For my fourth and final article looking back at the best Black Library releases from the first half of 2019 – after looking at novels, audio dramas and short stories – this time I’m picking out my favourite anthologies published between January and June. While some of the other categories have been pretty tricky, this one was less of a tough choice, simply because there hasn’t been anywhere near as many anthologies released in 2019 as novels. I’m a huge fan of short story anthologies, however, so I think it’s definitely worth looking at a few of the best of these as well – if nothing else, they help demonstrate the sheer breadth of storytelling available to Black Library fans!
As with the previous three posts, bear in mind that this is entirely subjective – these are my personal favourites, not so much because of the objective quality they contain but simply because they feature the stories I’ve enjoyed the most. I’ve read most of the stories from the majority of the anthologies which Black Library have published this year, and there’s been an impressive amount of variety in terms of styles, settings, characters, themes and so on. If you’ve read my article about the best short stories then you’ll see some overlap here – with one anthology in particular – but this isn’t just a rehash of the same material. After all, a great anthology might not contain one incredible story but rather feature lots of consistently good stories, while an otherwise unexceptional anthology might still contain one absolute gem of a story.
In the case of the three anthologies I’ve chosen here, they each provide a broad view across the subject matter they feature, as in my opinion that’s the mark of a great anthology. There might be short stories elsewhere which I think are worth highlighting as some of the best individual stories in their own right, but these three anthologies – as well as the honourable mentions I’ve picked out below – are consistently great. As usual I’ve included an excerpt from each of my reviews (or in one case from a multi-author interview) and a link to my review for each of the top three choices.
Track of Words’ Top Choice – Inferno! Volume 2
Much like the first volume, this anthology features a wide range of stories from lots of different authors, from bitter Space Marines to conflicted drukhari, and from cunning skaven to aquatic sylvaneth. It features the Black Library debuts for several authors – Thomas Parrott, Robert Charles and Jamie Crisalli (plus the BL print debut for Jaine Fenn) – alongside a couple of names we’ve seen once or twice before, in the shape of Miles A. Drake and JC Stearns. Of course there are some Black Library regulars featured here too, with stories from Guy Haley, Peter Fehervari, Steve Lyons and CL Werner.
2018’s Inferno! Volume 1 reintroduced the concept of Inferno! for modern readers, in the shape of a regular paperback anthology instead of the original bi-monthly magazine, but maintaining the core concept of featuring a variety of authors both new and established writing stories across a range of settings. I was very excited, it was awesome, I couldn’t wait for the next instalment…and to my absolute lack of surprise Inferno! Volume 2 was also awesome! While it ‘only’ featured 40k and Age of Sigmar stories (compared to the four different settings in v1) it nevertheless covered a lot of ground – of the five 40k stories, for example, it features two sets of (highly unconventional) Space Marines, a lost Imperial Guard squad, an unusually independent Skitarius and a pair of drukhari brothers…so there should be something there to please pretty much anyone.
If you read my short story article then you’ll notice that two of the stories I mentioned were featured in Inferno! Volume 2, but to be honest I could have included almost all of them and still been satisfied that I was recommending genuinely great stories! Even the one story which I wasn’t entirely sold on still does a great job of demonstrating the scope of crazy stuff going on in the Mortal Realms. Taken as a whole this is an anthology genuinely packed full of great stories, introducing some new names to watch out for as well as the more established authors you might expect – including a new Peter Fehervari story which is ALWAYS something to celebrate. Not only that, but it’s available in paperback to give it as wide an appeal and low cost of entry as possible. If you enjoy Black Library short stories then you owe it to yourself to check this out.
Check out my quick reviews of all of the stories featured in Inferno! Volume 2 here.
Click here to check out Inferno! Volume 2 – in the Authors’ Words.
