Tag Archives: David Guymer

The Eye of Medusa – David Guymer

The Iron Hands are generally under-represented in Black Library fiction, but with The Eye of Medusa, his first full 40k novel (excluding The Beast Arises), David Guymer tackles de facto Chapter Master Kardan Stronos, back when he was only a sergeant. The Adeptus Mechancius world of Thennos lies under the aegis of Medusa, so when its population turns traitor the Iron Hands fall upon it with crushing, calculating brutality. Stronos, newly inducted into Clan Garrsak, leads his squad into battle but soon finds himself frustrated by the secrets Thennos holds, and the unthinking obedience expected of him by his new clan.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Hardest Word – David Guymer

Day Two of 2017’s Black Library Summer of Reading campaign

Set in and around the fortress known as The Seven Words, in the Realm of Ghur, David Guymer’s Age of Sigmar short story The Hardest Word is a typically boisterous tale of Hamilcar Bear-Eater of the Astral Templars. When word arrives that his recently-conquered fortress may be under threat from the insidious skaven, Hamilcar bids his warriors to search for the source of the danger, while he offers up an unconventional distraction. Not one for the subtle option, his choice is bold, brash and surprisingly effective.

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The Realmgate Wars: Call of Archaon – Black Library

Book four in Black Library’s Realmgate Wars series for Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, Call of Archaon is a collection of eight short stories by David Annandale, David Guymer, Guy Haley and Rob Sanders, each contributing towards a single wider story arc. Between them they tell the tales of three champions of Chaos, chosen to compete for the honour of joining the Varanguard and to fight beside Archaon himself. Each one the followe of a different Chaos god, they follow their own paths to the inevitable final showdown, manipulated all along by the unseen hand of Archaon’s subject, the Many-Eyed Servant.

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QUICK REVIEW: Beneath the Black Thumb – David Guymer (Call of Archaon part 1)

The first of eight short stories making up The Call of Archaon, book four in Black Library’s Realmgate Wars series for Age of Sigmar, David Guymer’s Beneath the Black Thumb introduces Copsys Bule, Lord of Plagues. After years tending his garden in Nurgle’s name, he knows his work is looked on with favour by Grandfather Nurgle, and he keeps to his path despite the machinations of his allies. When the great ritual to open a realmgate is disrupted by forces of Light, however, he begins to hear the pull of another call.

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QUICK REVIEW: A Last Sniff of Glory – David Guymer

For his first Blood Bowl story, David Guymer returns to the skaven with A Last Sniff of Glory, a tale of determination, desperation and performance-enhancing drug abuse. Ageing Skavenblight Scramblers star player Rurrk is long past his prime, but when the opportunity to rekindle his waning career presents itself he throws everything he has left into a final attempt to regain the adulation of the crowd that he craves so much. Facing up against an old rival, he uses everything at his disposal to ensure his place in the team’s starting lineup in spite of failing health and an ailing body.

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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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QUICK REVIEW: The Calculus of Battle – David Guymer

For day five of Black Library’s 2016 Advent Calendar it’s the turn of the Iron Hands, in a 40k audio drama by David Guymer – The Calculus of Battle. Viewing an Imperial world besieged by tyranids through the Iron Hands’ cold logic, Warleader Kardan Stronos weighs up the conflicting costs and benefits of intervening – does the potential cost in materiel usage and possible loss of Iron Hands life outweigh the benefits of evacuating even a tiny proportion of the planet’s 7 billion inhabitants? Constantly shifting with every action he takes, the battle calculus drives his decisions and determines whether the world lives or dies.
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The Last Son of Dorn – David Guymer (The Beast Arises Book Ten)

IMPORTANT: This is book ten in a series – there will be spoilers unless you’ve read I Am Slaughter, Predator, Prey, The Emperor Expects, The Last Wall, Throneworld, Echoes of the Long War, The Hunt for Vulkan, The Beast Must Die or Watchers in Death.

The Beast Arises reaches book ten of twelve with David Guymer’s The Last Son of Dorn, his second in the series. After the disastrous events of The Beast Must Die and the subsequent regrouping in Watchers in Death, Lord Commander Koorland now has a plan to defeat the Beast, albeit a desperate and as yet untested one. Making good use of the newly formed Deathwatch and the once-mythical Sisters of Silence he sets out on what is essentially a dry run, as his forces return to some familiar locations with something specific in mind.
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Echoes of the Long War – David Guymer (The Beast Arises Book Six)

Echoes of the Long War, book six in the Beast Arises series and the first from David Guymer, sees the halfway point in this twelve book series. Picking things up after the events of Throneworld it focuses mostly on the Fists Exemplar, specifically newly-promoted First Captain Zerberyn as he he drags the Exemplar fleet into battle with the orks in support of Black Templar Marshal Magneric and his unusual allies. Elsewhere we see Koorland and Vangorich attempting to take control of the situation back on Terra, and Magos Urquidex conspiring against his Martian masters, feeding information back to Vangorich.
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QUICK REVIEW : Godless – David Guymer

David Guymer contributes the twentieth story in Black Library’s 2015 Advent Calendar with Godless, an Age of Sigmar short story dealing with the search for the missing Chaos god Slaanesh. The decidedly ambiguous Shahleah leads her fellow champions and their collective warriors to seek out a daemonic oracle, whose guidance leads them to a seemingly abandoned temple where they hope to find a trace of their absent deity. Despite its outward appearance the temple proves to still have its guardians, while the oracle’s trustworthiness is definitely in question.
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