For her debut Black Library story Maria Haskins tackles a tale of desperation, sacrifice and familial bonds within the Imperial Guard in The Jagged Edge. Sergeant Aurelia Shale and her squad of Keplerian Scrappers are sent on a dangerous mission to infiltrate and destroy an enemy-held manufactorum, approaching through tunnels in the mountains of Kepler-Gamma. Accompanying them is Commissar Theodora Shale, Aurelia’s sister – in the darkness beneath the Jagged Edge, Aurelia must contend with not just the heretic cultists of the enemy but her painful memories of a once-close sibling who abandoned her long ago and never really returned.
It’s a powerful, character-driven story with a strong sense of both external and internal conflict, as Haskins effortlessly balances the physical danger of the mission with Aurelia’s painful emotional struggle to deal with the cold, distant presence of her sister. The Scrappers’ journey through the mountain and inevitable clash with the heretics is tense and claustrophobic, as bloody and brutal as any Imperial Guard story – not least because they’re fighting for their homeworld – but the heart of the story comes from exploring what drives Aurelia to succeed, and how Theo’s presence brings their shared history to the fore. Characterful, compelling, it’s everything that a low-key, squad-level Guard story should be.
