Tag Archives: Age of Sigmar

Best of Black Library 2021

2021 is rapidly coming to a close, which means it’s time for my usual roundup of the best Black Library books I’ve read over the last year. As always, I want to open with the caveat that these are my personal highlights based solely on what I’ve read – I’m not suggesting that there haven’t been other excellent BL titles released this year, just that I haven’t read them! I should also point out that I’m basing my selections on books which were first published in 2021, which means I’ve chosen one that only had a Limited Edition release and won’t be more widely available until 2022, and that this year I’m almost entirely looking at novels. In previous years I’ve also covered other formats and split out my choices into different articles based on the main BL settings – 40k, Age of Sigmar and Horus Heresy – but this year I’m just going to do this one article, and concentrate on novels.

Continue reading →

QUICK REVIEW: Oracle – Liane Merciel

Liane Merciel’s Age of Sigmar short story Oracle, part of the wider Broken Realms narrative and a sequel of sorts to Red Claw and Ruin (from Covens of Blood), starts with an investigation and ends with an invasion. Posted to the city of Anvilguard to support the Anvils of the Heldenhammer, most of whom have been redeployed elsewhere, Etanios of the Hammers of Sigmar finds himself in the unusual position of assisting with a murder investigation, after several deaths among the city’s prominent citizens. When he’s contacted by an old ally with a dire warning of Morathi’s duplicity, however, he finds himself pulled in different directions trying to do his duty.

Continue reading →

QUICK REVIEW: Roadwarden – Liane Merciel

Liane Merciel turns her attention to the harsh landscape of Aqshy with the short story Roadwarden, available in the Inferno! Volume 6 anthology. When strangers approach roadwarden Fereyne wanting to hire her as a guide through the Reaver Wastes, at first she balks at aiding anyone once claimed by the Blood God, but her scepticism is soon outweighed by the truth of their situation…and the high price they’re offering for her services. As she leads the motley party through the wastes in search of a magical artefact with the power to bring life to arid Aqshy, Fereyne and her companions find themselves faced with the stark reality of Chaos’ influence on the Mortal Realms.

Continue reading →

Where to Start With Black Library: Age of Sigmar Grand Alliance Order

Hello and welcome to this instalment of my Where to Start With Black Library article series, where I’m offering suggestions for good entry points into BL’s various ranges, and attempting to demystify Warhammer fiction a little bit. Historically, Black Library hasn’t provided much in the way of guidance regarding its massive range of stories, so I was pleased to see a recent (at the time I’m writing this) Warhammer Community article offering suggestions for where to start with Age of Sigmar books exploring the Grand Alliance Order – the ‘good guys’ (ish) of the Mortal Realms. While I applaud the intentions of this article, I didn’t think it was very thorough, and I didn’t necessarily agree with all of its suggestions, so I’ve put together an article myself on the same topic.

Continue reading →

RAPID FIRE: Darius Hinks Talks Gitslayer

Welcome to this instalment of my Rapid Fire series of author interviews, where today I’m chatting to the excellent chap that is Darius Hinks about his new Black Library novel Gitslayer. Darius already has form writing about the irascible Slayer Gotrek Gurnisson in the Age of Sigmar, and this is his second Gotrek novel after 2019’s entertaining Ghoulslayer. It also bears what is surely one of the finest titles in all of the Black Library range! Gitslayer goes up for pre-order in hardback (via the Games Workshop website), ebook and MP3 audiobook (via the Black Library website and, presumably by then, Amazon) on Saturday 15th May, so if you’re keen to get your hands on Gotrek’s next adventure read on to find out more about it!

Continue reading →

QUICK REVIEW: Galene of Ulgu – Timandra Whitecastle

Timandra Whitecastle makes her debut for Black Library with Galene of Ulgu, a tale of the Daughters of Khaine in the Mortal Realms. Far from her home in the shadowed mists of Ulgu, witch aelf Galene and her sisters march to the aid of Greywater Fastness in the realm of Ghyran, defending against the sinister forces of Nagash. After suffering a terrible defeat which sees her sisters turned against her in death, Galene finds herself in the company of another survivor, a human captain of the Freeguild. Injured and terribly outnumbered, the two of them nevertheless set out to strike back against the necromancer leading the undead invaders.

Continue reading →

The End of Enlightenment – Richard Strachan

After tackling the human followers of Chaos in his debut novel for Black Library, Richard Strachan returns to Age of Sigmar with The End of Enlightenment but focuses on two very different factions – the Lumineth Realm-Lords and the Ossiarch Bonereapers. In the wake of the Necroquake, the Lumineth march on Shyish determined to bring Nagash to account. Stonemage Carreth Y’gethin holds himself aloof from the war, determined to leave behind the violence of his youth during the Spirefall, but when his sister is killed fighting the Bonereapers he finds himself drawn into the conflict regardless. Tasked by Teclis himself with defeating a dangerous general of the Ossiarch legions and staving off a terrible future, Carreth struggles to balance his god-given duty with his own spiritual equilibrium.

Continue reading →

RAPID FIRE: Richard Strachan Talks The End of Enlightenment

Welcome to this instalment of my Rapid Fire series of author interviews – today I’m speaking to Richard Strachan about his upcoming novel The End of Enlightenment, part of Black Library’s range of Age of Sigmar fiction. A new AoS novel is always something to look forward to, and a novel featuring the Lumineth Realm-Lords doubly so, as this faction of aelves still feels very new, so I’m sure this novel is going to be of interest to a lot of Black Library fans! It’s available in hardback, ebook and audiobook editions, so check out this interview, have a read of my review (link below), and then go out and grab a copy of the book!

Continue reading →

QUICK REVIEW: The Perfect Assassin – Gary Kloster

Gary Kloster joins the illustrious ranks of Black Library authors who have written about Gotrek Gurnisson in Age of Sigmar with The Perfect Assassin, a tale that focuses not on the surly Slayer but on his companion, the aelf Maleneth. The unlikely pair find themselves in the city of Losten in grim Ulgu, but while Gotrek happily drinks a tavern dry of beer, Maleneth relieves her boredom in bloodier fashion. When she’s tasked by one of the city’s nobles with finding and killing a mysterious assassin stalking the streets, at first she’s barely interested, until a sighting of the assassin’s unusual powers piques her curiosity.

Continue reading →

Black Library: Age of Sigmar Grand Alliances

If you’re familiar with Warhammer Age of Sigmar then you’ll probably know that in the game at least, the various armies are grouped loosely into four Grand Alliances – Chaos, Death, Destruction and Order – each containing a range of different factions and races, not all of which always see eye to eye. Recently I got to wondering about how this concept is represented in Black Library fiction, and whether I could think of one standout book for each Grand Alliance – one thing led to another, and the end result is this article. I’ve picked out four Age of Sigmar books that I’ve really enjoyed, and I’ll talk a bit about why each one is – in my opinion – the best place to start (so far) with its Grand Alliance.

Continue reading →