Was publishing 54 books to tell the ‘Horus Heresy’ saga needed? - on Double Dutch magazine!

Written By Benne van der Velde

For those of you who follow me and Double Dutch magazine a bit closer it’s no secret that I’m a huge fantasy/sci-fi fan. The Games Workshop black library range in particular tickles more than a few of my fancies? What must have started out as a risky experimental side hustle to sell more miniatures (a.k.a. expand the lore) has grown into a full on and seriously profitable business model. With, unsurprisingly, a lot of meh novels, but truth also be told, quite a couple of seriously engrossing ones! If you’re into dark sci-fi bolter porn that is, obviously. So, answering the question posted in the title of this feature from that perspective therefore is easy: yes. Me being one of those nerds who got fully caught up in it :)

As you can see in the image above it took me a little over… 2 years to read the entire series? I won't even begin to try and surmise. Fuck that. This is one of those occasions where being an online only magazine shows its advantages:

I sure love Arbitor Ian’s videos. They’re as short as possible without loosing heart and focus on what matters most for both of us: the personal stories that did very much help to shape the outcome of this galaxy spanning drama. Those smaller ‘episodes’ I’ll call ‘em were my favorite reads from the series by far. … Yeah. Couldn’t bring yourself to sit through the first 5 minutes of those 40, could you, eh? Lol. Here’s the gist:

You’re welcome. And, looking at it this way the answer’s probably no? Depends, doesn’t it? Spending 600 euro’s and 2 years is only a lot if fully lost is where one doesn’t want/need to be from time to time. Being fortunate enough to have the money and love to read. I am more prone than others to years of extensive side tracking perhaps, sure, but once a junkie, always a junkie, eh? At least I held on to my old fashioned Gen-X attention span, thank The Emperor. Which also helped when they released the ‘Siege of Terra’ follow-up series in the years since. And take a wild guess who just HAD to read those too..

My AOS Orc Army at one fully painted point :)

Is it the best thing I’ve ever read? No. But it doesn’t need to be. It’s escapism on the highest level. The best thing I’ve ever read must be

“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”



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Benne van der Velde

After thoroughly enjoying the Dutch slam poetry scene in the early and mid 2000s (with wins in 7 cities and eventually a place in the Nationals of 2012) and performances at the Lowlands-, Uitmarkt- and Parade festivals a/o, Benne successfully made the transition from the stage to paper by signing his first publishing deal in 2005. Since then 4 publishing houses (kleine Uil, Douane, Nadorst and Stanza) released volumes of his poetry. For a 5th (Passage) he co-edited an anthology of satirical/pamphlet poetry with fellow poets Daniel Dee and Alexis de Roode.

As a member of the artist movement ‘Het Ongeboren Idee’ he helped to organize (and was part of/presented) cultural lo-fi festivals, exhibitions, making a movie, monthly poetry stages in his hometown of Vlaardingen (Poezie in De Steeg), Rotterdam (De Poetsclub) and Nijmegen (Late Letteren Live) + a talent show for bands.

In 2002 and 2003 he studied ‘writing for performance’ at the vocational university of the Arts in the city of Utrecht (HKU) and as a result saw 3 of his theater plays make it to a stage. Writer Hiekelien van den Herik and he co-wrote a knight spectacle play complete with real choreographed sword fights, men in heavy plate armor and more great stuff like that. Theater-/enactment group Ridderspoor performed said play in 2004 and 2005 at Het Archeon, during De Kasteeldagen and at an Elfia-fantasy fair. He also gave numerous poetry and rap workshops at schools and other institutions. There were a lot of collabs too, for example voice-over work for a Rock Opera, a monumental art project for which he partnered up with the artist Erwin Adema and thrice alongside the R.J.S.O (The Rotterdam Youth Symphony Orchestra).

Benne has been an editor for several literary magazines (Krakatau, Renaissance and Op Ruwe Planken), at one time he and his wife owned a secondhand bookstore, he’s been the official poet laureate for his hometown of Vlaardingen and released his first and only Dutch rap-EP in 2011. In 2012 he rapped his way into the finals of Art Rocks. An EP with songs in English followed in 2021. A year later he started translating Dutch musical and lyrical classics from Dutch into English, and vice versa. Some of his short sci-fi and fantasy stories have found their way to medium related websites, magazines and anthology’s.

According to the poet himself rewriting his own poetry, lyrics and prose in English somehow feels like the next logical step in his career, a way to open up to the world at large. Which is both exhilarating and terrifying. So far several of these translations have been published in Bebarbar, Hare’s paw, Festivalforpoetry, Punt Volat, The Dewdrop, The Dillydoun Review and Months to Years a/o.

In everyday (some claim real) life he worked as an industrial tank cleaner, in pest control, on a garbage truck, driving a forklift, in a chemical waste facility, on a Ferry and 10 years as a bartender in a cannabis bar. At the time of writing this resume he can be found at home or in the hospital battling throat cancer. He’s been off the Herb since 2008, has a wife, 2 dogs, mild anxiety issues and likes to read every sci-fi and fantasy classic he can find.

www.linkedin.com/in/benne-van-der-velde-8b17a7296

The poet/lyricist and author Rob Chrispijn: ‘Benne writes sentences that stick; clean, dark and intense. This way a poem lasts!’

The poet Philip Hoorne on the website Poetry rapport: ‘There’s a genius hiding in Benne van der Velde, those are the Good Tidings of today. Amen.’

https://www.doubledutchmagazine.com
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