With the general release of Angron: Slave of Nuceria, as I went back over my review I realised that I had read and reviewed every single Ian St. Martin story that’s currently available from Black Library (the only exception being the short story Better Angels, which is at present only available in the event-exclusive Scions of the Emperor anthology). With that in mind I thought it was only appropriate to pull all of those reviews – as well as several interviews – together into a single post. Whether you’re thinking about picking up the new Angron novel and fancy finding out a bit more about Ian and his style, or you’ve read Angron and are keen to check out more of Ian’s Black Library stories, this is the place to come!
In the four years or so that Ian has been writing for Black Library he’s contributed an impressive range of stories and characters, across four novels, two novellas, three audio dramas and six short stories – all for either Warhammer 40,000 or the Horus Heresy Primarchs range. At a glance it feels like there’s quite an emphasis on the Chaos side of things, with some high-profile stories featuring Lucius the Eternal, Angron and Konrad Curze, but in fact those are balanced out by a range of Imperial-focused stories featuring Deathwatch, Mortifactors, Ultramarines, Iron Hands, the Adeptus Titanicus and the Astra Militarum.
What to expect
As you can see, there’s a real variety across Ian’s work in terms of the characters and factions that he’s written about. What I feel connects most of his stories, however, is a desire to dig beneath the surface of his characters to show things which haven’t tended to be covered in 40k or the Heresy before. With Lucius the Eternal, for example, he explores the psychological cost that Lucius has to pay for his immortality, as well as taking an interesting perspective on Slaaneshi excess through the lens of substance addiction. Meanwhile in his Angron stories for The Primarchs, Ian offers a never-before-seen glimpse into what might have been under other circumstances, and achieves the remarkable feat of making the World Eaters not only relatable and sympathetic but also adding a genuinely emotional arc to their overall character.
The other commonality which Ian’s stories all share is a determination to show the darkness of 40k and the Heresy with the filters well and truly removed. Whether it’s Lucius’ addictions and psychoses, Angron’s largely justified rage, Curze’s horrifying tactics, the bleak duty of the Deathwatch, the death-obsessed rituals of the Mortifactors or even the righteous anger of the Ultramarines, these stories don’t pull their punches as they explore a setting which is fundamentally grim, and deliberately focus in on that. It’s not surprising that Ian’s Chaos-focused stories plumb the darker depths of the setting, but there’s a similar tone to his Imperial stories as well, which does sometimes set them slightly apart from other authors’ approaches.
To begin to get a feel for the sorts of topics that Ian writes about and where those choices come from, the first thing I would suggest is that you check out my Author Profile interview with Ian, which I published back in August 2016 to coincide with the release of his first novel. This should give you a good grounding of what to expect, before you check out the reviews and other interviews that I’ll go through very shortly. Just on the topic of interviews, however, it’s worth pointing out that Ian was actually the inspiration for my Rapid Fire series of interviews – the very first one came about as a way to feature and discuss his novel Lucius: The Faultless Blade, and has led to over 70 interviews in the years since then!
Reviews and Interviews
Let’s now take a look at the reviews I’ve written for Ian’s stories. I’ve broken these down into four sections, beginning with his Lucius stories, to try and group them together thematically, and in each section I’ve included links to my reviews and interviews where appropriate.
Lucius the Eternal
So far Ian has released a novel, a short audio drama and two short stories featuring this well-known Chaos character and exploring what makes him tick. Coming back to these stories now, I was actually surprised at how few there were – they’ve made quite the impact on me, and it’s impressive to think how much better-defined the 40k era incarnation of Lucius is after just four stories. Let’s hope there’s going to be more of these in future.
In Wolves’ Clothing
This was Ian’s first Lucius story, appearing in the 2015 Call of Chaos Advent Calendar series, and was also the first of his stories that I read. It’s an interesting start, focusing more on the impact that Lucius has on his enemies than on his character in particular, and while it felt like Ian was still finding his feet with this it’s definitely still worth checking out.
