Interviewing Victoria Hayward

Helloo!

A little while ago I had my first experience of Warhammer 40k in the form of the exhilarating Deathworlder by Victoria Hayward (review via https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2024/5/3/deathworlder-by-victoria-hayward?format=amp ) a deliciously violent and character filled adventure tale on a world where pretty much everything is dangerous. I was very lucky to have the chance to ask Victoria a few questions on the novel and few other things!

How do you like to Booktempt Deathworlder?

It’s a war story at the end of the world following a small squad of soldiers on a mission across a planet that is trying to eat them alive. They have one last chance to do something meaningful before they, and everything else on the world is devoured. The skies above them writhe with deadly aliens, and the dust of once-magnificent fallen cities chokes the air around them, the glittering ruins of a society that has summoned down its own destruction. You’ll like it if you enjoy cosmic horror, war stories, body horror and character-driven narratives with moments of humour and warmth.

For those familiar with 40K - this story starts where most other stories in this setting stop. We are well into the Tyranid planetary consumption phase so expect some gnarly scenes of socking it to the xenos, a LOT of Tyranids (in terms of both volume and variety), some insights into Catachan culture, a Baneblade being jump-started, a few Sly Marbo jokes, plus love, loss and tiny Tyranids.

For us newbies what is Warhammer 40k and how did you get introduced to this world? What draws you to it?

In terms of my own introduction, Games Workshop produces a Lord of the Rings tabletop game - when the movies first came out they did taster painting sessions in different places. I painted a high elf archer at our local library with some very nice and enthusiastic Games Workshop staff. When we were next in town, my mum sent me into the Warhammer store with my little sister, presumably thinking we were going to do more nice Lord of the Rings stuff…

Except on walking into the store I see the 40K books and miniatures and visually it is VERY different. We’ve got demons and chains and mad gothic tanks with candles and pipe organs, we’ve got witch hunters and Space Marines and cathedrals flying through space and some really wild looking aliens. And in the store they’re playing cool music, everyone is very friendly, there’s a guy making a giant out of lots of little zombies - in short, I was hooked. You can participate in the setting in so many ways - whether that is via painting/collecting/gaming/making terrain and making up stories about your armies, there’s roleplay, cosplay, video games and of course - novels! There are HUNDREDS of amazing stories in the settings. You can of course combine any or all of these means of enjoying the setting.

As for what is is - Warhammer 40K is a huge, weird, grim dystopian far-future setting which has been growing since the 1980s, in which humanity’s million-world theocratic empire exists in a state of decay, gothic cathedrals fly through space to fight nightmare cosmic horrors, and the doomsday clock is always at one minute to midnight as thirsting gods plan to devour reality. Nobody *really* understands how any of the ancient technology works any more so they pray to it in case that helps, and it’s all overseen by a dystopian bureaucracy that makes Yes Minister look like the very model of administrative efficiency. Think medieval people in space fighting eldritch horrors with laser guns and you’re halfway there.

It is utterly bizarre and metal and awesome. I’m a historian by background, and I absolutely love the fact that the setting is in dialogue with so many historical touchstones yet manages to be something totally unique. As a writer, Warhammer 40K allows you to tell different kinds of story - because it is grimdark. I have a friend who classified this very nicely as a genre of ‘bad people who make bad decisions, then bad things happen.’

So you know what you’re not going to be getting in terms of a nice, happy tale – but there’s also the scope that working in this space opens up to operate outside usual story paradigms. It’s very interesting as a writer to be able to subvert heroism and how people interact. Expectations are different about the shape of stories. Efforts aren’t required to be paid off, loyalty or bravery aren’t always rewarded, and happy endings are unusual.

And when we’re talking about Warhammer, the aesthetic is of course integral. We have decades of incredible art exploring the decaying grandeur and weirdness of 40K and if you play the games, of course you will yourself have held the world in your hands. It’s a real, tangible thing. It’s very maximalist and that’s one of the reasons that I spent a lot of time thinking about the visuals, which hopefully will come across in the novel!

In terms of folk who have worked in the setting - there are tons of amazing authors you may already know! Titan of SF Adrian Tchaikovsky, Comics maestro Dan Abnett, grimdark legend Anna Stephens and New York Times Bestselling authors and Warhammer icons such as Gav Thorpe (also a Gemmell award recipient).

