原文出自：https://www.warhammer-community.com/2023/05/10/darius-hinks-interview-what-happens-in-the-leviathan-novel-and-why-is-the-galaxy-doomed/

本文为我的个人翻译，仅供学习和分享，不用于商业用途。

Darius Hinks Interview – What Happens in the Leviathan Novel, and Why Is the Galaxy Doomed?

(资料图片)

The shadow of Hive Fleet Leviathan looms over the new edition of Warhammer 40,000, bringing a nightmare invasion of ravenous hordes to the Imperium. The stalwart Ultramarines 1st Company stand ready to defend, but even they may not be able to hold back the uncountable swarm in Leviathan, the gripping companion novel by Black Library veteran Darius Hinks.

To prepare ourselves for the coming onslaught, we caught up with Darius to grab the intel on the xenos menace.

Darius Hinks的采访——《利维坦》小说里面发生什么了？为什么银河已毁？

虫巢舰队利维坦的阴影笼罩于战锤40000的新版本之上，为帝国带来了掠食兽群的噩梦侵略。忠贞不屈的极限战士第一连枕戈待旦进行防御，但是即便是他们也可能无法挡住利维坦数不胜数的虫群（译者：岂止是可能挡不住，比如说一个名为巴尔的不知名小星系虫巢舰队都能派出十五万艘舰船进行狂暴轰入，如果利维坦真的有心轰下此地，恐怕就连整个不屈远征舰队集中在一起也只会被利维坦来个当场杀败！而影际星之战也表明了，一个所谓“防卫森严”的节点星球也可能被泰伦虫在几个小时内完全吞噬），这便是黑图书馆老手Darius Hinks所著的扣人心弦的故事。

为了准备好迎接来袭的杀戮，我们找到了Darius来寻求恶毒异形的内部咨询。

Warhammer Community: Without creeping into spoiler territory, what is Leviathan about?

Darius Hinks: It’s a novel set on a planet called Regium – an Imperial fortress world that’s the lynchpin of an important defensive measure known as the Sanctus Line. Regium’s tactical importance means it’s unusually well-defended with a garrison that includes mighty veterans of the Ultramarines 1st Company. It’s survived countless attacks and seems impregnable. Then Hive Fleet Leviathan arrives…

I’ve always loved those old 1940s, 1950s science fiction invasion novels where the author sets up a seemingly stable status quo then gradually reveals a horrific alien threat. You know the kind of thing – people scramble to escape the apocalypse while others try to mount a desperate, last-ditch defence.

Leviathan is a mixture of that and those disaster movies where you meet a cast of sympathetic characters, and then have to guess who might not die a horrible death by the end of the film. It’s a technicolour blockbuster of a novel in which the Imperium’s finest go toe-to-toe with the unstoppable horror of the Tyranid swarm. 

Warhammer Community: 在不剧透的情况下，请问《利维坦》是讲什么的呢？

Darius Hinks：这个故事发生在一个名为利基乌姆（Regium）的星球上——这是一颗帝国的要塞世界，被称为神圣防线（Sanctus Line）的重要防御手段的节点。利基乌姆的战术重要性意味着它将有着不同寻常的强大防御，有着来自极限战士一连的横强老兵。（这些老兵）活过了数不尽的攻势，看似无可穿透。然而虫巢舰队利维坦来惹…

我总是很喜欢拿下1940，1950年代的老式科幻入侵小说，它们的作者会先描绘一幅稳定的境况，接着慢慢揭露一个可怕的异形威胁。你懂这种东西——人们争先恐后地逃离毁灭厄运，而其它人试图组织起一个绝望的最后防御。

利维坦是一种集齐了——以上要素以及那些有着让你感同身受的灾难片角色，你得去猜谁能活到最后而不是惨死——的混合体。对于小说而言，展现帝国最精锐战士和不可阻挡的泰伦虫潮硬碰硬在技术层面可谓是一鸣惊人。

WarCom: How does it feel to be writing the narrative companion to the brand-new edition of Warhammer 40,000?

Darius: Warhammer 40,000 has been a big part of my life since my early teens. I can clearly remember the day, way back in the late 1980s, when I saw John Sibbick’s seminal Rogue Trader art in the window of Games Workshop Birmingham. That image of a heroic, unwinnable fight really caught my imagination and it drew me into a fantasy world unlike any other I had encountered.

Decades later, I find myself writing the book that kicks off the latest edition of the game. That level of responsibility would probably have made a more sensible person nervous but the subject matter was just so much fun I didn’t really have time to worry. I was lucky enough to see early images of the Leviathan miniatures and bringing them to life on the page was a dream gig.

WarCom：记叙全新的战锤40000故事感觉如何呀？

Darius：战锤40000占据了我幼时很大的一部分。我可以清晰地记得那天，那个1980年代晚期，我看见了John Sibbick‘s在伯明翰GW的窗口中那具有创造力的行商浪人艺术品。那种英雄主义，无可获胜的死斗的模样激起了我的想象并将我投入了一个前所未见的奇幻世界。

几十年后，我便在写这个游戏最新版本的故事。这种等级的责任感将会使得一个比较感性的人坐立不安，但实际上这太让人高兴了，我都没功夫去担心。我很幸运，那个看到早年的利维坦的小图案，而将它们跃然纸上则是梦想成真。

WarCom: You’ve written companion novels for several box sets like Dominion and Blackstone Fortress. Is anything about the writing experience different when it’s intimately tied to a physical release?

