Ask... NICK KYME

[Pyroriffic]

Address all questions to NICK KYME in this thread.

PLEASE AVOID ANSWERING A QUESTION UNLESS THE AUTHOR HAS HAD A CHANCE TO DO IT FIRST!

Also, please note these are not general discussion threads. The clue's in the name.

Thanks.

Nick Kyme's official Black Library page can be found here.

The original 'Ask Nick' thread can be found at the site archive here.

[Pyroriffic]

Last questions transferred from the Old Bolthole:-

From b3e

if you could come to GD germany, that would be great... i would even buy a nice bottle of "kölsch" beer to convince you!

From ThirdCompany

Kyme!

I just finished Prometheus Requiem. Well done indeed, sir! That was quite a bit of suspense building up to an orgy of destruction at the end. Having read Firedrake previous to Requiem, things make a lot more sense now that the Protean incident has been filled in. It's rather sad, the change wrought in Emek. He was ever our bright spot... light in the darkness if you will. As you've mentioned a few times, though... the 41st Millenium is not a happy place. I suppose you can chalk that up to well developed secondary characters.

Requiem got me thinking... have you given thought to writing other races? You somewhat hint at the Tyranids, Eldar, and Chaos in Requiem and end on a rather story-heavy hatred of the Night Lords. It got me wondering if you'd given thought to writing from the other side of the bolter?

Also, making Games Day Chicago are you? I should have my copy of the Dwarf Omnibus by then and think it'd look mighty faboo with your "rune" inscribed in the cover or perhaps my extremely well loved copy of Salamander could handle a signature without falling to too many pieces.

I recall in one of your blogs you'd mentioned toying with a crime novel... still tossing that idea around too? I know it's not Warhammer related but for those of us that enjoy your writing that doesn't particularly matter. Right guys?

Well, I think that's enough questions for you. Sorry to sound like some sort of Spanish Inquisition.

[MegaNik]

Hey Nick,

Just wanted to know when Promethean Sun is scheduled to be released?

Nik

[Squiggle]

Nick,

Sorry you are going to think me completely insane, but after our brief conversation on saturday... Colour the millenium cerulean blue

I just finished reading Salamander and I've started on Firedrake... nothing really to say at this stage except for congrats on a job well done. I'm excited to see what you make of the two Black Dragon characters.

Cheers,

Squiggle.

[Ogun]

Hi Nick,

Just to start off, let me say that I've really enjoyed your Salamander series so far. I've been collecting the Marines in Green since the Armageddon World wide campaign and it's great that they have finally got the attention they deserve!
Being a massive HH fan, ever since I heard Promethean Sun was coming out I've been watching the BL page like a hawk!

I was intrigued by the legend of the Rhino Nocturne's Hammer in the 5th edition SM Codex. Particularly Vulkan supposedly sallying out of Devlin's Fastness against the foe (I think it was the Word Bearers though I don't have the codex to hand). The image I keep getting of it is some 30k equivalent to King Theoden charging from the Hornburg! Are we likely to find out more about this incident in a future HH story? It sounds as though it would be an awesome tale.

Cheers,

Ogun

[Ghost Hunter]

Once you've finished Nocturne will you be doing another theme based trilogy on something else?

[Lord of the Night]

Greetings Ser Kyme,

After reading Fall of Damnos I must congratulate you on writing one of the best SMB novels, only Helsreach beats it in my view, and when the second half is released that may not be true anymore. I have a few questions.

1. First and foremost. The Necrons. They haven't just been changed, they've nearly done a 180, what prompted you to make these alterations?, and what inspired the particulars of it? Things like the Flayed Ones hungering for flesh and barely being cognizant of their form, or the Destroyers being feared as nihilistic madmen who exist only to destroy. But most of all the actual Necron characters, the royal family and other such things (I particularly liked Tahek the Voidbringer and Sahtah the Enfleshed).

2. I noticed that in the entire novel, even the Necron pov chapters, there not was one single mention of the C'tan. Is this intentional?

3. Will there be a second novel to end the Damnos campaign?

4. If you could, were offered or decided it was a good idea, would you write a SMB Battles book about the invasion of Commorragh by the joint-Astartes task-force. The Salamanders, Howling Griffons and Silver Skulls vs the Dark Eldar in their own home would be the sheer epitome of badassery.

5. If there is a sequel to Fall of Damnos will the following part of the codex be part of the novel?, if so it'd be damn awesome.

One of Chronus' most famous acts was the action during the Damnos Incident, where he kept his Predator (the Rage of Antonius) active, despite multiple broadsides from Necron Gauss Weaponry. He managed both to destroy the Phase Generator, and to force the War Cell into full retreat before the Rage of Antonius went into shutdown.

