Category Archives: Reviews

QUICK REVIEW: The Cure – Guy Haley

Published in Grimdark Magazine issue 34, Guy Haley’s short story The Cure is a short, sharp blast of mud-splattered action and black humour that blends fantasy and science fiction into an intriguing whole. When Velth and his companions set out on their latest contract – escorting a priest and an unwell priestess to a remote temple in search of a cure to her ailment – their mercenary company numbers ten, under the leadership of their captain, Arnolli. The further they travel though, through rotten forest and stinking marsh, the harder their journey becomes, and as they begin to fall through accident, illness and battle, Velth has his work cut out to protect their charges and keep faith with the contract.

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Short and Sweet: November 2022

Hello and welcome to this instalment of Short and Sweet, my series of mini review roundups where I look back at SFF books I’ve recently read but haven’t had the time and/or headspace to review individually. Last time (back in October 2022) I kicked this series off with a hefty six books to talk about, but this time I’m going with a slightly more manageable four (well, more like three and a half really). These include a reread of a fantastic Murderbot book, a Warhammer Crime novel I’d been meaning to read for ages, the latest Horus Heresy Primarchs novel, and the next book in a series I’m gradually making my way through.

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Prince Maesa – Guy Haley

Prince Maesa (along with Shattercap the spite) first appeared in Guy Haley’s 2017 Age of Sigmar audio drama The Autumn Prince, which was followed by several short stories and a further audio, all of which have been combined, updated and expanded to form Prince Maesa, a full-length novel exploring the aelven Wanderer’s quest to return his beloved Ellamar to life. From their visit to ill-fated Shadespire, through Shyish and out across the Mortal Realms, Maesa and Shattercap travel far and wide as they search for the knowledge and the magic that will reunite Maesa with his long-dead human love. Eternally grief-stricken, Maesa finds solace along the way in companionship and in his attempts to teach Shattercap to be good, but his journey is filled with deadly enemies to face, and the prospect of Nagash’s wrath should he succeed in his quest.

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A Few Thoughts On The Successors – Black Library Anthology

A collection of 13 short stories from 10 different authors, Black Library’s Warhammer 40,000 anthology The Successors looks beyond the usual First Founding Chapters of Space Marines and sets out to explore some of the Chapters who haven’t been seen as often in 40k fiction. It does actually feature some Chapters who have had plenty of their own stories before (Crimson Fists, Flesh Tearers, Soul Drinkers), but the majority of the stories focus on Chapters from the semi-familiar (Angels Penitent, Black Dragons, Carcharadons, Emperor’s Spears, Mortifactors) to the new or much more obscure (Consecrators, Iron Lords, Wolfspear). There’s even a rare Exorcists story, and most – although not all – of the stories take place in the ‘current’, post-Great Rift era of 40k.

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Darkness in the Blood – Guy Haley

The third of Guy Haley’s 40k Blood Angels novels, Darkness in the Blood is a bleak tale of duty and necessity which explores both Commander Dante’s new role as Warden of Imperium Nihilus, and the unsettling growth of Chief Librarian Mephiston’s psychic might. In the wake of Hive Fleet Leviathan’s defeat at Baal, and the arrival of Roboute Guilliman with Primaris Space Marine reinforcements for the Chapters of the Blood, Dante plans his campaign to purge the remaining Tyranids and begin retaking Imperium Nihilus. Before that can happen, however, Mephiston’s burgeoning powers appear to herald a new danger for the sons of Sanguinius, as the Flaw rises in even the new Primaris Marines. Meanwhile, an agent of Belisarius Cawl travels to Baal bearing gifts of science and technology that might just offer a little hope.

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Richards & Klein – Guy Haley

Originally published in 2011 and 2012, Guy Haley’s SF detective adventure novels Reality 36 and Omega Point are back in print in a hefty new omnibus edition entitled Richards & Klein, both books revised, updated and combined into a single volume. Set in 2129 it sees freelance security consultants Richards (a Class Five AI) and Otto Klein (German ex-military cyborg) investigating the murder of Professor Zhang Qifang, a prominent activist for AI rights, whose death heralds a rising threat that’s felt across both the physical and digital worlds. People connected to Qifang are dying or disappearing, some of Richards’ fellow Class Fives are acting weird, and someone really doesn’t want Richards and Klein to find out what’s going on. As they dig beneath the surface, their investigation takes them across the Real, the digital space of the Grid, and even the virtual worlds of the Realities.

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Avenging Son – Guy Haley

Guy Haley’s novel Avenging Son kicks off the nine-part Dawn of Fire series, which promises to explore in detail the events of the Indomitus Crusade – the driving force behind the ‘current’ Warhammer 40,000 timeline. This first instalment features the first great battle of the Era Indomitus, as Fleetmistress VanLeskus leads Fleet Tertius against the Khornate Crusade of Slaughter for control of the Machorta Sound, determined to stop the forces of Chaos from claiming territory that would allow them to threaten Terra itself. Before the returned Primarch Roboute Guilliman can dispatch VanLeskus and Fleet Tertius, however, he has to navigate his way through the byzantine politics of an Imperium still reeling from the opening of the Great Rift, a task which even a Primarch can’t manage alone.

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QUICK REVIEW: His Will – Guy Haley

Labelled as ‘a Dark Imperium prequel story’, Guy Haley’s short story His Will features Frater Mathieu aboard the captured Macragge’s Honour, tying this character – and the Dark Imperium series as a whole – in nicely with the earlier Gathering Storm-era narrative around the return of Roboute Guilliman. With the Ultramarines’ flagship under the control of the Red Corsairs, Mathieu and his flock – including young, nervous Brother Clydeus – share their faith in secret, despite the dangers. When they risk the ire of the traitors to help a crewmember in need, Clydeus finds himself exposed to truths that challenge his faith like never before, but somehow bring hope as well.

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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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No Good Men – Warhammer Crime Anthology

Taking its place in the first wave of Black Library’s Warhammer Crime releases (alongside Chris Wraight’s Bloodlines and Alec Worley’s Dredge Runners), short story anthology No Good Men explores some of the different ways in which Imperial justice is loosely interpreted on the mean streets of Varangantua. Eschewing the usual battlefields and familiar tabletop characters in favour of ordinary citizens simply trying to survive the brutal realities of Imperial life, these stories all explore Varangantua’s atmospheric, cyberpunk-esque stylings and the towering inequalities corroding the heart of the Imperium. As the title suggests, there are no heroics here – just regular people doing what it takes to get by, whether that falls within the remit of the law or not.

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