an infinite number of typewriters and some damn fine monkeys can get you a long way
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Defend the jam!
Better still, come to GenCon at trhe University of Reading this weekend (google GenCon for details). I'll be there this Saturday afternoon, between about one and four, for chatting, Q&A and signings and what not.
Love to make it but I'll be busy doing a 40k demonstration. As in the gaming-type-demonstration, not the campaigning-in-Parliament-Square-for-a-homeworld-for-the-Tanith-type-campaigning.
Check out the BBC's technology page. Flying saucers! Although if you look carefully you can see the cranes lifting them in the background...
Hang on a minute....if we're to defend the jam...and you're now a notorious dream jam eater....does that mean we get to jab you in the ribs with pikes to keep you away from the jam?
Argh, poor ol' Colm. The first time I read Sabbat Martyr, I had only read Guns of Tanith and Necropolis before that (my GG collection was assembled a little out of order) so I was spared the full Prozac-inducing sadness of Corbec's death. Being at least partially a masochist, I have had ample time now to reread Sabbat Martyr and feel the burn of Corbec's loss. While there are lots of other great characters and the Rawne-Gaunt dynamic has improved, the regiment is completely different without Corbec.
Er, just everyone know, I am not actually abusing prescription drugs because of the death of a fictional person. :P I came off as a little morbid perhaps.
My name is Daniel Lapham and I'm an American comic book artist. I made a very small contribution to the final issue of Damnation Crusade (a few fill-in pages featuring Tankred) and I'm currently drawing a book titled Blood & Thunder. Your name (along with Ian Edginton's) appears at the top of my scripts so I just thought I'd pop by and say hello. If interested, there may be some more information about me here:
Although i felt the loss of Bragg and Corbec,Cuu was a great character.An absolute psycho admitedly but then the Guard including the Tanith would be better off with a few more delisiously evil bastards like him! Maybe you could summon a demon prince to bring him back so i could recruit him into the Blood Pact.By the way guys i will be going to games day with the Blood Pact army featured to play all comers at WH40k Apocalypse .Any other B.P. players out there looking for an allie?anyone got a Tanith Regiment for an authentic Sabbat worlds crusade game? c u there!
I suppose I could take the most direct route of influence...
Nik, don't you want to go to Hawai'i?
Ha-why-yeee? Sunshine, beaches, rainbows etc?
Steve– You're making me wish I had more than a Tanith Kill Team.
Speaking of which, does anyone here have tips on painting Chameleoline? The tiger stripe pattern that the 'Eavy Metal guys used just isn't doing it for me.
Robert - see, the problem is... how many trees have to die to get me to Hawaii? Even if I take the slow boat? Fact is, I don't fly much, so Dan usually does overseas trips solo.
On the other hand, if he wanted to bring me back some Pacific pearls, I might be persuaded to nudge him in your direction.
I'll admit, I, for one, was devastated by the loss of Feygor. I never really cared for him in the earlier books. He was a monotone dirtbag opportunist. I kept hoping that he would be the one to get zapped instead of the characters I cared about.
Then I read Traitor General while I was in Iraq and found I could empathize with him. Surrounded by enemies, part of a small unit. To me, he came into his own as a character and as a human being.
His Last Command came out just as I came home and it really served to drive home to me the point that it's the idiosyncratic people you miss the most.
I lost a fair few buddies overseas and it's ironic how quickly the beloved few Corbec's and Bragg's fade from the memory with time, but the one's you thought you couldn't stand, you end up missing the most.
On that happy note: All is well here in Arizona. I just finished "Fulgrim" and I swear Julius Kaesoron lives right down the hall from me, that looney jerk. Oh, well. Only a few weeks to go and then off to Airborne School!
One of the things that I've liked about the 40k universe is that it is "grim". Good guys die. Often for no reason or in meaningless deaths. It's a shock for many of us. Probably because we watch movies and TV where the good guys almost always win.
I can't speak for others, but it's nice to see a book where the ending I predict doesn't come to pass. Same usually applies to movies too. That's just me.