Lord of the Night

[Xisor]

Thoroughly loving Damnos at the moment. I'd pay many, many pennies to see you write more with Necron antagonists. Whilst very different from Steve Lyon's in Dead Men Walking, they're also exceedingly pleasing to read. As an aside: it's excellent to see two authors capable of putting out very different renditions of a topic and have both of them be not only a pleasure to read, but a pleasure to contemplate too. (Well, perhaps 'pleasure' isn't exactly the correct word, maybe there should be a 'macabre' or 'morbid' in front of it...)

Anyway, thoroughly enjoyed so far.

Question preamble: In Rites of Battle, the Deathwatch supplement from FFG, there's a small table depicting part of the method to create one's own chapter. This table relates to Successor Chapters and the likelihood of having a serious defective component of the Geneseed.

I imagine you can see where this is going: Salamanders are listed as 50% likelihood of having defective gubbins in their successors.

The question: Is that right?

Not in the statistical way, but as in that the Salamanders geneseed is actually that unstable?

My thoughts had always been that the Salamander seed was very stable, but not perfect. It has the nowadays obvious interaction with the starlight, of course, but everything else 'unique' about the Chapter is more to do with their legacy (it seems) than their genetics. Perhaps I missed something, or it's not been really dealt with in the mainstream yet.

---

Anyway

Not only is Damnos still progressing excellently (was reading it when I had to start up my laptop again to ask here), I was very much impressed

Spoiler: and massively depressed

by Forgotten Sons. A side-question or two, of sorts:

Spoiler: 1- Deary me that was a depressing story. Excellent, but I had to take a bit of time afterwards to recover. Okay, that's not a question.
2- Did you have much convincing to do to allow the Lacrymole be included in the story? They're an intriguing little aside and the discussion/thinking around it allowed an increased 'real' feeling to the story; that it's a lot more complicated than it normally seems.
3- Shall we be seeing anything from the survivors again?' Twas nice to see Gravius, but of the others? A certain diplomat, for instance...

Still, it's rather late, and I've got some 2nd Company Ultramarines to read about before sleep.

[b3e]

mr. kyme... it is a long time we saw an answer from you...
and i still want to know if i could bribe you with a original german beer to come to GD germany this year!

[Lord of the Night]

Hello Nick,

I have just finished Nocturne and... its excellent. One of the best trilogy finales i've ever read. And the ending has the best cliffhanger ever, even better than Defenders of Ulthuan, even better than Deus Encarmine. I have a few questions about the novel as well.


WARNING, DON'T LOOK AT THESE IF YOU HAVEN'T READ NOCTURNE! THEY WILL SEMI-SPOIL THE ENDING!! (Learn from Liliedhe's mistake.)

Spoiler: 1. Firstly, do you intend to write a Circle of Fire trilogy to continue the Tome of Fire trilogy? I ask because the ending, Nihilan escaping with the Tome of Fire, Dak'ir and Tsu'gan gone, likely dead... this is a cliffhanger but not a conclusion. It can't end like this, IT CAN'T!

Spoiler: 2. If there is a Circle of Fire, have we seen the last of Ba'ken, Fugis, Zartath and the others? I don't want to say goodbye to them yet, they have more stories to tell. But if this is their story's end then will new characters be brought in for the Circle of Fire?

Spoiler: 3. What is the difference between a Drake and a Dragon? I loved the addition of Dragons into Nocturne's mythology, shame they are gone, but I always thought that Drakes were actually Dragons, just by a different name. Assuming Dragons look like they do in our mythology, how does a Drake differ from that?

Spoiler: 4. The ending, when Lorkar and his Malevolents are killed... Dak'ir or Tsu'gan. One of them survived that final conflagration, but it could have been either one of them. Lorkar knew them both, though I lean towards that Tsu'gan survived. I don't want to ask which it was, but did one of them live? (If you can't answer that then I understand.)

Spoiler: 5. Are the Dragon Warriors dead? Nihilan and Ramlek escaped, and likely Ekrine got away with them, but the majority of the Dragon Warriors seem to be dead. Is the warband destroyed, or do more of them still lurk out there?

Thanks in advance for what you can answer, looking forward to your next work Nick.


Lord of the Night

[shadowhawk2008]

Just saw this on facebook.

Happy Birthday! Live long and prosper!

[shadowhawk2008]

Great meeting with you and chatting about the Salamanders and the speculations about the fates of Ferrus Manus and Vulkan.

I eagerly await the Primarchs anthology for next year!

[David Earle]

Hello Nick,

I thoroughly enjoyed your short story in this year's Games Day Anthology. Do you have any plans for the Marines Malevolent past Nocturne?