Category Archives: Books

Blood of the Everchosen – Richard Strachan

The debut Black Library novel from Richard Strachan, Blood of the Everchosen is labelled as a Warcry Catacombs story but in truth is simply a fantastic Age of Sigmar novel which offers the best depiction yet of life for the mortal followers of Chaos. In the benighted lands of the Eightpoints, a child is born beneath a savage storm, his destiny entwined with that of Archaon himself. As the boy’s father races for safety, powerful forces converge from across the Bloodwind Spoil. Some, like Burak the Bloodseer and his Untamed Beasts, or Lord Rakaros’ Scions of the Flame, seek to kill the child while others, like the Splintered Fang of Ashrath Silenthis, hope to protect him. All hope to gain Archaon’s favour through their actions, except for the hunters in gold who search out the child for their own mysterious purpose.

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Day Zero – James Swallow and Josh Reynolds

Veteran authors James Swallow and Josh Reynolds team up for modern, high-tech thriller Day Zero from Aconyte Books, a prequel novel to the Watchdogs: Legion video game. Trouble is brewing in an alternative but worryingly believable London, with organised crime rife, private military contractor Albion muscling in on the Met, and hacker collective DedSec leading an underground resistance. Tensions begin to escalate when a spate of shootings rock the East End, and players from all sides – local government, DedSec, Albion, the brutal Clan Kelley crime family – step up their efforts, as a deeper mystery starts to come to light in the battle for control of the city.

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Legacy of Ash – Matthew Ward

Matthew Ward’s The Legacy Trilogy opens with Legacy of Ash, a 240k word behemoth of a novel which sets out Ward’s stall for the series and emphasises the epic in epic fantasy. Fifteen years after a failed Southshire rebellion, the Republic of Tressia is still mired in internecine conflict, its ruling Council divided on how to deal with their troublesome southern subjects. When the looming threat of the neighbouring Hadari Empire becomes too much to ignore, it falls to the Council’s champion Viktor Akadra to rally the Southshires in defence of the Republic, while siblings Josiri and Calenne Trelan – whose mother led the failed rebellion – face difficult choices as they confront both the lasting implications of their mother’s actions, and Viktor’s role in her death.

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The Key To Fear by Kristin Cast – Via Grimdark Magazine

The latest book I’ve reviewed for the fine folks over at Grimdark Magazine is Kristin Cast’s The Key To Fear, a surprisingly dark and bloody young adult novel set fifty years after a pandemic killed off the vast majority of the American population. Published in the UK by Head of Zeus, it’s out in hardback and ebook on the 5th November, and you can read my full review on the GdM website right now. As usual I’m putting down a few additional thoughts here in this article/review, so you can check out the GdM piece for my standard third person/objective review, and this one for some more subjective comments.

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Tales From the Loop – Simon Stålenhag

The first of Simon Stålenhag’s ‘narrative art’ books, Tales From the Loop is a fascinating example of storytelling delivered across both prose and visual art, in which evocative images of stunning Swedish landscapes, populated by wildly imaginative sci-fi creatures and machines, are contextualised and expanded upon with episodes of text interspersed throughout. In this alternative history of 1980s and 90s Scandinavia, Stålenhag explores the realities of growing up amongst the fading grandeur of the Loop, a vast particle accelerator constructed in the 50s beneath the Swedish countryside. Despite having been largely decommissioned by the time these stories take place, the presence of this ambitious technological marvel is clearly felt on the landscape and in the lives of the locals.

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The Mirrored City – Josh Reynolds

Published in 2018 as a tie-in to the then-new Warhammer Underworlds sub-setting of Age of Sigmar, Josh Reynolds’ The Mirrored City introduces the city of Shadespire, exploring the curse laid upon it and its Katophrane rulers by Nagash, and the damned souls caught within its tangled streets. Seguin Reynar is one such soul, a deserter from the Freeguild who made his way to Shadespire seeking his fortune only to find himself hunted, trapped, and caught up in the schemes of one of the city’s ancient, bitter ruler-spirits. As he explores the city, battling its many and varied denizens and doing his best to avoid the attentions of the blood-crazed Chaos worshipper tracking him, Reynar searches for a way to escape both the attentions of Katophrane Sadila and the cursed city itself.

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The Head of Mimir – Richard Lee Byers

The first novel in Aconyte Books’ new Marvels: Legends of Asgard series, Richard Lee Byers’ The Head of Mimir is a fun, fast-paced fantasy adventure. With Asgard under siege by armies of Frost Giants, and Odin trapped in an unusually long Odinsleep, the thoughtful young warrior Hemidall worries that his fellow Asgardians are underestimating their enemies. Speculating that something supernatural is affecting his king’s sleep, Heimdall and his sister Sif slip into Odin’s inner sanctum and find that the Head of Mimir, a powerful relic said to possess great wisdom, has been stolen. Despite the evidence of an intruder, and the suggestion of a traitor in Asgard’s court, Heimdall and Sif soon find themselves on the path to Jotunheim alone, desperate to recover the relic, foil the Jotuns’ plans, and redeem themselves in the eyes of Asgard.

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Domino: Strays – Tristan Palmgren

Aconyte Books’ Marvel: Heroines range – one of several new series of Marvel prose novels – kicks off with Domino: Strays by Tristan Palmgren, an action-packed blast of balletic violence and snappy dialogue with an unexpectedly thoughtful, psychological core. Mercenary Domino, otherwise known as Neena Thurman, has a history with cults and dangerous idealogues, so when she’s offered a job to extract a pair of twins from a dubious religious sect in Chicago, she takes it on despite all of her concerns. With the aid of a few fellow mercs she sets out to get the job done, but she can’t help to draw parallels between the task at hand and the lasting impact of her own painful upbringing as part of the secret genetics experiment known as Project Armageddon.

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The Doom of Fallowhearth – Robbie MacNiven

Robbie MacNiven’s first novel for Aconyte Books, The Doom of Fallowhearth is the first in a new series of novels set in Terrinoth, the world of Descent: Journeys in the Dark. When Lady Kathryn, the Baroness of Forthyn’s daughter, disappears under strange circumstances, three of the legendary Borderlands Four reunite to search for the missing noblewoman. While their best years might be behind them, these most famous of adventurers bravely (or rather reluctantly, in the case of ageing rogue Logan Lashley) head north to the town of Fallowhearth to search for signs of what caused Lady Kathryn’s disappearance. Little do they appreciate the danger they’re stepping into, however, as their search brings them into conflict with suspicious locals, lurking monsters and a powerful darkness hiding in the sinister Blind Muir forest.

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Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott – via Grimdark Magazine

Happy UK publication day to Unconquerable Sun, the fantastic first instalment in a new sci-fi trilogy from Kate Elliott! Published by Head of Zeus, this is billed as ‘gender-swapped Alexander the Great in space’, which is a great elevator pitch if ever I heard one. I was delighted to receive an advance copy of this brilliant book, and my review is live over on the Grimdark Magazine site. I’d love for you to head over there and check it out, but if you just want my essential thoughts on the book then how about this: I spent virtually an entire day unable to put this down, and my overriding thought upon finishing it was a desperate frustration at knowing that the second book isn’t available yet!

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