ep 199 Blood Angels w/Swallow, Smillie, Haley & Hinks

[veterannoob]

loads of tech difficulties these past weeks but we’re getting there. this time mic ran hot in first couple minutes so fair warning.

thanks! will have text part up on the site as soon as Robert can load it. I’m traveling this week. Thanks for coming on!

 

Ep 199 Combat Phase (mic runs hot first few minutes, sorry. we can't win these past few weeks)

 

http://traffic.libsyn.com/combatphase/Ep_199__-_Blood_Angels.mp3

 

We talk news, many games as we delayed again unfortunately as we switched recording programs (again...boo!) so here's our Blood Angels special with James Swallow, Andy Smillie, Guy Haley, Darius Hinks (text interview), and Paul Murphy from FtN podcast.

 

Check out all BL books at www.blacklibrary.com !

 

Darius interview : link on www.combatphase.com

 

Who are the Blood Angels (BA) to you? [This will include everything from 9th Legion 30K to all successor chapters in 40K so answer what you like, no need to cover everything]

 

I’ve always loved those duality/repression kind of themes you get in gothic literature and I think that’s what makes the Blood Angels so interesting. They’re like Dracula crossed with Dr Jekyll – remote, cerebral, aesthetes, bottling up a wild, terrifying, id that they can’t (maybe don’t want?) to escape.They’re pretty messed up, basically.

 

What do you think the appeal of the BA is for the fanbase?

 

I think it’s that dichotomy that makes them so appealing. They have such a long, complicated history. The Blood Angels revere Sanguinius, of course, but they also know that he’s the source of their great flaw. So how can they best be like him? The Blood Angels are tormented but determined at the same time and I think that’s a great springboard for fiction.

 

Talk about Mephiston as a character first. What singles him out as a subject?

 

To my mind, Hades Hive didn’t free Mephiston of all his dangerous Blood Angels duality, it threw fuel onto the fire. I think of him having a dual consciousness – a cool, scholarly side that barely recalls/understands his wild, warp-fuelled excesses in battle (the Mr Hyde part of him). The scholarly side of him needs to understand and harness the wild side, or he'll become a force for destruction rather than good. He’s hoping to be a good guy, and working hard to achieve that goal, but it could go either way.

 

What happens in your novel (avoid major spoilers)?

 

I had a lot of fun exploring Mephiston’s corner of the Blood Angels’ fortress monastery on Baal. A lot of this stuff hasn’t been written about in much detail before and I was lucky enough to work with the (much cleverer than me) Guy Haley. We bounced a few ideas around and, while he thought about Baal and the Arx Angelicum in a wider sense, I delved into the darkest recesses of the Librarium. It’s not all crypts and sacred vaults though – Mephiston and a strike force of Blood Angels get drawn into an internecine bloodbath on a daemon-infested Shrine World and fun times are had by all.

 

Given the exciting advancement of the narrative where do you see Mephiston and the BA in general in the Gathering Storm and what aspects might we hope to see going into 8th edition and beyond, beyond just the Shield of Baal (Tyranids)?

 

If Hades Hive threw fire on Mephiston’s split personality, the Cicatrix Maledictum has added even more fuel to the flames. Mephiston’s got half a foot in the Warp anyway, so a bloody great tear in reality is going magnify things to an insane level. I’m writing more about Mephiston and it’s exciting ramping his problems up to even more extreme levels. Blood of Sanguinius is set before the events of the Gathering Storm, but the next book is set after. If Mephiston can harness this influx of new warp energy he could turn the tide of the war and prove to the rest of his Chapter that they are worthy, that they can defeat their ancient curse and make their long dead daddy proud, but if Mephiston is consumed by the Warp, or if he’s wrong about source of his powers, he could be the final nail in their (admittedly quite fancy) coffin.

 

How was it for you writing a 40K novel? You’ve contributed to Architect of Fate and several amazing Fantasy and AoS books. What stories would you like to tell?

 

It’s always daunting writing Warhammer fiction because you know how much love there is for these characters and what strong opinions people have about how they should be portrayed, but... My favourite part of 40K is the weird stuff that spews from John Blanche’s head: the strange, surreal, twisted, pseudo religious, mythical, gothic, claustrophobic, bloody creepiness of 40K and, writing about a Librarian, specifically Mephiston, was a great excuse to delve into that stuff. It was loads of fun. I’d like to push the horror even further in the next one though. If there was ever a bit of 40K that should be scary to read about, it’s this. I’d like to write something that keeps me awake at night.

 

Did you have any favorite parts of Mephiston?

I always enjoy writing messed-up Chaos daemon scenes, and I managed to squeeze some of that in here. There is a daemon-birth scene that properly freaked me out as a wrote it, so I was particularly pleased with that. Does that sound weird? Am I weird? Why are those people pointing at me and whispering?

 

You brought your unique, dark take on demons and alien entities from Fantasy into Mephiston. How did you envision the opening enemies (the first battle)?

I’m really freaked out by those electron microscope images of dust mites. They’re so bloody horrific and alien. I suppose I was thinking of them. Now I’m thinking about them again. Do they live in eyebrows? I’m getting itchy.

