Category Archives: Books

Kal Jerico: Sinner’s Bounty – Josh Reynolds

With Kal Jerico: Sinner’s Bounty, Josh Reynolds takes the reins from Gordon Rennie and Will McDermott and reintroduces the suave bounty hunter for a new generation of Necromunda fans. Accompanied by put-upon partner Scabbs and sort-of-but-not-really wife Yolanda, Jerico is on the trail of Desolation Zoon, a Redemptionist zealot whose bold behaviour has roused the ire of the Guilders. With every other venator worth the name on the same trail, however, they must keep ahead of the competition and survive the many and varied dangers of the underhive – including a worrying number of muties on the move – if they’re to claim this bounty.

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Konrad Curze: The Night Haunter – Guy Haley

The twelfth novel in Black Library’s The Horus Heresy Primarchs series, Konrad Curze: The Night Haunter is Guy Haley’s third contribution and by a comfortable margin his most unconventional one yet. A twitchy, jittery collection of characters and plot threads, it sees Curze – twisted, haunted, damaged – spending the final hours of his life reliving some of the key events which led him inevitably to a moment he’d long foreseen. Crouched in the darkness, talking in his madness to a (literally and figuratively) distant father, his only thoughts are to justify his monstrous actions and find vindication in light of the Emperor’s own cold contempt.

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Apocalypse – Josh Reynolds

Part of Black Library’s Space Marine Conquests series, Josh Reynolds’ Apocalypse is the first in the range to not focus on a single specific Chapter of Space Marines. Instead, it features a mixed Imperial force defending an isolated system against Word Bearers intent on conquest. As Amatnim Ur-Nabas Lash leads his fractious forces towards the Ecclesiarchy world of Almace, Lieutenant Calder of the Imperial Fists plans the loyalist defences with the aid of Suboden Khan of the White Scars and Raven Guard Lieutenant Karros. If he’s to succeed Calder knows he must play to his forces’ unique strengths but also get the most out of Almace’s Ecclesiarchy overlords.

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The October Man – Ben Aaronovitch

The second novella in Ben Aaronovitch’s long-running Rivers of London series, The October Man is the first instalment in which the action takes place out of the UK and away from the usual cast of characters. This time around the focus is on Tobias Winter, apprentice wizard and Investigator in the German Federal Police, who’s dispatched to the city of Trier when a man’s body is discovered covered in fungus. Ably assisted by the enthusiastic Vanessa Sommer from the local Trier police, Tobias’ investigation ends up involving Trier’s wine growing traditions, reluctant water spirits, dangerous magical history and middle-age adventurousness.

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Priest of Lies – Peter McLean

Many thanks to Jo Fletcher Books and Netgalley for the advance copy of this book in exchange for a review.

A sequel to the fantastic Priest of Bones, and book two in Peter McLean’s War for the Rose Throne series, Priest of Lies is another brutal, brilliant fantasy tale of gangsters, spies, violence and intrigue. Life is complex for Tomas Piety, self-made prince of Ellinburg and reluctant servant of the Queen’s Men. For all his successes, he’s still driven – largely by the demands of his wife, the Queen’s Man Ailsa – to keep fighting for his city, and for the crown. As the situation in Ellinburg deteriorates and Tomas is drawn into the murky political waters of the capital, Dannsburg, he finds himself increasingly out of his depth and troubled by the consequences of power.

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The Deathless – Peter Newman

The first book in a series of the same name, Peter Newman’s The Deathless is a gripping, fascinating fantasy tale of intrigue and political manoeuvring in a world of demons, magic and undying dynasties. Safe in their castles in the sky, the immortal lords of the seven royal families watch over their people and protect them from the demons of the Wild. When treachery strikes at the moment of Lord Rochant’s rebirth, however, cracks are revealed within House Sapphire, and loyalties are tested as long-gestating plans come to fruition and various players make their moves to grasp what power they can.

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Vaults of Terra – The Hollow Mountain by Chris Wraight

Book two in Chris Wraight’s Vaults of Terra series featuring Inquisitor Crowl and Interrogator Spinoza, The Hollow Mountain picks up pretty much straight away after the end of The Carrion Throne. Though disaster was averted on the throneworld, Crowl believes that the powerful people behind the conspiracy to bring a xenos creature to Terra are still at large and need to be brought to justice for their crimes. Despite Spinoza’s misgivings, they continue to investigate – albeit in secret, fully aware of the dangers involved in doing so – even while Terra seethes in a worrying atmosphere of unusual friction and unease.

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Master of Sorrows – Justin Call

Book One in the Silent Gods tetralogy (that’s a four-book series to you and me), Justin Call’s Master of Sorrows offers a clever take on a tried-and-tested fantasy trope. In the hidden village of Chaenbalu, orphan Annev de Breth trains hard to earn his place amongst the warrior-thieves of the Academy. In a society which abhors both magic and physical impurity of any kind, however, Annev – born with only one hand and mentored by a somewhat mysterious priest-slash-magician – finds himself pulled in different directions by conflicting loyalties. As his last chance to become an Avatar looms large, Annev faces a choice which might determine the shape of his life to come.

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The Wicked and the Damned – David Annandale, Phil Kelly and Josh Reynolds

One of the first batch of releases published by Black Library under the Warhammer Horror label, the Wicked and the Damned is a portmanteau story – a collection of three loosely linked novellas, by David Annandale, Phil Kelly and Josh Reynolds. On the mist-shrouded cemetery world of Silence, three strangers – a commissar, an officer and a priest – are brought together seemingly by random, surrounded by the dead with only each other and the sinister mortuary-servitors for company. Confused and unsettled, to try and understand what’s going on and why they’ve been gathered together they each tell the story of what they remember last, and what led them to Silence.

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Scourge of Fate – Robbie MacNiven

Robbie MacNiven’s first full Age of Sigmar novel, Scourge of Fate is a Chaos-focused tale of the lengths one man is prepared to go to in order to join the ranks of Archaon’s Knights of Ruin – the Varanguard. The Black Pilgrim Vanik, a powerful warlord in his own right, is one of two aspirants competing against each other to claim a single place among the Fifth Circle of the Varanguard. Tasked with killing a great hero of Order, to stop a prophecy and prevent a threat to the Varanspire itself, Vanik raises a great host of warriors and marches on Helmgard in the Realm of Chamon.

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