The first in a week’s worth of new short stories for Black Library’s Summer of Reading campaign, Sandy Mitchell’s The Cost of Command features the Astral Knights way back before their fateful all-out assault on the necron World Engine. Here we see two of their number duking it out in an honour duel, the reason for which gradually becomes clear as the protagonist looks back on his squad’s last mission and the toll it incurred on each of them.
The latest Space Marine Battles novel – The World Engine – is Ben Counter’s second in the series and promises to be about as epic a story as it’s possible to be. The titular World Engine is a mobile planet, a vast and apparently indestructible necron construct that has been marauding through Imperial space and devastating systems with impunity. With few options remaining, the entire Astral Knights chapter launches a suicidal assault, crashing their battle barge directly into the planet in a last ditch attempt to stop the World Engine. The Space Marine Battles series is built on the premise that the stories told are enjoyable, entertaining and fun, and with such a ridiculously over the top concept this should deliver all three in spades.