Of course over time I feel for the characters too. Who doesn't? As time goes on, we all hold our breath and hope the characters we've gotten so attached to survive for another day (book?).
This reminds me of Band of Brothers (the HBO Series and the novel it's based on). As the story goes on, characters die. You get close to the guys, get a glimpse of them as people, get sucked in to caring about them...BAM, their legs are blown off and they are gone. By the end, you're almost watching with baited breath hoping the guys make it out of there. Never knowing is the worst (and IMO the best in a book/ movie etc.)
This I think Mr. Abnett has captured in his GG series particularly well.
@ Jesse, good luck with Jump School. When I went it was 3 weeks of shuffling and five jumps. Not bad at all. You'll do fine!
I like the Band of Brothers comparison. That series was very well done. Winters was the man in BoB. Not Gaunt-level "the man," but still a good leader. I also liked Spears, probably because he runs through a stream of gunfire and comes out on the other side...and he reminds me of Major Rawne.
Feygor was just an excellent, excellent character.
"Should Cuu be bleeding like that?" (after Sarge Criid breaks Cuu's nose) "Yes," (Feygor shrugs and leaves)
the thing is that after you favourite charcaters die you stop caring. you can't get attached to any other characters because they'll most likely die in the next few hundred pages. i'm almost able to predict who'll die just from the way they're introduced.
Yanno in the second GG book Ghostmaker, there is an Inquisitor Lillith, when i was re reading it i saw the name and i remmemberd it from somwhere, im sure it might have been in the Ravenor books?
Im not sure, it might just be my mind playing tricks. Anybody able to confirm it?
Inquisitor Lilith Abfequarn in Ghostmaker is the same as in Ravenor Rogue, yes. Dan loves to introduce the same charakters in various storylines (Abfequarn, Heldane)
I just got to read the sample chapter from "Only in Death" on the Black Library site today. Poor Shoggy, what did he ever do to anyone...except shoot them if they're chaos?
Love to make it but I'll be busy doing a 40k demonstration. As in the gaming-type-demonstration, not the campaigning-in-Parliament-Square-for-a-homeworld-for-the-Tanith-type-campaigning.
ReplyDeleteCheck out the BBC's technology page. Flying saucers! Although if you look carefully you can see the cranes lifting them in the background...
M
Man, I wish GenCon was still in Milwaukee. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteDan, you should pop in to Colours Military Modeling Fair at Newbury Racecourse just down the road the following weekend. Nuff said.
ReplyDeleteOh for.. Reading's only about 20 miles north of me. However I'm away for the weekened. Argh!
ReplyDeleteAh well, make sure you tell us all about it.
But you ate all the jam.
ReplyDeleteHang on a minute....if we're to defend the jam...and you're now a notorious dream jam eater....does that mean we get to jab you in the ribs with pikes to keep you away from the jam?
Fiendish!
im planning on hiding the jam in Dan Abnett proff boxes :D
ReplyDeletesorry my bad, colours is a fortnight away, 15/16 sept!
ReplyDeleteforgot my password. lol
ReplyDeletewould you be interested in doing an interview for astronomican.com?
that was me
ReplyDeletecolonel tempest.
i just finished the saint and was a bit mad that you killed off corbec :O but glad that cuu died.
Argh, poor ol' Colm. The first time I read Sabbat Martyr, I had only read Guns of Tanith and Necropolis before that (my GG collection was assembled a little out of order) so I was spared the full Prozac-inducing sadness of Corbec's death. Being at least partially a masochist, I have had ample time now to reread Sabbat Martyr and feel the burn of Corbec's loss. While there are lots of other great characters and the Rawne-Gaunt dynamic has improved, the regiment is completely different without Corbec.
ReplyDeleteEr, just everyone know, I am not actually abusing prescription drugs because of the death of a fictional person. :P I came off as a little morbid perhaps.
ReplyDeleteGreat Q&A session at Gencon, Dan! Many thanks again for signing my books, and I will send you a copy of that Sindermann draft script scene forthwith.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Laurie
Hello Dan.
