Day Five of 2017’s Black Library Summer of Reading campaign
The book trade is a dangerous business, at least in Josh Reynolds’ Age of Sigmar short story Auction of Blood. Palem Bok, bookseller and spy, is tasked with attending an auction of rare items and acquiring what turns out to be a remarkably dangerous artefact for his mistress, the Mortarch Neferata. Danger abounds in the streets and houses of Greywater Fastness, and in order to complete his mission Bok must exercise all of the caution, judgement and skill a bookseller needs, along with a judicious serving of violence and death.
There’s a lot to like in this story, not least a generous helping of Reynolds’ trademark dry wit – after all, when did you last come across a bookseller as a protagonist (Corso in Perez-Reverte’s The Dumas Club perhaps)? Humour notwithstanding this also offers a glimpse into another interesting location within the Mortal Realms, away from Stormcasts and Blood Reavers, not to mention a few details regarding Neferata and her role in Age of Sigmar. Bok makes for an engaging and drily likeable protagonist, and other than an occasional splurge of blunt exposition it’s all nicely paced and thoroughly enjoyable. If Spear of Shadows (Reynolds’ upcoming novel, to which this is linked) carries on in this vein it looks like we’re in for a treat!
