Welcome to December’s Monthly Roundup here on Track of Words, the final article I’m going to post in 2020! As usual I’ll take a look back over the last month in terms of what I’ve been writing about on ToW, and what I’ve been reading. For the second month running I’ve posted a review, author interview or blog article every day this month (it’s become something of a tradition for each November and December), so there’s lots to talk about here. I’ll take a quick look at each piece of content and provide links out to all of them so you can take a longer look if you’re interested, then write up a few overall thoughts for a general update on the month’s reading and writing.
I’m always interested to know what you think, so once you’ve read through the article, do let me know if there’s anything you’d like to see more or less of!
Reviews
Thirteen reviews this month, which is a tally I’m pretty pleased with! To be fair, seven of those were quick short story reviews, but the remaining six were for novels or novellas, and that’s a pretty unusual review ratio for a December. Check out the General Update section later on for a bit more info on why that’s unusual, and click the images for each of the stories below to read my reviews in full.
Spark of Revolution by Gary Kloster – an entertaining and surprisingly characterful Necromunda novella about an ogryn slave rebellion.
QUICK REVIEW: Death by a Thousand Gnaw-Bites by David Guymer – skaven vs skaven in this fun little Age of Sigmar short story.
Downdraught by Gareth L. Powell – a sci-fi/horror novella with links to some of Powell’s earlier short stories.
QUICK REVIEW: Battle of the Archaeosaurs by Barrington J. Bayley – Titans vs dinosaurs (yes, really!) in this short story from the early days of Black Library.
QUICK REVIEW: The Shaper of Scars by Marc Collins – a Fenrisian Rogue Trader lies on death’s door in this fantastic 40k short story.
QUICK REVIEW: A Coin for the Carrion Thieves by John French – return to the story of Ahriman (and Ctesias) in the wake of Ahriman: Unchanged.
The Reverie by Peter Fehervari – a slow-burn, sinister tale of secrets, dreams and Space Marines that truly merits the Warhammer Horror label.
QUICK REVIEW: There’s a Giant Trapdoor Spider Under Your Bed by Edgar Cantero – night-time terrors during a children’s sleepover in this bonkers, imaginative, laugh-out-loud short story.
QUICK REVIEW: Live Wire by Robert Rath – watch as a Callidus Assassin takes the fight to the horrifying forces of the Dark Mechanicus in this Officio Assassinorum short story.
Garen: First Shield by Anthony Reynolds – the first ever League of Legends novella, and an action-packed tale of duty and determination.
QUICK REVIEW: His Will by Guy Haley – a prequel short story to Haley’s Dark Imperium novels, this takes a look at a younger incarnation of Frater Mathieu.
Wild Rider by Gav Thorpe – book two in the Rise of the Ynnari series, this time featuring the Wild Riders of Saim Hann and the implacable Necrons.
The Harrowing of Doom by David Annandale – a bold, cinematic vision of Doctor Doom as the protagonist of a story about iron will and the mixture of sorcery and technology.
Author interviews
A quieter month on the interview front (after November’s 10 interviews), but still lots of great-sounding books to talk about!
RAPID FIRE: Mike Shackle Talks A Fool’s Hope – the sequel to 2019’s fantastic, super-dark fantasy novel We Are the Dead.
RAPID FIRE: Chris Wraight Talks The Helwinter Gate – the long-awaited third instalment in Wraight’s Járnhamar series of Space Wolves novels.
RAPID FIRE: CL Werner Talks The Sword of Surtur – a tale of ‘thrilling battles against giant monsters’ in Marvel’s Norse mythology-inspired Nine Realms.
RAPID FIRE: Anthony Reynolds Talks Garen: First Shield – a tale of Demacia, Garen and the Dauntless Vanguard in the first League of Legends novella.
RAPID FIRE: Rosemary Jones Talks Mask of Silver – cosmic horror meets 1920s silent movies in this new Arkham Horror novel.
Blog content
If December was a little light on interviews, it’s probably because I went big on blog articles instead! Lots of ‘best of’ articles, my first ever cover reveal, various explorations of interesting Black Library stories, and even a Christmas gift Guide!
December Releases From Aconyte Books – details of all the cool new novels published by Aconyte in December.
From Humble Beginnings 2: Age of Sigmar Short Stories That Deserve Their Own Series – a handful of fantastic AoS short stories that I would LOVE to see developed into long-running series of their own.
Black Library in 2021: Online Preview Reaction – my thoughts on the BL online preview from Warhammer Community, and what I’m expecting from BL in 2021.
Best of Black Library 2020 – 40k – my top three 40k books of the year, along with a few honourable mentions as well.
