Tag Archives: Peter Fehervari

Best of Black Library 2020 – 40k

It’s almost the end of 2020, so I thought it might be fun to take a look back at the Black Library stories that I’ve read this year and pick out a few personal highlights – in this article I’m looking specifically at Warhammer 40,000 stories, but I’ll do the same thing at some point for some of the other settings as well. These are just my own choices, based on what I’ve personally enjoyed reading the most, and I’ve based my selections on stories that were released in 2020 and that I read during this year (so for example I’ve had to miss off a few short stories that I read in anthologies in 2019 but which subsequently got standalone e-short releases in 2020).

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A Traveller’s Guide to Peter Fehervari’s Dark Coil

With the release of the short story Altar of Maws (May 2023), Peter Fehervari’s catalogue of Warhammer 40,000 fiction – known informally as The Dark Coil – currently totals 18 stories. Every piece of 40k fiction is linked by taking place within a single shared universe, but The Dark Coil goes way beyond that. These stories share much deeper connections, between them forming a web of characters, locations, themes and recurring motifs that is gradually becoming more and more apparent as additional stories are published. One of the joys of reading Fehervari’s work is in unpicking these subtle connections, but it can be daunting to know where to start looking.

Welcome, then, to A Traveller’s Guide to the Dark Coil.

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QUICK REVIEW: Nightbleed – Peter Fehervari

The first of Peter Fehervari’s short stories officially released under the Warhammer Horror label, Nightbleed lives up to expectations as both a creepy, low-key horror story in its own right and an intriguing addition to The Dark Coil. In Carceri Hive, on the night-shrouded world of Sarastus, two souls find themselves bound together. Reduced to applying her skills for a dubious synth-protein supplier, ex-medicae Chel forces herself not to question where the raw materials come from, but suffers dark dreams nonetheless. In shadowed alleys, street prophet Skreech plans his next offering to the Night Below. As True Night approaches, the two spiral ever closer to a fateful meeting.

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Peter Fehervari Talks Requiem Infernal and The Dark Coil

Even amongst the considerable variety of authors writing for Black Library, one voice stands out in particular – the unique storytelling talents of Peter Fehervari, author of (among other things) the novels Fire Caste, Cult of the Spiral Dawn and 2019’s Requiem Infernal. Back in May 2018 I spoke to Peter about his influences and style of writing, and his unique outlook on Warhammer 40,000, in what was intended to be the first of a two-part interview. Fast forward a year and a bit, and the second instalment of the interview is here, in which (in his own words) Peter “unveils the dark secrets of the Requiem Infernal and the deeper abyss of the Dark Coil.”

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QUICK REVIEW: Out Caste – Peter Fehervari

Peter Fehervari’s Out Caste is a very brief (i.e. micro-short) prequel story to the wonderful novel Fire Caste, focused on the character of Jhi’kaara, a scarred and battle-hardened t’au Fire Warrior. Nominally set sometime before the events of Fire Caste, it sees Jhi’khaara in reflective mood, looking back on her path through life and the events – some positive, others profoundly painful – which led her to where she’s ended up. It’s a story about identity and the specific importance which that concept has for the t’au, shown through the lens of a warrior looking from the outside in.

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QUICK REVIEW: A Sanctuary of Wyrms – Peter Fehervari

An oblique sequel to the phenomenal Fire Caste, Peter Fehervari’s A Sanctuary of Wyrms is an unsettling, insightful short story exploring the sinister side of the T’au Empire and the corrupting nature of the world Fi’draah. On a mission to explore a region known to the gue’la as the Coil, Water Caste emissary Por’ui Asharil finds her opinions of her Earth and Fire caste companions challenged, and her belief in the Greater Good shaken. When they reach a seemingly abandoned Imperial outpost, their path takes them into a darkness hiding a horrifying truth, and Asharil’s change is completed.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Crown of Thorns – Peter Fehervari

Part of the Angels of Death collection of micro-short stories, Peter Fehervari’s The Crown of Thorns is a tale of the Angels Penitent, a lesser-known Chapter with grim origins. Brother-Sergeant Montaig is charged with bringing a young neophyte before the Crown of Thorns, the assembly of Chaplains who preside over the Chapter, to face punishment for sinning against the Penitents’ creed. As he escorts the prisoner through the dishevelled fortress monastery, Montaig’s thoughts dwell on the turning point in his brotherhood’s recent history, and the consequences – for himself, the neophyte and the Chapter as a whole – of their bitter faith.

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Requiem Infernal – Peter Fehervari

Peter Fehervari’s third novel, Requiem Infernal, continues to develop his Dark Coil metaplot and the complex, intense, interconnected storytelling that defines his work. Many years after leaving her birthplace, the austere home of the Adepta Sororitas of the Last Candle, Sister Asenath Hyades returns seeking answers, and aid for the few survivors of a once-proud Imperial Guard regiment. She finds the holy Candleworld much changed, its deepening darkness profoundly challenging her faith as she attempts to unravel its secrets while reluctantly facing up to her chequered past. Her unlikely companions on this testing journey all have their own secrets, and their own parts to play in the ensuing drama.

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Inferno! Volume 2 – in the Authors’ Words

After many years in the wilderness, September 2018 saw the return of Inferno! to Black Library, with a new format – a paperback anthology instead of the old magazine format – and a load of cool new stories. I celebrated this momentous occasion with an article in which I took a quick look at each of the stories in Inferno! Volume 1, and also asked the authors to give a little insight into their stories and how it felt to be included in this new anthology. Fast forward a few months and the second instalment of the new Inferno! is now available to order, so I felt it was only appropriate to put together something similar.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Thirteenth Psalm – Peter Fehervari

A typically complex and compelling 40k story from Peter Fehervari, The Thirteenth Psalm takes a closer look than ever before at the Angels Penitent as Chaplain Castigant Bjargo Rathana and his brothers seek out an artefact from their past. On the frozen, rebellion-wracked world of Oblazt, while exploring the decadent halls of a noblewoman’s seemingly undefended estate, Rathana and his brothers at last find the object of their search. In doing so they endure trials of the soul which test their commitment to the Chapter’s ideals, and force Rathana to question even his own purity, and the consequences of his past deeds.

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