Tag Archives: Chris Wraight

Ten Years of Black Library

It’s been almost 10 years since I started Track of Words, and over that time I’ve read somewhere north of 400 Black Library books (not to mention goodness knows how many short stories), and reviewed a large proportion of those! As I draw to the end of this 10-year period, I thought it might be interesting to look back at all those BL books and pick out my personal highlights from the last decade. I’ve gone through each year from 2014 to 2023 and, from the books that a) were published that year, and b) I actually read that year, selected a single book as my pick for each year – and I tell you, that was not an easy task!

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Best of Black Library 2023

Following on from my Best SFF Books of 2023 article, this time I’m turning my attention to Black Library in particular (as I always do), and picking out the best BL books that I’ve read over the last twelve months. It’s always interesting to go back through and think about what the highlights have been, and as ever there have been some really great releases this year. Compared to previous years (like 2018 for example, when I read a whopping 65 BL books) I haven’t read quite as many BL books in 2023, but the 24 I did read this year still gave me a decent pool to choose from, and all the books I’ve picked out are genuinely fantastic, and very much worth reading!

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Short and Sweet: October 2022

Hello and welcome to the first in a new series of articles that I’m tentatively calling Short and Sweet, in which I’m going to write up a few quick, informal thoughts and observations about some of the SFF books that I’ve recently read, but which I’m not planning on reviewing more thoroughly. I’ve basically pinched this idea from a friend (check out Fabienne’s ‘Review Roundup’ posts on Libri Draconis), and I’m hoping it will work for me too as a way of still talking about books for which I don’t have the time or headspace to write full, in-depth reviews. The plan is for this to be an irregular series rather than committing to a specific frequency, so to begin with at least I’ll try to write one of these posts maybe once a month, or perhaps a bit less than that, depending on what I read.

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Best of Black Library 2020 – Horus Heresy

It’s almost the end of 2020, so I’m taking a look back at the Black Library stories I’ve read this year and choosing a few highlights for each of the main settings – and this time it’s the turn of the Horus Heresy. Take a look at my 40k roundup if you haven’t already, but for this article I’ve picked out the three Heresy stories I’ve enjoyed reading the most during 2020. As I mentioned in the 40k article, these are just my own choices based on what I’ve read this year – I’ve limited myself to Heresy stories (both the main range and the Siege of Terra) that I’ve read in 2020, and which were published this year too.

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RAPID FIRE: Chris Wraight Talks The Helwinter Gate

Welcome to this instalment of my Rapid Fire series of quick author interviews, in which I’m talking to Black Library author Chris Wraight about his new Warhammer 40,000 novel The Helwinter Gate. This long-awaited conclusion to the Járnhamar trilogy is out tomorrow in swanky ‘Mega Edition’ format, complete with all sorts of additional bits and pieces and an eye-watering price tag to patch – while the standard editions should (assuming past release schedules apply) come along in about six months time. Whether you’re grabbing a Mega Edition or not, however, this sounds like another great book from Chris – so read on to find out more about it!

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Best of Black Library 2020 – 40k

It’s almost the end of 2020, so I thought it might be fun to take a look back at the Black Library stories that I’ve read this year and pick out a few personal highlights – in this article I’m looking specifically at Warhammer 40,000 stories, but I’ll do the same thing at some point for some of the other settings as well. These are just my own choices, based on what I’ve personally enjoyed reading the most, and I’ve based my selections on stories that were released in 2020 and that I read during this year (so for example I’ve had to miss off a few short stories that I read in anthologies in 2019 but which subsequently got standalone e-short releases in 2020).

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No Good Men – Warhammer Crime Anthology

Taking its place in the first wave of Black Library’s Warhammer Crime releases (alongside Chris Wraight’s Bloodlines and Alec Worley’s Dredge Runners), short story anthology No Good Men explores some of the different ways in which Imperial justice is loosely interpreted on the mean streets of Varangantua. Eschewing the usual battlefields and familiar tabletop characters in favour of ordinary citizens simply trying to survive the brutal realities of Imperial life, these stories all explore Varangantua’s atmospheric, cyberpunk-esque stylings and the towering inequalities corroding the heart of the Imperium. As the title suggests, there are no heroics here – just regular people doing what it takes to get by, whether that falls within the remit of the law or not.

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Bloodlines – Chris Wraight

The first Black Library novel published under the Warhammer Crime label, Chris Wraight’s Bloodlines is a tale of corruption, brutality and rampant inequality which takes a close look at the gritty realities of life for everyday Imperial citizens. In the vast, continent-sized hive city of Varangantua, Probator Agusto Zidarov is tasked with investigating the apparent disappearance of a spoiled scion of one of the city’s most powerful families. Despite his initial misgivings, it gradually becomes clear that something vile and deeply dangerous is going on in Varangantua. In order to get to the bottom of it Zidarov must navigate vicious cartels, the over-privileged ruling elite, and the corrupt systems of law and bureaucracy in which he himself works.

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RAPID FIRE: Chris Wraight Talks Bloodlines

Welcome to this instalment of Rapid Fire, my ongoing series of quick interviews with authors talking about their new releases. These are short and sweet interviews, with the idea being that each author will answer (more or less) the same questions – by the end of each interview I hope you will have a good idea of what the new book (or audio drama) is about, what inspired it and why you might want to read or listen to it.

In this instalment I spoke to Black Library author Chris Wraight about Bloodlines, his latest novel and the first book to be released under the brand new Warhammer Crime imprint. It’s available to pre-order right now, and should provide a fascinating opportunity to dig into a slightly different angle on Warhammer 40,000 than what we’ve seen before.

Over to Chris for some thoughts on what to expect from Bloodlines, and from Warhammer Crime as a whole…

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QUICK REVIEW: Child of Chaos – Chris Wraight

One of the most notorious figures in the Horus Heresy, the much-loathed Word Bearer Erebus is the subject of Chris Wraight’s fascinating character study Child of Chaos. From the arid streets of a forgotten Colchisian village to the ruins of an ancient temple to the Ruinous Powers on Davin, Erebus calmly and succinctly tells his own story of single-minded determination and dedication, speaking directly and unashamedly to the reader of his childhood, his journey, his beliefs and the vital role he played in the Heresy.

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