Abnett at the Midtown Comics booth at the New York Comic Con in Manhattan, 10 October 2010. (Photo by Luigi Novi)
Dan Abnett (12 October 1965) is a recognized comic book writer and novelist. He first worked for both Marvel Comics, and their UK imprint, Marvel UK, including 2000 AD. A regular writing partner of his is Andy Lanning. Dan has also contributed to DC Comics titles. As a writer he has sold a large number of copies of Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000 novels and graphic novels for Games Workshop’s Black Library. Three years ago he released his first original fiction novels through Angry Robot books. You can take a look at his bibliography on his website.
The author was interviewed on behalf of the international symposium about “The Influence of Greek and Latin Antiquity in Contemporary Science-Fiction & Fantasy Works” which is held in Paris and Rouen (7-9 June). The symposium is organized by the University of Rouen and the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. Finally, we would like to thank Dan Abnett for his participation.
Were you interested in history before your career as a writer? In what way did your youth, education and studies have any influence on your interest in the past?
Dan: I’ve always been interested in history, and studied it up until the end of my formal education. At University, though I read English, this included a great deal of the history of literature and – by extension – general history. I can’t fully explain why the past fascinates me, but it always had. I grew up in Kent, in the south of England, in a village “surrounded’ by history – it was near the site of Claudius’s landing, and there were, nearby neolithic stones, and Rochester Castle, and a great many other very obvious traces of the past. I studied at Oxford, and lived and worked in London, both cities where the past is constantly at your side, and I now have returned to Kent – and live in a house that was built in 1812 (and may be haunted! 
). The history of where I am and where I live always intrigues me.
Do you actively use the past as a tool for creating new stories? How much research do you do? A lot of your work seems to contain elements of the past. For example, your books about the Horus heresy, which take place in games workshop’s warhammer 40 k universe, are full of it. A lot of antiquity seems to be recycled in this futuristic universe. In fact the name Horus itself is nothing else than the name of an ancient Egyptian god.
Dan: I read very widely, though I suppose I am especially interested in ancient history and pre-history. The authors and subjects I read tend to be determined mostly by my area of research I use history in my work in two particular ways. The first, in terms of Warhammer 40000 and the Horus Heresy, is to add some context and weight to the stories. They are set so far in the future, it is sometimes hard to get a real sense of connection to our world and our way of life. One can’t reference things to show that connection, in terms – say – of popular culture. It simply doesn’t work. However, ancient things seem to have a greater endurance, so I often make reference (or veiled reference) to aspects of world history that may have “survived” in the memory in Warhammer 40K, to suggest a common origin point. The Emperor, for example, is very old, so I reference his history in terms of actual ancient history. I use old or antique place names to create a sense of a world that may have changed by has kept an imperfect, archaic memory of what it is.
The second way is more general. I believe that both science fiction and fantasy fiction work best if the worlds or ideas that are being created feel as ‘real’ as possible, as authentic. So I often research whatever I feel to be the closest ‘real world’ or ‘real historical’ analogue to what I’m writing about, find out how it works, get the ‘feel’ of it, and then translate it sideways into an SF of fantasy setting. For example, I might research the Wars of the Roses or the American Civil War to get a greater understanding of a dynastic dispute like the Horus Heresy. The Battle of Britain unashamedly informed my book Double Eagle. For the Kislevite lancers in my book Riders of the Dead, I found out what I could about Polish Hussars. I might investigate trade in the great age of sail if I was writing a book about intergalactic commerce.
These last years there has been a lot of pessimism concerning societies lack of in interest in the past. What do you think about the notion that fantasy and science fiction genres are good mediums to preserve history?
Dan: I had a teacher who once joked that those who forget history are condemned to retake it
I think it’s perfectly valid to layer historical ideas and names and concepts into SF and fantasy – if that breeds an interest in them, then it may send a reader off to discover a true historical context out of genuine interest, when they might never have thought of themselves as a fan of history.
It is often said that Europeans and Americans have a different approach to history. Do you think there are any noticeable differences between the European and American fantasy/science-fiction fans in that regard?
Dan: I’ve always – bear with me because I’m about to generalize horribly – felt that the Europeans are more engaged with history than the Americans. Americans are especially engaged with, and inspired by, their own national history, which has a more recent start date than much of European tradition. For them, there is a sense that history – the history that matters – restarted comparatively recently. I know that’s a wildly short-sighted and unfair view for me to hold, and does a serious injustice to many US readers: I just mean it as the broadest general trend. A European reader might have a better basic awareness of a historical reference, especially an ancient one. However, I think the US readerships is animated by, and hungry for, a general interest in the very history they feel the don’t possess – Medieval, Dark Age etc – and that often inspires them with much greater enthusiasm for the ideas.
Duiker
