Category Archives: Short Stories

QUICK REVIEW: Redeemer – Guy Haley

A short story examining one of the core aspects of the Blood Angels’ character in Warhammer 40,000, Guy Haley’s Redeemer sees High Chaplain Astorath the Grim on a mission to find a brother lost to the Black Rage, and end his suffering. Following a call that only he can hear, Astorath seeks out his lost brother on a world plagued by strange xenos creatures, where he finds the surviving Blood Angels, Primaris Marines who appear unaffected by the flaw yet troubled by what they’ve seen. Astorath’s duty is an onerous one, to preserve his Chapter’s secrets and save his brothers’ souls.

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QUICK REVIEW: Ghost of Nuceria – Ian St. Martin

A Horus Heresy Primarchs short story which acts as a prequel to Matt Farrer’s After Desh’ea and his own novel Angron: Slave of Nuceria, Ian St Martin’s Ghost of Nuceria takes a look at the moment of Angron’s unwilling reunion with the Emperor. In his final days on Nuceria, Angron leads a ragtag army of fellow slaves in a hopeless battle against the overwhelming forces of the High Riders, the Nucerian nobles. He’s come to terms with his inevitable death and the chance to find peace at last, but fate and the father he never wanted conspire against him.

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QUICK REVIEW: Trials – Rachel Harrison

The fourth of Rachel Harrison’s Severina Raine short stories to get a digital release, Trials keeps the ongoing narrative of the 11th Antari Rifles in the background and focuses on the relationship between the Commissar and Captain Andren Fel. The storm trooper captain is the only member of the regiment who Raine can truly trust, the two of them sharing similarities despite their different roles. Over the course of a quiet conversation, while the war rages on around them, they each tell the story of the final trial they faced at the end of their time in the Schola Progenium.

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QUICK REVIEW: Lantern’s Light – James Swallow

Ostensibly about how, when and why Mortarion received his pistol, the Lantern, James Swallow’s Horus Heresy short story Lantern’s Light is really an exploration of the Death Lord’s relationship with and attitude towards the Emperor. For a year after their first meeting, Mortarion has been learning the ways of the Imperium and beginning to bond with his new legion, but has not been permitted to lead his sons into battle. When the Emperor returns to Barbarus to meet with him once more, Mortarion finds himself questioning his new life and the role he sees for himself in his father’s empire.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Mistress of Threads – John French

One of a growing number of Horusian Wars short stories each focusing on a different member of Inquisitor Covenant’s warband, John French’s The Mistress of Threads is a compelling, if unusually constructed, story centred on Viola von Castellan. Told through the medium of correspondence between Viola and (mostly) a wayward member of her extended family, it’s the tale of a commercial empire’s ups and downs in the wake of the Great Rift, a sinister cartel, and the strange relationships that underpin the von Castellan dynasty. Plus a typically dark glimpse of a mystery lurking beneath the surface of the Imperium.

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QUICK REVIEW: Bringer of Sorrow – Aaron Dembski-Bowden

Following on from his novel The Master of Mankind, Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s Horus Heresy short story Bringer of Sorrow continues the story of two unlikely friends – the Technoarchaeologist Arkhan Land and the crippled Blood Angel Zephon. In the wake of the Webway War, as the Blood Angels and Sanguinius return to Terra, Land turns his genius to the problem of how to permanently repair Zephon’s failing bionics, which his own battlefield fix has further degraded. Ever the risk-taker, he’s supremely confident in his ability to succeed where all others have failed, but his solution is not without dangers of its own.

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QUICK REVIEW: A Rose Watered with Blood – Aaron Dembski-Bowden

Picking up where LJ Goulding left off in Prince of Blood, Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s A Rose Watered with Blood is a story of Lotara Sarrin and the Conqueror as the World Eaters – and what was once their primarch Angron – make for Terra. Twisting under the influence of the monster chained deep within its hold, its crew butchered by the legionaries who were once their protectors, it’s increasingly clear that the Conqueror has a mind of its own. As they inch closer to Terra, Lotara faces up to the ugly darkness growing within her ship and within the hearts of its crew.

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QUICK REVIEW: Sand Lords – Peter McLean

Peter McLean continues to impress with his fourth Black Library short story, this time tackling the Tallarn Desert Raiders. On the arid world of Marbas II, the Tallarn 236th Sand Lords have deployed in force, an armoured column storming into the ork-held city of Iblis Amrargh intending to reclaim a lost relic of their regiment. The story begins as Captain Amareo Thrax is leading the battered remnants of his force in a desperate retreat through the baking desert. As they race for safety, Thrax bitterly recalls the horrors that took the lives of so many of his warriors.

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QUICK REVIEW: Purity is a Lie – Gav Thorpe

Gav Thorpe’s Blackstone Fortress short story Purity is a Lie features several of the same characters as Darius Hinks’ novel Blackstone Fortress, and sees the firebrand priest Taddeus the Purifier join Rogue Trader Janus Draik on an expedition to the Fortress itself. Taddeus despises the faithless masses surrounding him on Precipice, but when he’s invited by Draik to join the expedition he recognises the need to rise above his distaste in order to enact the Emperor’s will. Battling through the Fortress, he’s begrudgingly forced to accept that perhaps his faith isn’t the only thing he needs in order to succeed.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Battle of Blackthunder Mesa – Phil Kelly

A sequel to Blades of Damocles and a companion piece to the various Farsight stories, Phil Kelly’s short story The Battle of Blackthunder Mesa tells a tale of the fundamental differences between the T’au and Imperial ways of war. On the embattled world of Dal’yth Prime, the T’au forces are being pushed back by endless numbers of Imperial tanks, but Commander Bravestorm is determined to strike a telling blow before withdrawing. With a new weapon at his disposal – the Onager Gauntlet – he has a tool to do just that, but its use seems to go against the T’au’s very ethos.

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