Gods & Mortals
Over a whopping 400+ pages Gods & Mortals collects together eighteen short stories into an impressive anthology, eight of which are brand new while the other ten are drawn from those previously-published tales. Eighteen stories, nine authors, and lots to enjoy. There’s a remarkable amount of variety here with stories exploring different realms, factions and characters, from the highest peak of Azyr to the haunted depths of Shadespire, and (as the title suggests) from the gods themselves to humble mortal warriors.
This one is slightly different as it’s purely Age of Sigmar, but it’s still packed full of variety and is consistently excellent from start to finish. There are a couple of absolute standouts within its pages – not least the garrulous Force of Personality – but every story is excellent, whether featuring Neferata’s political machinations, the twisted honour of the Order of the Fly, witch hunters of the Order of Azyr or even Sigmar and Alarielle themselves. There’s also a decent balance between stories previously released as digital e-shorts and brand new stories first published here, which helps it appeal to as wide an audience as possible. It was originally released in hardback, which might be a tough sell for some fans (£18 does feel like a lot to pay for a short story anthology), but now the paperback edition is out there’s really no excuse for any Age of Sigmar not to pick this up!
Check out my review of Gods & Mortals here.
Maledictions
Readers hoping for outright jump scares or brutal gore-fests might not find what they’re after here, as these stories offer characterful, psychological drama more than full-on shock factor. Think of them as your usual Black Library fare but with the horror elements which are almost always present in these settings (mostly) subtly brought to the fore. It’s an anthology which suits the Warhammer Horror label by virtue of tackling characters, situations and themes which might not normally have been the main focus in ‘traditional’ Warhammer stories.
I chose that snippet of my review for a reason; while this anthology might not go as far into the horror genre as some readers might have hoped, it’s still packed full of fascinating stories from a diverse group of authors (including a few new-to-BL names) which do a great job of broadening the horizons of what a Warhammer story can be. I feel like it represents BL testing the water, trying out a few things which gently move away from the usual style just to see what the audience reaction is going to be. Personally I think there are some fabulous stories in here – The Widow Tide, Predations of the Eagle, The Marauder Lives and The Nothings could all easily have made my list of top short stories – and as a whole I had a total blast reading it. My guess would be that the next Warhammer Horror anthology, Invocations, will push things a little further.
Check out my review of Maledictions here.
Honourable mentions
By now you probably know the drill – I’ve picked out a few of the other anthologies released so far in 2019 to highlight as being well worth checking out as well. In no particular order…
Sons of the Emperor and Scions of the Emperor – ok, I’m cheating a bit here by going for two books in one, but they’re both event-only Primarchs anthologies featuring short, characterful stories which take slightly unusual approaches compared to Heresy novels. Sons of the Emperor is now also available more widely, so expect Scions to get a full release probably early 2020.
Inferno! Volume 3 – to be honest this almost made the top three, only really dropping off because I haven’t actually finished it yet! So far every story has been great, it’s featured a Blood Bowl story which is always a plus in my book, and it’s well on the way to continuing the trend of these new Inferno! anthologies featuring some of the best short fiction that Black Library is producing at the moment.
Underhive – featuring a novella, seven short stories previously published as e-shorts and two brand new short stories, if you have even the slightest interest in Necromunda as a setting then my advice would be to go out and buy this book RIGHT NOW. The standouts for me are probably Mike Brooks’ novella and short story, but those are very much the cream of a fantastic crop.
It’s been a good year for Black Library fans so far, and if you’ve read my previous articles on the best novels, audio dramas and short stories published from January to June then alongside this anthologies article you’ll have seen all of my personal favourites. If you haven’t, do check those previous articles out!
If you’ve read some or all of these anthologies and have got any comments, or would like to share with me what your own top three would be, please do get in touch and let me know! You can leave a comment below, or find me on Twitter or Facebook.
You may want to revise your Infernal rating after finishing the third issue. Empra was, as far as I am concerned, the best story of a very qualitative anthology. I’m really looking forward to the second Warhammer Horror anthology, to get the chance to read the Gray’s, Mclean’s and Harrison’s recent offerings.