QUICK REVIEW: The Calculus of Battle – David Guymer

For day five of Black Library’s 2016 Advent Calendar it’s the turn of the Iron Hands, in a 40k audio drama by David Guymer – The Calculus of Battle. Viewing an Imperial world besieged by tyranids through the Iron Hands’ cold logic, Warleader Kardan Stronos weighs up the conflicting costs and benefits of intervening – does the potential cost in materiel usage and possible loss of Iron Hands life outweigh the benefits of evacuating even a tiny proportion of the planet’s 7 billion inhabitants? Constantly shifting with every action he takes, the battle calculus drives his decisions and determines whether the world lives or dies.
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QUICK REVIEW: Argent – Chris Wraight

Originally released as part of the event-only Black Library Live! 2016 chapbook alongside A Memory of Tharsis by Josh Reynolds, Chris Wraight’s Argent is an Inquisition short story that links in with his excellent novel Vaults of Terra: The Carrion Throne. In it, Interrogator Luce Spinoza tells a tale of joining the Imperial Fists in an assault on a traitor-held hive, during which her perception of the Angels of Death is profoundly affected. Fighting alongside the Fists as part of a wider mission to cleanse the hive, she faces both the horror of corruption and the ferocity of the Space Marines’ ardent faith.
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QUICK REVIEW: A Memory of Tharsis – Josh Reynolds

Currently only published in the Black Library Live! 2016 chapbook (alongside Argent by Chris Wraight), Josh Reynolds’ short story A Memory of Tharsis sees Fabius Bile paying a visit to Lady Spohr, Magos-Queen of the forge world Quir, to make a trade. He needs her services to repair his ancient medicae equipment in order for him to continue his grand work, but if he’s to succeed he knows he will have to offer her something new and unique. If he fails to provide something suitable he might not survive the visit, but he has something up his (rather disturbing) sleeve.
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Black Library Weekly – W/C 28/11/16

Hello and welcome to another instalment of Black Library Weekly, where I take a look at the Black Library-related news from the week just gone – announcements, pre-orders and new releases.

It’s been another bumper week after last week’s bounties – a different feel to things, but a lot of interesting releases throughout the latter half of the week. Christmas continues to loom large with the opening few titles from the 2016 Advent Calendar, while the mixture of new and re-released titles carries on as it has for the last few weeks. There was also an interesting announcement which will be of interest to fans of ebooks…
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QUICK REVIEW: The Road of Blades – Josh Reynolds

Day four of Black Library’s Advent Calendar sees the first Age of Sigmar story, in the shape of The Road of Blades by Josh Reynolds. Tying in loosely with his Black Rift novel and setting things up for the upcoming The Eight Lamentations, it follows Ahazian Kel, Deathbringer of Khorne, as he searches for the Road of Blades that will lead him further on his path to claiming ever more powerful weapons. Constantly being tested as he strives to prove himself in the eyes of the Blood God, he uses both his strength and his wits on the perilous journey.
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QUICK REVIEW: Into Exile – Aaron Dembski-Bowden

Day three of Black Library’s 2016 Advent Calendar takes us back to the Horus Heresy with Into Exile by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, in which technoarchaologist Arkhan Land finds himself caught up in the rebellion on Mars. With the red planet burning around him and enemies keen to either capture or kill him, Land has to abandon his home and put his faith in the Imperial Fists to see him safely off the surface. His flight is not unopposed however, as a hunter is on his trail, and even his vaunted intellect can’t protect him.
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QUICK REVIEW: The Maiden of the Dream – John French

Day two of Black Library’s 2016 Advent Calendar brings us The Maiden of the Dream by John French, the second ‘story of the Horusian Wars’ after The Purity of Ignorance. The titular Maiden is Mylasa, a powerful psyker who, as one of Inquisitor Covenant’s acolytes, uses her gifts to interrogate prisoners of the Inquisition and purge their memories. Can she be trusted, however? Beneath the accumulated memories ripped from the minds of others, is her soul still pure? Keep reading…

Interview with Laurie Goulding – Part Two (December 2016)

Earlier in the week I posted the first part of a wide-ranging interview with Black Library Commissioning Editor Laurie Goulding, which included loads of fascinating details about Laurie’s work chronicling the Scythes of the Emperor chapter of Space Marines (which he writes under the name LJ Goulding). In this second part of the interview we talk about the other side of Laurie’s work for Black Library, as the man responsible for editing the Horus Heresy series!
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Black Library Advent Calendar 2016

As is fast becoming tradition, it’s December and Black Library are celebrating the approach of Christmas with an Advent Calendar consisting of twenty-four new stories released one per day right up until Christmas Eve. After 2014’s selection of 40k and Horus Heresy short stories and audio dramas, and 2015’s Call of Chaos mixing stories and Games Workshop rules content for 40k and Age of Sigmar, this year we’re getting a variety of content across 40k, Horus Heresy, Age of Sigmar and even Blood Bowl!
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QUICK REVIEW: Perpetual – Dan Abnett

It’s day one of Black Library’s 2016 Advent Calendar, and the first story is Perpetual by Dan Abnett, a Horus Heresy audio drama. Continuing the story of Oll Persson, first introduced in Know No Fear, it picks up where the short story Unmarked (in Mark of Calth) left off with Oll and his companions journeying through time and space in search of Terra, only now they’re becalmed, unable to go forward. Time is passing – not normally an issue for a Perpetual, but with his mission to complete and dangerous foes in pursuit, Oll knows he will have to find a way to keep moving eventually…
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