Category Archives: Reviews

IN BRIEF: The Triumph of Saint Katherine – Danie Ware

The Triumph of Saint Katherine sees Danie Ware step away from her ongoing Sister Augusta storyline but remain with the Adepta Sororitas, exploring the life and exploits of the legendary Saint Katherine through tales told by the Sisters who bear her remains into battle. In the midst of a furious campaign, young Sister Avra finds herself chosen to take the place of a fallen Sister in the funerary procession of Saint Katherine. Over the course of the following night, each of her new sisters relates a tale of the saint that represents the ethos of each of the Major Orders of the Adepta Sororitas. While the armies of the Imperium prepare for war around them, the Sisters talk of the past and Avra wrestles with the questions of why she was chosen, and whether she is worthy of the honour.

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Sanction & Sin – Warhammer Crime Anthology

Sanction & Sin, the third short story anthology from Black Library’s Warhammer Crime range, collects together nine stories from a mixture of BL veterans and newer names (including debuts for J.S. Collyer and Jude Reid) exploring the trials and tribulations of some of the women living amidst the blood, the dirt, the crime and corruption on the grim streets of Varangantua. Whether trying to maintain the Lex, care for others’ bodies and souls, make a killing or just make a living, each of these characters is forced to confront the realities of life in this vast and unforgiving city, the inequality and the brutality, the squalid streets and the merciless conditions. While some thrive despite the odds, others aren’t so strong or so fortunate, and justice means little in Varangantua.

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A Few Thoughts On: Servants of the Imperium

Black Library’s Warhammer 40,000 anthology Servants of the Imperium features a trio of novellas, all of which were first published as part of the ‘Black Library Novella Series 1’ back in 2018 – Auric Gods by Nick Kyme, Danie Ware’s The Bloodied Rose, and Steel Daemon by Ian St. Martin. As with its Age of Sigmar counterpart Champions of the Mortal Realms, this anthology has had a slightly strange release history, but it’s worth checking out for anyone interested in Imperium-focused stories a little different to the usual Space Marines fare. I’ll take a quick look at each novella and link out to my individual reviews, but before that I’ll talk a bit about the anthology as a whole and its unusual publication history.

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QUICK REVIEW: Sacrifice – Danie Ware

Part of Danie Ware’s excellent series of Adepta Sororitas tales, short story Sacrifice sees Sister Augusta and her squad in dire straits when their shuttle is shot down over a toxic chem-planet. Cut off from Imperial forces in inhospitable terrain, the Sisters need to defend their position until they can be safely extracted, but they’re pinned down and vulnerable with an unarmoured Sister Hospitaller and an injured pilot in their midst. As enemies close in all around, Augusta and her Sisters look to their faith to not just protect them, but also guide them to survival.

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Wreck and Ruin – Danie Ware

Danie Ware’s second Sisters of Battle novella for Black Library, Wreck and Ruin picks up shortly after The Bloodied Rose and pits Sister Superior Augusta and her squad against a deadly new enemy. Returning home after the events on Lautis, the Sisters find their services commandeered by Inquisitor Istrix, who orders them to join her on the ravaged, abandoned forge world of Lycheate. They are to accompany her on a hunt for the dangerous psyker Scafidis Zale, but amongst the rusting steelworks and its shady denizens Augusta finds her trust in the hardline, secretive Inquisitor tested and her faith challenged anew.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Crystal Cathedral – Danie Ware

Danie Ware continues her excellent run of Adepta Sororitas stories with The Crystal Cathedral, her second Order of the Bloody Rose story to look back to an earlier incarnation of Sister Augusta. The young Sister and her squad are sent to the mining moon Caro to attend the reconsecration of an awe-inspiring cathedral, built as a memorial to a great victory for Sisters of their Order a thousand years earlier. What should be a simple, non-combat mission turns into a profound test of Augusta’s faith, as an unexpected evil reveals itself and the Sisters are forced into action.

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Bigger Than Biggs – Danie Ware

Danie Ware’s Judge Anderson novella Bigger Than Biggs follows on from Alec Worley’s three Year One novellas, and sees the Psi-Judge tackling biker gangs and delving into dark secrets in the Big Meg. On secondment to the uncompromising Chief Johnson in Sector-19, Anderson stumbles upon something big when the rescue of a kidnap victim leads to hints of sinister goings-on beneath the Eee-Zee Rest block. Johnson won’t sanction an investigation due to the political connections of the block’s owner, but Anderson’s gifts tell her something terrible is about to happen, and it’ll take someone with her talents to stop it.

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QUICK REVIEW: Forsaken – Danie Ware

Danie Ware’s third Black Library story featuring the Adepta Sororitas of the Order of the Bloody Rose, Forsaken features a younger version of Sister Augusta as she and her Sisters search for survivors in the darkness of a drifting Ecclesiarchy vessel. When the sepulchral quiet is shattered by alien ambush, Augusta finds herself cut off from her Sisters and lost deep in the bowels of the ship. Faced with endless emptiness stretching away all around, Augusta falls back on her faith to sustain her and drive her on, but what she finds down there in the darkness tests even that.

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The Bloodied Rose – Danie Ware

The first book in the Black Library Novella Series 1, Danie Ware’s The Bloodied Rose picks up the story of Sister Superior Augusta after the events of the short story Mercy. Having returned to the Convent Sanctorum of the Order of the Bloody Rose to rest and induct the newest member of the squad, Augusta and her Sisters are unexpectedly ordered back to Lautis, the site of their recent confrontation with the orks. The Sisters sent in to secure Lautis have gone silent, and Augusta’s mission report questioned, so she is tasked with returning and finishing what she started.

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QUICK REVIEW: Mercy – Danie Ware

For her first Black Library story, Danie Ware gives us Mercy – a Sisters of Battle short story in which Sister Superior Augusta leads her squad to a distant corner of Ultima Segmentum to investigate an ancient, ruined cathedral. Rumoured to contain an icon of her own Order, the cathedral is a powerful symbol that appeals to Augusta’s faith, but that faith is soon tested when it becomes clear that the Sisters are not alone. Orkish brutality meets fury and discipline as the Sisters fiercely defend the cathedral, while Augusta begins to wonder what the orks are actually doing there.

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