Namely that making your space marines work as characters can be a delicate process. So I thought I'd offer some of my insight on this subject today.
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My Bona fides
Before I get into the meat of this week's topic, I want to share some of my bona fides on this subject so that people know who it is they're taking advice from. Over the past few years I've penned a number of pretty popular unofficial short stories set in the grim darkness of the far future that heavily feature the adeptus astartes. Not only that, but I also wrote the novel Old Soldiers (which comes back into print today with a fresh new cover, and the original short story that inspired it), which is about a nine-foot-tall genetically engineered shock trooper attempting to integrate back into civilian life before he becomes the target of an insidious conspiracy that he and his former squad mates have to pull out by the roots.
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| Seriously, check it out today! |
So if you want to take a moment and read through the preview on my novel (or check out any of the short stories below), feel free to do so!
- Waking Dogs and Broken Chains: These two stories follow the adventures of the World Eater Crixus. A traitor to the Imperium, he is disgusted by what loyalty turned him into. With his wrath turned on his brothers, he seeks to wipe out the mistake his legion has become once and for all.
- Blackest Knights: The black shields of the Deathwatch have bound themselves to service in exchange for wiping out whatever sins they previously committed. Some squads will have one, or maybe two, but Kill Team Errant is formed entirely of these warriors... and we soon see that their reputation precedes them.
- The Final Lamentation: The Lamenters are famed for their tears... but when a Black Legion ship takes prisoners from this chapter, they soon learn that the only thing more dangerous than a Lamenter with people to protect is one with nothing left to lose.
Firstly, Remember The Inhuman Aspects
As I mentioned above, "space marines" come in a lot of shapes and sizes. However, what sets them apart from standard soldiers or military personnel in a sci fi setting is that they are in some way inhuman. It's what separates the indoctrinated, unfeeling troops of the Soldier program from regular fighters like the colonial marines in Aliens; there's something other about the former that the latter doesn't share.
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| "Other" can take a lot of forms in this genre. |
It's important, from the get-go, that you use this inherent alien aspect to make your space marine stand out. Whether it's mentions of their sheer size, the speed at which they can move, their unerring single-mindedness, or even the way they seem to speak more like machines than humans, anything that marks them out for your audience needs to be front-loaded. Don't hammer on it till it becomes the sole, defining trait of your space marine character, but make sure that it comes up often enough that neither the cast, nor the audience, forgets this character falls into the uncanny, even if they are still technically human.
As a final note, this becomes significantly more important if we're seeing things from your space marine's perspective. They should experience the world in a unique, unusual fashion that might be jarring at first, but which can suck your audience in. As an example, those who read Old Soldiers will find that our protagonist Pollux has an unerring sense of time and distance, as well as seeing things in extremely specific measurements. This is in addition to his body's unique need to absorb and eat certain wavelengths of radiation to maintain itself, on top of being a man of truly colossal size moving through a city that wasn't built with his dimensions in mind.
Secondly, Remember The Human
This seems like a direct contradiction of the first tip, but stick with me for a moment. Because another aspect of the space marine, whatever form it takes, is that they are (or at least were) human. No matter what genetic or cybernetic augmentations they've been given, what indoctrination they've undergone, or what horrors they've witnessed, beneath their gleaming armor and thousand-yard-stares beats the heart (or hearts) of a fellow human.
And that is where we can often lose our balance.
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| Speaking of the balance of humanity... |
There are going to be stories where you may not want to delve too deeply into the human aspects of your space marine characters. If they're meant to act as antagonists, or if they're a huge threat that your lead has to overcome, you might be perfectly comfortable leaving them in Terminator mode. However, as we saw with the sequel to that film, humanizing our unstoppable killing machines can have a huge impact on the story, and it can add some truly poignant moments to a story.
As an example, take my short stories Waking Dogs and Broken Chains. In the former we see Crixus awaken from the haze of rage and pain caused by the Butcher's Nails, and decide he's had enough. He will no longer bow to the will of an uncaring father, or continue to fight for the sake of fighting. He sees, in that awful moment, the terrible, savage things he and his brothers of the World Eaters have become, and he is disgusted. He decides to wipe out as many of his brothers as he can, putting down the rabid dogs they've become. That's compelling enough in and of itself, and it gives us a handle on Crixus as a character. In the sequel we see more of his skill at arms as he faces off in a grudge match with his old sergeant... but we also see glimpses of Crixus's past. We see him among brothers in the early years of the legion. Not only that, but we see him as a child, bruised and bloody, willing to fight for his place on the line. And we're reminded that, deep inside this ancient warrior whose mind has been scrambled by centuries of warfare, and the electric flogging of his cerebral implant, is a child soldier who wanted to stand for something. Who wanted to be strong to protect people who were too small or weak to protect themselves.
Now, you don't have to go that deep into your particular space marine character's history or psychology if it doesn't create the effect you want on the page. But even if it's something like a glimpse beneath their helmet to see the remnants of a human face, or seeing them finally break their programming to do something human instead of something they were trained to do, that can add a lot of depth and poignancy to a character archetype that runs the risk of being too stilted and flat. Even something as simple as just showing fear, or sorrow, can do it if the jab is delivered at the right time.
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That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!
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