Tag Archives: Gav Thorpe

Forgotten Texts: Know Thine Enemy by Gav Thorpe

“Though we live for battle, a war is fought with wits as well as weapons.”

An eighteen-year-old Black Library story finally given the ebook treatment, Gav Thorpe’s Know Thine Enemy is a rare foray into the Salamanders for an author much better known for his Dark Angels stories. On the Imperial world of Slato, an Eldar artefact has been uncovered by the newly-arrived colonists. Sent to defend the colony while the artefact is studied, Chaplain Ramesis and his battle brothers must fight through Eldar ambushes to reach the embattled Imperial defenders. Guided by their hatred of the xenos, the Salamanders zealously discharge their duty…but are the Eldar the real enemy?

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Hand of Darkness – Gav Thorpe

A companion piece to Eye of Night, part of Black Library’s Audio Week 2017, Gav Thorpe’s Hand of Darkness is an hour-long audio drama featuring the debut appearance of the Ynnari in a Black Library story, and is the second story to be set in the post-Gathering Storm 40k. This time it sees Roboute Guilliman persuading Eldrad Ulthran and Yvraine to help him by retrieving the Hand of Darkness, gifted by Abaddon to the daemon primarch Mortarion and now residing on the Plague Planet. To find it they seek knowledge from the Black Library before entering the Garden of Nurgle itself.

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Eye of Night – Gav Thorpe

Since my review this has since been released as a standalone CD/MP3 audio drama, rather than being split into three parts – so you’ve got options for how to buy it!

The first of two audio dramas by Gav Thorpe to be released over Black Library’s Audio Week 2017 campaign, Eye of Night is also the first 40k story to be set in the wake of the Gathering Storm. It features Inquisitor Kataryna Greyfax as, on the orders of the primarch Roboute Guilliman, she searches for a powerful artefact – the titular Eye of Night. Accompanied by a single squad of Grey Knights she journeys first to the Gothic Sector and then on to the Eye of Terror, and is forced to bargain with unexpected allies in order to achieve her mission.

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QUICK REVIEW: Scrape to Victory – Gav Thorpe

The eighth new Blood Bowl story to come out of Black Library in recent months, Gav Thorpe’s Scrape to Victory follows aspiring lineman (linerat?) Kikkit of the lower-tier Crookback Cretins in his quest to escape a life of grinding monotony and danger for the opportunity to play for the Skavenblight Scramblers. All he needs to do is earn one more confirmed injury as a result of a foul, to claim the all-time record and his place in the big league – easy-easy, surely? Maybe not, with his debts suddenly being called in and only a single match left in the season!

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Black Library Audio Week 2017 with Gav Thorpe

It’s Audio Week 2017 on the Black Library website – two brand new audio dramas serialised over five days beginning Monday 17th April. This would be cause for celebration on its own, but when you add in the fact that these two stories are the very first to be set in the post-Gathering Storm 40k universe…it’s very exciting indeed!

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QUICK REVIEW: Vengeance of the Immortal – Gav Thorpe

The latest Adeptus Titanicus story, Gav Thorpe’s 40k e-short Vengeance of the Immortal follows a maniple of Titans from the Legio Praesagius (who you may remember from Honour to the Dead) as they clash with traitor Titans on the world of Placia Mundus. The focus is on princeps majoris Sythika as she rouses her Warlord Titan Evocatus and leads the maniple into battle, where her Titan’s fiery animus becomes as much a hindrance as an asset. Evocatus is an ancient machine with a long memory, and the appearance of a familiar foe stirs painful memories.

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Asurmen: The Darker Road – Gav Thorpe

Gav Thorpe’s 70-minute audio drama Asurmen: The Darker Road comes nearly two years after its predecessor in the fledgling Phoenix Lords series, the short novel Asurmen: Hand of Asuryan. This time we see the first of the Phoenix Lords arriving at Craftworld Ulthwé in time to join Eldrad Ulthran on an expedition to the Crone Worlds, to claim an artefact that could guarantee the safety of Ulthwé and its people. Accompanied by the head of Ulthwé’s Seer Council, Asurmen guides his fellows through their perilous journey, but his presence doesn’t necessarily denote success for the mission.

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Forgotten Texts: Last Chance by Gav Thorpe

“Just my type of scum!”

The story that introduced us to the 13th Penal Legion, Gav Thorpe’s Last Chance was first published in 1998, two years before Kage, Colonel Schaeffer and the rest of the Last Chancers were fleshed out in the novel 13th Legion. We first meet Kage sprinting through sniper-threatened no man’s land and stumbling across a platoon of Mordian Iron Guard, clearly keen to be anywhere other than where he is. After arousing the suspicion of the platoon’s Commissar, he regales the soldiers detailed to guard him with the story of how he ended up under Schaeffer’s dangerous command.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Shadowmasters – Gav Thorpe

The Shadowmasters by Gav Thorpe has seen three releases; first in prose inside the dust jacket for the Limited Edition Corax: Soulforge, next as a standalone 12-minute audio drama, and finally in prose again within Book 41: Corax. However it’s consumed, it’s a short but sweet exploration of the Mor Deythan, those Raven Guard able to tap into Corax’s gift and become one with the shadows. Set during the events of Soulforge it sees Sergeant Chamell leading his fellow Shadowmasters behind enemy lines to sow fear and confusion as part of the wider Raven Guard assault on Atlas.
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Corax: Soulforge – Gav Thorpe

First published in 2013, Gav Thorpe’s Corax: Soulforge was the fourth Limited Edition novella to be released in the Horus Heresy series. Set after the events of Deliverance Lost it sees Corax and the Raven Guard fighting their shadow war, determined to be a thorn in the side of the forces of Horus. After learning that Word Bearers are working alongside the Mechanicum overlords of the forge world Constanix II, Corax leads part of his legion to investigate and deal with whatever the XVIIth are planning. Meanwhile Commander Agapito continues to wrestle with his emotions after the horrors of Isstvan V.

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