ReplyDeleteMy name is Daniel Lapham and I'm an American comic book artist. I made a very small contribution to the final issue of Damnation Crusade (a few fill-in pages featuring Tankred) and I'm currently drawing a book titled Blood & Thunder. Your name (along with Ian Edginton's) appears at the top of my scripts so I just thought I'd pop by and say hello. If interested, there may be some more information about me here:
http://dflaphamblog.blogspot.com/
Thanks,
Daniel
maybe you could get the saint to ressurect corbec and bragg?
ReplyDeleteplease?
And Muril, and Feygor, and...
ReplyDeleteAlthough i felt the loss of Bragg and Corbec,Cuu was a great character.An absolute psycho admitedly but then the Guard including the Tanith would be better off with a few more delisiously evil bastards like him!
ReplyDeleteMaybe you could summon a demon prince to bring him back so i could recruit him into the Blood Pact.By the way guys i will be going to games day with the Blood Pact army featured to play all comers at WH40k Apocalypse .Any other B.P. players out there looking for an allie?anyone got a Tanith Regiment for an authentic Sabbat worlds crusade game? c u there!
Dan, when will you come do an event in Hawai'i?
ReplyDeleteI suppose I could take the most direct route of influence...
Nik, don't you want to go to Hawai'i?
Ha-why-yeee? Sunshine, beaches, rainbows etc?
Steve–
You're making me wish I had more than a Tanith Kill Team.
Speaking of which, does anyone here have tips on painting Chameleoline? The tiger stripe pattern that the 'Eavy Metal guys used just isn't doing it for me.
catachan and last chancers'll be at gamesday via me!
ReplyDeleteLast chancers, now theirs outstanding recruitment material!
ReplyDeleteJust got my hands on Lord of Ruin
Mwaa ha ha hah...Malus is back!
Bring Back Caff! Bring back caff!
ReplyDeleteAnd bragg... Please dont kill off Larkin.. ill miss him to much.. heh
if you ever kill of larkin i swear i'll walk all the way up to maidstone and steal all your jam!!
ReplyDeleteBring Back Caff! Bring back caff!
ReplyDeletewait a second?
caffran dies?
*i'm off to the abnett residence*
The moment you kill Milo, I swear I gonna get you, Dan.
ReplyDeleteOh, and don't say he's not there and you won't bring him back in game one day... it's not working like that ;)
Robert - see, the problem is... how many trees have to die to get me to Hawaii? Even if I take the slow boat? Fact is, I don't fly much, so Dan usually does overseas trips solo.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, if he wanted to bring me back some Pacific pearls, I might be persuaded to nudge him in your direction.
Random character thought: Agun Soric should return as an Inquisitor. :P
ReplyDeleteHis primary weapon? Not his psychic power, but instead a simple axe-rake...
I'll admit, I, for one, was devastated by the loss of Feygor. I never really cared for him in the earlier books. He was a monotone dirtbag opportunist. I kept hoping that he would be the one to get zapped instead of the characters I cared about.
ReplyDeleteThen I read Traitor General while I was in Iraq and found I could empathize with him. Surrounded by enemies, part of a small unit. To me, he came into his own as a character and as a human being.
His Last Command came out just as I came home and it really served to drive home to me the point that it's the idiosyncratic people you miss the most.
I lost a fair few buddies overseas and it's ironic how quickly the beloved few Corbec's and Bragg's fade from the memory with time, but the one's you thought you couldn't stand, you end up missing the most.
On that happy note: All is well here in Arizona. I just finished "Fulgrim" and I swear Julius Kaesoron lives right down the hall from me, that looney jerk. Oh, well. Only a few weeks to go and then off to Airborne School!
Best wishes to all.
Jesse
OWEN and SANTOS. Gone but not forgotten.
One of the things that I've liked about the 40k universe is that it is "grim". Good guys die. Often for no reason or in meaningless deaths. It's a shock for many of us. Probably because we watch movies and TV where the good guys almost always win.
