often, and almost never as a protagonist. There certainly are many more examples of bad female characters.

Have to agree there; 40k suffers from being simultaneously shunted into the sci-fi ghetto and the tabletop gaming-ghetto, so a lot people seem to think that only the helplessly nerdy and basement-dwelling men would actually be interested in it. The problem with that belief is, it can skew marketing and production so that it turns women away from 40k products, as a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. Personally, I think that GW is missing out on a lot of female potential customers.

 

That's not to mention that there are plenty of men who just want to see well-written female characters as well, since everyone likes a well-written character.

Exactly. This is no doubt why the Adept whose name escapes me right now in Mechanicum was marching about in a damned steel bodice. Christ...

At least they've mostly gotten rid of the older artwork that put 6" stiletto heels on the battlesister's power armor. If we can just get rid of corset with giant spiky breasts, then the Sister of Battle might actually end up in something that looks like a piece of armor a real human being would wear to battle.

 

I believe they call it the 'Worf Effect' nowadays. Grey Knights was probably the worst for this - Counter killed a pile of Battle Sisters to show how awesome the good guys were, and then killed more to show how awesome the bad guys were. Everybody wins - except the sisters. Ye gods of old Rome.

Indeed; the problem with the Worf Effect is that if it doesn't get broken up with an equal number of victories it ends up making Worf look completely worthless.

[Azezel]

At least they've mostly gotten rid of the older artwork that put 6" stiletto heels on the battlesister's power armor. If we can just get rid of corset with giant spiky breasts, then the Sister of Battle might actually end up in something that looks like a piece of armor a real human being would wear to battle.

 

Whilst I agree about the stilettos (worst offender, John Blanche and his second edition codex cover - 'Check out these gams, boys' Hate that picture so much...) - I like the current armour design. It's gothic as all hell - it's exactly what the Ministorum would equip their soldiers with. If it were changed, it would not ruin the army foreveer, but I would be unhappy.

 

I mean, it's not like the Astartes have anything approaching sensible armour and nobody objects to that.

 

What I think is necessary is for artists to remember that it is Power Armour it may be designed to look like a bodice, but it isn't. It is bulky and inflexible and should be portrayed that way. Most pictures imply that the artist thinks Sisters wear skin-tight leather.

 

My favourite Sororitas piicture (the one I use for my .sig) actually remembers that Power armour is bulky, solid, not very sexy.

 

http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/222/6/a/Adepta_Sosoritas_by_slaine69.jpg

[Commander Sasha]

I'd certainly encourage people to read the Shira Calpurnia novels, now in a 3 book omnibus: although not power armour, they have given me a great insight into hive city life, and fleshed out a lot of environment background, which in turn as re-fuelled my fluff for my marines.

One book is all about the Arbites, and their relationship with the church and the Sisters; one about Rogue Traders and their charters; the third a good insight into Psykers, Navigators and Astropaths.

 

Calpurnia herself is a solid, rounded character, and the writing does not stray into teenage titillation, even in the fight scenes.

[Eddie Orlock]

What I think is necessary is for artists to remember that it is Power Armour it may be designed to look like a bodice, but it isn't. It is bulky and inflexible and should be portrayed that way. Most pictures imply that the artist thinks Sisters wear skin-tight leather.

 

My favourite Sororitas piicture (the one I use for my .sig) actually remembers that Power armour is bulky, solid, not very sexy.

Tell that to the fold lines in the bodice of the girl on the left. She's got all the micro-curves of a plus sized model above her hip.

[Chengar Qordath]

At least they've mostly gotten rid of the older artwork that put 6" stiletto heels on the battlesister's power armor. If we can just get rid of corset with giant spiky breasts, then the Sister of Battle might actually end up in something that looks like a piece of armor a real human being would wear to battle.

 

Whilst I agree about the stilettos (worst offender, John Blanche and his second edition codex cover - 'Check out these gams, boys' Hate that picture so much...) - I like the current armour design. It's gothic as all hell - it's exactly what the Ministorum would equip their soldiers with. If it were changed, it would not ruin the army foreveer, but I would be unhappy.

 

I mean, it's not like the Astartes have anything approaching sensible armour and nobody objects to that.

 

What I think is necessary is for artists to remember that it is Power Armour it may be designed to look like a bodice, but it isn't. It is bulky and inflexible and should be portrayed that way. Most pictures imply that the artist thinks Sisters wear skin-tight leather.

 

My favourite Sororitas piicture (the one I use for my .sig) actually remembers that Power armour is bulky, solid, not very sexy.

It's certainly an issue of making a couple tweaks rather than tossing out the current armor designs completely. Give the armor a bit more bulk, tone the giant spiky breasts down a little bit, and I would be happy with it. Asking for strict realism from Warhammer 40k would never work, I just want armor that looks more like armor and less like something a pinup model would wear.

 

As long as we're discussing artwork, I would have to say that this is my favorite: ( http://www.giantbomb.com/sisters-of-battle...854/51-1502765/ )

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y8/Chengar/BadassSisterofBattle.jpg

[lostsoul]

ooooO new book, thanks for mentioning this. Hopefully this is a sign of greater things, part of a push for other releases on the horizon.. If we're lucky, that Sisters audio cd that was mentioned in a Black Library vid might see light of day eventually - something one of the authers would like to do.