In Memorium- Ian Watson (1943 - 2026)

It is with profound sadness that marks the passing of author Ian Watson. Whilst the wider world knew him as a speculative fiction giant and the mind behind the screen story for Spielberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence, he was also the man who first gave the 41st Millennium a voice.

​Long before the term Grimdark was a shelf-filling genre, Watson defined what Warhammer 40,000 felt like. In 1990, he penned The Inquisitor Trilogy, which should and could have been no more or less than a simple tie-in.

However, Watson in his wisdom unleashed a fever dream of baroque detail, linguistic complexity, and sheer, unadulterated imagination. He was the master of the wierd, seen in descriptions of the hollowed soul of Terra, and the grand yet grotesque Imperial Palace. His short story, “The Alien Beast Within” is a personal favourite.

​Ian’s contribution to the hobby was a natural extension of a brilliant literary career. From his 1973 debut The Embedding, which won the Prix Apollo, to his recognition as a European Science Fiction Grandmaster in 2024, Ian was always pushing the boundaries of what genre fiction could achieve and when taking on "toy soldier" fiction, he brought the same potential for high-concept storytelling for those early 40k novels that he did any of his own, personal releases.

​Ian lived his final years in Gijón, Spain, still writing, still sharp, and still occasionally checking in on the universe he helped birth. The Grimdark of the far future may be only war, But Watson was unsurpassed in making sure it was also full of style, and dense with the wierd.

And we need the wierd.