Author Archives: Michael Dodd

Barricade – Jon Wallace

Barricade by Jon Wallace, the author’s debut novel, is the first in a trilogy set in a post-apocalypse Britain. It’s a pretty standard dystopian setup – humans build artificial life, stuff goes wrong, war ensues and ruins everything for everyone involved – except, unusually, it’s seen through the eyes of one of the artificial beings, or Ficials. A construction worker by ‘optimisation’, Kenstibec is now a taxi driver, and is hired to take a journalist (another Ficial called Starvie) from Edinburgh to London. To do so he has to find a way out of the Edinburgh barricade, past the besieging army of Reals (normal humans to you and me) and through a country prowled by tribes of half-feral humans out for Ficial blood.
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Black Library Weekly – W/C 07/11/16

Hello and welcome to another instalment of Black Library Weekly, where I take a look at the Black Library-related news from the week just gone – announcements, pre-orders and new releases.

The quietest week we’ve had for a while in terms of both releases and news, this week hasn’t provided a great deal of excitement but it has however given us the twelfth and final book in The Beast Arises series.
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QUICK REVIEW: The Burden of Angels – Nick Kyme

Another story previously only available in an anthology (the limited edition Honour of the Space Marines), Nick Kyme’s The Burden of Angels follows on from the events of his Tome of Fire trilogy, focusing on Tu’Shan, Chapter Master of the Salamanders. Meeting with his opposite number in the Blood Angels to renew oaths of brotherhood, Tu’Shan seeks guidance from Chapter Master Dante, who he holds as a figure of virtue and nobility. When circumstances pit the two chapters against each other, he finds his perception of the virtuous Dante challenged, and his own humanity tested.
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Black Library Weekly – W/C 31/10/16

Hello and welcome to another instalment of Black Library Weekly, where I take a look at the Black Library-related news from the week just gone – announcements, pre-orders and new releases.

The slower rate of brand new releases continued this week, albeit with some small changes to the usual way things have worked recently. That being said, it’s been an exciting week for new, upcoming titles with a whole raft of (often temporary) covers and synopses discovered online as well as a few confirmed by Black Library.
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Children of Sicarus – Anthony Reynolds

A Horus Heresy audio drama from Anthony Reynolds, Children of Sicarus follows on from the end of the graphic novel Macragge’s Honour to show a little of what happened when Kor Phaeron led his surviving followers to the daemon world of Sicarus. Surrounded by enemies and with ever-dwindling numbers, the Word Bearers find strange allies who promise to aid them against the malicious attentions of one of Sicarus’ daemonic warlords, the ‘Kairic Adept’ Larazzar. Along the way Kor Phaeron encounters a reincarnating priest, an ancient and worryingly precise prophecy, and a tangible link to his distant primarch Lorgar.
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Warhammer 40,000 Legends Issue Three – Warriors of Ultramar by Graham McNeill

The Warhammer 40,000 Legends Collection from Hachette continues with Issue Three, featuring Warriors of Ultramar by Graham McNeill. First published way back in 2003, it sees Captain Uriel Ventris of the Ultramarines 4th Company leading his men in defence of Tarsis Ultra against the numberless monstrosities of Hive Fleet Leviathan. While not quite such a classic as Issue Two’s Xenos, it’s a popular title from a much-loved series, although there’s one oddity immediately obvious about choosing this for Issue Three…
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The Dumas Club – Arturo Perez-Reverte

First published in English in 1996, translated from the Spanish by Sonia Soto, The Dumas Club is Arturo Perez-Reverte’s third novel. Though narrated by Boris Balkan, Madrilenian editor, writer and Alexandre Dumas obsessive, its protagonist is one Lucas Corso, a ‘mercenary of the book world’ who approaches Balkan to verify the authenticity of a supposed Dumas manuscript. Finding himself subsequently dispatched by a different client to seek out a rare book on demonology he’s soon caught up in a bizarre trail of events bearing striking similarities to the story of Dumas’ The Three Musketeers, much to Corso’s scorn.

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Black Library Weekly – W/C 10/10/16

Hello and welcome to another instalment of Black Library Weekly, where I take a look at the Black Library-related news from the preceding week – announcements, pre-orders and new releases.

After a week where new titles by the truckload showed up on the Black Library website it seemed like a good bet that the new releases and announcements would slow down again. As last week went on however, that wasn’t the case – there was nothing quite as explosive as the Coming Soon section showing up, but still plenty to talk about…
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Black Library Audio App

There’s been a variety of Games Workshop apps available for the last year or two, from the general Warhammer: The App which collects together news and blog posts from across the hobby, to some game-specific companion apps. Not wanting to be left out, Black Library have now got involved with the snappily titled Black Library Audio App, available on iOS and Android.

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Black Library – What’s Coming Soon

Earlier today I posted a blog about upcoming Black Library releases, off the back of a load of new titles popping up briefly online. These releases didn’t stay visible for long, but I’d grabbed a few screenshots which I thought might be of interest to Black Library fans. Since then however, something unexpected has happened – Black Library have added an actual Coming Soon page to their website!
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