Tag Archives: Black Library Advent calendar

QUICK REVIEW: The Deserter – Justin D Hill

Justin D. Hill’s 27-minute audio drama The Deserter holds the honour of being the first ever Necromunda audio drama from Black Library, and delivers a character-driven story that cuts to the heart of life in the underhive. Corenne and her mother have been driven out of their home and forced to scrape a living in Dust Falls, scrabbling in the dust and hawking what few possessions they still have. Starving and desperate, Corenne turns to a strange, barely-lucid ex-soldier in the hope that he can help her reclaim her home, but the Deserter seems bound to let her down.

Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW: A Lesson in Iron – David Guymer

A Horus Heresy Primarchs story set during the Great Crusade, A Lesson in Iron sees David Guymer tackle his favoured Iron Hands and give their primarch Ferrus Manus a little more time in the spotlight. Pursuing the fleeing remnants of the greenskin Rust empire and determined to finish them off, Ferrus takes his flagship – the Fist of Iron – into a strange warp rift. Instead of orks waiting for them, the Iron Hands find an unknown Imperial ship which appears to belong to their legion. What they find upon boarding that ship appears impossible, though it hints at a strange future.

Continue reading →

QUICK REVIEW: Acts of Sacrifice – Evan Dicken

Evan Dicken’s second Black Library short story, Acts of Sacrifice takes a similar approach to his debut The Path to Glory and tells a tale set before the Age of Sigmar. This time it takes place during the Age of Chaos, as the Order of the Ardent Star faces total destruction at the hands of a horde of Khornate ravagers. With the Order’s fortress besieged and its Master dead by the blade of the horde’s champion, Sir Anaea leads a handful of her remaining knights out in search of a more defensible holdout, hoping to find safety and a chance of survival.

Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW: Abyssal – David Annandale

A rare Horus Heresy short story featuring entirely new characters, David Annandale’s Abyssal takes place deep in the bowels of the Black Ship Irkalla. Aveth Vairon has lived his whole life driven and influenced by visions of a singular rune. Even after being taken from his home world and imprisoned within the Black Ship, Vairon clings to his belief that the rune is guiding his path, and follows the route it lays out for him. Tormented by the horrors of the ship and the terrifying Sisters of Silence, Vairon follows the rune’s imperatives, trusting it to see him to safety.

Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW: The Deeper Shade – CL Werner

There’s room in the Mortal Realms for all kinds of stories in all sorts of locations, and with his short story The Deeper Shade CL Werner gives us a classic villainous tale of deceit and treachery, set on a desolate stretch of haunted coastline. The Tzeentchian sorcerer Thalinosh of Charr has led his warband to the shores of Gharn in search of a lost artefact of great power, which he intends to reclaim and exploit. Putting his magics to good use, Thalinosh ventures deep beneath the water despite the threat of a horror that even the wild creatures fear.

Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW: Man of Iron – Guy Haley

Guy Haley’s Blackstone Fortress short story Man of Iron focuses on the intriguing character of UR-025, and offers a short but entertaining insight into what goes on behind the blank facade of this ‘Imperial Robot’. We’re first introduced to UR-025 through the eyes of Rein the ratling, before the robot joins with a party of Adeptus Mechanicus tech-priests and heads into the Fortress in search of archeotech. Once within the shifting halls of the Fortress the priests are reliant upon UR-025 for both directions and protection, all the while unaware of its real reasons for choosing to accompany them.

Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW: Fire and Thunder – Rachel Harrison

One of several excellent 40k short stories featuring Commissar Severina Raine and the 11th Antari Rifles, Rachel Harrison’s Fire and Thunder is a bleak and powerful examination of the grubby, confused horror of war in the 41st millennium. Raine and the Antari are redeploying from the cathedral city of Whend when they find themselves under heavy fire and cut off from Imperial lines. With walking wounded and no chance of extraction, their only hope is a dangerous forced march through enemy-held territory, but with ammunition running low and enemies pressing in all around, the odds are heavily set against them.

Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW: Blood Gold – Gav Thorpe

A standalone Age of Sigmar short story, Gav Thorpe’s Blood Gold features the Zharrthagi fyreslayers, an unusual clan who can trace their lineage back to before the Age of Chaos. With their mountain lodge besieged by Chaos worshippers, the Zarrthagi march out to confront their enemies. At the behest of one of his warriors, runefather Ungrimmsson Drakkazak looks back to the clan’s earliest days as he tells the tale of the Zarrthagi curse, relating the actions of the clan’s original runefather and the events that led to where and what they are now.

Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW: Old Wounds, New Scars – Graham McNeill

Following on from Vengeful Spirit and Wolf Mother, Graham McNeill’s Horus Heresy short story Old Wounds, New Scars follows Alivia Sureka, the Perpetual, as she reluctantly returns to Terra. Over the course of a long and dangerous journey through the warp on a battered warship along with her adopted family and countless thousands of refugees from Molech, Alivia has worked hard to ensure as many people survived as possible. As their destination draws closer, and the whispers of the warp grow louder, Alivia recalls moments and people from her long life, and looks ahead in concern to the dangers approaching on Terra.

Continue reading →

Black Library Advent Calendar 2018

December has come round once again, which means it’s time for the 2018 Black Library Advent Calendar! As is the Black Library tradition, there’s going to be 24 days of Black Library fiction in the run up to Christmas, with a new* short story or audio drama revealed each day. This year it’s mostly short stories, with just six of the tales coming in as audio dramas (compared to 10 audios in 2017), and things are split across 40k (including Blackstone Fortress!), Age of Sigmar, Necromunda and the Horus Heresy.

Keep reading…