For newcomers it can perhaps feel a bit intimidating to approach when there are quite so many books and bits of the setting. There are many guides online, but many folk find it helpful to start with a human perspective novel such as Eisenhorn or Ravenor (where I started) featuring inquisitors, or books featuring human soldiers such as Gaunt’s Ghosts (or dare I say it, my novel, Deathworlder :-) ). If you’d like to dive straight into Space Marines then the Night Lords trilogy is favoured by many.

And - this is important to know - you don’t need to be a gamer to enjoy the books! There is a whole, dark, uniquely gothic world for you with so many different flavours to explore - war stories, crime, horror - and like all good SF, fundamentally human stories.

Major Wulf Khan was a pleasure to read how did she evolve as a character in the story?

Thank you! :-)

It’s funny because this story actually started with Major Khan. She’s a soldier from a death world called Catachan which produces notoriously hench fighters which other regiments might regard as overly gung-ho - the stereotype might be that they’re all muscle and no discipline. But showing the Catachans from their own perspective meant that I wanted to consider how they might see themselves - what’s the cultural landscape that these people have, and how does the fact their planet is a deathworld shape the way they see themselves, and others?

I had a clear, initial image of her, standing grizzled and stoic on the battlements of a fortress on this beleaguered world, regarding this nightmare hellscape of chitin and quietly smoking a cheroot. She’s kind of a father figure archetype, a physically powerful and dignified veteran who is generally measured and wise, but will walk through hell to protect her soldiers. She experiences conflict at times between this personal imperative, and her role as an officer. But Catachans don’t get to choose whether they become an officer – they’re elected. She’s in this position of trust because her troops believed she should be, and so she cannot fail. She must find strength from within herself to keep going.

It’s that mental and emotional stamina you find when you need to be strong in the face of extraordinary circumstances to keep going for the people you love. I think we all of us at some time in our lives will encounter that, although it’s normally figurative, but for Khan, at the end of this world, that’s literal. Anyway, once I knew this about her, the rest of the story began to unspool itself, and the events that had to happen to Khan started to become clear to me!

The tale has many set pieces how do you plan these out and if there anything specific with each character you want to use them to explore?

There are two main point of view characters, but because we spend the novel with a larger squad of soldiers I wanted us to get a sense of each of them, and ensure they all got to do something cool. Also each experience something horrible that pushes them a bit. I tend to have quite a strong visual sense of those scenes and get quite visceral in the writing of them!

There’s a sunken cathedral scene for example that I am gratified that people have found quite awful (I did also in the writing!) - the character is out at sea swimming across all these spires, but finds that they are not alone in the water...

The 40K setting is very vivid and cinematic so the scale and drama you can bring to it is really satisfying. You can put people in some really strange and horrible situations that stretch human experience and confront them with enormous, nightmarish choices. I tend to have the idea for these ‘big’ scenes quite clearly in terms of them being quite cinematic, so when I come to write them I will be kind of transcribing them really. I call them ‘treat scenes’ and will sometimes skip ahead to write them out of sequence because I know they’re going to be really fun :-)

What weapon or vehicle was your favourite to use?

Hmmmm… okay, there’s a tank the size of a small house which is obviously very fun, and you could argue that the tyranids are themselves a weapon - you’ve also got the Catachan Fang weapon which is culturally important for the Catachans… but if I had to pick one, I’m going to say the chainsword. It’s noisy and gruesome and fun to write :-)

What else can we look forward to from you in the future and in this weird world of social media where can we find out more?

I can’t share any details of upcoming Black Library projects right now, but rest assured I shall do so as soon as I am able!

In terms of other work - I’ve got my own fantasy novel project that I’m working on as part of my creative writing PhD and I’m very much looking forward to sharing more about that as I develop it.

You can find me as @WriterVH on X, BlueSky and Instagram

If there was one book, not your own, that you wish you could get everyone to read what would it be and why?

Ancillary Justice. Ann Leckie is an incredible storyteller who works with such grace and craft. Her worldbuilding is so deft and her protagonist is so unique and compelling - the ancient fragment of a warship who is out for revenge for the murder of someone they loved. It is written in such a cool and elegant way. I adore it and read it again and again.