I'm a big fan of Kim Newman's novels for Games Workshop, particularly his utterly bonkers Dark Future trilogy. I know he has rather rueful take on them, but they hit a real soft spot for me of over the top action and pop referentiality.
In the absence of an easy segue, here's the article!
Good stuff.
ReplyDeleteI was - and am - a big fan of Drachenfels in particular.
I even own the WFRP supplement of it (don't rush out to eBay for that one, though, it wasn't the strongest in the series).
I got Kim to sign my copies of the Dark Future books when I interviewed him!
ReplyDeleteAh yes, that is a good article.
ReplyDeleteI notice that Black Library now has Ian Watson's novel "Space Marine" as a print-on-demand book. I keep meaning to get it, because the "Space Marines are homoerotic BDSM cultists in spaaaace" angle is right on the nose.
Nice!
ReplyDeleteSeveral years ago I was in Borders on Charing Cross Road with my mum and I saw him go by, in full-in Kim Newman hair, beard, long coat and cowboy hat.
"Mum," I said, "look! It's Kim Newman."
"Who? Where?" she said.
"That bloke in the trenchcoat."
"He looks like an idiot. Who is he?"
"Kim Newman, the author. You saw him on that Space Cadets, remember?"
"Oh, yes. He's brilliant!"
I thought about saying hello but by then he'd disappeared.
Yep, he really does dress like that all the time.
ReplyDeleteStephen - Haven't read many (well, any) of the other Interzone era GW books apart from the Newman ones (I'm interested in him rather than the setting) but I've often wondered about them. I've got friends who gobble them up, but I'm a slow reader with limited time and so it's a matter of where to put the time in... which makes it all sound so much more scientific than it is.
Let us know if you pick it up! Review on your blog, man!
And finally, I've been tempted by some of the Dan Abnett ones. I keep hearing good things from people whose word I... well, I don't trust, exactly, but I hear enough to make me curious. It's the sort of space where new and interesting stuff might grow out of critical sight, although I suspect it's more of the nature of interesting stuff to open the minds of clever twelve year olds than anything that's going to change the life of jaded middle-aged former aesthetes.
If I get it, it shall be reviewed.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I've only actually read Newman's stuff, which I did like. I've been meaning to look into Abnett's stuff, but I did once see him express his admiration for Lee Child...
I've also thought about trying to write some stuff to submit to Black Library, as a way of making myself actually write a full piece for once. Managing to come up with something that satisfied me and them might be a bit of a challange, though.
Lee CHild, you say? Well, that must give one pause. He also often shares a signing with our old friend Andy Remic, so maybe it's all a little "not my thing".
ReplyDeleteI too have pondered Black Library as a venue, and I'm particularly attracted to the pulp aspects of it. However, to go in cold like that I think you either have to be like one of the chaps in the linked article - doing it for money offered up-front - or genuinely in love with the setting and the types of story it can tell, and doing out of love with the hope of money to come.
It's the old "why don't you just write a crappy fantasy to get published?" dilema. The answer is that 1) I don't want to and, more imprtantly, 2) I don't know if I could.
Still these thoughts whirl around my afflicted brain as I lie insomniac and feverish on my bed of broken dreams...