Another month gone by, another month’s worth of reviews to look back on and pick a few highlights to round up. I’ve slightly slowed down in terms of writing and posting reviews on here, but there’s still been plenty of great stories to choose from. In fact, so many of the stories I read in May were genuinely excellent that it was quite a tough decision to pick just one as an overall highlight…but I managed, just about! I’ve also picked out a couple more choices that deserve a mention, as usual, and as with last month all three are from Black Library. It’s perhaps no surprise that two of them are Age of Sigmar stories, as I’ve been making a concerted effort to catch up on stories set in the Mortal Realms.
For my top pick from May’s reviews I’ve gone for an Age of Sigmar novel that I’d been interested in reading for quite some time – Overlords of the Iron Dragon by CL Werner. I’m gradually working my way through the Age of Sigmar novels (largely) in publication order, and after the ten Stormcast-centric novels in the Realmgate Wars series, along with Josh Reynolds’ Plague Garden, I must confess I was feeling a bit of Stormcast fatigue. Werner’s previous two Age of Sigmar novels (Wardens of the Everqueen and Lord of Undeath) were entertaining enough, but not outstanding, but I’ve got great memories of reading some of his old-school Warhammer novels, so I was hoping that Overlords, exploring something fresh and new in the Kharadron Overlords, would be more like classic Werner than those previous two. After speaking to Clint in a quick Rapid Fire interview (which you can read here, or by clicking the banner below) I was feeling good about it…
Happily, I can confirm that classic Werner is very much present and correct in Overlords, which is from start to finish a hugely entertaining read, and a reminder that Warhammer stories don’t have to feature vast armies and pitched battles. In fact, the Mortal Realms offer more opportunities than ever for inventive, imaginative stories – such as the story of a steampunk-ish dwarf (ok, duardin) sky-captain whose merchant airship and its crew have fallen on hard times, and who pursue a risky opportunity to find their fortune without realising they’re being manipulated as part of a sneaky Tzeentchian plot. Oh, and a two-headed Chaos dragon is involved in there somewhere, too.
I mean, what’s not to like about that idea? Thankfully, it’s the sort of story – and featuring the sort of characters – that fits Werner’s style like a glove. Okay, there’s no skaven in there (sadly) and it’s not as dark as some of his best Old World stories were, but there’s an awful lot to like, and it definitely feels like a return to the sort of wildly imaginative and entertaining stories that we used to see so often from this author. I’d actually say that Age of Sigmar is a perfect playground for Werner, as there’s so much more that can be done, and so much room for wild exploration, than there ever was in the Old World.
It’s not even a complete departure from old school Warhammer, as there are plenty of familiar elements from gold-hungry dwarfs (albeit interestingly adjusted) to typically twisty Chaos plots. There’s even a slightly similar feel to some of the Gotrek and Felix stories which feature Malakai Makaisson’s airship. The core concept of dwarf merchants on a quest for redemption could easily have worked in the Old World, but with the scope of Age of Sigmar it can just go in bigger, grander directions – in this case up into the sky, exploring a little of what it’s like to live and work on board a Kharadron Ironclad. Whether you’re overtly interested in the Kharadron Overlords or not, I’m pretty sure that any Warhammer fan will find something to enjoy with this book.
As usual I’ve also picked a couple of extra stories which I think deserve honourable mentions. To begin with I’ll stick with the Age of Sigmar theme, and talk about the short story The Sea Taketh by David Guymer, which is notable for being the first Black Library story to feature the seriously creepy Idoneth Deepkin. There’s something really sinister about this brand new faction, and Guymer does an excellent job of bringing that sense of mystery and menace to life in a story which, ironically, has a Kharadron character at its heart.
It’s essentially a classic ‘you really shouldn’t have done that’ story where the protagonist – in this case the unlucky Ingdrin Jonsson – goes looking for lost treasure and winds up regretting his greed when creatures of whispered myth come to take it back. There’s some really interesting depictions of life in this particular mortal realm, including a few throwaway references which have got fans quite excited (I won’t spoil it – read the story), and while the Idoneth are kept at a remove for some of the time in order to build suspense, when they do show up they’re utterly deadly, and really quite creepy. It’s definitely worth checking out if you’re even a little bit interested in Age of Sigmar.
My last pick from May’s reviews is a brand new 40k short story from a brand new Black Library author – Baphomet By Night by Peter McLean. Now, I’ve read a lot of 40k stories over the years, but never before have I read anything which has made me feel quite so ill as one scene in this story did. That’s not a criticism, by the way – this is SUPER dark and makes for pretty uncomfortable reading in some places, but it’s entirely 40k-appropriate. This is a story about Guardsmen sent to a world where the war is theoretically over but where the enemy prove to still be very much a threat, where the darkness is literally ever-present, and where circumstances force the characters into dealing with a horrifying situation and making appalling choices.
It’s not even all that violent, as the darkness and the discomfort come from watching characters go through hell – physically, yes, but emotionally as well. It’s an aspect of 40k that’s always there to a certain extent, but here is explored head on and with characters who are human enough to be very relatable…which obviously makes everything that much more powerful. Imagine one of the smaller-scale Gaunt’s Ghosts stories, only where the darkness and the death levels are ramped up to 11 and you know right from the outset that nobody is safe. It’s a phenomenal debut, and suggests that McLean is going to be one to watch for anyone who likes their 40k stories to really go hard on the grimdark.
So those are my three top picks for May’s Monthly Highlights – Overlords of the Iron Dragon as my overall highlight, with honourable mentions for The Sea Taketh and Baphomet By Night. I’d love to know what you thought of these stories if you’ve read any of them, so let me know in the comments below or on Facebook or Twitter. I’ll hopefully write another one of these posts at the start of July, looking back at what I’ve read and reviewed in June!