Author Archives: Michael Dodd

Ahriman: Unchanged – John French

The third and final novel in John French’s ambitious Ahriman trilogy, Ahriman: Unchanged sees the Thousand Son sorcerer firmly back at the peak of his powers. Using knowledge gleaned from the Athenaeum (see Ahriman: Sorcerer) he prepares to enact a new Rubric, a grand undertaking that will correct the mistakes of his past. To do so he has to lead his forces back to Prospero and the scene of his legion’s darkest hour, and from there to face their father Magnus deep within the Eye of Terror. Standing in his way are foes both seen and unseen, from within the Imperium and without. Keep reading…

Ahriman: Exile – John French

Released back in 2012, Ahriman: Exile was John French’s first novel for Black Library, and you’re unlikely to find a more assured, complex, detailed debut novel than this. The first in a trilogy regarding one of the most famous villains in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, when we first meet him Ahriman is at his lowest ebb, years after the failure of his Rubric and his exile from the Legion he tried to save. Masquerading as a lowly sorcerer serving a motley warband of Traitor Marines, he’s a far cry from the former Chief Librarian of the Thousand Sons, resigned to his fate as an exile and hiding away from his past, his enemies and his own power.
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Ajax Penumbra, 1969 – Robin Sloan

If ever there was a book which deserved a prequel it’s Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, and Robin Sloan has kindly obliged with the delightful novella Ajax Penumbra, 1969. There was so much implied backstory in the original novel that it would have been a crime not to have explored it further, so here we get to take a look at a young Mr Penumbra, just starting out on the path that would lead to 1960s San Francisco, a 24-hour bookstore, a sunken ship and two men who would come to shape his life.

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Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore – Robin Sloan

The kind of book that you’ll find shelved under Fiction simply for the sake of ease, Robin Sloan’s Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore confidently straddles modern fantasy and mystery with a dash of nostalgic epic fantasy and even a little social commentary thrown in. That might sound like a strange mixture, but this is a story – of Clay, a young man who finds himself working the night shift in a mysterious bookshop full of coded tomes studied by eccentric, nocturnal scholars hunting for an ancient secret – that gleefully mashes its influences up into a delightful whole that just works.

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QUICK REVIEW : Bad Blood – Steve Lyons

After One Bullet, which was only barely a Deathwatch story, it’s reassuring to see that Steve Lyons’ Bad Blood, the second in Black Library’s latest Deathwatch series, is much more deserving of the name. Featuring the Blood Angel Antor Delassio it takes the form of the stalwart Space Marine’s vivid, troubled recollection of the first battle in which his chapter’s gene-flaw – the Red Thirst – revealed itself. Preparing for a new battle to come, painful memories surface of a vicious against-the-odds fight for survival when his ship was boarded by the traitorous Black Legion.

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QUICK REVIEW : The Caged Wolf – Ben Counter

Black Library’s latest Space Wolf serial continues with The Caged Wolf, in which Ben Counter details the reaction of the Wolves to the daemonic infiltration of the Fang and the worry that the Great Wolf Logan Grimnar might be in need of assistance. With the Wolf Lords thirsting for blood and ready to crusade across the stars in their lord’s name, Ulrik the Slayer counsels caution, leading a small force to track the Great Wolf and test the validity of the daemon’s tale. When he arrives it takes all of his willpower to keep his own battle-lust in check.

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QUICK REVIEW : Feast of Lies – Ben Counter

Black Library are all about releasing serial stories at the moment, and a new Space Wolf serial starts with Feast of Lies by Ben Counter, featuring Logan Grimnar and Ulrik the Slayer at the conclusion of the thirtieth Great Hunt. As Grimnar battles the Tau on a distant world, the remaining Great Companies return to Fenris with trophies and tales of their exploits, feasting and boasting of their successes. When a human emissary tells a worryingly prophetic tale of Grimnar and a shocking discovery, Ulrik realises there is more going on than he realised at first.

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Roboteer – Alex Lamb

Judged purely on its title and cover, Alex Lamb’s Roboteer could very well be mistaken for the sort of third-rate pulp fiction that many people still associate with sci-fi as a genre. In fact, upon closer inspection it turns out to be a gripping, characterful epic set to a grim future backdrop of religion, morality, and mankind’s inherent flaws. It features Will, a young man genetically engineered to be capable of programming and controlling thousands of semi-aware robots, who is thrust into a new crew aboard a high-stakes mission that might affect the very future of his race.

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I Shall Wear Midnight – Terry Pratchett

I Shall Wear Midnight marks Tiffany Aching’s fourth appearance in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, and the thirty-eighth book in the series overall. After her previous adventures in The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky and Wintersmith, here we see fifteen year-old Tiffany back on home turf, caring for her steading on the Chalk as only a witch can. Things seem settled at first, but soon she finds the mood of the people turning against her, as a strange influence is in the air.

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QUICK REVIEW : The Eagle’s Talon – John French

For the seventh story in Black Library’s Summer of Reading campaign the attention turns to the Horus Heresy, with the prose version of John French’s excellent The Eagle’s Talon audio drama. A brave, unusual story when told in audio format, if slightly less so in prose, it details a key moment in the Battle for Tallarn as three squads of Imperial Fists attempt to infiltrate an enemy transport vessel. Written as transcripts of linked vox excerpts interspersed with dry commentary from an unknown narrator, it takes a while to adjust to the choppy style but turns out to be an unusual, effective structure.

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