Darius: These novels feel even more collaborative than the usual Black Library novels. But that’s one of the things I most enjoy about writing Warhammer fiction – bouncing ideas around with editors and other Games Workshop creatives sparks ideas I would never have dreamt up on my own.

WarCom：你曾经写过像统御盒以及黑石要塞盒那样的故事。请问你生理上感觉这些写作经验有什么不同的吗？

Darius：这些小说写起来甚至比寻常的黑图书馆小说更加有合作感。但是编写战锤小说最让我享受的地方在于——与编者碰撞迸发灵感，与其它GW创作者激发我个人做梦也想不到的灵感。

WarCom: What sort of challenges did you face writing about an overwhelming, unknowable swarm like the Tyranids?

Darius: The fact that they’re so unknowable is actually one of the things I enjoyed. I think it makes them genuinely scary – most Warhammer 40,000 antagonists have a recognisable ideology, perhaps even goals that we can sympathise with (considering how bleak and oppressive the Imperium of Man is) but there’s no reasoning with the Great Devourer. No way at all to understand the Hive Mind.

Even names like ‘Tyranid’ or ‘Leviathan’ are just labels applied to them by their desperate prey. For me, that’s like a childhood nightmare – being hunted by something that can’t be threatened or bargained with. It makes Tyranids a foe that even the noble veterans of the Ultramarines 1st Company can’t take lightly.

WarCom：你在描绘出泰伦虫这样无可阻挡且无可知晓的虫潮中遇见了什么样的挑战呢？

Darius：它们无可知晓的地方其实就是我享受的一项内容。我认为这使得它们真的很吓人捏——绝大多数的战锤40000敌手都有显而易见的意识形态，甚至也许是我们可以理解的目标（考虑到人类帝国是何等的四面楚歌且暴虐），但是大吞噬者并无道理可言。没有方法可以全面了解虫巢意志。

就连“泰伦虫族”和“利维坦”都只不过是它们绝望的猎物给它们起的名字。对我而言，这就是童年的噩梦——被某种不能交涉也不受威胁的东西猎杀。这使得泰伦虫族成为了即便是高洁的极限战士一连老兵也不能掉以轻心的对手。

WarCom: What do you enjoy most about the setting of Warhammer 40,000?

Darius: Most science fiction or fantasy settings revolve around the idea of hope. Plucky underdogs rebel against evil empires, or proud defenders fighting to maintain their way of life. But in Warhammer 40,000 there’s none of that – hope is a distant memory. The worst has happened. The Imperium is being devoured. The galaxy is burning. And, even if it wasn’t on its last legs, the Imperium was horrific to begin with.

And yet, amidst all this horror, there are acts of heroism. In Warhammer 40,000 we see characters with nothing left to live for who still try to do the right thing. People make incredible sacrifices knowing that their heroism will go unnoticed. To me, that’s always made Warhammer 40,000 seem unique and fascinating.

WarCom：你最享受的是战锤40000设定的什么？

Darius：绝大多数的科幻或者幻想设定都围绕着希望。大胆的下层叛军对抗邪恶的帝国，或者是骄傲的防御者为坚持他们的道义而战。但是在战锤40000里面，那些可就毫无出场机会——希望不过是遥远的记忆。最糟糕的事情已经发生了。帝国正在被吞噬。银河正在燃烧。而且，即便帝国没有命悬一线，它也是个可怕的东西。

但是，在种种恐怖之下，依旧有英雄之举。在战锤40000里面，我们看见了一无所有的角色依旧为了做那正确的事而活。人们知道自己的英雄之举将会不为人知但是做出了终极的牺牲。对我来说，这便是让战锤40000看起来独特且迷人的地方。

WarCom: Who are you rooting for, the Space Marines or the Tyranids?

Darius: The boys in blue, all the way. The Imperium’s a mess and the Ultramarines are almost as terrifying as the Tyranids, but I generally pick the side that isn’t trying to eat me.

WarCom：你支持哪一方，星际战士还是泰伦虫族？

Darius：小蓝人捏。帝国一团糟，而且极限战士几乎和泰伦虫族一样可怕，但是我会选那个不会吃了我的阵营。

Thanks Darius! You’ll be able to get your hands on Leviathan at the same time as the massive boxed set of the same name, ringing in the new edition of Warhammer 40,000 with tons of miniatures and tales of the horrifying Fourth Tyrannic War. Sign up to the Black Library newsletter for more.

感谢Darius！你将会得以着手于《利维坦》同时还会有大量的同名盒子，在新版的战锤40000里面响叮当，并带来大量的第四次虫战的可怕故事和小图案。

注册黑图书馆来了解更多精彩吧！