The Embrace of Pain
Released a year later in the 2016 Advent Calendar series, this short audio drama is very much a prequel to The Faultless Blade, and nicely sets up some of the characters from that book. It’s also an opportunity to enjoy some wonderfully disgusting SFX, as befits a story about two Chaos champions battling it out.
RAPID FIRE: Ian St. Martin Talks Lucius: The Faultless Blade
This is the interview I mentioned earlier, the very first Rapid Fire interview I ever put together and a great introduction to Ian’s depiction of Lucius.
Lucius: The Faultless Blade
I’ve talked a bit already about what you can expect from this novel, with its fascinating depiction of Lucius as an addict to excess. Having seen quite a lot of Lucius in the Horus Heresy, this makes for an excellent introduction in the 40k era (he’s a character who really hadn’t been explored in 40k previously) and should appeal to anyone interested in seeing Chaos characters portrayed in more sophisticated ways than the traditional ‘evil for evil’s sake’ approach.
Lucius: Pride and Fall
While chronologically-speaking this short story is a prequel to The Faultless Blade, it’s actually pretty much a standalone piece as it’s not narratively linked to the novel. What it is, however, is a super-grim little story exploring an interesting question regarding Lucius’ powers; it’s really dark, but very well done.
Deathwatch and Mortifactors
If you’re wondering why I’ve lumped Deathwatch and Mortifactors together into a single section, it’s because two of Ian’s Deathwatch stories feature Mortifactor characters, one of whom is explored in an earlier incarnation in a separate audio drama. None of these are sequentially linked, but it’s worth considering them as a rough grouping nonetheless.
City of Ruin
One of eleven short stories originally released as individual e-shorts before being bundled together in the Deathwatch: Ignition anthology, this features a hotheaded Imperial Fist Marine in explosive action. It’s great fun, albeit best enjoyed in context of the whole anthology.
Deathwatch: Swordwind
As Ian mentions in his Author Profile interview, this short story is based on the question of what happens when a Deathwatch Marine (in this case a Mortifactor) dies and manages a nice balance between all-out action and characterful introspection. It feels as though this should be leading into a novel which doesn’t exist, but hopefully one day it will, and Ian will get the chance to tell a bigger Mortifactors story.
RAPID FIRE: Ian St. Martin Talks Taker of Heads
Check this out for some context around Ian’s Mortifactors audio drama, in terms of what you can expect from it and what influenced the writing of it. Once you’ve done that, move onto my review…
Taker of Heads
This picks up the Mortifactors character from Swordwind above and tells the story of his induction into the ranks of the Mortifactors proper, by way of a Predator-influenced jungle mission against the T’au Empire. It’s great fun in its own right, but also provides some intriguing insight into this lesser-known Chapter.
Deathwatch: Kryptman’s War
Originally published as Legends of the Dark Millennium: Deathwatch, when this novel was subsequently released as part of Deathwatch: The Omnibus it acquired a much better title so as to differentiate it from Steve Parker’s Deathwatch. Its main protagonist is Watch Captain Artemis – another Mortifactor – who will be familiar to fans of Gav Thorpe’s Deathwatch audios or the classic GW Inquisitor game.
The Horus Heresy
Ian is a relative newcomer to the Horus Heresy, but he’s nevertheless contributed some intriguing stories to the Primarchs range which are well worth checking out. As well as the stories I’ve linked out to below, there’s also the short story Better Angels which – as mentioned earlier – is currently only available in the Scions of the Emperor event-only anthology. Once that gets a wider release I’ll be sure to write a review as usual, but suffice to say it’s a Blood Angels story exploring Sanguinius’ relationship with one of his sons, through the lens of that Marine’s art.