 

We must give a nod to your other BL books. Sigvald won me over and I was so pleased to see your name on the Orion Trilogy. Any fun moments in character development in the World That Was? In your AoS work?

 

Sigvald was such a gift – a thrill-seeking hedonist in such a bonkers a setting. I kind of feel like I should have paid BL for the fun of writing that book. (Don’t tell them though.) My AoS novel was great fun too. At the time of writing, nothing was really pinned down about the Stormcast Eternals or the new Warhammer setting, so I had a lot of leeway to invent stuff. I’d like to do more stuff in the Mortal Realms at some point.

 

Do you have anything coming up we can know about and/or can we expect to read more of your work? (say what you’re allowed, they understand by now how this works)

I’m working on more Mephiston and I think he’ll keep me busy for a while. If the first book does well and BL like the idea, I’d like to do quite a few books about him. Other than that, I’ll just be busy trying to get all these microscopic insects of my skin. I wonder if you can buy a cream for that?

 

 

time stamp

00:00 - 00:32 - Intro

00:32 - 01:20 - James Swallow

01:20 - 01:36 - Andy Smillie

01:36 - 01:55 - Guy Haley

01:55 - 02:20 - Paul Murphy

 

Ep 152 Women in Wargaming

James Swallow jamesswallow.blogspot.co.uk

@jamesswallow

Andy Smillie @andysmillie

Guy Haley @guyhaley

Paul Murphy @warmaster_tpm

www.forgethenarrative.net

 

 

 

[HeritorA]

Splendid. This one I will definitely get to. So much BA - probably something new would come with the info ;)

[JH79]

Hmmmm... think I'm going to have to put my re-listen of Angels of Caliban on hold this afternoon and instead indulge in some Bllod Angels goodness, thanks for sharing!!

[HeritorA]

Hmmmm... think I'm going to have to put my re-listen of Angels of Caliban on hold this afternoon and instead indulge in some Bllod Angels goodness, thanks for sharing!!

Indeed!

 

veterannoob

By the way this time you talked with authors about the upcoming fate of Baal under the tyranids onslaught?

[veterannoob]

 

Hmmmm... think I'm going to have to put my re-listen of Angels of Caliban on hold this afternoon and instead indulge in some Bllod Angels goodness, thanks for sharing!! ^_^

 

Indeed!

 

 

veterannoob

By the way this time you talked with authors about the upcoming fate of Baal under the tyranids onslaught?

As much as any could say about BA going forward. Books and audio releases coming soon. I think Guy mentions two things. Trying to remember what was said on the record and off.

[HeritorA]

 

 

Hmmmm... think I'm going to have to put my re-listen of Angels of Caliban on hold this afternoon and instead indulge in some Bllod Angels goodness, thanks for sharing!!

Indeed!

 

 

veterannoob

By the way this time you talked with authors about the upcoming fate of Baal under the tyranids onslaught?

As much as any could say about BA going forward. Books and audio releases coming soon. I think Guy mentions two things. Trying to remember what was said on the record and off.

 

Ah yes - listened, another simple hints. What happened to good honorable spoilers? :)

[Chaplain Gunzhard]

Great episode. I have to say James Swallow sounded like just a very delightful guy - but I'm so glad he's not doing the Blood Angels anymore.

 

I really enjoyed Dante and it thrilled me to no end to hear Haley is writing, at least, 2 more Blood Angel stories. When it comes to the Horus Heresy I hope we see some new blood pick up the baton, maybe ADB? ...Haley would be great as well.

[HeritorA]

veterannoob

Indeed a great episode. Swallow and Haley made an awesome interview :)

[veterannoob]

veterannoob

Indeed a great episode. Swallow and Haley made an awesome interview

 

Glad you enjoyed, thanks. Still working on tech issue but some things I just can't control, like internet and skype and noises not on my end. I'm hoping now that Darius has done this once and been live on Warhammer TV he'll come back on for an audio interview.

[HeritorA]

 

veterannoob

Indeed a great episode. Swallow and Haley made an awesome interview

 

Glad you enjoyed, thanks. Still working on tech issue but some things I just can't control, like internet and skype and noises not on my end. I'm hoping now that Darius has done this once and been live on Warhammer TV he'll come back on for an audio interview.

 

Darius could go for a round 2 for sure.

As for the quality - it is much improved. Everyone can see you are doing an awesome job. As for the Skype sessions. Skype in general has a lot of issues about which you are not aware off. From one point it's too dependant on a good internet connection, but it is also suffer from merged upgrades and sound-capture equipment. Maybe try something else to have a session with authors - zoomer, slack internal chat or whatever. Cause it's truly hearable how sometimes your skype conversation do suffer.

 

It's all based on experiment - to get the best from software and equipment.  Hope you will get to the equilibrium eventually.

[veterannoob]

True, Chime was a tad better but not worth the cost for the amount of quality difference. I want a better experience for my listeners (and myself  )  though the influx of new shows this past year is at least somewhat comforting in that many do no even edit.

[HeritorA]

True, Chime was a tad better but not worth the cost for the amount of quality difference. I want a better experience for my listeners (and myself  )  though the influx of new shows this past year is at least somewhat comforting in that many do no even edit.

True - that's why we appreciate your work not only with the interviews, but with follow-ups of edit which follows