Tag Archives: Black Library Advent calendar

QUICK REVIEW: Pantheon – Guy Haley

On the 20th day of Black Library’s 2016 Advent Calendar it’s back to the Mortal Realms for the third and final Age of Sigmar story – Pantheon by Guy Haley. On the highest peak in the realm of Azyr, Sigmar waits amidst the remnants of past glories for a visitation from a fellow deity. With his Stormcast Eternals taking the fight to Chaos across all of the realms, he’s now turning his mind to a later stage of his plans. Hoping to sway Alarielle to his cause, he shows her an ancient story from a time before the Age of Chaos.
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QUICK REVIEW: Exocytosis – James Swallow

On the nineteenth day of Black Library’s 2016 Advent Calendar, James Swallow’s short story Exocytosis oozes onto our e-readers, the penultimate Horus Heresy story in the collection. Amidst the forests of Zaramund, Luther and his Dark Angels offer aid to the battered forces of First Captain Calas Typhon, but there’s little trust between the Angels and the Death Guard. Plagued by unsettled, troubled thoughts and unsure what to make of the slow changes coming over his body, Typhon waits while repairs are made, whiling the time away in restless contemplation. Meanwhile the Dark Angels watch and listen, making their own plans.
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QUICK REVIEW – Carcharadons: The Reaping Time – Robbie MacNiven

Day eighteen marks the three quarter mark of Black Library’s 2016 Advent Calendar, with Carcharadons: The Reaping Time by Robbie MacNiven. A prequel to the upcoming novel Red Tithe, it follows Carcharadons Librarian (sort of) Te Kahurangi as he accompanies Company Master Akia to the mining world of Zartak, whose rebellious rulers fear the Space Marines are coming to sanction them. In reality, Third Company are on Zartak for other reasons; though the Zartakians’ rebellion stems from the issue of tithes, it’s a very different tithe indeed that brings the Carcharadons Astra to Zartak.
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QUICK REVIEW: The Aegidan Oath – LJ Goulding

Day seventeen of Black Library’s 2016 Advent Calendar gives us The Aegidan Oath by LJ Goulding, a 40k short story…well, sort of. Set on Sotha at the turn of M32 it sees a pair of Ultramarines venture to Mount Pharos in search of Captain Oberdeii, the last of the Aegida Company. Almost a thousand years after the end of the Horus Heresy Oberdeii still holds to the oath he swore to his primarch, but times are changing in the rest of the galaxy. It’s time for the Ultramarines to finally remove the last reminder of Imperium Secundus.
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QUICK REVIEW: Valerius – Gav Thorpe

Day sixteen of the 2016 Black Library Advent Calendar gives us Valerius by Gav Thorpe, a Horus Heresy audio drama that continues a specific arc on from the novella Weregeld. As the title suggests it follows Marcus Valerius, Vice-Caesari of the Therion Cohort, as he leads his forces into battle at Beta-Garmon. Looking to the words of the Lectitio Divinitatus for guidance and holding tight to his faith in the Emperor, he continues to believe – despite the odds stacked against them – that he and his Therions are serving a higher purpose…
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QUICK REVIEW: Doc Morgrim’s Vow – Josh Reynolds

Doc Morgrim’s Vow by Josh Reynolds is behind day fifteen of Black Library’s 2016 Advent Calendar, a Blood Bowl short story and sequel to Manglers Never Lose. Following their hard-fought victory in the Doom Bowl, the Middenplatz Manglers have been invited to the frozen mountains of Norsca to compete for the Angry Dragon Cup against the Dragon’s Hold Drakeslayers. Accompanying them on their journey is team physician Doc Morgrim, whose discomfort in venturing into Norsca turns out to be for unexpectedly personal reasons.
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QUICK REVIEW: Becoming – Andy Clark

Two weeks into Black Library’s 2016 Advent Calendar, day fourteen brings us an Imperial Knights story in the shape of Becoming by Andy Clark. Setting things up for the upcoming novel Kingsblade, we’re introduced to the knightly houses of Adrastrapol and their rituals, as veteran Knight pilot Sire Markos tells the story of his first battle to two young squires on the eve of their coming of age ritual. Thrust straight into battle without time to prepare, the young Markos had to learn quickly in order to survive, and in doing so forged himself a legend. It wasn’t all glory though…
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QUICK REVIEW: The Painted Count – Guy Haley

It’s back to the Horus Heresy for day thirteen of Black Library’s 2016 Advent Calendar, with The Painted Count by Guy Haley. Picking up where Gender Skraivok left off at the end of Pharos, we see him back on the Nightfall among his fellow Night Lords, embroiled in a power struggle for the leadership of the Legion. Deeply troubled by the clinging presence of the daemon weapon that he acquired on Sotha, Skraivok nevertheless finds himself in a position where he may well need every source of power he can lay his hands on if he’s to survive.
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QUICK REVIEW: The Embrace of Pain – Ian St. Martin

The 2016 Black Library Advent Calendar hits day twelve with the fourth of six audio dramas, The Embrace of Pain by Ian St. Martin. A short prequel to the novel Lucius: The Faultless Blade it finds Lucius’ vessel The Diadem assaulted by a vast, plague-ridden daemonic entity deep within the Eye of Terror. With its geller field breached and corruption spreading through its corridors, Lucius faces off against the guiding intelligence of the attack, a daemon of Nurgle who was once a warrior of the Death Guard. Though supremely confident in his martial skills, has he underestimated the danger this time?
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QUICK REVIEW: Bear Eater – David Guymer

Day eleven in Black Library’s 2016 Advent Calendar brings a second Age of Sigmar story – Bear Eater by David Guymer. Following on from the events of Guymer’s Knights of Vengeance audio drama series, it sees Lord Castellant Hamilcar of the Astral Templars, known as the Bear Eater, leading a handful of Stormcast to meet with the ruler of a nation seemingly untouched by Chaos. Still hunting for Mannfred von Carstein, Hamilcar hopes to warn the people of Jercho (yep, subtle…) of the vampire’s trickery, but even in a realm of constant sunlight he finds that darkness is already waiting for him.
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