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: Bozgat’s Big Adventure – Guy Haley

The second short audio of Guy Haley’s Prophets of Waaagh! collection, Bozgat’s Big Adventure follows on from The End of Daze and sees the titular Bozgat setting off in search of his madboy friend/pet Talker. Accompanied only by the grot Frikk, Bozgat rides out across the dunes and finds his way to a crashed ork ship, where the tracks of a single ork lead. While the cowardly Frikk waits for him outside, Bozgat explores the crashed ship which, upon further examination, appears to be surprisingly devoid of actual orks. Plenty of grots, though…

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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: The End of Daze – Guy Haley

The first of three short 40k audio dramas making up the Prophets of Waaagh! collection, Guy Haley’s The End of Daze continues the story of Big Mek Uggrim and his Red Sunz boys. After having crashed onto a “squig’s arse-end of a planet”, Uggrim is desperate to get his beloved stompa Fat Mork back operational and walking again, but a lack of decent grots is hampering his repairs. It’s not long, however, before rival mek Grimgutz shows his face, and Uggrim realises that there’s more going on than just useless grots letting him down.

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Hereticus – Dan Abnett

The third instalment of Dan Abnett’s classic Eisenhorn trilogy, Hereticus shows us Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn in his darkest moments. Tasked with conducting a tedious series of hearings, Eisenhorn envisages endless weeks of boredom, but when evidence arises that an old enemy is nearby he drops everything and races off to a confrontation that will have horrifying consequences. Thus begins a journey that sees Eisenhorn and a handful of companions reeling and on the back foot, desperately calling on a few remaining contacts and all their determination in order to get back on track and seek out the culprit behind all their woes.

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Black Library Weekly – W/C 06/08/18

Hello and welcome to the latest instalment of Black Library Weekly, my regular look at what’s been happening in the world of Black Library. This week there’s been plenty of interesting stuff happening on the BL front, from another new audio drama on Monday to the chance to vote for some classic novels to be reprinted, so let’s jump straight in and take a look.

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RAPID FIRE: Graham McNeill Talks The Legend of Sigmar

Welcome to this instalment of Rapid Fire, my ongoing series of quick interviews with Black Library authors talking about their new releases – or in this case, with The Legend of Sigmar, a slightly older release from the Warhammer Chronicles series. These are short and sweet interviews, with the idea being that each author will answer (more or less) the same questions – by the end of each interview I hope you will have a good idea of what the book (or audio drama) is about, what inspired it and why you might want to read or listen to it.

In this instalment I spoke to Graham McNeill about his legendary Warhammer series, The Legend of Sigmar, which is available as a single-volume omnibus in the Warhammer Chronicles series. In fact, this was the first of these old-school Warhammer series to get the new omnibus treatments! It’s available to order right now, and is a great place to start if you want to dig into the stories of the World that Was.

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Adrift – Rob Boffard

A classic ‘lost at sea’ story, just set in space instead of on the ocean, Rob Boffard’s Adrift is a far-future tale of a group of people trapped in a tiny ship with little food, no comms, and nowhere to go. It’s Hannah Elliott’s first day on Sigma Station and she’s not doing great with her now job as a tour guide. After the station is attacked by a strange and powerful warship, leaving her ship – the Red Panda – stranded and alone having somehow escaped the destruction, Hannah finds herself trapped alongside a handful of strangers with little hope of survival.

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QUICK REVIEW: Klaw of Mork – Guy Haley

A 36-minute 40k audio drama set during the Sanctus Reach campaign, Klaw of Mork takes the bickering, backstabbing orkish entertainment of Engine of Mork and Evil Sun Rising and turns the volume up to eleven. Following on from the events of Evil Sun Rising, Uggrim and Snikgob are happily working away on Big Mek Mogrok’s new weapon – a traktor kannon that’s slowly pulling a comet down to the surface of Alaric Prime. After their peace is disturbed by the presence of a rival mek, it’s not long before an opportunity arises to get their own back on the annoying Dagogg.

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Monthly Highlights – July 2018

Another month, another roundup of the best stories I’ve read and reviewed over the last few weeks. Last month I had a hard time picking just one story, but while I’ve had a blast with some fantastic books, audios and short stories recently, and it’s once again been a really tough call, one in particular does stand out as a real highlight from last month. As usual, however, I’ve picked a couple more which deserve recognising as well, so I’ll talk in a bit of detail about my main highlight before quickly taking another look at the other two honourable mentions.

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