Category Archives: Short Stories

QUICK REVIEW: Judge Dee and the Limits of the Law – Lavie Tidhar

The first in a new series of short stories from Lavie Tidhar, published by Tor.com, Judge Dee and the Limits of the Law is a delightful mix of gothic vampire story and Golden Age mystery. Accompanied by his slightly hesitant human assistant Jonathan, Judge Dee – a wise old vampire prone to long stares and thoughtful pauses – travels to the Castello d’oro to investigate a squabble between two vampire nobles. As the enforcer of vampiric law (the pax lamia) it’s within his power to be judge, jury and executioner, but first he needs to uncover the truth of what really happened.

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QUICK REVIEW: Duty Unto Death – Marc Collins

Few things are as bleakly heroic as a desperate stand against overwhelming odds, and in his Warhammer 40,000 short story Duty Unto Death Marc Collins ramps the concept up to eleven with a tale of the Adeptus Custodes standing against the ravening tyranid hordes. Stranded on the burning surface of a volcanic death world, a handful of Custodians make what preparations they can before the numberless swarms of alien monstrosities crash down upon them. As they stand their ground, determined to protect their precious cargo, the battlefield comes to represent the distant fortress the Custodes were engineered to defend.

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QUICK REVIEW: Five Candles – Lora Gray

Lora Gray continues to explore the quiet, melancholic fringes of the Mortal Realms with their Warhammer Horror short story Five Candles, a tale of Aqshian fire and dark, troubling death magic. Having grown old when all her friends died young, Havisa now lives by herself, scorned by the youthful inhabitants of the nearby village. When disaster sees her humiliated even further, she unexpectedly finds the old fire of her Aqshian spirit burning once more, and alongside a kind but mysterious stranger she embarks on a mission to warn the village of dark tidings to come in the wake of Nagash’s necroquake.

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QUICK REVIEW: Nightbleed – Peter Fehervari

The first of Peter Fehervari’s short stories officially released under the Warhammer Horror label, Nightbleed lives up to expectations as both a creepy, low-key horror story in its own right and an intriguing addition to The Dark Coil. In Carceri Hive, on the night-shrouded world of Sarastus, two souls find themselves bound together. Reduced to applying her skills for a dubious synth-protein supplier, ex-medicae Chel forces herself not to question where the raw materials come from, but suffers dark dreams nonetheless. In shadowed alleys, street prophet Skreech plans his next offering to the Night Below. As True Night approaches, the two spiral ever closer to a fateful meeting.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Hounds of Nagash – Guy Haley (At the Sign of the Brazen Claw Part Five)

Guy Haley’s five-part Age of Sigmar serial At the Sign of the Brazen Claw comes to an end with The Hounds of Nagash, in which the tavern and those sheltering within it are assailed by implacable spectres. In the wake of Pludu Quasque’s revelation that his foolishness has incurred the wrath of Nagash, spectral glaivewraiths search for a way through the tavern’s magical defences. With the storm howling all around and a desperate fight for survival breaking out, the very structure of the tavern itself begins to come apart as the giant demigod upon which it’s built begins to wake.

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QUICK REVIEW: A Dead Djinn in Cairo – P. Djèlí Clark

When a djinn is found dead – exsanguinated, to be precise – it’s Fatma el-Sha’awari’s task, as an investigator for Egypt’s Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, to find out how and why, in P. Djèlí Clark’s intriguing urban fantasy A Dead Djinn in Cairo. What at first appears to be a simple case of suicide (however unlikely that may be among immortals) quickly develops into a mystery involving djinn mythology, mechanical angels and flesh-eating ghuls rising from Cairo’s slums. Whatever it is that’s stirring amongst the city’s supernatural denizens, it’s up to Fatma to put a stop to it.

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QUICK REVIEW: Blood of the Flayer – Richard Strachan

After a few Warhammer Horror short stories, Blood of the Flayer is Richard Strachan’s first main-range Age of Sigmar story for Black Library, an intriguing tale of an unusually non-committal Chaos warlord. In Chamon, the realm of metal, Lord Huthor gathers warriors to his banner and dreams of power and purpose. When a Slaaneshi seductress lures him away from Chaos Undivided, Huthor leads his warband into the service of the god of excess, but never truly embraces that path. As the years pass and his armies grow, Huthor walks many different paths in search of his destiny, confidently taking only what he needs from each.

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QUICK REVIEW: Watch The Flank – Thomas Parrott

Thomas Parrott’s first story published via his Curious Fictions page, Watch The Flank introduces his The Sundering War setting with a punchy, action-packed military science fantasy tale of giant warmachines and aetheric energy. Cocooned within the huge frame of her Stormcaller giganphract, Bond-Pilot Leyna Raskin roams ahead of her regiment as they make for the safety of Fort Rigour. What started off as a tedious, dull posting, however, quickly becomes a frantic struggle for survival as Leyna finds herself facing off against a mysterious enemy every bit as massive and powerful as her own phract.

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QUICK REVIEW: Underhive Apex – Will McDermott

Featuring the legendary outlaw D’onne Ulanti – or ‘Mad’ Donna – Will McDermott’s Necromunda short story Underhive Apex is a chainsword-fuelled shot of frantic, explosive underhive action. On the hunt for a uniquely useful mutant known as Lumpy Nox, D’onne and her pet ogryn Dog have tracked their quarry to a Cawdor-owned manufactorum, only for an entire Goliath gang to arrive and steal him away from under their noses. Not to be denied, D’onne adjusts on the fly and happily throws herself into the fray despite being outnumbered, outmuscled and outgunned, confident that she’ll figure something out and walk away the victor.

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QUICK REVIEW: Iron Sight – Robert Rath

Robert Rath’s second Warhammer 40,000 short story featuring agents of the Officio Assassinorum, Iron Sight pits a Vindicare assassin against a slippery Genestealer Cult sniper. Having pursued his mark for almost a month, Absolom Raithe has finally tracked down the Jackal Alphus and is closing in, confident of the kill which will see his fifth mission complete and his full status secured. As Raithe chases down the fleeing Alphus, however, he finds the tables turned against him; a long-distance kill isn’t possible, so he’s forced to abandon his usual tactics and take on his enemy up close and personal.

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