Nathan Long (author)

For other people called Nathan Long, see Nathan Long (disambiguation).

Nathan Long
Nationality	American
Occupation	Author and Screenwriter
Employer	Freelance
Known for	Screenplays and Fantasy Novels
Website
Official website

Nathan Long is an American fantasy author. He is well known for his authorship of many of the Gotrek and Felix novels, along with The Blackhearts Trilogy and Jane Carver of Waar.

Early history

Long had been writing since the age of twelve, and upon breaking into the industry, proceeded to write screenplays for fifteen years. His work resulted in three films and many animated and live-action TV episodes. He has been living in Los Angeles for the past twenty years, and continues to write from this location, as well as playing regularly with his band, MI-6.

Warhammer Novels

The Blackhearts

Long is responsible for a set of infamous characters in the Warhammer Fantasy universe, the Blackhearts. A gang of renegades and rebels thrown together by unfortunate circumstances, they are given the choice of being hanged for their crimes or completing secret missions, both highly classified and suicidally dangerous. There have been three novels, now published in an omnibus along with two short stories, one serving as a prologue for the situation in which the novels are based.

Gotrek and Felix

When King stepped back from Black Library authorship to pursue other projects, the ongoing narrative of Gotrek's quest to seek out his doom was, as yet, unfinished. Black Library then approached Long, at the time a newly established but popular author in the Warhammer Fantasy universe, and asked him to take up the position of storyteller. Since the release of Orcslayer, Long has written four additional novels in the series along with an audio-book, making it one of the longest-running Black Library runs in the imprint's history, along with Dan Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts series.

Long has been both hailed and criticised for his writing style differentiating substantially from that of King's, who was known for very flowery descriptive text and extensive description. Long, however, writes with pace and emphasis on the brutal side of the two traveller's lifestyle. Long has also been quoted in an interview as stating that he has "a rough idea" of how Gotrek's eventual death will occur, though audiences may assume this will emerge sooner rather than later, due to the naming format of the books (each a combination of a race or role, and the word "slayer") and the limited amount of races and roles left to cover.

Long was also one of the first few authors to publish an audio-book for the Black Library imprint, titled Slayer of the Storm God. Along with several short stories (mostly exclusive to events held by Games Workshop), these have helped fill out the universe immediately around Gotrek and Felix.

The latest book in the series, Zombieslayer, was released in September 2010.

Ulrika the Vampire

In addition to his work on Gotrek and Felix, Long has also written Bloodborn, the first novel in a series surrounding Ulrika, a love interest of Felix Jaeger in the Gotrek and Felix novels who has become a vampire and is learning to cope with her new form and its wants and needs. Bloodborn was released in June 2010, and was followed by a sequel, Bloodforged, the front cover of which appeared on the inside front cover of Bloodborn. Bloodsworn is due to be released in 2012.

Other work

Long has also contributed to Black Library's range of novellas, with a short novel titled Battle for Skull Pass, which was released in 2008 and was available exclusively to Games Workshop customers. The novella was based around the Dwarfs and their battle to save the township of Karak Grom from greenskin invaders. It was written to accompany the Battle for Skull Pass box set, released by Games Workshop.

In March of 2012, Night Shade Books published Long's first original book, Jane Carver of Waar. The official blurb from Night Shade Books calls it "a loving tribute and scathing parody of the swashbuckling space fantasies of yore,", while Publisher's Weekly describes it as an "affectionate and often raunchy parody of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s John Carter of Mars books," with a biker heroine in the John Carter role.

Bibliography

• Valnir's Bane (2004) - ISBN 978-1-84416-166-9
• The Broken Lance (2005) - ISBN 978-1-84416-243-7
• Tainted Blood (2006) - ISBN 978-1-84416-371-7
• Orcslayer (2006) - ISBN 978-1-84416-391-5
• Manslayer (2007) - ISBN 978-1-84416-509-4
• Battle for Skull Pass (2008) - ISBN 978-1-84416-768-5
• Elfslayer (2008) - ISBN 978-1-84416-663-3
• Slayer of the Storm God (Audio Book) (2009) - ISBN 978-1-84416-756-2
• Shamanslayer (2009) - ISBN 978-1-84416-772-2
• Gotrek and Felix: The Third Omnibus (2009) - ISBN 978-1-84416-732-6
• Bloodborn: Ulrika the Vampire Book One (2010) - ISBN 978-1-84416-824-8
• Zombieslayer (2010) - ISBN 978-1-84416-880-4
• Bloodforged (publication date 9 June 2011) - ISBN 978-1-84970-013-9
• Jane Carver of Waar (2012) - ISBN 978-1-59780-396-0
• Bloodsworn (forthcoming 2012)

Filmography

• Guyver: Dark Hero (1994) - Screenplay (also appeared as Cop #1)
• The Sender (1998) - Writer

Television Credits

• Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight - (2009–2010) - head writer for 40 episodes and wrote 16 individually

External links

• Official website
• Nathan Long's Livejournal page
• Nathan Long on Writing Shamanslayer at YouTube
• Nathan Long at the Black Library
• Nathan Long at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database