A Lesson in Darkness
One of three Primarchs short audios released as part of the 2017 Advent Calendar series, this takes a particularly dark look at the early days of Curze’s relationship with his sons, and includes one particular moment which perfectly captures what Curze and the Night Lords are all about.
The Primarchs Audio Dramas with Robbie MacNiven, Laurie Goulding and Ian St. Martin
If you fancy getting the thoughts of all three authors who contributed Primarchs audios to the 2017 Advent Calendar, this is the interview for you. I spoke to Ian, Laurie and Robbie about their stories, the characters they feature and the audio drama medium, among other things, and there’s loads of interesting stuff in there.
Ghost of Nuceria
This one is a straight-up prequel to both Slave of Nuceria and Matt Farrer’s After Desh’ea, and is a tightly-focused little story dealing with a single moment in Angron’s history which has been referenced before but never directly shown. In my opinion it’s best read having finished Slave of Nuceria, to get the full context.
RAPID FIRE: Ian St. Martin Talks Angron: Slave of Nuceria
Once again, have a read of this to get Ian’s thoughts on what to expect from the novel, what inspired it and what Ian was hoping to achieve with it.
Angron: Slave of Nuceria
Personally I think this is probably the best of the Primarchs novels so far, a book which variously made me feel a bit ill, gave me a genuine “wait…what?!” moment, and showed me a completely new side to a Legion which I’d never thought of before. It really is that good.
Space Marines, Adeptus Titanicus and Astra Militarum
The last few stories aren’t really linked, other than by virtue of all featuring loyalist Imperial factions. As I mentioned earlier, just because they’re not about Chaos don’t think that these aren’t as dark or as brutal as the rest of Ian’s writing…
Medusan Wings
Interestingly, this was published under the name of Matt Westbrook, who it turned out was a collective pen name for at least two (that I know of) authors who have since gone on to publish work under their own name. Very much a tie-in novella, this is nonetheless and impressively crafted story which balances out the expected action with a lot of juicy characterisation for the Iron Hands as a Chapter. Well worth taking a look at.
Hunting Ground
A one-off Adeptus Titanicus short story (released as part of a March of the Titans mini-series), this depicts an exciting set-piece in which a pack of Warhound Titans take on a much larger enemy Titan. There aren’t that many Titan stories, relatively speaking, so if you’re a fan of giant war machines then this is an enjoyable addition to the canon.
RAPID FIRE: Ian St. Martin Talks Of Honour and Iron
At risk of sounding like a broken record, this quick interview offers a few little bits of detail around what can be expected from the novel, and you get the picture…
Of Honour and Iron
The fourth novel in the Space Marine Conquests series, this is a satisfying read offering a slightly different take to usual on the Ultramarines (how set in stone your opinions about Chapter identities might determine how much you appreciate that) and a really smart depiction of just how much a shock the Primaris Marines were (in-universe, I mean) when they first arrived. If you’ve ever wanted to see the darker, grittier side to the Ultramarines then this is where to find it.
Steel Daemon
One of ten novellas released together as the Black Library Novella Series 1, this features a hapless Imperial airman forced into battle as an impromptu tanker – crewing the Imperial Son – against the horrifying forces of the Crimson Slaughter. It’s a gritty, brutal depiction of the hellish reality of crewing an Imperial tank, complete with the Crimson Slaughter’s perspective as well, and as long as you don’t mind your 40k stories truly bleak then it’s definitely worth reading.
***
So there you have it – every one of Ian St. Martin’s currently-available Black Library stories reviewed, alongside various interviews talking about his work. Hopefully that’s given you a good overview of the sort of stories Ian has contributed so far; I’ve certainly enjoyed all of them, and in doing so gained a newfound respect for, or interest in, various characters or factions which I hadn’t really spent much time with in the past. I’ll do my best to keep this article up to date as and when new stories are released, as well!
Let me know in the comments below if you’ve got any thoughts or questions about any of the stories included here, or alternatively come find me on Facebook or Twitter and kick off the conversation there.