Dembski-Bowden Taking Over Grey Knights?

[SourImplant]

Something interesting on Aaron Dembski-Bowden's blog recently, suggesting that he might be taking over writing duties on Grey Knights novels from Ben Counter:

I’m also achingly close to the halfway point of my Grey Knights novel, which is looking to be the closest I’ve come to a deadline in several years. It feels good to be back on track, in a way that mere words can’t quite encapsulate.

I liked Counter's Grey Knights trilogy, but ADB's stuff sounds great. I've only read his Horus Heresy novel The First Heretic so far, but he's definitely got some chops.

[Masshuu]

Soul Hunter by A D-B is really good as well. I liked Ben Counters grey knights trilogy but imo AD-B is a better writer judging on what he's done so far.

[Eryx_UK]

I bought the Grey Knights omnibus earlier in the year, and while it's ok, I only really enjoyed the second story. The rest of it is just too weird and doesn't feel right. I have enjhoyed what books ADB has penned so I hope his GK novels will be better.

[mephiston_2k]

I do like the grey knights books, ADB's are pretty good too. Be interesting to see the difference as Im guessing it would mean all new characters too.

[Haeslich]

Soul Hunter by A D-B is really good as well.

I thought Soul Hunter was fantastic. I tend to believe one good book by an author is indicative of the quality of future books, but I may need to rethink that. I loved Abnett's Eisenhorn, and Horus Rising, so I grabbed Legion assumed I would be reading more of the same quality. While, yes, the quality is there the book is less than fantastic.

It is quite obvious Abnett does not like writing about Marines. Hell, the book is about space marines, and 95% of it is about IG. I am 30% of the way through it and I am forcing myself to continue with it in the hopes that it runs around. I love reading about Marines and couldn't care less about IG. Quite disappointed.

[SourImplant]

Apparently this has been in the works for quite a while. Stumbled on a February 1 post by ADB revealing more information:

- My Grey Knights novel has the working title of The Emperor’s Gift. (You may now stop asking and/or sending me suggestions.) In a spot of intriguing news, and with no spoilers allowed, it has a strong tie to Dan’s Eisenhorn/Ravenor series, and it’s set in the same era. But neither of us are saying a word more about it, yet. The phone line has burned over this one, and to say I’m excited as all hell would still be an understatement. If it doesn’t rock on toast, you have my permission to shoot me in the face.

And on April 7, when told by a fan he needs to "hurry up with the Grey Knights books,"

Just about to hit the halfway point, as it happens.

There's no mention of a book called The Emperor's Gift on Black Library's "Coming Soon" pages, so it looks like they either haven't set a release date or it will be after May of next year.

I suppose that makes it official enough to remove the question mark from the title of the thread.

[SourImplant]

Ah ha. To celebrate reaching 1,000 friends on Facebook or something, AD-B posted an excerpt from chapter eight of his upcoming Grey Knights book. Pretty generic stuff, really, but I am intrigued by earlier reports that it will take place in the same space and time as Abnett's Eisenhorn/Ravenor trilogies. Maybe the Grey Knights are tasked with bringing down Cherubael and his rogue master?

[Masshuu]

Not sure about the book judging from the extract, it seems like its going to be written first person like Ciaphus Cain but from a Grey Knights view. It works for Ciaphus Cain because he is a funny, sarcastic, selfish, fake guy and his thoughts are entertaining, but do Grey Knights actually think about anything other than "Kill daemons" and "remain pure". Im just not sure how much personality a grey knight has.


EDIT: BUT if anyone can do it its ADB

[SourImplant]

Old thread, new info:

I thought might be worth mentioning is that the cover art for The Emperor’s Gift was on show at Games Day, in the form of a massive poster. A photo of it is now doing the rounds on various forums, natch. Here it is, just for kicks:



I like it a lot, though not with the unashamed love I have for most of my covers. Part of my reservations are simple enough: Jon Sullivan’s Night Lords covers (especially Void Stalker) are practically unbeatable, and Neil Roberts’ Heresy covers are super, super, super lush. When you have those two guys doing your covers, anyone else has a lot to live up to.

