Tag Archives: Imperial Guard

QUICK REVIEW : Monolith – Chris Dows

The third short story in Black Library’s Summer of Reading, Monolith sees Chris Dows return with a second tale of Veteran Sergeant Zachariah and his Elysian Drop Troops (see Hammer & Bolter 21 for the first – The Mouth of Chaos). Here we see Zachariah and his squad attempting a daring high-altitude drop to reinforce a beleaguered Cadian outpost situated at the summit of the titular monolith, facing off against the Traitor Marine Raptors of the Blood Disciples. Forced to fight in the air and on the ground against superior opponents, things look bleak for the Elysians.

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QUICK REVIEW : Forgotten – Dan Abnett

On the twenty-third day of Christmas, Black Library gave to us…a Gaunt’s Ghosts short story by Dan Abnett. A Gaunt’s Ghosts ghost story, in fact, called Forgotten. As the story unfolds, several of the Ghosts are gathered around a fire in a quiet storeroom somewhere within the Ser Armaduke, telling each other ghost stories. At Gaunt’s prompting, Mkoll begrudgingly tells his tale, of a fiend who moves in the darkness and strikes unseen, forgotten by death but stalked in turn by Mkoll.

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QUICK REVIEW : Last Step Backwards – Justin D. Hill

On the eleventh day of Christmas Black Library gave to us…an Imperial Guard short story by Justin D. Hill. Set on the barren desert world of Besana, Last Step Backwards is a story of the Cadian Shock Troops, and the iconic Ursarkar E. Creed. With their armies retreating against the forces of the Archenemy, a vital route to the heart of the Imperial defences is defended by Cadian Whiteshields, cadet soldiers ill-suited to such a task. The situation looks bleak until the arrival of Creed.

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QUICK REVIEW – Yarrick : Concordat – David Annandale

On the fifth day of Christmas Black Library gave to us…a Commissar Yarrick short story by David Annandale. Picking up threads from elsewhere in this growing series, Concordat sees still-young Yarrick on the hive world of Aighe Mortis, participating in a recruitment drive to replenish depleted Mortisian regiments. As some familiar faces unexpectedly appear and he’s forced into conflict with the Inquisition, he has to draw upon every weapon at his disposal to survive.

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Sabbat Crusade – edited by Dan Abnett

From humble beginnings back in the 1990s, there are now eighteen books set within the Sabbat Worlds, a region of space originally invented by Dan Abnett to provide a suitable setting for a story about a Commissar who was also a Colonel, and the ragtag bunch of soldiers he commanded. Look how it’s grown! With anticipation as high as ever for Warmaster, the long-awaited next novel in the Gaunt’s Ghosts series, Black Library are whetting our appetite with Sabbat Crusade, the second anthology of stories set within the wider crusade. Edited once again by Abnett and including stories from eight authors (Abnett included) along with previously out of print background on the crusade, it covers both sides of the story, not only the Ghosts and their Imperial allies but also the forces of the Archenemy at play in the region.

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The Greater Good – Sandy Mitchell

Now onto its ninth novel, Sandy Mitchell’s Ciaphas Cain series is one of Black Library’s longest running and most well loved ranges. Since the publication in 2003 of his first adventure, Cain’s memoirs have seen him fighting all sorts of menaces across the galaxy, from orks to tyranids, necrons and the forces of Chaos. In the latest novel, The Greater Good, we see him facing an old foe in the shape of the tau, as he bravely (sort of) defends the world of Quadravidia from the upstart aliens. The situation soon changes however, as the threat of a new tyranid hive fleet forces the Imperium and the tau into an uneasy alliance. Caught in the middle of this, Cain’s reputation as a Hero of the Imperium sees him called to act as intermediary between the Imperium, the Adeptus Mechanicus and the tau.

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Baneblade – Guy Haley

While tanks are obviously a hugely important (and entertaining) part of the Imperial Guard, a book solely about a tank is perhaps not the most exciting prospect. Thankfully then, Guy Haley’s Baneblade – despite the title – is very much a human story. Yes, in true 40k style we get to see a bit of the tank’s personality in terms of its machine spirit, but this is really a story about two men’s different viewpoints on and relationships with the tank.

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Straken – Toby Frost

SHORT REVIEW :

For readers who know the 40k background and hold a special place in their heart for the classic Imperial Guard special characters, the appeal of this book can basically be summarised in three names : ‘Iron Hand’ Straken, Nork Deddog and ‘Sly’ Marbo. If those names mean anything to you, you’ll be heading out to get this book right away, and you won’t be disappointed.

LONG REVIEW :

In his first novel for Black Library, Toby Frost – author of the entertaining Space Captain Smith series, tackles the Imperial Guard, specifically the Catachan 2nd regiment. A staple of the Imperial Guard on the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop, this characterful regiment of jungle fighters has been strangely under-represented by Black Library in the past. No longer, however. Straken bursts out of the page from the get go and hits the ground running, the first alien gribbly receiving the shotgun-to-the-face treatment within three pages. You know straight away that this is going to be about Catachans going toe-to-toe with whatever the galaxy throws at them, which is exactly as it should be.

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