Author Archives: Michael Dodd

Q&A – Vikas Swarup

Published in 2005, Q&A was Vikas Swarup’s debut novel, and went on to be adapted into the hit movie Slumdog Millionaire. Hopping between Delhi and Mumbai, it features Ram, a young orphan who finds himself the unexpected winner of Who Will Win a Billion? – India’s version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Arrested on suspicion of cheating by the show’s organisers, Ram finds himself telling much of his life story in order to explain how a poor, uneducated orphan could know the answers to the quiz show’s questions. Keep reading…

The Illustrated Wee Free Men – Terry Pratchett

With the final Discworld book confirmed to be the fifth Tiffany Aching novel, the time seems right to go back to where her story started, in Terry Pratchett’s second Discworld book for young readers, The Wee Free Men. Taking place on the Chalk, a quiet part of the Disc populated by no-nonsense sheep farmers, it introduces nine-year-old Tiffany as a sort of proto-witch, already equipped with the tools she will need to protect her land, but not yet fully aware of what it will mean to be a witch. When her little brother is kidnapped by the Queen of the Fairies, it’s up to her to bring him back safely, armed with a frying pan and a little help from some unusual friends.

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The Hunt for Magnus – Chris Wraight

Part of the ever-growing Space Marine Battles series, The Hunt For Magnus is the latest novella to be released as a companion piece to a previous novel, in this case Chris Wraight’s excellent The Battle of the Fang. Available either as a standalone novella or packaged with its accompanying novel into a collection called War of the Fang, it takes the form of a prequel following Great Wolf Harek Ironhelm as he searches far and wide for signs of his chapter’s old enemy, determined to finish what Russ started and finally kill Magnus the Red.

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Adeptus Mechanicus : Tech-Priest – Rob Sanders

The second in Rob Sanders’ mini-series of short Adeptus Mechanicus novels, Tech-Priest continues the story started in Skitarius, as the forces of Archmagos Omnid Torquora battle to take the Dark Mechanicum forge world of Velchanos Magna. Where Skitarius showed the world of the Adeptus Mechanicus from the front lines, seen through the eyes of Haldron-44 Stroika, this time the perspective switches to Stroka’s master, the ancient Tech-Priest overseeing the battle remotely from orbit. Locked in a stalemate but with enemies on all sides, Torquora’s options appear to be limited.

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The Art of Asking – Amanda Palmer

Musician, street performer, TED speaker, blogger, Twitterer, couchsurfer, crowdfunder – Amanda Palmer is all these and more, and in her book The Art of Asking she offers up a brutally honest insight into her life and career as she gives her thoughts on what it means to ask for, and accept, other people’s help. She has made a career out of doing things her own way, from choosing to work full time as a living statue to fighting her way out of a major label record contract, and she is now rightfully recognised as a leading creative thinker in the modern, digital, social climate.

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The Water Knife – Paolo Bacigalupi

In his first novel, The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi created a bleak future world with which to highlight issues around sustainability and genetic modification. Continuing the theme of big issues, in his latest book, The Water Knife, he turns his attention to water scarcity and how America would cope without a plentiful supply of H2O. Another bleak, alternative world, where drought is the norm and individual States battle to maintain their grip on the few sources of water still remaining, it’s a powerful and scarily believable concept.

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Meduson – Black Library Anthology

Of all the ‘exclusive’ products Black Library have released, perhaps the one most likely to rouse the anger of fans is Meduson – a venue-specific Horus Heresy anthology that can only be purchased in person from Games Workshop’s headquarters in Nottingham. Released to celebrate the re-opening of Warhammer World and the dedicated Black Library shop within, it’s a move designed to draw out the diehard fans and encourage visitors, but is bound to annoy those fans not willing or able to make it to Nottingham. Exclusivity aside, any new Heresy release is always going to be of great interest to fans of the series, and this is no exception. With a selection of brand new stories from some of Black Library’s most respected authors, this review is a little longer than usual in order to give as clear a picture as possible of the anthology.

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Assassinorum : The Emperor’s Judgement – Joe Parrino (audio drama)

A recent trend in Black Library’s releases is for a linked audio drama to accompany a novel, novella or short story – in this case Joe Parrino’s novella Assassinorum : Execution Force is accompanied by The Emperor’s Judgement, a 75-minute audio drama centered around Klara Rhasc, the Callidus assassin from the novella. A direct prequel to the novella, this sees Rhasc tracking down a crazed Eversor assassin who beat her to a target and took the kill for himself. With new mission parameters and no time to lose she must find a way to subdue the Eversor while avoiding death at his hands.

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QUICK REVIEW : Ironfire – Rob Sanders

Once again proving that no Horus Heresy story stands alone, Rob Sanders’ latest release – Ironfire – sees the return of Idriss Krendl, the antagonist in The Iron Within. This time he’s front and centre as this story’s protagonist, having been put back together after the disaster at the Schadenhold, and he’s aiming to redeem himself in Perturabo’s eyes by road testing a new, risky siege-breaking strategy of his own devising. Determined to prove that it’s only in body that he’s broken, not in mind, he’s prepared to risk everything, including the lives of his minions and his supposed allies.

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Assassinorum : Execution Force – Joe Parrino

While Black Library’s raison d’être has always been to provide tie-in fiction to expand upon the worlds of Warhammer and Warhammer 40k, some books tie in closer than others with new Games Workshop releases. One of those is Assassinorum – Execution Force, a novella by Joe Parrino which accompanies the new board game of the same name. It follows the progress of a team of Imperial Assassins, dispatched in a rare show of force and cooperation to stop a sorcerer of the Crimson Slaughter from enacting a ritual that could spell doom for the Imperium.

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