From Humble Beginnings: 40k Short Stories That Deserve Their Own Series

There’s a long history in Black Library fiction – and Warhammer 40,000 in particular – of characters who started off in short story form and went on to bigger things. From the early Inferno! days of Gaunt’s Ghosts and the Last Chancers, to Severina Raine and Sister Augusta more recently, characters who started off in a single short story have regularly gone on to feature in novels and novellas of their own, or simply long-running series of short stories. I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some recent-ish 40k short stories and pick out a few which seem ripe for developing into longer stories, and whose characters (or settings) could go on to be the fan-favourites of the future.

There’s obviously a huge catalogue of 40k stories from Black Library and I’m sure loads of them would be equally suited to follow-ons, but I’ve chosen to focus on stories from the last year or two – I think the earliest one is from December 2018. I’ve also made sure to only choose stories which aren’t already part of wider series (so no Peter Fehervari, for example). These are just my personal choices of course, and I’ve no idea whether the authors have any intentions of following on from their stories, but I would certainly love to see them extended!

Have a read through this list, and definitely check out these stories if you haven’t already – then let me know if you agree, or if there are other stories you would like to see carried on!

Voice of Experience by J.C. Stearns
You might never have realised that what you really needed to read was a 40k buddy cop/procedural drama featuring an odd-couple duo of a human auxiliary and T’au diplomat…but after reading JC Stearns’ Voice of Experience it’s clear that this is exactly what’s needed! Aside from being a fantastically written and deeply satisfying story in its own right, this story introduces a pair of brilliant characters in Captain Kalice Arkady and Water Caste liaison Por’ui Fi’rios Kau’kartyr (otherwise known as Kartyr) who have an instantly engaging relationship that’s just crying out for developing further.

As a trusted, high-ranking gue’vesa, Arkady offers an intriguing – and, crucially, human – perspective on the T’au Empire that I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen anywhere before. The best T’au stories explore the tension between the outwardly calm and beneficent facade of this young race and the sinister strand of darkness that lies beneath the surface, and these characters seem tailor-made to provide a really interesting angle on that, with Arkady’s position offering her a crossover human/T’au viewpoint.

If the Warhammer Crime imprint wasn’t restricted to only telling stories set on Varangantua I would say that these characters would be ideal additions to the range – as it is, even if they can’t feature in that specific range, they’re tailor-made for investigative crime stories of some sort. Despite a few recent additions to the range, there’s still a noticeable lack of xenos-focused Black Library novels, and I could see these characters working brilliantly in a longer format. Alternatively, there’s a long history of detective short stories, and I would be just as happy reading a series of shorter adventures from Arkady and Kartyr! One way or another, these characters deserve more time in the spotlight.

Check out my review of Voice of Experience.

The Jagged Edge by Maria Haskins
Black Library have undoubtedly published quite a few Imperial Guard (ok, if you must…Astra Militarum) stories over the years, but in my personal opinion there’s no upper limit to how many of these there should be! After all, while Space Marines and xenos and whatnot are all cool, your average guardsman-or-woman is naturally more relatable than a super-soldier or an ancient alien. Of all the recent-ish Guard short stories, I would suggest that The Jagged Edge – a tale of familial bonds tested in the crucible of a dangerous infiltration mission – has the most potential for expanding into something longer.

This is a fantastic, character-driven story that packs a lot of backstory and emotional content into an action-packed tale of squad-level bravery and danger. At its heart is the dynamic between its protagonist – Sergeant Aurelia Shale of the Keplerian 23rd – and her sister Theodora, the two of whom were once close before Theo left to join the Commissariat. Now they’re unhappily reunited and working uncomfortably together on what looks increasingly like a suicide mission. That particular dynamic resolves over the course of the story, but in Aurelia there’s a character with tremendous potential for future storytelling.

By the end of the story, everything is set up nicely for further development of Aurelia’s character, and likewise the already-interesting Keplerian Scrappers regiment (everyone loves a cool Guard regiment, right?) and the ongoing conflict on their home planet. Rachel Harrison’s Severina Raine stories have already shown that there’s an audience for more character-driven (and female-focused) Guard fiction – it doesn’t start and finish with Gaunt’s Ghosts! – and this has everything you’d need to be the next great example. I’d love to see more about Aurelia, whatever the format, and more from Maria Haskins!

Check out my review of The Jagged Edge.

Champions, All by Marc Collins
Despite being a consistently popular Chapter of Space Marines for a lot of 40k fans, the Black Templars have never really had much of the Black Library spotlight beyond Helsreach (which was published ten years ago!) – and surely that needs to change at some point. Marc Collins’ short story Champions, All certainly suggests that there’s plenty of potential for great stories featuring the crusading Templars, but more than that it combines Black Templars with Sisters of Battle to great effect and nicely demonstrates some of the interesting ideas that come up when these two factions are thrown together.

After all, both the Templars and the Sisters build their worldview almost entirely around faith in the Emperor, but they take rather different approaches to the idea – so putting the two together provides a fantastic opportunity to explore the ways in which they both complement and contrast with each other. It’s not a pairing that has been featured much so far (at least, not as far as I’m aware), but the combination of Emperor’s Champion Cenric and Sister Penance works really well, the two characters very different in so many respects yet driven by similar needs.

I’m trying to avoid spoilers here, but let’s just say that these exact two characters might not end up together in future stories, but their relationship in this particular story sets things up nicely for further development of the factions involved, at least. I mean, I’d be happy with another series focusing on either of these factions, whatever the format, but in an ideal world it would be great to see the Templars/Sisters combination carry on!

