Category Archives: Books

Priest of Crowns – Peter McLean

The fourth and final book of Peter McLean’s phenomenal War for the Rose Throne series, Priest of Crowns concludes the story of Tomas Piety – gangster, army priest, Queen’s Man, politician, heartless killer, caring father – in bleak, brutal but satisfying style. After the events of Priest of Gallows, Dannsburg is boiling over with civil unrest as religious fervour vies with xenophobia and nationalistic fury, and the prospect of war with Skania looms over everything. Increasingly uncomfortable with the machinations of the Provost Marshal Dieter Vogel, Tomas (now Councillor Sir Thomas) finds himself torn between pride at his lofty position and loathing of what he’s become. With suspicion tainting his every move, and unsure of who he can truly trust, Tomas plans a careful opposition of Lord Vogel, knowing full well that any wrong move will see him and everyone he cares about dead.

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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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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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Mindwalker – Kate Dylan

Out soon from Hodder & Stoughton, Kate Dylan’s YA sci-fi novel Mindalker offers up a breathless blast of neon-soaked, tactically-modded fun laid over a surprisingly dark and powerful core. In a divided, post-apocalypse America, eighteen year-old Sil Sarrah is a Mindwalker for the Syntex Corporation – modded and trained to step into field agents’ minds from afar and extract them from the most dangerous missions. Knowing full well that she only has a year or so of life remaining before her implants finally kill her, Sil is determined to go out with her perfect mission record intact, right up until something goes horribly wrong and she finds herself on the run from her own people. As she searches for intelligence on Syntex’s enemies in an attempt to clear her name, Sil starts to relearn how to live outside the protection of the company, along the way gaining a new perspective on the world around her.

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The Patriot List – David Guymer

Part of the Marvel: Untold range from Aconyte Books, David Guymer’s The Patriot List turns the tables on the usual Marvel norms and tells a tale of villains pretending to be heroes, featuring the Dark Avengers under the leadership of the brilliant but troubled Norman Osborn. In the wake of a Skrull invasion and the failure of SHIELD, Osborn is now in control of a new team of Avengers, which sees – unbeknown to the general public – hand-picked (and, unsurprisingly, difficult to manage) super-villains masquerading as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Despite the incredible power he wields, Osborn isn’t exactly the most stable of characters, and when a list detailing potential replacements for his faux-Avengers is stolen from under his nose, his response is somewhat less than subtle.

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Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir – via Grimdark Magazine

Ever since first reading Gideon the Ninth back in 2019 I’ve been hooked on Tamsyn Muir’s The Locked Tomb stories, so I was thrilled to be able to review the third novel in the series – Nona the Ninth – for the fine folks over at Grimdark Magazine. That review is now live, and you can find it here; do check it out! Rather than post the same review here on Track of Words, I’ll use this space to add a few more thoughts about Nona in general, and my experience of reading it (including the preparations I made in advance). So, if you just want to get straight to the review then by all means head over to the GdM site and check that out! If not, read on…and I’ll link out to the review again at the end.

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Against All Gods – Miles Cameron

Miles Cameron’s brilliantly-titled Against All Gods kicks off his Age of Bronze cycle, a new historical fantasy series set (as the name suggests) in a Bronze Age-inspired world populated by mortals, monsters and bickering, manipulative gods. Enkul-Anu, God of the Storm, rules over both gods and mortals through power and fear, but a thousand years after conquering heaven his grip on the pantheon is starting to slip. When one of the younger gods kills the wrong mortal, bungling Enkul-Anu’s orders, events are set into motion that will threaten the gods’ control of the world and its people. Brought together by circumstance and the meddling of higher powers, and disillusioned by the uncaring gods, an unlikely group of mortals set out to take a stand, aware that they’re being manipulated but determined to find room for their own choices.

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Aera: The Return of the Ancient Gods – Markus Heitz

Markus Heitz’s epic AERA: The Return of the Ancient Gods was originally serialised across ten novellas, first published in German and then translated into English by Emily Gunning and Charlie Homewood, and it’s now available in a single 800+ page omnibus courtesy of Jo Fletcher Books. A strangely compelling mix of Europe-centric urban fantasy, mystery and mythological adventure, it’s set in an alternative world in which the old gods returned to Earth in 2012, and subsequently set about reclaiming their worshippers and setting themselves up in positions of power (more than a few turning to business to take full advantage of the modern world). Into this mix steps Malleus Bourreau, Interpol agent and avowed atheist, who refuses to believe in the gods and is determined to find out who or what they really are. Given the circumstances, and the potential for god versus god rivalry, this leads to some interesting conflicts of opinion.

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Black Cat: Discord – Cath Lauria

Cath Lauria’s second contribution to Aconyte Books’ range of Marvel: Heroines novels (after the excellent Elsa Bloodstone: Bequest), Black Cat: Discord offers a fun perspective on Marvel’s wild world of heroes and villains, from someone who straddles both communities. Thief extraordinaire Felicia Hardy, aka the Black Cat, normally looks out solely for number one, but when teenager Casey asks for (well…more like demands) help to find her missing father – the ex-criminal Firestrike, now turned state witness – there’s something about the case that piques Felicia’s interest. While she’s out searching for the missing Firestrike however, seemingly the entire hero and villain population of New York is searching for a magical, wish-granting golden apple, and she finds her services in considerable demand.

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Equinox – David Towsey

Hidden witches, gruesome magic and uniquely complex sibling relationships abound in David Towsey’s dark, intriguing fantasy novel Equinox, out now from Head of Zeus. In a world in which each body houses two people – one who lives during the day, and one during the night – Special Inspector Christophor Morden shares his body with his day brother, but not his profession; while Christophor is a witch hunter, Alexsander is a musician. When Christophor is dispatched by the King himself to a small, distant town to seek out and stop a dangerous witch, Alexsander tries to make the most of his new surroundings, but he soon finds his own experiences coming into conflict with his night-brother’s work. As Christophor’s investigation drags on, what they find in Drekenford puts more strain on their brotherly cooperation than ever before.

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