Category Archives: Short Stories

Forgotten Texts: The Demon Bottle by Alex Hammond

“All that is foul and pestilent will be washed away…”

Set in the Necromunda underhive, Alex Hammond’s 1997 short story The Demon Bottle follows hapless half-ratskin Sarak as he attempts, without much success, to get his life back on track. Dependent on cheap booze and dubious pills and scraping a living as a pest exterminator, he dreams of life in the heady heights of the Spire as an escape from the harsh realities of the underhive. When his debts are called in however, he finds himself hunting some unusually dangerous pests.

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QUICK REVIEW: Above and Beyond (Episode 3) – Aron Nemeth

Áron Németh’s four-part novella set within the Inquisitor: Martyr ‘sandbox’, Above and Beyond continues with Episode 3 as Mercer and his team attempt to dig beneath the surface of Rengris VII’s government. Using the cover of an elaborate reception to spend some time investigating the planet’s ruling elite, Mercer looks for allies in his mission but soon finds that there’s more going on than he realised at first.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Corpse Road – Graham McNeill

Graham McNeill’s short story The Corpse Road does for Honsou what Do Eagles Still Circle the Mountain? did for Uriel Ventris, picking up after The Chapter’s Due and showing us what the Warsmith did next. While Ventris went off hunting orks, Honsou took an unusual route out of the Ultramarines’ domain…in a corpse-hauler. His mission to see Ultramar burn may not have ended how he’d hoped, but his ‘failure’ certainly hasn’t dented his ambition. Here we get a sense of what he’s got his sights set on next…

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Forgotten Texts: Salvation by Jonathan Green

“Left behind, as he himself had been…”

A classic short story from way back in 1997, Jonathan Green’s Salvation follows Brother Rius of the Ultramarines’ 1st Company as he and his brothers battle the Tyranid menace on Jaroth, a newly rediscovered Imperial world. After chancing upon the planet during a routine patrol, the Ultramarines acknowledge their duty to protect its natural resources and defenceless population, despite facing appalling odds. Brother Rius and his squad find themselves in the thick of the action, determined to wipe the Tyranids out to the last creature, but when Rius is badly wounded he earns a newfound respect for the honest, hardy locals.

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QUICK REVIEW: Fatespinner – Chris Wraight

Another story* originally published in the event-only Honour of the Space Marines anthology, Chris Wraight’s Fatespinner pits two ancient enemies against each other as Rune Priest Thorskir Helsturjm pursues Thousand Sons sorcerer Ramon to the world of Rigo V. Hidden deep beneath the surface is a darkness from an older time that Ramon seeks to unleash, while Thorskir leads his pack in hurried pursuit, determined to finally bring his nemesis to heel and prevent his plans from coming to fruition. As their fates converge, it becomes clear that these two warriors are linked by more than just their age-old enmity.

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QUICK REVIEW: Patience – James Swallow

Available in ebook alongside Ghosts Speak Not or in print in The Silent War, James Swallow’s Patience is a Knights Errant micro-short featuring Helig Gallor. Once a brother of the Death Guard under Battle Captain Garro’s command, he now finds himself leading troops from Malcador’s Chosen across the annihilated landscape of a conquered world in search of his old commander. Determined to do his duty by retrieving Garro, he’s also keen to find a connection with the other former Death Guard to help him adjust to his new life. What he finds isn’t quite what he expected.

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QUICK REVIEW: Ghosts Speak Not – James Swallow

Available either within the anthology The Silent War or alongside Patience as an ebook double header, James Swallow’s novelette (i.e. long short story) Ghosts Speak Not fits into the wider narrative of Malcador’s Chosen but features Amendera Kendel instead of the usual Nathaniel Garro. It sees the former Sister of Silence, now Malcador’s Agentia Tertius, tasked with investigating the possibility that Horus has his seeded spies in a system close to Terra. Kendel looks to Garro’s fellow Death Guard from the Eisenstein to help her as she attempts to root out the truth in the Proxima Centauri system.

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QUICK REVIEW: Above and Beyond (Episode 2) – Aron Nemeth

The second Caligari Archivum story tying in with the upcoming release of the Inquisitor – Martyr computer game, Above and Beyond (Episode 2) sees Áron Németh continue the story of Captain Theoden Mercer as he and the crew of the Stormskipper brave the warp to reach Rengris VII. When their journey is interrupted by a troubling encounter it begins to look as though there might be more going on than Mercer and Prefectus Stolde originally thought, and that Rengris could be the centre of something that endangers the entire sector.

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QUICK REVIEW: Extinction – Aaron Dembski-Bowden

After its initial publication in the limited-run Games Day Anthology 2012/13, Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s Extinction is finally available as a standalone e-short. Set shortly after the Heresy it sees the Sons of Horus scattered throughout the Eye of Terror, leaderless and embattled against the remnants of the other Traitor Legions. With Horus dead, his sons are the next best thing when it comes to finding someone to blame for the Heresy, so they bear the brunt of the other legions’ ire. As his former brothers are slowly wiped out, where is First Captain Ezekyle Abaddon?

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QUICK REVIEW: A Trick of the Light – Josh Reynolds

The first new Black Library e-short of 2017, Josh Reynolds’ A Trick of the Light is his second story featuring Lukas the Trickster after the audio drama The Art of Provocation. This time we go right back to Lukas’ induction into the Space Wolves and another event that’s enshrined in his backstory – his battle with the doppelgangrel. Abandoned in the harsh wilderness of Fenris, Lukas must battle all manner of dangers if he’s to return to the Fang and become one of the Sky Warriors, not least this most lethal of predators. He has a score to settle first, however…

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