Category Archives: Short Stories

QUICK REVIEW: Contract – Tristan Palmgren

Tristan Palmgren’s KeyForge short story Contract, the opening tale in Aconyte Books’ Tales From the Crucible anthology, explores the baffling logic of the Crucible through the eyes of an elven assassin aiming to pull off an audacious hit. Having gradually lost her sense of identity ever since her city was ripped from its world to join the Crucible, Vira lives for moments of exhilaration and the faint hope of some kind of vengeance. When she takes on a commission to kill a supposedly unkillable Archon, she knows how dangerous the consequences will be but determinedly accepts the contract anyway.

Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW: Loyal to the End – Thomas Parrott

Thomas Parrott’s Warhammer 40,000 short story Loyal to the End is a tale of Imperial Knights told from the viewpoint of a Knight Armiger pilot, elevated to her position from peasant stock rather than through noble birth. Utterly loyal to House Viti and her liege lord Sir Valeon, Bondswoman Constance battles the forces of Chaos on the beleaguered Forge World of Agripinaa, fighting alongside her fellow Knights until disaster befalls them. Forced to flee and strike out on her own, Constance must find a way back to Imperial forces in time to warn her House of a terrible danger.

Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW: Vaultheads – David Guymer

David Guymer’s short story Vaultheads – his contribution to Aconyte Books’ Tales From the Crucible anthology – shows what happens when you cross the crazy world of KeyForge with the dedicated world of historical re-enactment…with entertaining results. In Hub City, battles between Archons for access to the Vaults have become legendary, over the years gathering serious historical aficionados keen to recreate the glory days with painstaking accuracy. After the successful completion of his latest re-enactment, one such enthusiast – having played the role of dashing skirate Raymon D’arco to perfection – finds his dreams of derring-do one step closer to reality.

Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW: Savage – Guy Haley

Available in either Warriors and Warlords or the Black Library Events Anthology 2018/19, Guy Haley’s Imperial Guard short story Savage provides a quiet, thoughtful accompaniment to his novel Shadowsword. Alongside the rest of the Paragonian Seventh, the crew of the Cortein’s Honour are at rest, whiling away their time under the baking Omdurman sun. When whispers of redeployment begin circulating, Senior Loader Gollph is drawn into an illicit scheme which relies on the prejudicial views many of the Paragonians hold about his people, the Bosvodar, who hail from a feral world and are considered slow and primitive by many.

Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW: The Jagged Edge – Maria Haskins

For her debut Black Library story Maria Haskins tackles a tale of desperation, sacrifice and familial bonds within the Imperial Guard in The Jagged Edge. Sergeant Aurelia Shale and her squad of Keplerian Scrappers are sent on a dangerous mission to infiltrate and destroy an enemy-held manufactorum, approaching through tunnels in the mountains of Kepler-Gamma. Accompanying them is Commissar Theodora Shale, Aurelia’s sister – in the darkness beneath the Jagged Edge, Aurelia must contend with not just the heretic cultists of the enemy but her painful memories of a once-close sibling who abandoned her long ago and never really returned.

Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW: The Librarian’s Duel – MK Hutchins

One of two M.K. Hutchins short stories in Aconyte Books’ Tales From the Crucible anthology, The Librarian’s Duel explores the KeyForge setting through a story of a mother’s fear and a librarian’s duty. After the accident which left her husband dead and her daughter Marya somewhat out of phase with the rest of the world, Arash’s responsibility has been to keep her little library as well stocked as possible, because books are the only thing keeping Marya present. When she accidentally gets into a seemingly unwinnable fight with a giant Brobnar, Arash finds her world turned upside down again.

Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW: War In The Museum – Robert Rath

Featuring one of Warhammer 40,000’s most idiosyncratic characters, Robert Rath’s short story War In The Museum sees Trazyn the Infinite, necron overlord of dubious sanity but boundless curiosity, hard at work in his museum of living wonders. While rehydrating a tyranid Hive Tyrant ready for it to take pride of place in one of his installations, something seems amiss – and at first Trazyn approaches the problem with confidence, for what could possibly threaten him in his own galleries? When it becomes clear that a particularly dangerous specimen has got loose, however, he seeks out allies from amongst his exhibits.

Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW: Extermination Examination – Robbie MacNiven

Robbie MacNiven’s first KeyForge short story, featured in the anthology Tales From the Crucible from Aconyte Books, Extermination Examination sees a pair of students embark on a research trip to the dangerous martian territory of the Borreal enclave. Earnest, enthusiastic krxix Nal’ai is desperate to impress her Martian Studies tutor – the 96.7% inorganic professor Longaard – while her roommate, the party-elf Kolli, just wants to get through her second year. Theirs is a simple task – just spend a few days interviewing the enclave’s members – but neither is really prepared for the paranoia and xenophobia of the notoriously insular martians.

Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW: The Apprentice – Cath Lauria

One of nine KeyForge short stories featured in Aconyte Books’ anthology Tales From the Crucible, Cath Lauria’s The Apprentice is a story of gambling goblins, risky bets and family ties. Despite technically being Grizl Crustic’s apprentice, young human Roz is in fact the main mechanic in the lazy goblin’s workshop. When her boss guiltily explains that he may have lost her robot – TRIS, the last remaining link to Roz’s family – in a sure-fire bet gone wrong, she negotiates a dangerous new deal which sends her hunting within towering scrap piles in search of valuable technology to exchange for TRIS.

Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW: To Catch A Thief – Thomas Parrott

Featured in Aconyte Books’ first short story anthology, Tales From the Crucible, Thomas Parrot’s KeyForge story To Catch A Thief follows the daring, dangerous exploits of light-fingered elf Nalea Wysasandoral. After a particularly lucrative score from burgling the home of the Crucible’s High Councilor himself, Nalea is on the lookout for her next job, unaware that the investigation into her ongoing crimes has been supplemented by an outside investigator – the renowned sylicate detective Talus the Thief-Taker. As she prepares for a risky new endeavour, the jaws of a trap begin to close around her.

Keep reading…