Category Archives: Short Stories

QUICK REVIEW: A Company of Shadows – Rachel Harrison

Following on from the fantastic Execution, Rachel Harrison’s short story A Company of Shadows sees the 11th Antari Rifles evacuating a city besieged by the forces of Chaos. When the Valkyrie carrying Commissar Severina Raine, a handful of troopers and an important military advisor is shot down before they can reach safety, it’s up to Raine and the decidedly untrustworthy Antari Sergeant Wyck to find a way to survive. With all of them carrying injuries, enemies all around, and Wyck twitchy at having cheated death for a second time, things look bleak for Raine and the Antari.

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QUICK REVIEW: Blacktalon: When Cornered – Andy Clark

The first Black Library appearance of Knight-Zephyros Neave Blacktalon, Andy Clark’s Age of Sigmar short story Blacktalon: When Cornered is a tale of Stormcast tenacity, duardin stubbornness and Chaotic deviousness. Having finally cornered the Chaos sorcerer Xelkyn Xerkanos after months of pursuit, only for a clan of duardin to capture him before she could strike the killing blow, Blacktalon cuts a frustrated figure as she accompanies the duardin on their slow march home. Xerkanos is to be tried and executed in front of the clan’s Grudgekeepers, but Blacktalon rankles at the delay, keeping a suspicious eye on the tricksy sorcerer.

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QUICK REVIEW: Two Metaphysical Blades – Chris Wraight

Chris Wraight’s Horus Heresy short story Two Metaphysical Blades is a strange beast, an episodic story about a matched pair of weapons and an unlikely pairing of characters, which spans the lifetime of the Imperium. From deep within the Earth prior to even the founding of the Imperium and then out across the galaxy, before returning to Terra for the Siege and its aftermath, this is the story of those two weapons and their wielders – “opposites…in some ways”. Wrapped in mystery and questions of destiny, it’s a tale whose complexity matches that of the two weapons’ creator.

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QUICK REVIEW: Playing Patience – Dan Abnett

Set between Hereticus and Ravenor, Dan Abnett’s short story Playing Patience introduces us to the character of Patience Kys and shows how she came to be part of Ravenor’s entourage. On dismal Sameter, three sisters live austere lives in the Kindred Youth Scholam, and the eldest – Patience – has both a particular gift and a knack for getting in trouble. Meanwhile Ravenor and his companions, reeling from a desperate setback, are on the hunt for clues that might set them back on track. The trail leads to the Kindred Youth Scholam, some unwholesome practices, and an untrained, unlicensed psyker.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Curiosity – Dan Abnett

First published in 2003 in Inferno! magazine, Dan Abnett’s short story The Curiosity offers the first glimpse of Valentin Drusher, magos biologis. After seven years of determined study, Drusher’s work to create a complete taxonomy of Gershom’s indigent flora and fauna is almost complete. Dispatched to a bleak, distant province to investigate sightings of an unknown beast that’s left a trail of corpses behind it, it’s not long before he realises this is more than just an apex predator he somehow missed. Caught up in the hunt for the beast, Drusher is out of his league and in terrible danger.

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QUICK REVIEW: Engine of Mork – Guy Haley

Guy Haley’s short story Engine of Mork, while labelled as an Apocalypse story, is in fact the first glimpse of Evil Suns mek Uggrim and his Red Sunz mob. In the jungle of Garbax World Uggrim, Bozgat and Snikgob are happily working away building a stompa with the only distractions being the thieving Deathskulls getting in the way and slowing them down. When Warboss Grabskab sends one of his nobs to boss Uggrim around and ‘encourage’ them to get the stompa built quicker, that only fires Uggrim up to take things into his own hands.

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QUICK REVIEW: Choke Point – Mike Brooks

For Mike Brooks’ second Black Library story he’s turned to the Astra Militarum with Choke Point, which is billed as a Kill Team short story. Defending their homeworld from invading orks, the men and women of the Kilgannor 27th – led by Lieutenant Kaseen – are on the verge of being overrun when salvation appears in the shape of Commissar Dorin and his Tempestus Scions…who have a plan. With the Kilgannor 27th in support, the Scions will take the fight to the orks and strike a blow that will change the complexion of the war, but it’s a risky mission.

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QUICK REVIEW: Elucidium – Simon Spurrier

Published in 2004’s long out of print anthology What Price Victory and strangely never subsequently reprinted, Simon Spurrier’s short story Elucidium offers a chilling, complex exploration of a Genestealer Cult secreted at the heart of an Imperial world. When the sinister Cardinal Arkannis arrives on Garial-Fall, the structures and certainties underpinning the world begin to change, from the heights of the ruling Plureaucracy to the depths of the long-hidden Underchurch. For G’Hait, the Cardinal’s arrival turns his entire world upside down and challenges everything he thought he knew, about himself and his place in the world.

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QUICK REVIEW: Altar of Cyrene – Lucien Soulban

A Blood Ravens short story featuring Captain Gabriel Angelos, Lucien Soulban’s Altar of Cyrene was first published in Inferno! magazine before getting a digital release under the ‘Tales From the Archive’ label. As the once-loyal world of Cyrene reels beneath an Imperial bombardment, and the Blood Ravens do their duty in stamping out heresy where they find it, Gabriel Angels hunts for a single man. Accompanied only by a trusted brother, he searches for answers in the dust and ash of the dying world, even as the bombardments creep ever closer.

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QUICK REVIEW: From the Deep – Jaine Fenn

A Black Library debut from Jaine Fenn, From the Deep is an Age of Sigmar short story set during the War of Life in the Realm of Ghyran. While the events of CL Werner’s Wardens of the Everqueen are taking place, in the shallows of the Sea of Serpents Kelara, Guardian of the Kelp Forests, marshals her Naereids in a determined defence against sorcerous underwater Rotbringers. As Nurgle’s influence extends into the sea, Kelara and her folk must choose whether to remain hidden from sight, or get involved in the wider war taking place in Ghyran.

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