Nick Kyme

Clash of the Titans trailer, anyone…

This was one of my favourite films as a kid growing up. Something about all the monsters, gods and legends – it really left an impression. This latest Hollywood version of Clash of the Titans looks amazing with shades of 300 about it. Beasts and creatures aplenty it seems, and who couldn’t love Liam Neeson uttering those immortal (get it – ha!) words, ‘Unleash the kracken!’.

Here’s hoping that the film fulfils and even exceeds this early promise. They might not have the charm of some of Ray Harryhausen’s creations, but the CG monsters sure do look cool…

Evening peeps!

Check it out… the latest Space Marine anthology came back from the printers today. Legends of the Space Marines is looking rather awesome, and what a bloater!

This sweet baby (to emulate the linguistic idioms of Norville Barnes – 10 points if you can tell me the reference) is packing a monstrous 544 pages of pure, unadulterated Space Marine action. It’s brutal!

Coupled with a storming coming from Hardy Fowler and stories from the likes of James Swallow, Graham McNeill and some dubious fellow called Aaron-Dembski Bowden and you’ve got quite a collection. Oh, and not forgetting little old me of course… ‘Hell Night’ is the lead story in the collection, the first time I’ve been afforded that honour and for all you Salamander junkies out there it’s the next installment in the saga.

It’s a fair few months before Legends of the Space Marines hits the shelves, but you can read a little extract from ‘Hell Night’ in the latest Black Library Previews Catalogue, which you can find in GW stores in March. Splendid stuff!

On the subject of short stories, ‘Hell Night’ and Legends of the Space Marines represents the start of small flurry of Salamander stories coming to you later in the year.

Next up, or rather first up, is ‘The Burning’. This tale shares the BL Live chapbook with ‘Feast of Horrors’ by the rather fine gentleman that is Chris Wraight. I went for something a little different this time, a story from Dak’ir’s point of view but it won’t be something you’re expecting, I guarantee it.

Later in the year is ‘Prometheus Requiem’ in Fear the Alien. This is a very special story featuring one of Tsu’gan’s missions as part of the Firedrakes. I won’t say why it’s special, but you’ll hopefully figure that out when you read it.

Oh, in related news, I listened to the first fx edit of Fireborn yesterday and it is sounding very cool indeed. I’ve yet to hear the music edit, but Chris tells me it’s shaping up nicely. Hopefully, I’ll be able to show off some cover art soon…

Lastly, but not leastly (?), Firedrake is on the cusp of 30,000 words. This represents a significant chunk of the book (almost the first third). I’m really building up a head of steam with this now. I’ve hit all my mini-milestones and might (with luck) even get a little ahead. It has represented a huge effort on my part to crack this, but I’m on the way now and, man, does it feel good. I’ve been tested against Vulkan’s anvil and have emerged on the other side – reforged.

Take it easy, folks.

I’ll keep this relatively brief as, by way of a guilty pleasure, I’m going to watch Glee on E4 in about five minutes (yes, yes, I know, but it is just so wrong and damn hilarious).

Firedrake has now breached the 21,000 word mark and I’m hitting all of my mini-milestone deadlines in my new and improved ‘plan’. It’s a great relief to get some serious wordage under my belt, and as a result the novel is really starting to take some shape. Huzzah!

No sign of Tsu’gan yet, but he’ll be coming soon, just you wait and see. I’m actually really looking forward to writing his first scene – it’s the one straight off the front cover (a scene, incidentally, that I hadn’t planned on putting in the book until I’d seen said artwork – funny how that can happen).

Okies, that’s it for now peeps.

Seems like that little Space Wolf story I did is causing quite a stir amongst the masses.

Thunder from Fenris is audio drama, my first as it happens, starring a trio of Thunder Wolf Cavalry on the hunt for one of their fallen brethren against the background of an ice world succumbed to a zombie plague – grr, braaaiiiins…

I’m not sure, but I think when I was pitching this piece (not something I’d planned but that came to me none-the-less and no one else was going to do it), I knew I had the ingredients of something cool. Generally, a good rule of thumb is that if you’re excited about it then other people will be excited about it too. It had all the good stuff I like, certainly: zombies, Vikings in space, monstrous cybernetically-altered super wolves and snow. How could it lose?

Well, despite the fact it wasn’t released to the trade (a huge shame and a missed opportunity in my opinion, but I don’t make the rules about that), Thunder from Fenris has been doing the rounds and garnering some pretty damn favourable reviews wherever it goes.

The latest comes from Mass Movement Magazine, a hugely flattering piece that sings the audio’s praises, my story and Toby Longworth’s expert skills at delivering it so well.

It was also featured on the highly prestigious SF Signal blog, here. Admittedly, the reviewer did get the story a little wrong in the review, but high praise was foisted upon my Wolves yet again.

The one enduring, and perhaps contentious, piece of feedback I get from it whenever I speak to anyone about Thunder from Fenris is the voice we used for Thorgard. Before you ask, yes it was meant to sound a bit like a Scandinavian Arnie. Love it, hate it or just find it plain bonkers, it’s one of those things that’ll always be memorable. I thought it sounded great and it always raises a cheeky little smile on my face.

Getting hold of the audio is proving a bit of a challenge for some people, especially with the Black Library website still down (yes, I know, it’s been like that for ages – be patient people! ). Well, here’s a link to Games Workshop’s website where you can buy the action-packed Thunder from Fenris quite easily. And it’s free shipping in January for orders over a tenner, so get your butts over there, bag Thunder from Fenris and treat yourself to Salamander, too, if already haven’t. Shameless plugging I know, but I’m feeling slightlyreckless today.

Tell you what, too, it’s kinda weird discussing and seeing reviews for a thing you wrote months and months ago. I’m currently embroiled in all things Firedrake at the moment, the sequel to Salamader that is gathering more and more momentum on a daily basis (more on the progress on that later), but it’s nice to go back and remember some of what will become my back catalogue material.

Hokey dokey, back to the keyboard for some fiery Salamander action!

Okay folks, if you really love me and my Salamanders, get your butts over to premier science fiction blog site SF Signal to register your vote in the cover smackdown!

Regular followers of this blog (and SF Signal, to be fair) may remember that Salamander was the subject of a cover smackdown a few months ago and got rudely bounced (tie-in fiction snobbery, mutter, mutter…).

Well, here’s a chance to set the record straight as none other than Firedrake is going up against not one, but two other sf covers.

It’s actually extremely awesome to be back up on the cover smackdown, and it’s testament to Cheoljoo Lee’s fantastic artwork that the series returns to duke it out.

So, show your support peeps – vote Firedrake for a fiery world.

You know it makes sense!