Category Archives: Books

A Master of Djinn – P. Djèlí Clark

P. Djèlí Clark’s debut novel A Master of Djinn builds upon the world already introduced in several fantastic shorter tales – A Dead Djinn in Cairo, The Angel of Khan el-Khalili and The Haunting of Tram Car 015 – and delivers more in every sense. More of this wonderful world of djinn, angels and mechanical marvels in 1912 Cairo. More scope, more scale, more danger and adventure, and more of the marvellous agent Fatma el-Sha’arawi from the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities. The streets of Cairo are fired up when the man responsible for a horrifying mass murder proclaims himself to be Al-Jahiz, the legendary mystic who ushered in this new age of magic and wonder, returned from his long absence. As tensions rise, Fatma has the unenviable task of hunting down and stopping a man who, whether he truly is Al-Jahiz returned or not, wields fearsome powers and seems to know exactly how to get the poor and downtrodden of Cairo on his side.

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Revisiting Battle for the Abyss by Ben Counter

Ben Counter’s 2008 novel Battle for the Abyss, the eighth book in Black Library’s vast Horus Heresy series, is widely – albeit certainly not exclusively – considered as one of the weakest novels in the series. I’ve largely steered clear of conversations discussing this particular book, as until recently I had only the loosest of recollections regarding what happened and how much I enjoyed it. However, its poor reputation has nagged at me for a while (you know me, I prefer to look for positives rather than negatives), and an ongoing discussion with a friend about the themes, connections and outliers in the Heresy prompted me to revisit this most reviled of Heresy novels. This article is the result, in which I’m going to discuss my thoughts on the book and make the argument that despite some notable flaws, it’s a book which really doesn’t deserve the reputation it’s acquired.

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Grim Repast – Marc Collins

After a handful of excellent short stories, Marc Collins delivers an exceptional first novel for Black Library with Grim Repast, a new addition to the growing Warhammer Crime range that’s both a gripping, bloody detective story and a bleak exploration of everyday 40k life. In Varangantua’s cold southern district of Polaris, probator Quillon Drask has a reputation that sees him constantly being landed with the darkest, most sinister cases to blight the city. When he’s called to the scene of a gruesome murder, it’s with a grim sense of inevitability that one death leads to another, and Drask soon finds himself chasing a killer and embroiled in a mystery that seems to run through every level of Polaris, both its streets and its society, leaving behind a trail of blood and death.

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A Marvellous Light – Freya Marske

Freya Marske’s debut novel, and the first volume in her Last Binding trilogy, A Marvellous Light is a queer historical fantasy that’s warm, magical and an absolute delight from start to finish. Set in Edwardian London, it’s the tale of two very different men thrown together by circumstance and forced to put aside their differences. On his first day in an obscure civil service role, Robin Blyth gets quite the surprise when he learns about the existence of magic and meets Edwin Courcey, his counterpart in the country’s magical administration. Edwin has little patience for bringing Robin up to speed, but when the matter of Robin’s predecessor having inexplicably disappeared develops from an inconvenience into a dangerous problem, the two of them begin to develop a fragile friendship as they investigate a mystery that could affect every magician in the country.

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Silent Hunters – Edoardo Albert

Edoardo Albert’s debut Black Library novel, Silent Hunters is a tale of sinister predators, familial bonds, the consequences of extreme age and relentless, single-minded dedication to duty, set amidst the horror and wonder of the Warhammer 40,000 setting. Chaplain Tangata Manu of the Carcharodons leads the Hunt, a millennia-long search for a lost relic once entrusted into his Chapter’s care, but when he finally has success within his grasp, he sees the prize snatched away by the devious drukhari. With one final chance to complete the Hunt and regain his honour, Tangata Manu embarks on a journey that will take him to all manner of wildly strange places, and eventually to the Dark City of Commorragh, accompanied by no more than a handful of his brothers and an unassuming pair of Chapter serfs.

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In the Shadow of Deimos – Jane Killick

Jane Killick kicks off Aconyte Books’ range of novels based on the Terraforming Mars board game with In the Shadow of Deimos, a tale of the red planet that’s equal parts mystery and adventure. When Luka Schäfer arrives on Mars as an immigrant worker from Earth, keen to forget his past and lose himself in work, the last thing he expects is to watch an asteroid flatten a research station and kill a technician. All his plans are swept away when he’s recruited to replace the dead man and convinced to put his old skills to use, only to find himself drawn into the mystery of what his predecessor had been doing before his death. Meanwhile Julie Outerbridge, head of the United Nations Mars Initiative (UNMI), is maneuvered into leading an investigation into the crash in an attempt to understand what went wrong.

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The Stitcher and the Mute – D.K. Fields

The sequel to Widow’s Welcome, and the second volume in the Tales of Fenest trilogy, D.K. Fields’ The Stitcher and the Mute is another fantastic tale of stories within stories that adds depth and detail to both the overarching narrative and the world being explored. Having caught the man responsible for the Wayward storyteller’s murder, Detective Cora Gorderheim thinks she’s making progress, but when the killer is himself murdered on the way to serve his punishment she realises that all she has really found is more questions. As two more of the realms’ stories are told, Cora digs deeper into what’s increasingly looking like a serious conspiracy at the heart of the Union, and one in which her own family’s history might yet play an important part.

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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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Sanction & Sin – Warhammer Crime Anthology

Sanction & Sin, the third short story anthology from Black Library’s Warhammer Crime range, collects together nine stories from a mixture of BL veterans and newer names (including debuts for J.S. Collyer and Jude Reid) exploring the trials and tribulations of some of the women living amidst the blood, the dirt, the crime and corruption on the grim streets of Varangantua. Whether trying to maintain the Lex, care for others’ bodies and souls, make a killing or just make a living, each of these characters is forced to confront the realities of life in this vast and unforgiving city, the inequality and the brutality, the squalid streets and the merciless conditions. While some thrive despite the odds, others aren’t so strong or so fortunate, and justice means little in Varangantua.

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Re-reading The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

Robert Jordan’s The Eye of the World, the first book in the epic Wheel of Time series, has an incredibly strong nostalgic hook for me. I first read it in 1999, at age 16, and I’ve lost count of how many times I ended up re-reading it (and many more of the early books in the series) over the following years to refresh my memory about what happened, each time one of the final books was published. After reading, and loving, A Memory of Light (incredibly, 24 years later in 2013) to finish the series I wasn’t sure I would ever go back and read the whole thing again from the beginning – after all, even though I love this series, despite its flaws, we’re talking tens of thousands of pages (4.4 million words) across the whole thing, so it’s a massive commitment. Eight years on though, the trailer for the TV adaptation of The Wheel of Time was released…

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