Cover Reveal: Hochmuller’s Hound by Josh Reynolds – an exclusive first look at the cool cover art for Reynolds’ new Royal Occultist short story anthology.
Reading for Review and Reading for Fun – a few thoughts on reading for different purposes, and how mixing things up helps me to keep enjoying what I do.
Best of Black Library 2020 – Horus Heresy – my favourite Horus Heresy stories of the year, plus the same for Greg from the Imperial Truth podcast.
2020 Christmas Gift Guide – some great books that would make excellent presents (still useful if you’ve got Christmas money burning a hole in your pocket).
Best of Black Library 2020 – Age of Sigmar – my favourite Age of Sigmar stories of the year, with the same as well for Aaron from the Mortal Realms podcast.
5 Great Worlds of IP Fiction – if you like Warhammer and fancy reading more IP fiction just in different worlds, here are a few suggestions to try.
Top 20 Books of 2020 – I narrowed down my favourite books of the year to just 20, all published in 2020.
A Guide to Guy Haley’s Prince Maesa Stories – a useful guide to this excellent ongoing series of Age of Sigmar stories, to help you decide where to start or what to read next.
General update
I’m writing this on the 30th December so I technically have a day and a bit left of the month (and the year too), but so far I’ve managed to read nine books – the same as last month. I think that’s pretty good, considering I’ve been busy writing a post for every day again (more on this in a sec), not to mention all the usual Christmas/end of year stuff going on. I imagine it’s been an unusual December for most of us, and that’s certainly been the case for me, but once again reading has been a massive source of comfort, as has working on Track of Words!
I was pleased to get my review written for The Reverie at last, which was quite tough to write (it’s so hard not to give spoilers when reviewing Fehervari’s stories, and I always want to really do them justice) but definitely worth doing. I loved that book so much. Beyond that I’m pretty pleased with the number of reviews I’ve written this month, but I’ve definitely been reading quite a lot more than usual just for fun. That has certainly helped me smash through my Goodreads reading challenge for 2020, which I originally set at 52 (my usual goal) before bumping up to 120 partway through the year. I’m currently at 130, which I think must be the most I’ve ever read in a year, and December’s 9 books has contributed nicely!
In terms of books I’ve read and not (yet) reviewed this month, I’m hoping to find the time to write a review of Widow’s Welcome by D.K. Fields at some point (quite slow and packed full of world building but well worth persevering with), and ideally the sequel – The Stitcher and the Mute – which I’m currently reading. Otherwise, I happily sped through a pair of old favourite re-reads in audio (Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch and The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde), a couple of fantastic adventure stories for younger readers (The Highland Falcon Thief and Kidnap on the California Comet by M.G. Leonard and Sam Sedgman), and a fun 1930s-set detective story (Gallows Court by Martin Edwards).
I briefly mentioned it earlier, but the main difference in terms of my reading between December 2020 and previous Decembers is that I only read and reviewed four of Black Library’s Advent Calendar short stories. Over the previous six years, BL published 24 new short stories each December, and I did my best to get them read and reviewed as quickly as possible. This year, presumably because of the impact Covid-19 has had on authors and editors alike, the Advent series only featured 12 short stories, which is fair enough under the circumstances. With that in mind, and needing to keep my costs down, I decided in advance that I wouldn’t buy the whole set of stories this year, and just cherry-pick a few that I was really excited for.
Obviously I would have liked to read them all (I’m greedy like that), but I’m largely content to wait until the remaining eight stories – all of which I’m sure are great – are released in anthologies. In the meantime, I’m happy with the four stories that I did buy, as they were all excellent! I know you shouldn’t pick favourites, but Marc Collins’ The Shaper of Scars was absolutely right up my street – and if BL don’t ask Marc to write a full novel about the same characters then I will be very disappointed! So yeah, not doing the full Advent read-through and review marathon has been a bit weird, but I can’t complain about what I did manage to read.
To finish off, just a quick update to say that I’m not going to be keeping up the one-a-day post schedule next month! It’s been loads of fun in November and December, but I can’t really keep this sort of momentum going for too long, so I’ll still try to write plenty in January…but I’ll give myself a few breaks now and then. I have some of my January content if not prepared then at least planned, but do let me know if there’s anything you’d like to see in particular!
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I think that’s about it for this month. I’d love to hear about what you’ve enjoyed reading or listening to recently, what you think about the interviews and articles I’ve been publishing of late, whether you’ve read and enjoyed any of the books I tackled this month, and whether there’s anything you’d like to see in these roundup articles! Do drop me a line in the comments below, or get in touch on Twitter.
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