In the creepily titled short story Casts A Hungry Shadow, Peter Fehervari weaves a dark, apocalyptic story set between the prologue and the main body of his novel Legends of the Dark Millennium: Genestealer Cults. On the troubled world of Redemption, two rival cults each seek out a newly-revealed power for their own ends, gathering their forces and striking out to lay their claims. The worshippers of wildly different gods, both are equally horrifying in their appearance and ideals…
If you’re not familiar with Fehervari’s style it’s dark and sinister and perfect for this sort of story. Here he has the chance to stray from the normal Black Library template, with characters and a setting that feel rooted in 40k but equally informed by wider influences, from Mad Max to psychological horror films. This is 40k with almost all of the familiar elements removed, and it’s glorious! It’s like Fehervari has melded the atmosphere and creativity of the early Ian Watson-era stories with the more modern storytelling of today, and created a wonderful hybrid (geddit?!) of the two, full of invention and wide-eyed excitement. Grim and dark even by 40k standards, it’s definitely not your usual Black Library fare…but it’s fantastic nonetheless!
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