Black Library’s third Warhammer Horror short story anthology, Anthemas follows in the footsteps of Maledictions and Invocations not just in terms of the naming convention and visual design, but by offering up a compelling collection of low-key tales highlighting the strange, sinister fringes of the 40k and Age of Sigmar universes. Across fourteen stories from thirteen authors, all but two of which are published here for the first time, it’s an exploration of characters driven by fear and desperation, ordinary people just trying to survive in the midst of terrible, horrifying worlds. These are stories to unsettle, that keep you wondering where they’re going and leave you feeling uncomfortable afterwards.
The anthology breaks down into nine 40k stories and five Age of Sigmar tales, featuring the usual mixture of Black Library stalwarts – David Annandale, Justin D. Hill, Darius Hinks, CL Werner – and newer names. There are three BL debuts (for James Forster, Tim Waggoner and John Goodrich) – four if you include Alan Bao, whose story Runner was previously released as an e-short – and a welcome return for Paul Kearney, alongside returning appearances for Warhammer Horror regulars Lora Gray, Jake Ozga, Richard Strachan and Nicholas Wolf. Of the stories, only two are what you might call ‘war stories’ – Mud and Mist by John Goodrich and Bao’s Runner, both Imperial Guard pieces – while the rest feature ‘ordinary’ citizens: families, priests, witch hunters, musicians, nobles; all manner of characters who inhabit the ‘domestic’ spaces of these settings.
It’s perhaps the strongest of the Warhammer Horror anthologies so far, every story darkly compelling and some taking unexpected directions (Hinks’ music-inspired A Threnody for Kolchev) or stylings (Hill’s second-person Hab Fever Lockdown) for Warhammer stories. As per the usual Warhammer Horror approach the emphasis is on unsettling stories and creeping horror rather than jump scares or outright gore – Waggoner’s Skin Man and Forster’s Vox Daemonicus are probably the most physically shudder-inducing, while most of the rest focus on psychological trauma (Gray’s These Hands, These Wings) and personal stories of fear (Wolf’s Miracles), retribution (Annandale’s A Deep and Steady Tread), madness (Strachan’s Voices in the Glass) and the like.
Part of this anthology’s strength, though, is how far removed it is from the tabletop details of these worlds – with barely a mention across the stories of daemons, Space Marines, Chaos gods or the like, these are simply great character-led stories. None of these tales tie in with existing stories or series in the range, so there’s no required reading or sense of needing to know anything before getting started, and while there’s Warhammer texture aplenty to reward long-term fans, there should be very little that readers new to the settings can’t follow – which is surely the point of Warhammer Horror! All told, whether you’re a regular Black Library reader or not there’s a lot to enjoy – if enjoy is the right word, for these sorts of stories – in this anthology.
Here’s the contents list:
- Hab Fever Lockdown by Justin D. Hill
- Suffer the Vision by Jake Ozga
- A Threnody for Kolchev by Darius Hinks
- These Hands, These Wings by Lora Gray
- Vox Daemonicus by James Forster
- Skin Man by Tim Waggoner
- A Deep and Steady Tread by David Annandale
- The Thing in the Woods by Paul Kearney
- Mud and Mist by John Goodrich
- The Shadow Crown by CL Werner
- Runner by Alan Bao
- Miracles by Nicholas Wolf
- Voices in the Glass by Richard Strachan
- The Funeral by Darius Hinks
