Outgunned (Warhammer 40,000)

Product Information

ToW: Can you share any insight into what you’ve learned since then, whether in terms of pitching, writing or generally just working with editors, as advice for anyone wanting to write professionally? ToW: Without spoiling anything, who are the main characters and what do we need to know about them? Braving the foetid waters of Bacchus and its rampaging greenskin hordes, Simlex is tasked with producing a cinema-pict portraying Shard as an Imperial hero. Shortly after his arrival planetside, however, he discovers the war effort is in shambles the Imperium’s overstretched forces are in full retreat, the local planetary governor is desperately downplaying the conflict at every turn, and Shard is an arrogant misanthrope who only avoids sanction due to her consummate skills.

Flight Commander Lucille Von Shard is an ace pilot in the Aeronautica Imperialis, with a bit of a chip on her shoulder. Follow her as she faces off against the aerial forces of the orks. A mission from the Adepta Sororitas joins the ‘cursed’ Indomitus Fleet Quintus in Pilgrims of Fire by Justin D Hill, author of the Cadian Honour series. Sister Helewise may be a Battle Sister, but she’s not inclined to rush right into martyrdom – not until she’s found a higher purpose that her death may serve, anyway. Her time with the Crusade Fleet may just be what she needs to discover what the Emperor plans for her, but it will be a journey that tests her faith to its core. ToW: What can you tell us about the role of an Imperial propagandist, and the inspirations for the character of Simlex?

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However, Denny Flowers' writing ( and Phillip Sacramento's performance) flew right over those expectations and delivered an absolutely superb tale that had me hooked from the first few minutes right until the very end. The action was wonderfully done and immersive, the political intrigue was handled expertly and the underlying almost WW2-esque aspect that the Aeronautica Imperialis setting touches upon was just right in my opinion. There are arrogant aces, waxed moustaches, airborne antics and a very generous amount of dakka - all the important parts of a good Warhammer 40,000 air-war...and that's without even considering the plot itself! Though Simlex is the semi-reliable narrator of the novel, the hero and star of Outgunned is Flight Commander Lucille von Shard. A fighter ace of consummate ability, Shard’s skills are matched only by her disdain for her foes, peers, superiors, acquaintances, and virtually everyone and everything else she encounters. In fact, were she a less capable warrior, she would have long since been consigned to a penal colony. Or more likely an executioner. Characters themselves are top notch ones. Lucille von Shard - a bratty and rebellious airhead rebel, best ace in the Imperium and a woman with a heavy burden on her soul. Lady-Governor Dolos - a magnificient queen of a dying world. Flight Sergeant Plient - a cheerful and competent soldier not unlike Jenit Sulla from Ciaphas Cain series. And of course many more others. I must admit that while I deeply enjoyed Outgunned’s brilliant narrative, it honestly wasn’t what I was expecting when I first started reading it. Rather than a completely combat/military focused story about battles in the sky, Outgunned is a powerful and intense story that spends just as much time examining the darker aspects of the Imperium of Man as it does facing off against the ork threat. This becomes clear very early on, especially as the opening introduction from Simlex hints at the deceit, cover-up and lies that are to come. However, I was still unprepared for the full extent of the fantastic narrative that Flowers came up with, as he blends a lot of complex themes and components with some exceptional character work and clever universe expansions to create something truly special.

ToW: What do you hope 40k and Necromunda fans will get out of this by the time they’ve finished it? So he arrives to Bacchus, and here our story begins. The plot caught my attention from the first words of the book, being a rare description of war from POV of a completely non-military person. He seeks to make his film good, starts working...and here the plot start to transform steady and fast. ToW: Could you give us an overview of your general writing process, in terms of how (or whether) you plan your writing, when you find the time to write and so on? The book begins as a fairly typical wh40k war story, but not about a typical commissar and not about a military person at all - protagonist is a film director whose specialization is propaganda movies (or picts as they are called in the book), more precisely - biopics about lives of heroes of the Imperium and imperial saints. And that is the starting point from which "Outgunned" ceases to be a typical grimdark war story and begins to be something new. Thematically it is a story about stories; the tall tales that are told throughout the Underhive, and what happens when myth meets reality. It is also a story about keeping your word, where most of the main characters are in some way bound by a promise or oath which may not be in their best interests. But honour is at stake, and even in the Underhive giving your word is taken very seriously.

About this book

In the far future, the soldiers of the Imperium of Man fight monsters and aliens on many battlefields and there is always a need for fresh bodies to fill the gaps in the ranks. That is where Kile Simlex comes in. A talented propagandist, Simlex excels at creating moving cinematic picts to inspire the people and increase recruitment to the Astra Militarum. However, Simlex desires greater realism and seeks to travel to a battlefield to gain real footage for his greatest pict yet. The reality is an Imperium in full retreat, while Shard’s arrogance threatens to derail Simlex’s tales of glorious inspiration. The ace would surely wind up behind bars were it not for her piloting skills, and the squadron must rely on her to save the day when the Green Storm approaches from the clouds. Thanks SO MUCH to Denny Flowers for sending me a copy of Outgunned in exchange for my honest review. I can’t recall how many times I’ve read Catch 22 (teenage obsession exacerbated it being a set text a few years later), and as soon as I read that Outgunned was occurring in the Yossarian sub sector I was predisposed to enjoy the book. That sort of real-world nod can sometimes be too on-the-nose, but while Outgunned employs some of the same archetypes as Catch 22, it only recalls the spirit of the earlier book rather than retreading it. I’m telling the story through the eyes of an Imperial Propagandist, Flowers gives us a good outsider’s perspective not just on the conflict on Bacchus, but also on the realities of life in the military wings of the Imperium of Man as opposed to how Simlex and his colleagues present it. Iain M. Banks is my favorite Sci-Fi author of his time (though I love his non-genre fiction too), but my love of sci-fi really originated from reading comics as a kid, especially 2000AD. The blending of the horrible, humorous and bizarre with just a hint of satire is something I think carries forward in my own work.