Category Archives: Short Stories

QUICK REVIEW: The Spirit of Cogs – John French

A short story in John French’s ongoing Horusian Wars series, The Spirit of Cogs is a sinister little ghost story told by Glavius-4-Rho to Severita while the ex-magos is working on a repair. Casting his machinic mind back to his first experience on a true forge world, Glavius-4-Rho tells a tale of his younger self being recruited into a mysterious project, swathed in secrecy, which requires his expertise. He and another magos throw themselves into their work, despite the strange phenomena plaguing their efforts, but before long they start to question the consequences of the Mechanicus’ thirst for knowledge at all costs.

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QUICK REVIEW: Blessed Oblivion – Dale Lucas

Dale Lucas is an established fantasy writer, and for his Black Library debut – Age of Sigmar short story Blessed Oblivion – he delivers a fresh, assured look at the cost paid by the Stormcast Eternals for their Reforging. Klytos is a Liberator of the Celestial Vindicators, bound by brotherhood and duty, his Stormhost tasked with protecting refugees fleeing through Shyish from the predations of rampaging Khornate hordes. Before each battle he holds tight to his few remaining memories from his first life, and when an unlikely alliance offers the opportunity to reclaim his memories in full he can’t help but put himself first for once.

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QUICK REVIEW: Out Caste – Peter Fehervari

Peter Fehervari’s Out Caste is a very brief (i.e. micro-short) prequel story to the wonderful novel Fire Caste, focused on the character of Jhi’kaara, a scarred and battle-hardened t’au Fire Warrior. Nominally set sometime before the events of Fire Caste, it sees Jhi’khaara in reflective mood, looking back on her path through life and the events – some positive, others profoundly painful – which led her to where she’s ended up. It’s a story about identity and the specific importance which that concept has for the t’au, shown through the lens of a warrior looking from the outside in.

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QUICK REVIEW: Reborn – Nicholas Wolf

The Black Library debut for Nicholas Wolf, 40k short story Reborn explores a little of what might happen if an Astra Militarum regiment forsook its oaths to the Emperor, and where that might lead. For Acting-Captain Petrov of the 224th Kelbran Janissaries, the knowledge that his regiment has been abandoned by its commanders and left to die is too much to bear. When he snaps and kills his commissar, he turns his back on the Emperor and takes his first steps on a new path, driven by a determination to survive long enough to return home and see his son.

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QUICK REVIEW: A Sanctuary of Wyrms – Peter Fehervari

An oblique sequel to the phenomenal Fire Caste, Peter Fehervari’s A Sanctuary of Wyrms is an unsettling, insightful short story exploring the sinister side of the T’au Empire and the corrupting nature of the world Fi’draah. On a mission to explore a region known to the gue’la as the Coil, Water Caste emissary Por’ui Asharil finds her opinions of her Earth and Fire caste companions challenged, and her belief in the Greater Good shaken. When they reach a seemingly abandoned Imperial outpost, their path takes them into a darkness hiding a horrifying truth, and Asharil’s change is completed.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Garden of Mortal Delights – Robert Rath

Robert Rath makes an impressive Black Library debut with The Garden of Mortal Delights, an Age of Sigmar short story which manages to explore interesting angles on both Slaanesh worship and the mindset of the Sylvaneth. Branchwych Kurdwen has been held captive for a full season, serving the whims of Revish the Epicurean and tending to his pleasure garden. Grown bored of the more visceral excesses, Revish has turned to culinary pleasures to sate his desires, utilising Kurdwen’s talents to nurture his garden. As he increasingly relies upon her skills, however, the branchwych has plans of her own in motion.

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QUICK REVIEW: Blood Sacrifice – Peter McLean

The fourth and final short story in Black Library’s Digital Horror Week 2019, Peter McLean’s Blood Sacrifice returns to the story of Corporal Cully and the Reslian 45th as a sequel to Baphomet By Night. Digging in on a dreary hive world under the watchful eye of a new, by-the-book sergeant, the endless waiting is wearing on Cully and bringing back painful memories. When the opportunity arises to make a little money off the books Cully jumps at the chance, but what should be a straightforward job becomes something much worse when an abandoned medicae facility turns out to be anything but.

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QUICK REVIEW: Stitches – Nick Kyme

The third short story in Black Library’s Digital Horror Week 2019, Nick Kyme’s Stitches deals with the inevitable aftermath of battle for the Astra Militarum and their overworked medical staff. For Medicae Bucher the grinding war of attrition taking place around him is taking a toll, with an endless stream of war-torn bodies requiring his attention, and few of them surviving his tender ministrations. Fearing for his position, he desperately needs something to go right, so when his patients start surviving when they probably shouldn’t, he doesn’t question his fortune and attributes it to the Emperor’s blessing instead.

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QUICK REVIEW: He Feasts Forever – Lora Gray

Book two of the Digital Horror Week 2019 collection, Lora Gray’s Age of Sigmar short story He Feasts Forever is an unnerving, Gormenghast-esque tale of sinister domesticity and dark glamour. Dedric works as a cook in the king’s kitchens, content to be surrounded by friends and comfortable with his place in the world. While helping prepare a feast for the king’s return, the familiar routine of his work is broken, triggering a chain of events which cause Dedric to feel his certainties begin to fade. As long-buried memories surface, the truth of his past and present slowly comes into horrifying focus.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Hunt – David Annandale

The first Warhammer Horror short story to get a standalone ebook release – and Book 1 of the Digital Horror Week 2019 collection – David Annandale’s The Hunt is an unconventional Age of Sigmar story of guilt, fear, and ghosts both literal and metaphorical. In the Free City of Everyth, in the Realm of Ghur, witch hunter Bered Davan waits for his doom to find him, spending his final moments torn between duty and shame. When a figure from his past calls for him, dredging up painful old emotions, Davan determines to follow his calling and hope for some kind of forgiveness.

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