Hello and welcome to August’s Monthly Roundup post here on Track of Words. To my considerable surprise, August was a pretty busy month for me in terms of writing and getting things posted, but I’ve just been going with the flow and enjoying being in a productive mood! I spent slightly less time reading than last month (albeit still plenty of time), but quite a bit more time writing, spurred I think by some nice surprises that I’ll talk about shortly. As always, I’ll recap all of the reviews and interviews that I’ve posted over the last few weeks, and then write up a few thoughts about the month as a whole for a general update later on.
August’s posts
After a fairly slow month in July with only seven new posts, I’ve been a lot more productive in August with no fewer than twelve! I’ve had a lot of fun working on all of this content too, which has been really nice – sometimes writing reviews can feel like pulling teeth, but not so much this month! Most of my August posts have been reviews and interviews, so I’ll link out first to last month’s roundup post and then split the rest out into two sections.
Monthly Roundup – July 2022 – get the full lowdown on all seven of July’s new posts (five reviews and two articles), my reading activity, and some mild grumbling about the un-England-like heat that baked all of us Brits last month.
Reviews
I can’t remember the last time I wrote seven reviews in one month – in July I only published seven posts of any kind! There’s some good stuff here for Black Library fans with three BL reviews, but I feel like it’s been quite a good mixture of authors, publishers and styles within the broad SFF remit.
Priest of Crowns by Peter McLean – the fourth and final novel in Peter’s brilliant War for the Rose Throne series, this was one of those books that had me incredibly tense all the way through. It was great, and a spot-on ending for the series, but my word was I worried about what was going to happen to all my favourite characters!
Planet Havoc by Tim Waggoner – I had a lot of fun with this sci-fi adventure/horror novel, which took a pretty standard zombie(ish) story – no surprise, given that it’s set in the world of Zombicide: Invader – and added some interesting, engaging themes to make it more than the sum of its parts.
The Wraithbone Phoenix by Alec Worley – this is the latest in Black Library’s Warhammer Crime range (it came out just this month), and features the same characters as the excellent audio drama Dredge Runners. With a genuinely brilliant central pairing, lashings of sharp dialogue and humour, and some particularly bleak themes, it’s a crime caper packed full of memorable characters that I think will be very popular with a lot of 40k fans.
The Black Locomotive by Rian Hughes – this is the follow-up to 2020’s XX, and while it’s a considerably shorter and less complex beast of a book it’s still full to the brim with Hughes’ inventive storytelling and bold eye for design. Combining musings on modernist architecture, nostalgic steam-powered locomotives and high-concept SF, it’s still quite a remarkable book even if it doesn’t quite land with the same impact as XX.
Outgunned by Denny Flowers – another Black Library book that came out this month, and that I really loved. This one’s billed as an Aeoronautica Imperialis novel, but it’s much more than just fighter planes and dogfights, exploring an unusual perspective on the Imperium from a character who technically ‘knows’ a lot about how things really are…but really doesn’t understand, at least until he sees a brutal war against the orks up close and personal.
The Twice-dead King: Ruin by Nate Crowley – I’d been meaning to read this since it first came out last year, and I’d heard so many good things about it. Happily it absolutely lived up to the hype and more – on the surface a tale of ancient robots battling brutal orks, but beneath the surface a rich, melancholy tale of loss, legacy and identity. It’s genuinely brilliant, and I’d recommend it to any 40k fan as a book that really digs beneath the surface of the setting.
Queen of Eventide by Matthew Ward – take equal parts fantasy, folklore, history and mythology, set them in and around the city of Nottingham, and what you have is this characterful, engaging retelling of the Robin Hood mythos. If you’re after a dark, mist-shrouded fantasy/real world crossover then definitely check this out.
Interviews
Four interviews this month, three of which covered Black Library books both brand new and a little older. I’m actually really pleased with the interview I put together with Peter McLean though, to celebrate the completion of a full series!
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Peter McLean Talks War for the Rose Throne – with the release of this, the fourth book in the series, Peter’s War for the Rose Throne comes to a brutal, powerful, emotional conclusion. What better time to chat about the series as a whole? We talk themes, characters, planning and loads more.
RAPID FIRE: Denny Flowers Talks Outgunned – want to get the lowdown on what you can expect from this new tale of planes, picts and propaganda? I’ve got you covered, having chatted to Denny about the inspirations behind this great new novel, his writing process, and what propaganda really means in the Imperium of Man.
RAPID FIRE: Alec Worley Talks The Wraithbone Phoenix – Alec always gives great interviews and this is no exception, as we chat about his new Warhammer Crime novel. Check it out to learn more about what really drives Baggit and Clodde, what themes the book explores, and which films, books and unexpected TV characters provided some of the inspiration behind the novel and its central pairing.
Matthew Farrer Talks Urdesh: Part One – the first instalment of my latest in-depth author interview, in which I chat to Matthew about the long gestation of his Urdesh novels – from the original commission of one Space Marine Battles book to the eventual duology that’s now available – and some of the writing process for this unusual story. I can honestly say that this was one of the most fascinating interviews I’ve ever done! Keep an eye out for part two coming soon.