ReplyDeleteI can't speak for others, but it's nice to see a book where the ending I predict doesn't come to pass. Same usually applies to movies too. That's just me.
Of course over time I feel for the characters too. Who doesn't? As time goes on, we all hold our breath and hope the characters we've gotten so attached to survive for another day (book?).
This reminds me of Band of Brothers (the HBO Series and the novel it's based on). As the story goes on, characters die. You get close to the guys, get a glimpse of them as people, get sucked in to caring about them...BAM, their legs are blown off and they are gone. By the end, you're almost watching with baited breath hoping the guys make it out of there. Never knowing is the worst (and IMO the best in a book/ movie etc.)
This I think Mr. Abnett has captured in his GG series particularly well.
@ Jesse, good luck with Jump School. When I went it was 3 weeks of shuffling and five jumps. Not bad at all. You'll do fine!
I like the Band of Brothers comparison. That series was very well done. Winters was the man in BoB. Not Gaunt-level "the man," but still a good leader. I also liked Spears, probably because he runs through a stream of gunfire and comes out on the other side...and he reminds me of Major Rawne.
ReplyDeleteFeygor was just an excellent, excellent character.
"Should Cuu be bleeding like that?" (after Sarge Criid breaks Cuu's nose)
"Yes,"
(Feygor shrugs and leaves)
@ Jesse: Airborne School? Whew, nice one, pal.
ReplyDeleteFound this piece of entertainment some days ago, and I really like it.
http://www.west-point.org/users/usma1981/38405/west_point/songs/bloodontherisers.htm
the thing is that after you favourite charcaters die you stop caring. you can't get attached to any other characters because they'll most likely die in the next few hundred pages. i'm almost able to predict who'll die just from the way they're introduced.
ReplyDeleteThe only people I really look at as safe in a way are Gaunt and Rawne.
ReplyDeleteWhen Gaunt is done, that's the end (I assume,) and I just have a hard time seeing the Major go down.
Aye, someone should do an injury list for Major Rawne. It wouldn't be as impressive as Gaunt's, but he's pretty damn hard to kill.
ReplyDelete- nearly frozen to death on some ork-infested ice chunk
ReplyDelete- stabbed in the eye by a blood pact soldier on Phantine
Oh, but serious wound # 1 was his field promotion to Major :D
his biggest wound would be having his homeworld obliterated or did you forget that lol?
ReplyDeleteWell, every Tanith had that loss to deal with.
ReplyDeleteI'd make the list, but I unfortunately couldn't bring the whole GG library to college...
Can i ask somthing?
ReplyDeleteYanno in the second GG book Ghostmaker, there is an Inquisitor Lillith, when i was re reading it i saw the name and i remmemberd it from somwhere, im sure it might have been in the Ravenor books?
Im not sure, it might just be my mind playing tricks. Anybody able to confirm it?
Inquisitor Lilith Abfequarn in Ghostmaker is the same as in Ravenor Rogue, yes. Dan loves to introduce the same charakters in various storylines (Abfequarn, Heldane)
ReplyDeleteHee hee, you know what would be interesting? The Inquisitor Heldane Trilogy: all of the action of Eisenhorn or Ravenor only without any morals.
ReplyDeleteI just got to read the sample chapter from "Only in Death" on the Black Library site today. Poor Shoggy, what did he ever do to anyone...except shoot them if they're chaos?
ReplyDeleteim feeling its time for some sort of campaighn along the line sof 'save our Shoggy' :D
ReplyDelete"As a result, everybody loved Nahum Ludd."
ReplyDeleteNearly spilled my meal over the keyboard at that! :D
He's reading The Mirror of Smoke? Dan, don't you know self-praise is a major sin? ^^
I giggled at the line about Ludd as well. Only In Death is November 4th for you non-Yanks, correct? I might just order it off amazon.co.uk...
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure OID will debut at Games Day, so for anyone there, it's the 23rd (I think) of September. Come early, so as not to be disappointed :-)
ReplyDelete