Tag Archives: James Swallow

Dark Horizon – James Swallow

His second standalone thriller (after the also-excellent Airside), Dark Horizon sees James Swallow tap into his love of aviation and tell a gripping, pacy tale from the perspective of a civilian pilot caught between shady government officials and deadly criminals. I’m going to break all my own rules with this review and include the publisher’s description here rather than writing my own summary, because I really don’t think I can write anything better than this to give you the gist of what Dark Horizon is about. So good work, Welbeck publicity team – over to you!

Continue reading →

Spotlight on James Swallow’s Original Fiction

Hello and welcome to this Original Fiction Spotlight, where today I’m welcoming the brilliant James Swallow to the site. If you’re a fan of sci-fi worlds from Warhammer 40,000 to Star Trek then chances are you’ll have come across James’ excellent IP fiction – I’ve certainly read and reviewed my fair share of his 40k stories! In the spirit of these spotlight articles though, today we’re looking at James’ original fiction. If you weren’t already aware, outside of IP fiction James has a fantastic catalogue of thrillers to his name, with a six-book series from Bonnier Zaffre and two standalone novels from Welbeck Publishing. As part of my ongoing ‘Spotlight On…’ series, I’ve invited James to give us the lowdown on his original fiction, so warm up your TBR list and get ready to find out more about these great thrillers.

Continue reading →

Dragonfire – James Swallow

The follow-up to 2022’s Firewall, James Swallow’s Dragonfire is his second novel in Aconyte Book’s Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell range of high-tech thrillers, and another gripping, action-packed page turner. Set after the events of both Firewall and the game Ghost Recon: Wildlands (specifically the ‘Operation Watchman’ mission, according to the author’s note), it sees Sam Fisher sent into North Korea on a typically high-risk mission to prevent a dangerous weapon from falling into the wrong hands, only for the mission to go badly wrong leaving Sam captured by ruthless enemies and disavowed by his own people. Ignoring orders from a Fourth Echelon wracked by political manoeuvring, Sam’s daughter Sarah risks her own life to bring him back, and between them the two Fishers start to unveil a plot that threatens to destabilise the global status quo.

Continue reading →

Like Warhammer? Try This: Aconyte Books

I know a lot of Track of Words readers are big Black Library fans, but what if – like me – you’re keen to look beyond the boundaries of Warhammer and find new fantasy and science fiction worlds to explore? It can be tricky to know where to start, and with so many SFF books published each year choosing a new book or series can sometimes feel a bit intimidating. The answer, I think, is to try something by an author you’re already familiar with – so think of your favourite Black Library authors, and look for some of their non-BL stories! Not every BL author writes for other publishers, but plenty of them do, so you’ve got a ready-made list of writers whose work will give you great entry points to the wider world of SFF.

Continue reading →

Short and Sweet – January 2023

Hello and welcome to my first Short and Sweet reviews roundup of 2023, where today I’m taking a quick look at a trio of books I read in January. It’s quite a fun mixture this month, combining gothic horror, contemporary fantasy(ish) and Warhammer fiction (specifically Horus Heresy/Siege of Terra), so hopefully there’s something of interest to you in here! As always with these review roundups, the idea is to take a fairly brief look at a few SFF books that for one reason or another I’m not going to cover in full reviews, but which I’m still keen to talk about. I’ve included buy-now links for each book – I’ll receive a small affilliate fee for anything ordered via these links.

Continue reading →

Firewall – James Swallow

Not content to delight readers with just his own original thrillers like Airside and the fantastic Marc Dane series, James Swallow continues to demonstrate his prowess with this genre in the tense, action-packed, utterly un-put-downable Firewall, his first Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell novel from Aconyte Books. Taking place in 2015, it sees Sam Fisher – black-ops expert and veteran of the secretive ‘Fourth Echelon’ anti-terrorist group – tasked with hunting down a deadly assassin, a fearsome opponent from Sam’s past long thought to be dead. An added complication is that Sam’s partner for the mission is his daughter Sarah, newly accepted into Fourth Echelon, father and daughter each trying to come to terms with the other’s role. Before long though, they’re caught up in a broader mystery involving a terrifying digital weapon named Gordian Sword, created by billionaire tech entrepreneur Brody Teague, with a potential impact beyond any trouble a single assassin could make.

Continue reading →

Revisiting Nemesis by James Swallow (Guest Review)

Hello and welcome to this, the first ever guest review on Track of Words, where my good friend Tim is going to talk about revisiting Nemesis by James Swallow, book 13 in Black Library’s epic Horus Heresy series. When I read Tim’s thoughtful, insightful review I knew straight away that I wanted to publish it here on Track of Words – it’s a brilliant piece of analysis in its own right, and I think it works beautifully as a companion piece to my own Revisiting Battle for the Abyss article. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! Without further ado then, over to Tim.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

Day Zero – James Swallow and Josh Reynolds

Veteran authors James Swallow and Josh Reynolds team up for modern, high-tech thriller Day Zero from Aconyte Books, a prequel novel to the Watchdogs: Legion video game. Trouble is brewing in an alternative but worryingly believable London, with organised crime rife, private military contractor Albion muscling in on the Met, and hacker collective DedSec leading an underground resistance. Tensions begin to escalate when a spate of shootings rock the East End, and players from all sides – local government, DedSec, Albion, the brutal Clan Kelley crime family – step up their efforts, as a deeper mystery starts to come to light in the battle for control of the city.

Continue reading →

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: James Swallow and Josh Reynolds Talk Day Zero

Welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview, which (I think) is a first as I’m chatting to not just one but two authors – James Swallow and Josh Reynolds about their new novel Day Zero. It’s a tie-in to the new Watchdogs: Legion game from Ubisoft, and is out now from Aconyte Books as an ebook, with the US paperback due on the 3rd November and the UK paperback on the 12th November. Whether you’re a fan of the game or not, if you fancy a pacy, high-tech modern thriller set on the streets of London then this collaboration between two fantastic authors sounds like one to look out for!

Continue reading →