Author Archives: Michael Dodd

QUICK REVIEW: The Purity of Ignorance – John French

Black Library’s 2016 Summer of Reading campaign hits day six with a blast from the past with The Purity of Ignorance by John French, featuring Inquisitor Covenant from 2001’s Inquisitor game. Leading his warband in an airborne insertion, Covenant is joined by Lieutenant Ianthe of the Agathian Sky Sharks, seconded to Inquisitorial duty. Discussing her military record with Preacher Josef, one of Covenant’s companions, life with the Inquisition appears somewhat irregular. Meanwhile Spire Mistress Nereid lounges in her throne room, surrounded by the trappings of luxury…
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QUICK REVIEW: Myriad – Rob Sanders

Day five of Black Library’s 2016 Summer of Reading campaign sees a return to the Horus Heresy with Rob Sanders’ Myriad, which follows on from his 2015 novella Cybernetica. Mars is overrun by the twisted machines of the Dark Mechanicum, yet small cells of loyalists remain in hiding, doing what they can to fight back. Kallistra Lennox, formerly a princeps of the Collegia Titanica, leads a mission to sabotage a corrupted Warlord Titan, but returns to the rebels’ hidden base bearing something which might change the face of the war for Mars completely.
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QUICK REVIEW: Stormseeker – Alec Worley

For day four of Black Library’s 2016 Summer of Reading campaign we’re introduced to Alec Worley and his first story for Black Library, Stormseeker. When dark eldar pirates attack an Imperial world, the Space Wolves of the Deathwolves Great Company launch a counter-attack and Anvarr Rustmane leads his fellow Iron Priests in piloting the airborne elements of the assault. Forced to go into battle without placating the machine-spirit of his Stormwolf, Anvarr finds himself in a desperate fight against the dark eldar’s own flyers where he needs all of his skill, and the cooperation of his gunship, to survive.
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QUICK REVIEW – Deathwatch: Swordwind – Ian St. Martin

Day three of Black Library’s 2016 Summer of Reading sees Ian St. Martin tackle the Deathwatch again after City of Ruin with Deathwatch: Swordwind. Adoni of the Mortifactors returns to his Chapter’s fortress monastery at the conclusion of his secondment to the Deathwatch, oathbound to not speak of his experiences but bearing with him a chapter relic. As he rejoins his brothers he recalls the fateful mission where he fought alongside a hero of his Chapter against the eldar of Biel Tan, a battle which will have a profound impact on his Chapter.
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QUICK REVIEW: Gates of the Devourer – David Annandale

The second of Black Library’s 2016 Summer of Reading short stories is Gates of the Devourer by David Annandale, a story of Imperial Titans and Tyranid swarms to whet our appetite for his upcoming novel Warlord: Fury of the God-Machine. When the Great Devourer assails the Imperial world of Khania the Imperium responds by sending the Astra Militarum…and the Adeptus Titanicus. Two demi-legios from different Titan Legions lead the Imperial response, but Princeps Ferantha Krezoc of the Legio Pallidus Mor has reservations about the arrogant commander leading the other Legio.
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QUICK REVIEW: Blackshield – Chris Wraight

The first short story in Black Library’s 2016 Summer of Reading campaign, Chris Wraight’s Blackshield follows Khorak, a Death Guard legionary commanding an old and battered warship and a handful of legionaries. Pursued by unknown enemies and forced to set down on the murky, toxic world of Agarvian he leads his men in the sort of stoic, stubborn slog typical of the Death Guard, determined to stay alive long enough to blood his pursuers. All the while the identity of his enemies remains unclear, while Khorak’s loyalties are…uncertain.
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QUICK REVIEW: The Heart of the Pharos – L.J. Goulding

Originally published as The Dark Between the Stars before being swiftly renamed, presumably for copyright reasons, L.J. Goulding’s Horus Heresy audio drama The Heart of the Pharos fits neatly between the novels The Unremembered Empire and Pharos, narratively. Set on Sotha, it sees the Ultramarine Scout Tebecai remembering the mission he was on with his fellow Scout Oberdeii, deep within the tunnels beneath Mount Pharos. Down there in the darkness with just each other for company, the two scouts find something…and Tebecai’s commanders want to know about it.
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The Beast Must Die – Gav Thorpe (The Beast Arises Book Eight)

IMPORTANT: This is book eight in a series – there will be spoilers unless you’ve read I Am Slaughter; Predator, Prey; The Emperor Expects; The Last Wall; Throneworld; Echoes of the Long War or The Hunt for Vulkan.

We hit book 8 in Black Library’s The Beast Arises series with Gav Thorpe’s second in the series, The Beast Must Die. We’re two thirds of the way in now, and with the return of the primarch Vulkan the Imperium finally has a chance to strike a decisive blow against the invading orks. With a withdrawn and brooding Vulkan as figurehead and Koorland reluctantly calling the shots, a combined force the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the Heresy besieges legendary Ullanor in an attempt to bring The Beast to battle and kill the ork warlord. Simultaneously, unwilling to trust to brute force Vangorich secretly makes his own plans for dealing with The Beast.
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The Vinyl Detective: Written in Dead Wax – Andrew Cartmel

The first in a new series from author, journalist and script editor Andrew Cartmel, The Vinyl Detective: Written in Dead Wax is a fast-paced crime novel with an unusual protagonist. Instead of the normal professional detective, here we have a record collecting failed DJ whose jokingly-produced business cards proclaim him to be the Vinyl Detective, by virtue of his claim to be able to find any record for anyone. After agreeing to help the beautiful, if slightly suspicious, Miss N. Warren find a rare record for her shadowy employer, he finds the world of record collecting soon becomes much more dangerous than he’s used to.
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The Horus Heresy: Tallarn series – Interview with John French (July 2016)

Within Black Library’s epic and ever-growing Horus Heresy series there are a few sub-series, collections of stories which fit together to form a story arc in their own right as well as contributing towards the whole series. One such arc is the story of the Battle of Tallarn, as told (primarily) by John French, and with the release of the short story Tallarn: Siren this arc has now come to a close.

EDIT (July 2017): a year after writing this review, the collected Tallarn stories (most of them, anyway) are now available in a single volume – appropriately just named Tallarn – which forms book 45 of the Horus Heresy series.
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