Inferno! Volume 5 – Black Library Anthology

After the name was resurrected by Black Library in 2018 for an ongoing series of short story anthologies (as opposed to the original bi-monthly magazines), Inferno! has now reached Volume 5 – featuring 12 brand new tales of action, adventure, death and destruction. With a mix of established BL authors and newer names, these stories span Warhammer 40,000, Age of Sigmar, Warcry and Necromunda, ranging from pitched battles to struggles with very personal daemons, and from hardened warriors to weary healers. Whatever your interest in Warhammer and Black Library, chances are there’s a story or two for you here – and all 12 are brand new and never previously released, too.

This volume follows the format for the previous four pretty closely, with a mixture of settings and styles, but is notable for a few things. For a start, it contains a higher than usual proportion of new(ish) authors. While Ben Counter, Guy Haley and Graeme Lyon are BL stalwarts, this features Marc Collins’ and Michael R. Fletcher’s third BL stories respectively, second stories from Rob J. Hayes, Gavin G. Smith and Anna Stephens, and debuts for Ben Galley, Sean Grigsby, Gareth Hanrahan and Gary Kloster. With most of the newer names established fantasy/SF authors in their own rights, the result is an impressive selection of fresh (to Black Library) and assured voices, lending the anthology a real sense of variety – including a pair of remarkably un-40k-like 40k stories (think feudal worlds, crossbows, trebuchets and the like) from Smith and Hanrahan.

Perhaps it’s the strange times during which this anthology is released, but it also feels notably dark, even for Black Library. Galley’s Age of Sigmar-set Mournclaw is a tale of bad decision following bad decision; Fletcher’s No Matter the Cost follows a man pushed to the very brink (and over) by loss and heartache; Grigsby’s 40k portmanteau Best Death Wins sees a trio of troopers swap stories of the ‘best’ death they’ve witnessed; and Collins’ Respite’s End is as unintentionally well-timed as you could imagine – a tale of plague sweeping an Imperial world and revealing the darkness lurking within. Some, like Stephens’ River of Death and Lyons’ Trail of Ash (both for Age of Sigmar), resolve in relatively positive fashion and link out to other, existing stories, while Kloster’s Curse of the Lucky nails the trademark Necromunda tone just right to provide something ever so slightly more hopeful.

All 12 authors contribute such strong, enjoyable stories – despite the darkness – that it’s hard to pick out any highlights, however opener Watchers of Battle, a brutal gore-fest in Archaon’s name, is a welcome return to form for Ben Counter; Gareth Hanrahan’s debut Castle of the Exile harks back to vintage, bleak, early BL stories; and Hayes’ black-humoured No Quarter adds a welcome note of (admittedly dark) wit to proceedings. Meanwhile a feeling of change comes with the climactic (and satisfying) finale to Haley’s five-part At the Sign of the Brazen Claw story, and the first half of Smith’s two-part The Last Knight (one of the aforementioned un-40k-like stories, which sets things up nicely for the conclusion next time around), while Respite’s End suggests promises great things should Collins be given free rein to tell more stories with these factions. All told, it’s another excellent volume of Inferno! which suggests the future is bright with BL’s latest crop of authors.

Here’s the contents list:

• Watchers of Battle by Ben Counter
• No Quarter by Rob J. Hayes
• Mournclaw by Ben Galley
• The Lost Knight Part One by Gavin G. Smith
• River of Death by Anna Stephens
• Respite’s End by Marc Collins
• No Matter the Cost by Michael R. Fletcher
• Curse of the Lucky by Gary Kloster
• Best Death Wins by Sean Grigsby
• Trail of Ash by Graeme Lyon
• Caste of the Exile by Gareth Hanrahan
• At the Sign of the Brazen Claw Part Five: The Hounds of Nagash by Guy Haley

Click here to order Inferno! Volume 5.