Category Archives: Black Library

40k Reading Order: Silver Skulls – Sarah Cawkwell

Welcome to this 40k Reading Order article, the first of many where I’ll be taking a look at a range of Black Library series and providing recommended orders in which to read the various stories – in this case Sarah Cawkwell’s excellent Warhammer 40,000 Silver Skulls stories. If you’ve ever wanted to read this series but haven’t known where to start, then look no further than this article! With a little help from Sarah, including a handy page on her website, I’ve put together a comprehensive list of all of her Silver Skulls stories, along with a couple of other stories that link off at a bit of a tangent and some suggestions for what to read next.

As well as the recommended reading order, I’ve also included a breakdown of each story with the publisher’s synopsis, suggestions of the best way to get hold of each one, and links out to my review where they’re available.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Perfect Assassin – Gary Kloster

Gary Kloster joins the illustrious ranks of Black Library authors who have written about Gotrek Gurnisson in Age of Sigmar with The Perfect Assassin, a tale that focuses not on the surly Slayer but on his companion, the aelf Maleneth. The unlikely pair find themselves in the city of Losten in grim Ulgu, but while Gotrek happily drinks a tavern dry of beer, Maleneth relieves her boredom in bloodier fashion. When she’s tasked by one of the city’s nobles with finding and killing a mysterious assassin stalking the streets, at first she’s barely interested, until a sighting of the assassin’s unusual powers piques her curiosity.

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3 Wishes for the Black Library Celebration 2022

The annual Black Library Celebration has been running since 2018, an event which in the words of Warhammer Community offers a chance to “celebrate your passion for the fiction of the Warhammer universes”. It’s a great idea in principle, using Games Workshop stores (when they’re not all shut due to Covid) and the Warhammer Community site to bring the Black Library community together – readers, authors, and everyone involved in the community. Every year, however, I find myself disappointed that instead of actually celebrating the breadth of storytelling on offer across BL fiction or the incredible work that goes into writing these stories, this event is basically just an opportunity to release a bunch of new 40k books all on the same day, along with a new Games Workshop miniature of a BL character.

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Black Library: Age of Sigmar Grand Alliances

If you’re familiar with Warhammer Age of Sigmar then you’ll probably know that in the game at least, the various armies are grouped loosely into four Grand Alliances – Chaos, Death, Destruction and Order – each containing a range of different factions and races, not all of which always see eye to eye. Recently I got to wondering about how this concept is represented in Black Library fiction, and whether I could think of one standout book for each Grand Alliance – one thing led to another, and the end result is this article. I’ve picked out four Age of Sigmar books that I’ve really enjoyed, and I’ll talk a bit about why each one is – in my opinion – the best place to start (so far) with its Grand Alliance.

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A Few Thoughts On: The Magos by Dan Abnett

The (unexpected) fourth book in Dan Abnett’s classic Eisenhorn trilogy, The Magos is an unusual book for a few reasons. Firstly, while it’s a (relatively short) novel in its own right it’s presented in a hefty volume with the full title of The Magos & the Definitive Casebook of Gregor Eisenhorn, alongside a dozen of Dan Abnett’s short stories which sit alongside his Eisenhorn, Ravenor and Bequin trilogies. More on these later. Secondly, it’s definitely part of the Eisenhorn series yet it’s a very different kind of story to Xenos, Malleus and Hereticus, told as it is in third person from the viewpoint of magos biologis Valentin Drusher, rather than in Eisenhorn’s own first person perspective. Thirdly, while it was published after Pariah, it works as an effective prequel to that novel, providing a natural evolution of Eisenhorn’s character between the end of Hereticus and the start of the Bequin trilogy.

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RAPID FIRE: Dan Abnett Talks Penitent

Welcome to this instalment of my Rapid Fire series of author interviews, where today I’m delighted to be talking to the legendary Dan Abnett about his new Warhammer 40,000 novel Penitent, the second book in his Bequin trilogy for Black Library. It’s been nine years since the first book in the series – Pariah – was released, but the wait is finally over, with Penitent available to pre-order today in all the usual formats! For those who aren’t already familiar with the whole ‘Inquisition Cycle’ I’ve asked Dan to talk a bit about the whole thing first of all, before giving us the lowdown on what to expect from Penitent.

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QUICK REVIEW: Salvation’s Crucible – Denny Flowers

Currently only available in the Black Library Events Anthology 2019/20, Denny Flowers’ Necromunda short story Salvation’s Crucible is a brief but fiery tale of the Promethium Guild, or Mercator Pyros. Lord Silas Pureburn has sworn to bring the light of the God-Emperor to the settlement of Under Pipe, and has contracted a gang of hive scum as guides and protectors. Not all of the Underhive’s denizens are fans of the guilds though, and standing in Lord Pureburn’s way are the Waylanders gang, who run their own operation providing light and power to Under Pipe, and don’t intend to relinquish their territory without a fight.

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A Guide to Dan Abnett’s Inquisition Series

Dan Abnett’s trilogy of Inquisition trilogies – the Eisenhorn, Ravenor and Bequin novels – are among the best that Black Library has ever published, and certainly some of my personal favourites. With the upcoming release of Penitent, the second Bequin novel, there are now more than twenty individual stories across the overarching Inquisition series, with the nine novels (with at least one more still to come) accompanied by a dozen or so short stories. As with many Black Library series, the tricky part is knowing where to start if you’re keen to check out these stories, or where to go next if you’ve read some of them and are keen for more!

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QUICK REVIEW: The Lives of Ferag Lion-Wolf – Barrington J. Bayley

First published in issue 14 of Black Library’s Inferno! Magazine way back in 1999, Barrington J. Bayley’s short story The Lives of Ferag Lion-Wolf is very much an ‘old 40k’ story – it’s still in keeping with the setting in tone, even if some of the details are a little out of place these days. Tzeentchian champion Ferag Lion-Wolf – traitor Space Marine, slayer of monsters, ruler of five worlds in the Eye of Terror – is on the cusp of ascending to daemonhood. As he greets a rival with honeyed words and false smiles he can’t help but boast of his prowess and god-given favour, but the Changer of Ways is a fickle master.

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RAPID FIRE: Graham McNeill Talks The Swords of Calth

Welcome to this instalment of my Rapid Fire series of author interviews, where today I’m talking to veteran Black Library author Graham McNeill about his new novel The Swords of Calth, the long-awaited return of Uriel Ventris to 40k. Whether you’re a long-term fan of the series or this is your first introduction, read on to find out more about Uriel Ventris, who this character is within 40k, and how he fits into the changing universe! I also asked Graham for a series reading order, so anyone who wants to check out the whole thing can do so in chronological order.

It’s been over a decade since the previous book in this series was released, so it’s great to see such an iconic character return – The Swords of Calth goes up for pre-order on the 20th February, in Special Edition hardback, standard hardback, ebook and audiobook formats.

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