Check out my review of Champions, All.

Motherlode and The Last of the Longhorns by Nick Kyme
Like Rogue Traders, Men of Iron and Ambulls, Ratlings are cool elements of 40k that hadn’t historically been explored much through Black Library stories until Blackstone Fortress came along and provided a perfect setting for telling stories about them. All of the BSF stories have been cool, and obviously Janus Draik has had quite a bit of page time now, but the Ratling twins Rein and Raus are surely next on the list if – and this is potentially quite a big if – BSF as a setting continues to be supported by BL.

I’m slightly cheating here because there are actually two short stories about these characters already. After reading Motherlode I’d have said I would be happy to read more about the lovable (read: larcenous and devious) scamps, but then The Last of the Longhorns went ahead and added in so much depth to their backstory that now I think it would positively be a crime if Nick Kyme didn’t get to write more of their stories. There’s so little humour in 40k that I’m often inclined to jump on any little glimpse of it no questions asked, but Rein and Raus provide a brilliant opportunity to mix humour, pathos, action and adventure all in one.

This is probably quite a strong claim to make, but I would say that the Ratling twins are some of the most instantly-entertaining 40k characters I’ve read about for a long time. It helps that BSF is just a brilliant setting, but even the strongest setting means nothing without great characters, and these two are just such a lot of fun. Even if BSF as a setting ceases to be supported, the Imperium is a big place with plenty of opportunities for a pair of adventurous Ratlings, and there will always be a need for a little bit of humour in 40k. Personally, I’d love to see an ongoing series of short stories featuring these characters – or maybe even audio dramas!

Check out my reviews of Motherlode and The Last of the Longhorns.

Divine Sanction and Iron Sight by Robert Rath
Once again I’m cheating a little bit, as Robert Rath has already written more than one of these stories – in fact, while I’ve been putting this article together a third one has been announced. Still, the Officio Assassinorum is one of the coolest elements of the Imperium’s armed forces, and the more stories about Imperial Assassins the better! The two that have been released so far have both been excellent, putting their protagonists in interesting situations and giving them a lot of work to do in order to fulfil their missions, and both stories felt to me like they were introducing characters in anticipation of further development.

So far we’ve seen a Callidus (Sycorax – returning for Live Wire in December) and a Vindicare (Absolom Raithe), so I’m really hoping Rob is going to give at least the Eversor and Culexus temples the same sort of treatment. Wouldn’t it be cool to see some of the less common assassin types get their own stories too, though? Vanus and Venenum assassins, anyone? I know they’re not as well-known, or perhaps as flashy, but surely there must be all sorts of interesting opportunities for storytelling with assassins whose skills lean towards the subtler end of the spectrum.

From the first couple of these stories, there’s no question in my mind that I want to know more about these characters. I’m not sure if I’d like to see them (and others) team up for a sort of ‘Execution Force’ mission requiring the whole gang – we’ve had that already in Joe Parrino’s novella, appropriately titled Execution Force – or whether I think they would be better suited to multiple individual missions, but I do know that I’d like to see more about how and why assassins are deployed. Not just what happens on each mission, but what sort of situation requires the intervention of an assassin, and what the end result is. Whether as a full novel or a collection of stories bound up in one volume, I’m sure there must be all sorts of cool opportunities there!

Check out my reviews of Divine Sanction and Iron Sight.

Last Flight by Edoardo Albert
No more cheating from me, but I’ve picked this story for a different reason to the others. Its main character, Pilot Commander Baruch Neriah, makes for a strong protagonist, but what I really loved about this story is the world on which it’s set. Sagaraya is a water world, and the battle for control of the waves is fought using fleet carriers and aircraft, making for a super-cool blend of 40k and real-world air combat/naval warfare. As if that wasn’t enough, Albert’s depiction of the realities of life for bomber crew is utterly compelling, and likewise the dangers of flying over literally endless, unchanging waters.

There’s just so much to explore in these ideas, and Last Flight does a fantastic job of bringing them to life in as much detail as can be managed in a single short story. Albert has a great handle on regular, human characters like Neriah and his crew, which helps ground everything and provides a nice sense of realism to balance out the usual 40k-isms, making the conflict in this story as much about retaining control of an aircraft as fighting the enemy outside its fuselage. Dan Abnett’s Double Eagle might be the standard by which all 40k air combat stories are judged, but in my opinion Last Flight can stand comfortably alongside it!

Inevitably though, there’s only so much that one story can cover. I remember finishing this and just being desperate to know more about Sagaraya and how the Imperium fights on a world covered entirely by oceans, and to spend more time within the cockpit of one of these aircraft. Given that this is just one small glimpse of a much larger, wider conflict, there’s more than enough scope for a longer story set during the battle for Sagaraya. Given how much I’ve enjoyed all of Albert’s Black Library stories so far, I can’t help thinking a full novel would be a thing of beauty!

Check out my review of Last Flight.

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So there you go – my personal choices of 40k short stories that I’d like to see extended into series (or at least longer stories). Do I think that Black Library will commission these authors to write more about these characters and settings? I don’t know, to be honest. I certainly hope so, and I would definitely want to buy and read them if that did happen!

What do you think? Have you read these stories too – and do you agree with me? Are there other BL short stories that you simply loved, and are desperate to see more of? Let me know in the comments below, or find me on Twitter and let’s bounce some ideas around!

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