Author Archives: Michael Dodd

QUICK REVIEW – The Black Rift of Klaxus : The Scarlet Lord – Josh Reynolds

Part five of Josh Reynolds’ Black Rift of Klaxus serialised novel, The Scarlet Lord sees Orius’ Stormcasts pushing deep into the city, while up in the Sulphur Citadel Anhur’s ritual is approaching completion. With the two sides coming ever closer to a final confrontation the champions of each force clash in a series of battles across the tortured city, with both Kratus and Gorgus in the thick of it. The Stormcasts are being gradually whittled down as they forge ever onwards, and while the opposing lords are still to meet in person, it’s only a matter of time now.
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Cassius – Ben Counter

The second short novel in the Space Marine Legends series, Cassius sees Ben Counter return to take a longer look at the titular Ultramarines Chaplain after having previously tackled the character in the Deathwatch short story One Bullet. Here we see the contemporary Cassius, grizzled and scarred after centuries of war, leading two companies of Ultramarines against endless waves of Tyranids on the strategically important world of Kolovan. Situated perilously close to Segmentum Solar, if Kolovan were to fall then the Tyranids would have a route into the heart of the Imperium, so who better to put a stop to that than the hero of the Tyrannic Wars?
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Ragnar Blackmane – Aaron Dembski-Bowden

The first Space Marine Legends title – not to be confused with the Lords of the Space Marines series – Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s Ragnar Blackmane is a short novel tackling perhaps the most well known of all Space Wolves, the titular Ragnar. Released in Limited Edition hardback and standard ebook formats back in 2015, it takes the form of two interlinked stories set approximately 40 years apart but both taking place towards the very end of the 41st millennium. In one strand we see Ragnar as Wolf Lord, leading his Great Company in the defence of Cadia against the 13th Black Crusade, while in the other we see him as a newly promoted Wolf Guard, still headstrong and clashing variously with Dark Angels, Flesh Tearers and his own packmates.
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Career of Evil – Robert Galbraith

For Career of Evil, the third crime book written by JK Rowling under the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith, Cormoran Strike returns and this time it’s personal. When someone sends a severed human leg to his partner, Robin Ellacott, along with a note that links the crime to Strike’s semi-famous mother, several names from his past jump out. With the police focusing on the only one he doesn’t think is guilty, Strike and Robin undertake their own investigations into the remaining suspects. Meanwhile Robin’s wedding looms, and questions arise over exactly what Strike and Robin’s partnership entails.
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The Realmgate Wars: Hammers of Sigmar – Black Library

Book three in the Realmgate Wars series, Hammers of Sigmar once again combines two novellas into a single volume, collecting together Stormcast by Darius Hinks and Scion of the Storm from CL Werner. Both are new story arcs, Hinks tackling a Stormcast chamber sent to reclaim a daemon-infested Realmgate while Werner introduces Sigmar’s greatest champion – the Celestant Prime – who’s tasked with rescuing a lost force of Stormcast and defeating a Tzeentchian champion.
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QUICK REVIEW – Tallarn : Siren – John French

Set early on in the Tallarn arc within the wider Horus Heresy series, John French’s Tallarn : Siren finds a handful of Imperial citizens holed up in a tiny underground shelter with the last surviving astropath on the planet. As they desperately try to make contact with any other survivors, they attract the attention of both Marshall Lycus of the Imperial Fists and the invading Iron Warriors, one determined to use the astropath to send word of the planet’s fate, the other keen to prevent that happening. The shelter’s occupants await rescue, but fate may have something else in store for them.
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Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes

First published in 1966 and no less potent fifty years later, Daniel Keyes’ Flowers for Algernon is a justifiable classic, a science fiction story which, like so many of the genre’s finest, holds a mirror up to reality and gives us a glimpse at what might be. It follows Charlie Gordon, a man with an IQ of 68 who spends his days sweeping floors in a bakery, happily ignorant of how the world sees him, until he’s chosen for an experiment to artificially enhance his intelligence. The procedure has been successfully completed once before, on a white mouse called Algernon, but Charlie is the first human test subject.
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Warhammer Quest Silver Tower : Labyrinth of the Lost – Andy Clark

With a new version of the legendary Warhammer Quest game just announced, Black Library are in on the act as usual with the release of the novella Warhammer Quest Silver Tower : Labyrinth of the Lost by Andy Clark. Harking back to the classic game but updated for the Age of Sigmar setting and a more contemporary audience, it follows a disparate group of heroes trapped inside the titular Silver Tower and forced to work together to survive and reach the master of the tower – the Gaunt Summoner. Cue an adventure full of monsters, treasure, bickering and lots of blood.
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The Path of Heaven – Chris Wraight

Book 36 in Black Library’s Horus Heresy series, and (incredibly) the fourth in the series released so far in 2016, The Path of Heaven sees Chris Wraight pick up where he left off in Scars – albeit several years further on in the timeline. After years of hit and run attacks aimed at slowing Horus’ advance on Terra, the Scars now find themselves trapped with no route back to the throneworld and with traitor forces closing in, led by Mortarion. With his options limited, Jaghatai is forced to take more and more risks to avoid the straight fight that he knows would spell doom for his legion.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Young Wolf’s Return – Robbie MacNiven

Part two in Robbie MacNiven’s serialised Legacy of Russ novel, The Young Wolf’s Return carries on where The Lost King left off with the Wolves battling daemons across the Fenris system under the looming threat of the Dark Angels-led Imperial fleet. The Wolves are strung out across the system, missing the leadership of the absent Logan Grimnar, while something is amiss within the ranks of the Dark Angels. Help may be on the way however, as not all of the Great Companies have yet returned to Fenris.
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