After the spectacular releases last week (w/c 15th August), Black Library have returned to something more like normal service this week. In fact it feels a like a bit of a filler week, at least in terms of brand new releases. Let’s take a look at what we got, in the first of a new series of weekly articles looking back at Black Library releases and news.
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Anne Tyler’s 20th novel, A Spool of Blue Thread was published back in 2015 and subsequently nominated for both the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Man Booker Prize the same year. Following the Whitshank family through three generations of life in Baltimore, it’s a sort of (largely) plot-free, rambling look at American familial life that bounces back and forth in time in a free-flowing, relaxed story of everyday life. It centers around the middle generation of Red and Abby, branching off to take closer looks at their children and at Red’s parents but always coming back to the pair of them.
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IMPORTANT: This is book nine in a series – there will be spoilers unless you’ve read I Am Slaughter; Predator, Prey; The Emperor Expects; The Last Wall; Throneworld; Echoes of the Long War, The Hunt for Vulkan or The Beast Must Die.
The ninth book in Black Library’s The Beast Arises series, Watchers in Death is David Annandale’s third and final contribution, following on closely from Gav Thorpe’s The Beast Must Die. With the Primarch Vulkan lost on Ullanor and the remaining Space Marine forces having taken a pounding, Koorland finds inspiration in an unlikely source, leading to a decision that’s as unpopular amongst the High Lords as it is inevitable given the title of this book. With the fate of The Beast unknown but the attack moon over Terra broadcasting terror across the airwaves, Koorland’s new tactics provide a glimmer of hope for the Imperium.
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Black Library’s long-running Space Marine Battles series continues with Paul Kearney’s Calgar’s Siege, Kearney’s first properly available Black Library novel after the seemingly cursed Dark Hunters: Umbra Sumus. Taking inspiration from a brief piece of background text, this deals with the Siege of Zalathras, where the Ultramarines’ Chapter Master Marneus Calgar held the gates against the greenskin hordes for a day and a night. It’s safe to assume that there’s more to the story than that, and Kearney fills in the gaps including where Zalathras actually is, and what Calgar was doing there in the first place!
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One of the newest authors in the Black Library stable, Ian St. Martin’s debut novel Legends of the Dark Millennium: Deathwatch has just been released, with the hardback edition due to hit shelves this weekend. Ian has kindly taken the time to answer some questions about his work for Black Library so far (including the new novel), his influences and his writing background.
Read on to find out more about this Chaos loving, rain dancing, robot alien fan!
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When Breath Becomes Air is the memoir of Paul Kalanithi, a neurosurgeon who was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2013, and died two years later. Published a little under a year after his death it’s a distillation of his thoughts on life, seen through the lenses of a lifelong passion for literature and the arts, and a keen awareness of mortality. Not many people see both sides of the doctor/patient relationship, nor have the combination of medical understanding, emotional awareness and literary skill to be able to offer such an honest and vivid depiction of this awful illness.
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John French’s latest short story, The Purity of Ignorance, comes with an interesting tagline – ‘A Story of the Horusian Wars’. As yet there’s been no confirmation of whether this means he’s actively working on a new series regarding the Horusian Wars, but still…it’s ripe for speculation!
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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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It’s hard to deny that 2015 was something of a dry year for Black Library fans, at least in comparison with previous years, but thankfully things have really picked up in 2016. In fact, as a new week begins I’m looking back at last week’s releases and thinking…what a week!
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For the third year in a row Black Library have run their Summer of Reading campaign – after 2015’s three week-long campaign it appears we’re back to a single week for 2016 (so far, at least). What a week it’s been, though – seven brand new short stories, including two new Horus Heresy tales and two different Inquisitors. That’s right, not only is there the first Black Library outing for Inquisitor Covenant, but there’s also a long-awaited outing for Gregor Eisenhorn!
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