For example I am personally convinced that Abbadon has small-man syndrome and Khârn the Betrayer is actually a pretty cool guy.

Oh my no–god, yes! I adore Matthew Stover and would love him to put as much pure badass awesomeness into a #40K novel as he did with Magic: The Gathering.

I don’t want anyone to die.
I just want to write that BL should ask Mr Stover to write one day a book in Warhammer 40k universe. I swear I would even learn Braille to read it.

I got hit hard by the fact the Clone Wars animated series got considered more solid canon than the many books in the expanded universe. I agree with you, Aaron. Good Paintskillz.

It was just a single line stuck in somewhere of little importance, but that just serves to illustrate my point. Surely the Squats were not all on-world when the Tyranids ate everything, and if they were, a little description would be nice.

Hey mate – I’ve never read (or indeed written) that Squats were eaten by Tyranids. I know the idea was played around with in a Black Library re-issue of an old Ian Watson book some years ago, but other than that it seems more a case of urban legend…

Another advantage of the “loose canon” principle, as applied to 40K, is that the Imperium is a very oppressive regime. The sort of “historical revisionism” that is a natural result of “loose canon” fits perfectly in with the totalitarian Imperium, where presumably literal historical revisionism occurs on a regular basis.

But the problem is, there’s almost no effort in comparison to many other things, including wargames, to maintain the setting. When you have things like the much-missed Squats being taken out of fluff entirely, with only the ‘eaten by Tyranids’ line to justify it, you have a problem. And while I must admit that it has gotten better, i.e. no half-eldar Chief Librarians, it still is a prevalent problem. Also, while it is a setting designed to house a really cool game, as you put it, the game is designed to house a model industry.

I understand that Tolkien took decades developing his setting before publishing the stories set within it, and still made mistooks. 40k is an ever-evolving setting designed first and foremost to house a really cool game, and as such things don’t always mesh or translate, or they (actually very occasionally) get changed outright. I know which I’d rather be reading and writing 🙂

The thought of an Astartes with a Lily Cole wallpaper or “theme set” for his HUD is now dancing in my mind… Thank you for this the both of you!

Now, why in the warp would anyone think an Astartes helmet can’t be personalized?

I think when a universe becomes big enough you run into numerous contradictions. For example, in Star Trek they have said that you cannot beam through the shields. In one episode? Beaming through the freaking shields! The teleporter can beam weapons away while people are going up to the ship but more often than not people beam aboard with all manner of weaponry! (futile geeking out continues)

In the end I think that if something is written well enough that it is entertaining, it pulls the reader in, and it makes even just the loosest sense it tends to override all the little things. Space Marine armor works by X going into Y or A going into B because it’s motherfucking space armor with a genetically enhanced god killer in it.

So long as the tone and flavour of the IP in 40k is observed and respected as a fan I can handle whatever is thrown at me, like you I can ignore it if it doesn’t jive with my personal vision of the galaxy (or “the true vision of how the galaxy is actually like” yes my vision is that one) or more likely butcher it and take the useful cooler elements of whatever was done and add them to my vision or think of the coolest way possible to allow for the change.

A single line comment in The First Heretic is now a contributing factor to “how the cursed founding happened.” I’m not surprised that people can’t just think “look at all this information for me to play with” and get caught up with the contradictory details and get upset about it rather than inspired to work around it but I am disapointed in those who share my fandom. They’ve let me down. They’ve let themselves down. I wouldn’t even want to consider what their mothers think of them.

Dr Who is a time traveller. He’s been in every possible situation.

In addition, the Dr himself said that all “stories” are true. Every work of fiction ever written, even Hagrid/Vader/Horus orgy fanfiction, is included in Dr Who canon.

Except Noddy.

I thought it was funny when, after getting the “my future wife” caption from Lily Cole, I scrolled up so that the mouse cursor was resting on the Chaos marine. The caption took a while to change…

I like your example about the “feel no fear” thing. To take a stand on this, you first have to define the word fear, and define what it would mean to “feel” it. I can’t imagine a more boring 40K novel.

Like you, I’m perfectly fine with the ambiguity. If a 40K author is spending time defining minor junk like this, too many bolter rounds are being unused.

One classic example that I’ve spoken of in some of my BL book reviews on BSC is the whole “Do Space Marines feel fear?” issue. I’m actually okay with that being unclear, I see the lack of clarity as reflecting the legendary nature of the Astartes and the shadowy nature of any legend. It’s legendary, who the f*** knows?

As long as the author conveys the grim darkness of the 40k universe, if they then take some liberties with the gears and cogs of the universe I’m okay with that; I mean let’s face it, their invention may well be an improvement!

Having said all that, I’m still troubled by Chaplain Carnak’s Crozius in Ultramarines 🙂

More on that here at BSC soon…

Anyway, I think writing new material must be a difficult thing to balance, on the one hand making it exciting, while at the same time not contradicting what someone has previously written. I though Dan Abnett managed this wonderfully with Prospero Burns, transforming their character into something far more dark and thought provoking than they had previously been. The same too with your treatment of the Word Bearers, who have now been lifted firmly out of the cackling, white cat on lap brigade, and into deeply evocative and really quite tragic figures.

Regarding one of your points, if fan reaction to a particular book can be a measure of how much a writer has upset the applecart, can I ask why you think something like ‘Angels of Darkness’ generated such a furore? Really there hadn’t been that much background written for the DA previously, and that which had been had made a point of focusing on their dubious background. In terms of atmosphere it was an easy fit for 40k (the ‘fallen hero’ being a good chunk of it’s bread and butter), and the book was also written so that you questioned the motivations of it’s central character (it wasn’t a codex entry). Yet the rather shocking revelations in that book I’m sure prompted at least one heart-attack by an enraged forumite, and numerous “I refuse to acknowledge the existence of this book” posts across the internet community. Echoes of it’s passing still resurface from time to time, causing passions to be reawakened. I would be interested to know what you think of it, and whether you have ever worried that something you are writing will generate a similar reaction?

Anyway, thats enough rambling, please keep up the good work! And please keep the focus on the story and bigger picture (the important parts), and not worry excessively about whether a marine should be vomiting through his face plate or not! 😉

I think ‘the warp did it’ is 40K’s equivalent of ‘A wizard did it’.

Or the way that the transporter in Star Trek could be used to solve almost any problem…..

Im sure what Aaron means is that the picture just represents his fiance since he does not want to share her actual beauty with trolls. Or I could be wrong.

If she didn’t know about it, she sure does now!

On the other hand, all those other authors could handle it if you die.

Speaking with some authority here . . . but nothing personal.

Since none of us have any idea who you are (except for me, and I will have forgotten you by the time I wake up tomorrow).