Updated pages
It hasn’t only been new stuff in August, either. With Black Library having been on the brain a little more than usual, I decided to go back and update a couple of older guides to bring them up to date.
Black Library: ‘New 40k’ Reading List – it was about time I made a few quick additions to this page, given that a few new novels had been released since my last proper update. I haven’t yet read any of those new books – The Wolftime, Throne of Light and The Dark City – but I’ve added them to the list, and placed them as accurately as I can into the timeline.
40k Reading Order: Sister Augusta – Danie Ware – this was just a minor update, adding in the latest Sister August short story – Blasphemy of the Fallen – to the article. I haven’t read this one yet as it’s only just been released, and it only has a very short synopsis on the BL site, but I do know it’s one of a growing number of ‘young Augusta’ stories.
General update
As you’ve probably gathered by now, August was a month of unexpected productivity for me, carrying on from and picking up speed after the tail end of July, I suppose. I can’t quite put my finger on what’s changed recently, but I just seem more enthused and motivated – not just with Track of Words but in other aspects of my life too – than I’ve felt for a large part of the year. Obviously I’m very happy with this burst of productivity, and I’m doing my best to keep riding the wave of it! One of the ways I’m trying to do that is by doing at least a bit of Track of Words writing each day; at the time of writing this article I’ve written at least a hundred words or so (of a review, or a blog article of some sort) every day for over a month. This way I’m constantly chipping away at my writing, rather than letting it build up.
Along with unusual levels of productivity, the other theme I noticed in August was a resurgence of interest in reading and writing about Black Library books. In this instance I do know what the cause was, and it all started with receiving a (very, very rare) review copy of a new book from Black Library – Alec Worley’s The Wraithbone Phoenix. Unlike most other publishers, BL hasn’t tended to proactively engage with bloggers, reviewers etc. so getting this in the post was a bit of a surprise, but a very welcome one! I’m very grateful to BL and to Alec for arranging this, and it was a lot of fun to dive back into the world of Warhammer Crime and spend a bit more time with the odd-couple pairing of Baggit and Clodde. If you haven’t listened to Alec’s audio drama Dredge Runners featuring the same characters, I’d definitely recommend it!
Shortly after that, BL announced that Denny Flowers’ second novel – Outgunned – was going up for pre-order, totally out of the blue and with not even a scrap of advance publicity. I thought that maybe I could help on that front, so I invited Denny to do an interview about Outgunned for Track of Words – I’ve enjoyed Denny’s writing before, and I was intrigued by the idea of this new book. Not only did Denny write some great answers for the interview, but he very kindly sent me a copy of the book…which I read immediately after finishing The Wraithbone Phoenix, and enjoyed tremendously! On top of reading those two, and posting a review and author interview for each, I also enjoyed working on my review of Nate Crowley’s phenomenal The Twice-dead King: Ruin, and sorting out the first half of my two-part interview with Matthew Farrer!
So yeah, getting those two books in the post gave me a real boost of BL enthusiasm, which felt great after quite a long time of feeling like maybe I’d lost a bit of interest. I don’t know whether BL is planning any other community engagement or if that one review copy was simply a one-off, but I’m grateful either way. I’m sure I’ll be able to keep you posted if anything does happen on that front, too – but maybe don’t hold your breath. There will be more BL content to come on Track of Words for sure – I’ve got an author spotlight interview coming soon which touches on an upcoming 40k novel, there’s the second half of the Urdesh interview still to come, and I’m hoping to read and review Chris Wraight’s The Dark City in the not too distant future.
As for my usual reading update, well I’m writing this post a couple of days before the end of the month but at the time of writing I’ve read or listened to 11 books so far in August, which is pretty good! Five of those have been in audio, showing once again just how much more reading I get done now that I’m utterly addicted to audiobooks – it’s been a mixture of revisiting SF books I’ve read before, expanding my horizons with some non-fiction nature writing, and coming close to the end of LJ Ross’ addictive DCI Ryan series. I’ve gone for a lot of walks and spent quite a lot of time painting miniatures, and these great audiobooks have been excellent company. Currently I’m nearing the end of Chris Wraight’s The Hollow Mountain, which I’m revisiting to prepare myself before reading the final book in the trilogy.
Five of the six books I’ve actually read (as opposed to listened to) in August have been with a view to reviewing, which is an unusually high ratio for me. Even stranger is the fact that I’ve actually written and published all five reviews! Normally I end up leaving things way too long, but this month I’ve been well on top of things. Who am I and what have I done with Michael?! Joking aside, this month’s 11 books takes me up to a total of 101 for the year, which is…well, I’m genuinely amazed that I’ve read so much already. I really thought I’d have less time for reading this year than last, but I keep on finding time and having a blast with my reading…so I’m not complaining! I’ve written plenty in this roundup already so I won’t go into any more detail on my specific reading goals – I can save that for another month.
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Well, that’s it for this month’s roundup. If there’s anything you’d like me to cover in these articles in future please do let me know. I very much hope you’ve had a similarly productive/enjoyable/book-filled (delete as appropriate) August, and fingers crossed we’ll all have a great September too!
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