Category Archives: Short Stories

QUICK REVIEW: Massacre – Aaron Demsbki-Bowden

Also available in the Eye of Terra anthology, Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s Horus Heresy short story Massacre takes a quick look at the cast of the Night Lords trilogy in their pre-40k incarnations. That’s right, it shows Talos, Xarl, Cyrion and even the Exalted as they all were back in the days of the Heresy, pre- and during the Dropsite Massacre. Seen through Apothecary Talos’s eyes it’s a rare chance to see these fan-favourite characters in their prime – cynical, callous warriors given to black humour, snide commentary and an unfair fight.
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QUICK REVIEW: Casts A Hungry Shadow – Peter Fehervari

In the creepily titled short story Casts A Hungry Shadow, Peter Fehervari weaves a dark, apocalyptic story set between the prologue and the main body of his novel Legends of the Dark Millennium: Genestealer Cults. On the troubled world of Redemption, two rival cults each seek out a newly-revealed power for their own ends, gathering their forces and striking out to lay their claims. The worshippers of wildly different gods, both are equally horrifying in their appearance and ideals…

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QUICK REVIEW: Potentia – Mike Mason

Mike Mason’s Potentia is a new short story from a new name, at least as a Black Library author. Billed as ‘an Inquisition short story’ it’s essentially a micro short focusing on an unequal exchange between two men in a jail cell. A murderer and an Inquisitorial interrogator, the power is nominally in the hands of the interrogator, except that the murderer – who turned himself in of his own volition – appears to know more than he’s letting on. The question is, what prompted him to hand himself over?
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QUICK REVIEW: Death’s Shepherd – Andy Smillie

One of Andy Smillie’s excellent Flesh Tearers stories, Death’s Shepherd is a micro-short that’s previously been available in the Black Library Anthology 2013/14 and Trial By Blood collection before its release as a separate e-short. On the blood-soaked world of Zurcon, a Flesh Tearers chaplain leads the last remaining loyal soldiers into battle to redeem their world. Full of rage and drenched in blood, the chaplain has forged the surviving guardsmen into a weapon with violence and well-chosen words, in order to retake Zurcon for the Imperium.
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QUICK REVIEW: The Harrowing – Rob Sanders

First published in 2014’s Sedition’s Gate Limited Edition anthology, and then in 2016’s War Without End, Rob Sanders’ Alpha Legion short story The Harrowing now gets the e-short treatment as well. Planted among the crew of the Mechanicus ark freighter Omnissiax, an Alpha Legion infiltrator activates to support and facilitate a brutal, calculated assault on the vessel. While their operatives work to sow confusion, the Alpha Legion apply ‘sheer force and tactical relentlessness’ as they take on the vessel’s defence force, using every weapon at their disposal.
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QUICK REVIEW: The Keeler Image – Dan Abnett

It’s day seven of Black Library’s 2016 Summer of Reading campaign, and the stops have definitely all been pulled out with Dan Abnett’s much-awaited Eisenhorn story The Keeler Image. It finds Eisenhorn attending an auction hosted by Medonae the Eater, which includes a staggeringly rare pict taken by Euphrati Keeler – once a remembrancer in the Great Crusade and subsequently (as Saint Euphrati) one of the founders of the Imperial Creed. Among the interested parties attending the auction is someone Eisenhorn has been hunting for years, drawn out by what Keeler’s pict could mean.
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QUICK REVIEW: The Purity of Ignorance – John French

Black Library’s 2016 Summer of Reading campaign hits day six with a blast from the past with The Purity of Ignorance by John French, featuring Inquisitor Covenant from 2001’s Inquisitor game. Leading his warband in an airborne insertion, Covenant is joined by Lieutenant Ianthe of the Agathian Sky Sharks, seconded to Inquisitorial duty. Discussing her military record with Preacher Josef, one of Covenant’s companions, life with the Inquisition appears somewhat irregular. Meanwhile Spire Mistress Nereid lounges in her throne room, surrounded by the trappings of luxury…
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QUICK REVIEW: Myriad – Rob Sanders

Day five of Black Library’s 2016 Summer of Reading campaign sees a return to the Horus Heresy with Rob Sanders’ Myriad, which follows on from his 2015 novella Cybernetica. Mars is overrun by the twisted machines of the Dark Mechanicum, yet small cells of loyalists remain in hiding, doing what they can to fight back. Kallistra Lennox, formerly a princeps of the Collegia Titanica, leads a mission to sabotage a corrupted Warlord Titan, but returns to the rebels’ hidden base bearing something which might change the face of the war for Mars completely.
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QUICK REVIEW: Stormseeker – Alec Worley

For day four of Black Library’s 2016 Summer of Reading campaign we’re introduced to Alec Worley and his first story for Black Library, Stormseeker. When dark eldar pirates attack an Imperial world, the Space Wolves of the Deathwolves Great Company launch a counter-attack and Anvarr Rustmane leads his fellow Iron Priests in piloting the airborne elements of the assault. Forced to go into battle without placating the machine-spirit of his Stormwolf, Anvarr finds himself in a desperate fight against the dark eldar’s own flyers where he needs all of his skill, and the cooperation of his gunship, to survive.
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QUICK REVIEW – Deathwatch: Swordwind – Ian St. Martin

Day three of Black Library’s 2016 Summer of Reading sees Ian St. Martin tackle the Deathwatch again after City of Ruin with Deathwatch: Swordwind. Adoni of the Mortifactors returns to his Chapter’s fortress monastery at the conclusion of his secondment to the Deathwatch, oathbound to not speak of his experiences but bearing with him a chapter relic. As he rejoins his brothers he recalls the fateful mission where he fought alongside a hero of his Chapter against the eldar of Biel Tan, a battle which will have a profound impact on his Chapter.
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