Tag Archives: Dan Abnett

QUICK REVIEW: The Fall of Malvolion – Dan Abnett

Available as an e-short for the first time, 11 years after its publication in the Let The Galaxy Burn anthology, Dan Abnett’s The Fall of Malvolion is a standalone ‘Astra Militarum’ (that’s Imperial Guard, to you and me) story featuring the Mordian Iron Guard. When troopers of the Mordian 15th uncover a nest of genestealers on the agri-world of Malvolion, it becomes a race against time to evacuate the population before the inevitable waves of tyranid monstrosities descend upon the planet to feed. Malvolion is well defended, but against the tyranid hordes even the staunchest Imperial defenders are hard pressed.

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Warhammer 40,000 Legends Issue Five – Horus Rising by Dan Abnett

Issue Five of the Warhammer 40,000 Legends Collection from Hachette and Black Library returns to the Horus Heresy with Horus Rising by Dan Abnett. The opening novel of the Heresy series, first published ten years ago, this is where it all began for what’s become the biggest and most popular series that Black Library have ever published. After a further 40+ novels (and counting) this is still generally held as one of the series high points, and is an obvious entry in the …Legends Collection.

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QUICK REVIEW: Perpetual – Dan Abnett

It’s day one of Black Library’s 2016 Advent Calendar, and the first story is Perpetual by Dan Abnett, a Horus Heresy audio drama. Continuing the story of Oll Persson, first introduced in Know No Fear, it picks up where the short story Unmarked (in Mark of Calth) left off with Oll and his companions journeying through time and space in search of Terra, only now they’re becalmed, unable to go forward. Time is passing – not normally an issue for a Perpetual, but with his mission to complete and dangerous foes in pursuit, Oll knows he will have to find a way to keep moving eventually…
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Warhammer 40,000 Legends Issue Two – Xenos by Dan Abnett

Issue 2 of Hachette’s Warhammer 40,000 Legends partwork series features a stone-cold 40k classic in the shape of Xenos by Dan Abnett. Originally published way back in 2001 and intended to tie in with Games Workshop’s latest game Inquisitor, it subsequently spawned two more books to complete the Eisenhorn trilogy, several short stories and audio dramas, a further trilogy featuring Eisenhorn’s protégé Ravenor, one book of a potential further trilogy (Pariah, which may or may not end up with two more novels to form a third trilogy), and computer game. Suffice to say it’s been quite popular.
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QUICK REVIEW: Ork Hunter – Dan Abnett

An old short story first published in the Black Library anthology Words of Blood, Dan Abnett’s Ork Hunter follows Corporal Ondy Scalber of the Jopall Indentured as he and his fellow guardsmen blunder through the Armageddon swamps under the ‘guidance’ of the wild Sergeant Keyser and his Ork Hunters. As feral as the orks they hunt, indifferent to the fates of the ‘skinbait’ Jopall, Keyser and his men are ruthless killers compared to whom the Jopall are careless children. To survive, Scalber will have to adapt to his environment, the enemy he hunts, and the company he keeps.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Keeler Image – Dan Abnett

It’s day seven of Black Library’s 2016 Summer of Reading campaign, and the stops have definitely all been pulled out with Dan Abnett’s much-awaited Eisenhorn story The Keeler Image. It finds Eisenhorn attending an auction hosted by Medonae the Eater, which includes a staggeringly rare pict taken by Euphrati Keeler – once a remembrancer in the Great Crusade and subsequently (as Saint Euphrati) one of the founders of the Imperial Creed. Among the interested parties attending the auction is someone Eisenhorn has been hunting for years, drawn out by what Keeler’s pict could mean.
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Xenos – Dan Abnett

Widely held as a Black Library classic, Dan Abnett’s Xenos is the first installment in his Eisenhorn trilogy and the first novel to take a close look at the workings of the Inquisition. First published in 2001 following the release of the Inquisitor game by Games Workshop (in which the character of Eisenhorn was briefly introduced), it sees the young Gregor Eisenhorn closing in on a target only to realise he’s just beginning to scratch the surface of a much, much wider conspiracy involving the noble Glaw family and a foul xenos race.
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I Am Slaughter – Dan Abnett (The Beast Arises Book One)

With the Horus Heresy series at 30+ books and counting the last thing anyone expected Black Library to do was to start a brand new headline series, but that’s exactly what they’ve done, with Dan Abnett’s I Am Slaughter providing the opening book in a 12-strong series entitled The Beast Arises. Set after the Heresy but thousands of years before the main 40K timeline, with an Imperium essentially at peace, it sees almost the entire chapter of Imperial Fists in action on Ardamantua against the xenos Chromes. With the Fists fully occupied and Terra left unguarded, Grand Master Vangorich of the Officio Assassinorum watches and analyses the Imperial Senatorum, concerned about the petty politics which he believes risk the safety of the Imperium.
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QUICK REVIEW : Midnight Rotation – Dan Abnett

Dan Abnett joins the party on day nineteen of Black Library’s 2015 Advent Calendar with Midnight Rotation, a 40k short story that takes place within his Sabbat Worlds setting. Trooper second class Cawkus, of the Fiftieth Urdesh Regular, offers his take on the events he witnessed in the run up to the destruction of a Munitorum facility under his squad’s watch. Being only a trooper second class he might not have the most strategic overview of events, but he knows what he saw.
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Meduson – Black Library Anthology

Of all the ‘exclusive’ products Black Library have released, perhaps the one most likely to rouse the anger of fans is Meduson – a venue-specific Horus Heresy anthology that can only be purchased in person from Games Workshop’s headquarters in Nottingham. Released to celebrate the re-opening of Warhammer World and the dedicated Black Library shop within, it’s a move designed to draw out the diehard fans and encourage visitors, but is bound to annoy those fans not willing or able to make it to Nottingham. Exclusivity aside, any new Heresy release is always going to be of great interest to fans of the series, and this is no exception. With a selection of brand new stories from some of Black Library’s most respected authors, this review is a little longer than usual in order to give as clear a picture as possible of the anthology.

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