Category Archives: Books

Day of Ascension – Adrian Tchaikovsky

Prolific, award-winning science fiction author Adrian Tchaikovsky makes his long-form Black Library debut with Day of Ascension, a Warhammer 40,000 novel which pits the cold, academic machine logic of the Adeptus Mechanicus against the insidious alien threat of a Genestealer Cult. Genetor Gammat Triskellian is an ambitious man, but the organic focus of his work is out of favour with the priestly hierarchy of the forge world Morod, and Triskellian is frustrated at every turn by his superiors. When he stumbles across evidence of a xenos taint lurking amongst the poorest inhabitants of Morod he sees an opportunity to further his own goals and undermine his rivals. To the downtrodden members of the Congregation of the Divine Union though, Triskellian is merely another oppressor to be endured and overthrown on the path to their destiny.

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Volpone Glory – Nick Kyme

One of only a handful of non-Dan Abnett novels in Black Library’s Sabbat Worlds series (or is it maybe a setting now?), Nick Kyme’s Volpone Glory more than holds its own in this much-loved range – a gritty, powerful page-turner of a book that delves into the complex character of the Royal Volpone regiment of Imperial Guard. Set in 791.M41, so roughly the same time as The Warmaster, it sees the 50th Royal Volpone on Gnostes, bogged down in a protracted campaign attempting to push the Blood Pact out of an entrenched island chain, their vaunted pride dented by their lack of progress. As the prospect of victory hangs in the balance even while the archenemy develops its own devious plans for the war, politics within the ranks of the Volpone lead to division, mistrust and increasingly desperate tactics. Hope springs from an unexpected source, but will it be enough?

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The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers – Rob Young Guest Review

Hello and welcome to this guest review on Track of Words, where today I’m handing over to author Rob Young to talk about The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. Rob’s debut Black Library story The Roar of the Void is featured in the Inferno! Presents The Inquisition anthology, and it’s a genuinely fantastic debut, so I’m calling it now – Rob is a new BL author to watch! I’m delighted he has agreed to write this guest review, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I’ve been meaning to read this book for ages, so when Rob suggested it as the subject for a review I jumped at the chance to get his thoughts on it…and now I’m even more determined to read this asap!

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Day Zero by C. Robert Cargill – Graham McNeill Guest Review

Hello and welcome to Track of Words, where I hope you’ll join me in welcoming legendary author Graham McNeill to the site for this guest review of apocalyptic adventure novel Day Zero by C. Robert Cargill. I imagine Graham will be very familiar to most readers, as the author of countless hugely popular books for Black Library from Nightbringer to Swords of Calth, not to mention Arkham Horror and Stargate novels and all manner of fantastic fiction for League of Legends. I couldn’t be happier to hand the reins of the site over to Graham for this guest review – I haven’t read Day Zero myself, but both this and Cargill’s 2017 novel Sea of Rust have been on my radar for a while now, and based on Graham’s review I definitely think I need to read this book!

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The Twice-dead King: Ruin by Nate Crowley – Victoria Hayward Guest Review

Hello and welcome to this guest review here on Track of Words, where I’m opening up the floor to author Victoria Hayward to talk about Nate Crowley’s novel The Twice-dead King: Ruin, which is out now from Black Library. 40k fans may well already be familiar with Victoria as the author of short stories The Carbis Incident and The Siege of Ismyr (featured in the Warhammer Crime anthology Sanction & Sin), both of which are excellent! I knew Victoria had read and loved The Twice-dead King: Ruin, and I was delighted when she agreed to write this review – I think it’s a fantastic review, which brilliantly illustrates what this book means to Victoria while painting a vivid (but spoiler-free) picture of the story as a whole. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

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The Hood – Lavie Tidhar

Lavie Tidhar’s British history/mythology/fantasy mashup The Hood, out now from Head of Zeus, is quite frankly batshit crazy. The second book (following By Force Alone) of his ‘Anti-Matter of Britain Quartet’, it’s a wild reinterpretation of the legends of Robin Hood by way of the Knights Templar, the Murder Ballads, fairy tales, fantasy and a shitload of narcotic fungi – it’s totally bizarre, but weirdly compelling. Set across a strangely distended span of decades and taking in everywhere from the city of Nottingham and the surrounding Sherwood Forest to York, London, the Holy Land and Faerie, it begins with the ill-fated kidnapping of Maid Marian and goes on to feature traumatised veteran Will Scarlett, perma-baffled knight Richard at the Lee, the harpist Alan-a-dale, a Jewish drug mastermind named Rebecca, a succession of Sheriffs of Nottingham, and all manner of other weird and wonderful hoods in the woods.

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A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark – Josh Reynolds Guest Review

Hello and welcome to this guest review here on Track of Words, where the fantastic Josh Reynolds – author of (amongst other things) the Royal Occultist series, the Daidoshi Shin books and some of the most entertaining Warhammer stories of all time – is here to talk about A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark. I couldn’t be happier to have Josh on the site as a guest reviewer, not just because he’s one of my absolute favourite authors but because he’s talking about a book that I utterly adore! It really is an incredible book, and Josh has done a great job of illustrating why that is in this clear, concise, persuasive and spoiler-free review.

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Absynthe – Brendan P. Bellecourt

Already well established in the fantasy world, Bradley P. Beaulieu – writing here as Brendan P. Bellecourt – turns his attention to science fiction with Abysnthe, a wonderfully imaginative novel which blends art deco stylings with retrofuturistic technology and mind bending illusions. Liam Mulcahey remembers little of his time in the Great War, his memories fractured due to a head wound sustained during the fighting, and now years later he works as a mechanic for the wealthy family of his closest friend. When he joins Morgan and his socialite friends at a Chicago speakeasy he meets the beguiling, mysterious Grace, and partakes of the hallucination-inducing spirit absynthe. The visions Liam sees under the liquor’s influence leave him unsettled, but it soon becomes clear that they were much more than simple flights of fancy, as he finds himself caught up in secrets and conspiracies even as his jumbled memories begin to come clear.

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Ronin – Emma Mieko Candon

Over the years there have been a multitude of Star Wars novels, but never before has there been one quite like Emma Mieko Candon’s Ronin, which offers a totally new – and absolutely fascinating – perspective on one of the most famous settings in all of science fiction. Normally I try to write my own precis for each book I review, but in this case I don’t think I can really add anything of value to the publisher’s own synopsis, which does a fantastic job of setting the scene for this alternative interpretation of Star Wars. Unlike many official synopses, it’s both instantly engaging and satisfyingly spoiler free:

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Revisiting Nemesis by James Swallow (Guest Review)

Hello and welcome to this, the first ever guest review on Track of Words, where my good friend Tim is going to talk about revisiting Nemesis by James Swallow, book 13 in Black Library’s epic Horus Heresy series. When I read Tim’s thoughtful, insightful review I knew straight away that I wanted to publish it here on Track of Words – it’s a brilliant piece of analysis in its own right, and I think it works beautifully as a companion piece to my own Revisiting Battle for the Abyss article. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! Without further ado then, over to Tim.

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