That said, it rocks on toast. It’s by Cheoljoo Lee, who does a lot of 40K artwork for various major deals (like Dawn of War II), and did the beautiful Salamanders series covers to boot. For the record, Hyperion isn’t a Justicar. The tilt plate on his shoulder is artistic license.

I was asked a lot on Sunday whether The Emperor’s Gift was going to lead into a series. The popular plan was for it to be a trilogy or a duology, and we’d see where it led on from there. Due to various reasons, the novel’s ending up longer than expected, and about way more than was planned in the first volume. I’m not sure where I stand on the score of doing more after it – I have a lot of love for the Grey Knights, but they changed drastically in their latest iteration of the codex, and a lot of what I’d planned ended up vanishing into the void with the old lore. It’s not a huge deal, but for now I’m keeping The Emperor’s Gift as a single (big…) novel, with a “we’ll see how it goes” feel for the future.

[Brother-Captain Sharp]

I have a lot of love for the Grey Knights, but they changed drastically in their latest iteration of the codex

Yeah, no fucking joke.

I'm excited to read an actually good piece of GK fluff.

[edmundblack]

I'm excited to read an actually good piece of GK fluff.

This this and thrice this. Counter's books are OK. The first one was above average, the second far below average and the 3rd one was the best one I think. You do however get more of a sense of what Grey Knights are and what they can do from the novels than the Codex, which is a really poor state of affairs really. But then, in the Blood Angel books, I doubt they fight alongside Necrons ...

[daddy4count]

I'm all for this... The First Heretic made me an instant fan. Fantastic writer

[SourImplant]

[SpectorKnight]

That cover is made of win.

As long as he isn't killing Battle Sisters to paint himself in their blood, that is.

[SourImplant]

A Q&A from AD-B on the new Grey Knights novel today:

“How did recent fluff regarding the Grey Knights exterminating Daemons on their home-turf ( inside the warp) and Draigo making the Dark Gods cry like pristine Japanese schoolgirls with his Chuck Norrisian round-kick, affect your work and do you agree with the changes?Also, don’t you think that making the Grey Knights unbeatable kinda makes them ridiculous ?”

Uh.

It affected my work “a lot”, in that I had to trash a lot of it. That hurt, but it comes with the territory. I wasn’t even annoyed, just pretty demoralised for a while. It also meant that instead of writing a duology, I decided to do just the one novel, and move on to another project. Some of the rewrites happened because of me making it one story instead of two, but most came about because a lot of the lore simply changed underfoot. You shouldn’t take that as me ragging on the new design philosophy for the Grey Knights, as it’s nothing so blunt and simple. Stuff changes all the time – you can’t be a baby about it, it’s just the nature of the beast when it comes to working within an established IP.

As to the “unbeatable” thing, I don’t think it makes them ridiculous, but I can’t speak objectively, really. I can say that (on a personal level) their new incorruptibility diminishes a lot of what I liked about them. It changes a lot of what I found noble about them into something else. There’s a world of difference between “No Grey Knight has ever fallen to Chaos because of their constant effort and absolute purity” and “Grey Knights simply can’t fall to Chaos because of what they are, so they’re free to use the weapons of the enemy if they wish.” I’m not saying one is better than the other. Both are interesting takes on the elite order. They’re just very different in theme, atmosphere and characterisation.

In effect, Mat Ward has single-handedly stopped a novel -- and possibly even an ongoing series -- from being written. Way to go.

More here, including some stuff about an Abaddon series.

[SourImplant]

[mephiston_2k]

I like that, "You're on your own, now"

[PoisonWood]

I have never been dissapointed an any ADB work....so I am all for it. Do I think he should be the one and only person writting Grey Knights from now on? probably not. Ben Counter did do a very good job with them.