First things first: here’s when and where to come and get your omnibus signed.
Friday July 16th: Mind Games, 38 Garema Place, Canberra, 6-8pm
Saturday July 17th: Games Workshop Woden Plaza, Canberra, 10am-noon
Saturday July 31st: Galaxy Bookshop, 143 York Street, Sydney, 2pm.
Sunday September 26: Games Day, NEC Birmingham, UK, times to be confirmed.
We’re working on a second Sydney slot for the 31st so watch this space.
Enforcer: The Shira Calpurnia Omnibus is officially out and in the wild. It’s nice to see the listings at online sellers tick over from “Preorder this for when it’s released” to “People who bought this also bought…” (I particularly remember that moment for Crossfire, because it was the first evidence, right there on the screen, that people had bought something of mine). It’s nicer to find copies already out for sale – we came across one in the local Angus and Robertson, on a trolley waiting to be shelved, and D grabbed it right there and got me to sign it at the counter. It was nicer still to have someone tell me last night that they’d been hunting all over Canberra and kept getting told that that shop had sold all its copies and were ordering more in; possibly not so nice for my hapless would-be reader, but he was good-natured enough to be pleased about it on my behalf.
Reviews are starting to pop up too, and have been pleasingly positive so far. I’d expected them to be generally favourable, on the assumption that people who buy a collected set of books will tend to be people who liked those books the first time around, but one of the nicest write-ups has come from someone who opens with the fact that he’d never heard of me or the books before, which is also cool. The closest I’ve had to negativity so far has been at the Civilian Reader review blog: “It’s not that Enforcer isn’t worth reading, it’s just not what many people will want from a 40k novel”. Which is fair enough, and the sort of comment I saw Crossfire getting a lot. It’s something that will happen when you’re deliberately writing something that’s a bit diagonal to an established setting – you are by definition not writing what some readers are coming to the setting for.
If you’re not sure whether it’s what you’re coming to the setting for, remember there’s a free PDF extract up on Enforcer’s little corner of the Black Library site; while I’m furnishing links I really should also give you one to that amazing cover art on Marek Okon’s DeviantArt page.
All that should be enough to keep you going for a while. If it’s not, you’ll have to hang out until later in the year for some short fiction fixes: “Faces” in the Fear the Alien collection coming out in September, and “The Headstone and the Hammerstone Kings” in Sabbat Worlds in October. The next BL project is under discussion now, but will be novella-length rather than a full book – news will follow on here as that project rumbles on.
That’s enough talking about myself. I have some very cool new Australian writing to tell you about next post.
The Nocturnalist 
See you Saturday, Matt! I’m looking forward to it.
I already had the three novels, but bought the omnibus as well for the additional content. At first I was a bit disappointed that it was not a short story or two, but the dossiers are pretty cool. I especially like the play script, both in concept and execution.
PS:
Will we ever hear about Calpurnia’s trial and judgement and her subsequent career (providing she had one)?
Glad you liked the dossiers, Guy. They were a bit of an experiment – while I was keen on the idea right from the first when we started talking about an omnibus, at times it was a bit tricky to work out the balance between something that gave that interesting oblique view into the stories’ context and one that was so tangential to the main narrative that the connection stopped being apparent. I’m particularly glad the play worked for you, that was something I’d had in my head for quite a while. (I think I was originally considering using it as a prologue to Blind, as a way of covering what had happened in the gap between the two books.)
There are no more Calpurnia books planned at the moment. There are a couple of directions I’ve thought about taking the story but at present it’s no more than that, thoughts. I may do another story one day, but I don’t feel that the trilogy as it stands needs a conclusion: the most important story in Blind, Calpurnia’s struggle with herself, is wrapped up at the end of the book, and it’s interesting to hear people’s ideas on what happens to her after the third book. (Trying to avoid spoilers here, just in case.) We’ll see.
I was great to meet you today and get my books and poster signed. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on Enforcer to check out the new additions (as soon as I can find a copy), and will be watching you blog to see what new stuff you come up with. Thanks also for you words about the Emperor’s Tarot – it gives me more motivation to pursue artists and complete the project.
May the Emperor be your inspiration.
Tiger’s Heart
It was a pleasure to meet you too, Jenni, and to see how the Emperor’s Tarot project is turning out. Hope to be able to talk to you again soon.
Hi Matt, It was a pleasure to catch up, and good to see that you were busy!
Hi Bart, was good to see you. Sorry we didn’t get more time to chat – I got talking and then realised you’d had to go. We’ll have to catch up properly some time.
Sure! ysambart at gmail dot com.
Hey Matt, love the Enforcer trilogy. I have all three original books, but the extra material in the collected edition is really nice. The report on the structure of the Arbites (together with the chapter about the Arbites boarding action) inspired me to write up ahort piece on Arbites Fleets for the Rogue Trader RPG:-
http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=123&efcid=3&efidt=357492
Love the short story in the Sabbat Worlds anthology, too. Can’t wait to see your next interpretation of 40k, I love your minutiae-driven and highly detailed approach!
+++Lightbringer+++
Hi Lightbringer, thanks for the comment. I’m glad you enjoyed the new Enforcer material and I liked your Arbites fleet piece on the FFG boards. (If you’re after stats on the Punisher cruiser, have a hunt around for copies of the old Battlefleet Gothic magazine, it was written up in one but I can’t remember the number).
So the Sabbat Worlds anthology is out now? I’m glad you liked it, that story gave me a lot of trouble and I admit that I wasn’t sure at the end of things how well I’d managed to do with it. If you like it, though, I’m pretty sure you’ll like the next thing I’m doing for BL. Keep an eye out.
The Sabbat Worlds Anthology was out in Forbidden Planet in London last week…I was surprised because I wasn’t sure that its been officially released yet! It may have been put out by mistake too early, Forbidden Planet is a slightly chaotically organised shop. When I saw one on the shelves I bought it immediately, and read it in 2-3 hours. I think your story’s a nice piece, with lots of crunchy Heritor Asphodael goodness. I wouldn’t have any worries at all about how it turned out if I were you, it’s one of the best pieces in the collection. Can’t wait for the next piece!
🙂
+++Lightbringer+++