Tag Archives: Graham McNeill

A Few Thoughts On The Successors – Black Library Anthology

A collection of 13 short stories from 10 different authors, Black Library’s Warhammer 40,000 anthology The Successors looks beyond the usual First Founding Chapters of Space Marines and sets out to explore some of the Chapters who haven’t been seen as often in 40k fiction. It does actually feature some Chapters who have had plenty of their own stories before (Crimson Fists, Flesh Tearers, Soul Drinkers), but the majority of the stories focus on Chapters from the semi-familiar (Angels Penitent, Black Dragons, Carcharadons, Emperor’s Spears, Mortifactors) to the new or much more obscure (Consecrators, Iron Lords, Wolfspear). There’s even a rare Exorcists story, and most – although not all – of the stories take place in the ‘current’, post-Great Rift era of 40k.

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Day Zero by C. Robert Cargill – Graham McNeill Guest Review

Hello and welcome to Track of Words, where I hope you’ll join me in welcoming legendary author Graham McNeill to the site for this guest review of apocalyptic adventure novel Day Zero by C. Robert Cargill. I imagine Graham will be very familiar to most readers, as the author of countless hugely popular books for Black Library from Nightbringer to Swords of Calth, not to mention Arkham Horror and Stargate novels and all manner of fantastic fiction for League of Legends. I couldn’t be happier to hand the reins of the site over to Graham for this guest review – I haven’t read Day Zero myself, but both this and Cargill’s 2017 novel Sea of Rust have been on my radar for a while now, and based on Graham’s review I definitely think I need to read this book!

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40k Reading Order: Ultramarines and Iron Warriors – Graham McNeill

Welcome to this 40k Reading Order article, where today I’m actually looking at two series which intersect and overlap, both by Graham McNeill, as part of an ongoing set of articles in which I’m providing recommended orders for various Black Library series. The Ultramarines series – (mostly) featuring Uriel Ventris – and the Iron Warriors series – featuring Warsmith Honsou – can be read separately, but fit together brilliantly to form one larger whole, and between them they include almost 30 stories. Graham has kindly provided his suggested (in-universe chronological) reading order for the whole lot, so if you’ve ever wanted to read these series but haven’t known where to start, look no further than this article!

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RAPID FIRE: Graham McNeill Talks The Swords of Calth

Welcome to this instalment of my Rapid Fire series of author interviews, where today I’m talking to veteran Black Library author Graham McNeill about his new novel The Swords of Calth, the long-awaited return of Uriel Ventris to 40k. Whether you’re a long-term fan of the series or this is your first introduction, read on to find out more about Uriel Ventris, who this character is within 40k, and how he fits into the changing universe! I also asked Graham for a series reading order, so anyone who wants to check out the whole thing can do so in chronological order.

It’s been over a decade since the previous book in this series was released, so it’s great to see such an iconic character return – The Swords of Calth goes up for pre-order on the 20th February, in Special Edition hardback, standard hardback, ebook and audiobook formats.

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Top 20 Books of 2020

I’ve already published a few articles in which I look back at my favourite Black Library stories of 2020 for all the Warhammer fans out there, but as the year is very nearly finished it’s now time for a wider roundup of all the best SFF/horror books in general that I’ve read this year. I would normally do a top 10, but I couldn’t resist making this the ‘top 20 of 2020’ so I’ve doubled the usual number of books…which, to be fair, did make my life easier as I’ve read so many great books this year! Narrowing the list down to 10 would have been really tricky, and even getting it down to 20 required a few sacrifices.

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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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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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RAPID FIRE: Graham McNeill Talks Fury of Magnus

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.

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Writing for Black Library – Pitching Warhammer Horror (Part One)

With the Black Library Open Submissions window themed around Warhammer Horror this year, I asked over a dozen fantastic authors for their thoughts on what makes a great horror short story, and their advice on writing and pitching a Warhammer Horror story to Black Library. I’ve already published the results of one conversation in my article Writing For Black Library – Alec Worley Talks Pitching Warhammer Horror, and I’ve gathered together the thoughts of the remaining authors to give you as broad a range of opinions, ideas and advice as possible to help you plan your submission this year. There’s way too much for just a single article, so I’ve split things into two parts, of which this is the first!

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The Colonel’s Monograph – Graham McNeill

Released as part of Black Library’s 2019 Novella Series 2, Graham McNeill’s Warhammer Horror novella The Colonel’s Monograph is a quiet, creepingly sinister portrayal of the slow road to corruption. Grieving in the wake of her husband’s death, retired archivist Teresina Sullo takes on a private commission to catalogue the library of a celebrated war hero, the late Colonel Elena Grayloc. As her work progresses Sullo fixates on finding one particular book, which she hopes might shed light on the mysterious circumstances of the colonel’s return to Grayloc Manor and subsequent death. The deeper she digs, however, the more it becomes clear that something sinister lurks behind the colonel’s heroic facade, and that Sullo’s obsession with finding answers is leading her down a dark path from which she might not return.

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