JAMES SWALLOW

The Official Site of Bestselling Author James Swallow - COMING SOON!

Writing

Warhammer 40,000 Legends Collection

by

Partworks are a thing over here in the UK – handsome collections that build week-by-week into something you will treasure forever, so the adverts say. When I was a kid, I got the massive New Oxford Illustrated Dictionary and The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft that way, and later when I started writing for a living I worked on The Official Star Trek Fact Files, the 007 Spy File and The Official Star Wars Fact File magazines – each issue is part of a larger whole and by the end of the run you usually have a impressive amount of material for your subscription.

Earlier in the year, the people at Hachette Partworks teamed up with Black Library to test-market The Warhammer 40,000 Legends Collection in a similar vein – each issue reprints a hardcover novel from the universe of Warhammer 40,000 and The Horus Heresy in a new larger format with bonus content, subscriber premiums and more. The test was a success, so this week (on Wednesday 7th to be exact) the full release for the collection kicks off, and you can learn all about it at the official website Here.

The Warhammer 40,000 Legends Collection is planned to run for 80 issues and it will feature a few of my novels, alongside work from m’colleagues Dan Abnett, Graham McNeill, Guy Haley, Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Chris Wraight, Gav Thorpe, Rob Sanders and others – check it out at your local newsagent or use the link to subscribe direct…

You Are Hearing Me Talk…to Front Row

by

Radio 4’s Front Row is one of the BBC’s most popular and well-regarded magazine shows on arts and entertainment, so it was pretty neat to be asked to come on and talk about writing for videogames for an audience of listeners who are likely to be outside the wheelhouse of most things games related…

This month has seen two big new releases in the video gaming world: the highly anticipated No Man Sky, which promises an infinite, constantly regenerating universe for players to discover, and the latest instalment in the sci-fi blockbuster franchise Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. From an economic perspective, games have outperformed other creative industries for years, and they’re also nurturing the best creative writing talent. 

 
So how do writers fit in to this multi-billion pound industry? Novelist and scriptwriter James Swallow, whose game writing credits include Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and No Man’s Sky, and scriptwriter and story designer Rhianna Pratchett, whose credits include Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, discuss.
 
Samira Ahmed interviewed m’colleague Rhianna Pratchett and I on last Friday’s show, where we talked about our work on the Tomb Raider and Deus Ex games, as well as the nature of narrative design and the future of game stories; check out the show here via this Link – Rhi and I are on from the 13:26 mark…

DEUS EX: HARD LINE cover reveal

by

We’re just over a week away from the release of the next iteraton of the Deus Ex videogame franchise on August 23rd, and I’ve been very proud to be a part of the writing team behind Deus Ex: Mankind Divided! But working on the story and script for the game hasn’t been my only contribution to the world of this conspiracy-laden cyberpunk future – the 23rd will also see the release of Deus Ex: Black Light, a prequel novel that fills in some of the missing time between the end of the previous game Human Revolution and the start of Mankind Divided.

But that’s not all: I’ve also authored the new original eBook novella Deus Ex: Hard Line (featuring the backstory of the character Alex Vega) which will be available as part of the Collector’s Edition and Day One Edition releases of DXMD.

 


I love this moody, noir-inspired cover for Hard Line by Nicolas Lizotte, one of the senior concept artists at Eidos Montreal! You can see more of Nicolas’s work Here at his online portfolio.

You can learn more about everything else in the Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Collector’s Edition by checking out this unboxing video with producer Jean-Francois Dugas Here.

 

Your Universe Awaits

by

No Man’s Sky is here!


Today’s that day the hype becomes real and the gateway to a galaxy of 18 quintillion explorable planets opens; I’ve been fortunate enough to write some of the lore for No Man’s Sky, contributing key text to the game itself and writing “Ashes & Iron“, an original short story for Adventures In No Man’s Sky, a pulp SF collection that comes packaged with the game’s Limited Edition release – and I am hugely excited to have been part of this ambitious new gameworld.

Check out my earlier posts about working on the project Here and Here.

You can pick up No Man’s Sky on the PS4 in the ordinary or Limited Edition versions Here, via Steam for the PC Here, or get the exclusive Explorer’s Edition Here.

Writing Under No Man’s Sky

by

August is going to be a packed month for cool videogame releases (certainly for me!), and it kicks off next week with the arrival of No Man’s Sky, the hotly-anticipated science-fiction exploration epic from Hello Games.


I’ve talked about NMS previously, because of my involvement with Adventures in No Man’s Sky, an original fiction collection published by Dark Horse Comics that comes packaged with the game’s PlayStation 4 Limited Edition collection.

 
 
I was lucky enough to be invited to contribute to the lore of the NMS universe along with famous artists like Angus McKie and Dave Gibbons.I got to write a short story called “Ashes & Iron”, for which Dave has drawn some fantastic illustrations in the style of the old classic SF pulp magazines like Galaxy, Astounding and Amazing Stories.
 
But what I haven’t talked about until now is that I was also invited by Hello Games producer Sean Murray to join his team and contribute some writing to the game itself.

The universe of No Man’s Sky contains many mysteries for players to unravel and much to explore – I am reliably informed that the game contains 184446744073709551616 planets. As much as that number looks like I just mashed my hand on the keypad, I am assured it is accurate (!)

I got to write a little of the material that intrepid explorers will find in abandoned locations across these myriad worlds, as well as lore that will peel back some of the unknowns around the strange phenomena known as the Atlas – and I can’t wait to get in there myself and start visiting some alien vistas.

No Man’s Sky is out on PS4 on August 9th, and PC a few days later. Check out the official website here.

Nomad Updates!

by

I don’t think I’ve deluged all you good people with quite enough promo madness for my new novel just yet; and so I’ve got a couple more updates for your entertainment…

First, Here I am appearing on my good friend Adam Rosser’s Game On show talking about Nomad (even reading a bit) and a little about Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

Then, Here‘s me talking to The Irish Times about the importance of locations in writing and when writing.

And however you want to slice it, it seems that all this bloggage has been doing the trick, because I am very pleased to say that Nomad has leapt from the #12 slot in last week’s hardcover bestseller list to #5 for this week (and #6 in the Sunday Times!)

So to everyone out there who bought my book, please accept a big thank you from me! You support is very much appreciated! (And for anyone who hasn’t yet picked up a copy, allow me to gently remind you that Nomad is available online and at all good bookstores!)