Category Archives: Black Library

RAPID FIRE: Jamie Crisalli, Liane Merciel and Anna Stephens Talk Covens of Blood

Welcome to this slightly unusual instalment of my Rapid Fire series of quick author interviews, in which I chat to a trio of fantastic authors – Anna Stephens, Liane Merciel and Jamie Crisalli – about their new portmanteau Covens of Blood. Part of Black Library’s Age of Sigmar range, this comprises three linked novellas featuring the Daughters of Khaine, each focusing on different characters but tied together by an overarching theme. It’s available to buy right now, and it looks like being the perfect read if you fancy learning a little more about these intriguing characters in the Mortal Realms.

Without further ado, on with the interview…

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QUICK REVIEW: Duty Unto Death – Marc Collins

Few things are as bleakly heroic as a desperate stand against overwhelming odds, and in his Warhammer 40,000 short story Duty Unto Death Marc Collins ramps the concept up to eleven with a tale of the Adeptus Custodes standing against the ravening tyranid hordes. Stranded on the burning surface of a volcanic death world, a handful of Custodians make what preparations they can before the numberless swarms of alien monstrosities crash down upon them. As they stand their ground, determined to protect their precious cargo, the battlefield comes to represent the distant fortress the Custodes were engineered to defend.

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Danie Ware Talks Sisters of Battle and Women in 40k

Hello, and welcome to ‘Danie Ware Talks Sisters of Battle and Women in 40k’, in which I’m chatting to the fantastic Danie about her Adepta Sororitas fiction for Black Library, and her thoughts on the importance of female authors and characters in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. With her third Sisters of Battle novella – The Rose in Anger – just released, there’s no better time to find out more about this particular story, the Sister Augusta stories overall, and what it’s like being a woman writing badass 40k fiction!

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QUICK REVIEW: Five Candles – Lora Gray

Lora Gray continues to explore the quiet, melancholic fringes of the Mortal Realms with their Warhammer Horror short story Five Candles, a tale of Aqshian fire and dark, troubling death magic. Having grown old when all her friends died young, Havisa now lives by herself, scorned by the youthful inhabitants of the nearby village. When disaster sees her humiliated even further, she unexpectedly finds the old fire of her Aqshian spirit burning once more, and alongside a kind but mysterious stranger she embarks on a mission to warn the village of dark tidings to come in the wake of Nagash’s necroquake.

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A Traveller’s Guide to Peter Fehervari’s Dark Coil

With the release of the short story Altar of Maws (May 2023), Peter Fehervari’s catalogue of Warhammer 40,000 fiction – known informally as The Dark Coil – currently totals 18 stories. Every piece of 40k fiction is linked by taking place within a single shared universe, but The Dark Coil goes way beyond that. These stories share much deeper connections, between them forming a web of characters, locations, themes and recurring motifs that is gradually becoming more and more apparent as additional stories are published. One of the joys of reading Fehervari’s work is in unpicking these subtle connections, but it can be daunting to know where to start looking.

Welcome, then, to A Traveller’s Guide to the Dark Coil.

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QUICK REVIEW: Nightbleed – Peter Fehervari

The first of Peter Fehervari’s short stories officially released under the Warhammer Horror label, Nightbleed lives up to expectations as both a creepy, low-key horror story in its own right and an intriguing addition to The Dark Coil. In Carceri Hive, on the night-shrouded world of Sarastus, two souls find themselves bound together. Reduced to applying her skills for a dubious synth-protein supplier, ex-medicae Chel forces herself not to question where the raw materials come from, but suffers dark dreams nonetheless. In shadowed alleys, street prophet Skreech plans his next offering to the Night Below. As True Night approaches, the two spiral ever closer to a fateful meeting.

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RAPID FIRE: Guy Haley Talks Darkness in the Blood and Astorath: Angel of Mercy

Welcome to this instalment of my Rapid Fire series of quick author interviews, in which I’m talking to the incredibly hard-working and prolific Guy Haley about not one but two new books – Darkness in the Blood and Astorath: Angel of Mercy! Fans of Guy’s Warhammer 40,000 Blood Angels stories – primarily Dante and The Devastation of Baal – have got lots to look forward to with a pair of new additions, and seeing as both new books are due out within a few weeks of each other I’ve asked Guy to give us the lowdown on what we can expect, and how they fit in with the existing books.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Hounds of Nagash – Guy Haley (At the Sign of the Brazen Claw Part Five)

Guy Haley’s five-part Age of Sigmar serial At the Sign of the Brazen Claw comes to an end with The Hounds of Nagash, in which the tavern and those sheltering within it are assailed by implacable spectres. In the wake of Pludu Quasque’s revelation that his foolishness has incurred the wrath of Nagash, spectral glaivewraiths search for a way through the tavern’s magical defences. With the storm howling all around and a desperate fight for survival breaking out, the very structure of the tavern itself begins to come apart as the giant demigod upon which it’s built begins to wake.

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RAPID FIRE – Gav Thorpe Talks Luther: First of the Fallen

Welcome to this instalment of my Rapid Fire series of quick author interviews, in which I’m talking to Black Library author Gav Thorpe about his new novel, Luther: First of the Fallen. This is the second (short) novel in the Horus Heresy Character Series, after 2019’s Valdor: Birth of the Imperium, and is available to pre-order today as a Limited Edition hardback ahead of its standard release in a few months’ time. It promises to be an in-depth exploration of the Dark Angels through the eyes of Luther himself, and coming from Gav – who’s done a lot of work with this Chapter/Legion over the years – it should be a fascinating read.

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RAPID FIRE: Richard Strachan Talks Blood of the Everchosen

Welcome to this instalment of my Rapid Fire series of quick author interviews, in which I’m chatting to Richard Strachan about his debut novel for Black Library, Blood of the Everchosen. It’s the first full novel to be set in the Warcry subset of Age of Sigmar, promising to explore this unique setting and its variety of competing Chaos warbands like never before, and here’s Richard to give the lowdown on what we can expect. It’s available to pre-order as of Saturday the 27th October.

Let’s get straight on with the interview – over to Richard!

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