Author Archives: Michael

Behind the Scene: Kiss of the Basilisk by Lindsay Straube

Hello and welcome to this Behind the Scene article here on Track of Words, where today I’m joined by author Lindsay Straube with an annotated excerpt of her new novel Kiss of the Basilisk – out now in the UK from Arcadia in hardback, audio and ebook. Now this is something a little different to what I normally cover, a book described as a “five-chilli TikTok monster romance fantasy sensation” and whose press release opens with “THIS BOOK IS NOT SAFE TO READ AT WORK”…but what is life without a little variety, and indeed a little spice? Lindsay has kindly contributed an excerpt from the opening of Kiss of the Basilisk, along with commentary discussing her thought process throughout this scene.

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QUICK REVIEW: Nightshift Nineteen – Peter Fehervari

Released as part of Black Library’s 2024 Advent Calendar series of short stories, Nightshift Nineteen (appropriately, the 19th story in the Dark Coil) sees Peter Fehervari return to bleak, shadowed Sarastus and introduce us to the strange culture of the Canopic Congregation. Down in the bowels of Hive Carceri, young Izaq Sneddon is poised to take up his long-awaited position as a Lightkeeper, guiltily pleased to have escaped from the intimidating, overbearing presence of his mother and awestruck by the honour he’s receiving. In the darkness of his mind though, something old and sinister is lurking, stirring up painful memories and putting his ascension at risk. Meanwhile, higher up in the Hive, shift chief Bryn Bosch awaits the arrival of his new crewmate, painfully aware of his predecessor’s fate.

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Best of Black Library 2024

2024 was a year in which I read fewer Black Library books than ever before (well, since I started Track of Words at least), and Games Workshop continued to make it tricky to be a BL fan (that’s a whole other conversation)…but even so there are still plenty of great BL books for me to look back on and talk about. ‘Best of the year’ roundups are something of a blogger/reviewer tradition, and far be it from me to buck that trend, so here I’ve picked out the three BL books that I particularly enjoyed in 2024. Because I always have a hard time limiting myself to just a few choices (or just a few words), I’ve also come up with a few honourable mentions that are worth talking about too.

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Excerpt From North Is The Night by Emily Rath

Hello and welcome to Track of Words, where today I’m very pleased to offer up an excerpt of Emily Rath’s latest novel North Is The Night, which is out today from Arcadia. Billed as a modern retelling of medieval Finnish saga the Kalevala, this is the first volume of a new duology (although I’m told it works as a standalone story in its own right), and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this excerpt – it’s really evocative, and a brilliant opening to the story. If you’re anything like me, I think you’ll read this and absolutely want to pick up a copy of the book to keep reading.

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Memory and Writing – Nick Cutter Guest Post

Happy Halloween, and welcome to this Track of Words guest post where I’m joined by horror author Nick Cutter, whose new novel The Queen is out today from Arcadia. Described as “a heart-pounding novel about a young woman searching for her missing friend and uncovering a shock truth”, The Queen sounds like an intriguing read – perfect for the Halloween season! I’m delighted to be able to host this fascinating article from Nick, in which he delves into some of the challenges he faced with this book, of writing about teenage characters as a 40-something author.

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The Last Eight Years with John French – Part Two

Hello and welcome to the second half of this two-part interview with author John French, looking back over the eight years since John and I first spoke (about his Tallarn stories) and discussing some of the landmarks in his career over that time. If you haven’t already read part one, check that out to read about John’s overall reflections on the last eight years, and some of his thoughts on the Horus Heresy and the Siege of Terra. In this second part we’re going to cover the Horusian Wars series, John’s Cado Ezechiar stories for Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, the Ahriman series, the intriguing Letters from an Unknown Land stories over on John’s website, and plenty more.

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Behind the Scene: The Briar Book of the Dead by A.G. Slatter

Hello and welcome to this Behind the Scene post where today we’re looking at The Briar Book of the Dead by A.G. Slatter, which is out now from Titan Books. One of the reasons I enjoy these Behind the Scene posts so much is that every author approaches them differently. For this one, Angela has very kindly contributed an annotated excerpt in the shape of the full fourth chapter, with her commentary interspersed throughout, picking out various moments or ideas throughout the chapter and exploring what went into her decision-making for each one. It’s an intriguing insight into Angela’s writing process, and – I think – really sets up what looks like a fascinating story!

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RAPID FIRE: Denny Flowers Talks Above and Beyond

Hello and welcome to this Rapid Fire author interview, where I’m delighted to be joined once again by the excellent Denny Flowers, to talk about his latest Black Library novel – Above and Beyond. Denny’s previous novel, Outgunned, was one of my favourite BL books of the last few years – you can read my review of it and my interview with Denny about it if you’d like to know more – so I was thrilled when the sequel, Above and Beyond, was announced. I love this sort of 40k story, which steps away from the big names and the big battlefields to explore lesser-seen perspectives on the setting, so it was great to chat to Denny again about what we can expect from the new book, what it was like revisiting these characters, and how Denny found working on a sequel to such a well-received novel.

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The Last Eight Years with John French – Part One

Hello and welcome to the first instalment of an extra-special author interview, where I’m delighted to welcome the fabulous John French back to the site to mark the 2,000th post on Track of Words! Author of the Ahriman series, the Horusian Wars, the Cado Ezechiar series, a host of Horus Heresy and Siege of Terra novels, and so much more, John has been a friend of the site for a long time. In fact, if you go way back to July 2016 John was the very first author I ever interviewed (about his Tallarn stories in the Horus Heresy)! With that in mind, to mark the milestone of post number 2,000 I sat down with John for an in-depth, retrospective interview looking back at his work and his career over the last eight years since we first spoke.

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Behind The Scene: Darkside by Michael Mammay

Hello and welcome to this Behind the Scene post with author Michael Mammay, who’s here today to talk about his new novel Darkside – which is out on the 24th September from Harper Voyager. Book four in the Planetside series, albeit also readable as a standalone story, Darkside sounds ideal for anyone who enjoys both pacy, action-packed military SF and high-stakes, thrilling investigations. Michael has kindly contributed an excerpt from the novel alongside commentary on some of the challenges of writing this book!

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