Tag Archives: Richard Strachan

Short and Sweet – October 2023

Hello and welcome to my Short and Sweet review roundup for October 2023, here on Track of Words. As usual I’ve got another trio of brief reviews for you, this time looking at three horror-tinged titles – I didn’t do this consciously, but seeing as it’s October it’s actually quite appropriate to go down the spooky route! These include an Age of Sigmar novel from Black Library, a straight-up horror novella from Titan Books, and a darkly unsettling novella from Tordotcom, all of which I’d been meaning to read for ages. So read on to find out a bit more about these three books, and what I thought.

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Best of Black Library 2021

2021 is rapidly coming to a close, which means it’s time for my usual roundup of the best Black Library books I’ve read over the last year. As always, I want to open with the caveat that these are my personal highlights based solely on what I’ve read – I’m not suggesting that there haven’t been other excellent BL titles released this year, just that I haven’t read them! I should also point out that I’m basing my selections on books which were first published in 2021, which means I’ve chosen one that only had a Limited Edition release and won’t be more widely available until 2022, and that this year I’m almost entirely looking at novels. In previous years I’ve also covered other formats and split out my choices into different articles based on the main BL settings – 40k, Age of Sigmar and Horus Heresy – but this year I’m just going to do this one article, and concentrate on novels.

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The End of Enlightenment – Richard Strachan

After tackling the human followers of Chaos in his debut novel for Black Library, Richard Strachan returns to Age of Sigmar with The End of Enlightenment but focuses on two very different factions – the Lumineth Realm-Lords and the Ossiarch Bonereapers. In the wake of the Necroquake, the Lumineth march on Shyish determined to bring Nagash to account. Stonemage Carreth Y’gethin holds himself aloof from the war, determined to leave behind the violence of his youth during the Spirefall, but when his sister is killed fighting the Bonereapers he finds himself drawn into the conflict regardless. Tasked by Teclis himself with defeating a dangerous general of the Ossiarch legions and staving off a terrible future, Carreth struggles to balance his god-given duty with his own spiritual equilibrium.

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RAPID FIRE: Richard Strachan Talks The End of Enlightenment

Welcome to this instalment of my Rapid Fire series of author interviews – today I’m speaking to Richard Strachan about his upcoming novel The End of Enlightenment, part of Black Library’s range of Age of Sigmar fiction. A new AoS novel is always something to look forward to, and a novel featuring the Lumineth Realm-Lords doubly so, as this faction of aelves still feels very new, so I’m sure this novel is going to be of interest to a lot of Black Library fans! It’s available in hardback, ebook and audiobook editions, so check out this interview, have a read of my review (link below), and then go out and grab a copy of the book!

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Black Library: Age of Sigmar Grand Alliances

If you’re familiar with Warhammer Age of Sigmar then you’ll probably know that in the game at least, the various armies are grouped loosely into four Grand Alliances – Chaos, Death, Destruction and Order – each containing a range of different factions and races, not all of which always see eye to eye. Recently I got to wondering about how this concept is represented in Black Library fiction, and whether I could think of one standout book for each Grand Alliance – one thing led to another, and the end result is this article. I’ve picked out four Age of Sigmar books that I’ve really enjoyed, and I’ll talk a bit about why each one is – in my opinion – the best place to start (so far) with its Grand Alliance.

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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 – Age of Sigmar

As 2020 comes to a close and 2021 beckons, I’m looking back at the Black Library stories I’ve read over the last twelve months or so and picking out some of my highlights for the year. I’ve already written articles like this for 40k and the Horus Heresy, but now it’s time to look at Age of Sigmar. Have a look at those earlier articles if you haven’t already, then read on for a few thoughts on each of the three Age of Sigmar stories I’ve enjoyed reading the most in 2020. Once again, I’ve set myself two criteria – stories that were published in 2020, and (obviously) that I have read during 2020.

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From Humble Beginnings 2: Age of Sigmar Short Stories That Deserve Their Own Series

As I discussed in my article 40k Short Stories That Deserve To Be Series, it’s common in Black Library fiction for characters to be introduced in short stories before going on to have their own series. In the previous article I looked specifically at Warhammer 40,000 stories and characters, but this time I’m going to pick out some Age of Sigmar stories in the same vein. While AoS has much less of a back catalogue (so far) than 40k, by virtue of only being around for a few years, a few new names have already started to become well-known (and loved) – Hamilcar, Gardus, Maesa – alongside some familiar names from the World That Was…but it’s going to be interesting to see which ones go on to become the next batch of recurring characters.

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Blood of the Everchosen – Richard Strachan

The debut Black Library novel from Richard Strachan, Blood of the Everchosen is labelled as a Warcry Catacombs story but in truth is simply a fantastic Age of Sigmar novel which offers the best depiction yet of life for the mortal followers of Chaos. In the benighted lands of the Eightpoints, a child is born beneath a savage storm, his destiny entwined with that of Archaon himself. As the boy’s father races for safety, powerful forces converge from across the Bloodwind Spoil. Some, like Burak the Bloodseer and his Untamed Beasts, or Lord Rakaros’ Scions of the Flame, seek to kill the child while others, like the Splintered Fang of Ashrath Silenthis, hope to protect him. All hope to gain Archaon’s favour through their actions, except for the hunters in gold who search out the child for their own mysterious purpose.

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RAPID FIRE: Richard Strachan Talks Blood of the Everchosen

Welcome to this instalment of my Rapid Fire series of quick author interviews, in which I’m chatting to Richard Strachan about his debut novel for Black Library, Blood of the Everchosen. It’s the first full novel to be set in the Warcry subset of Age of Sigmar, promising to explore this unique setting and its variety of competing Chaos warbands like never before, and here’s Richard to give the lowdown on what we can expect. It’s available to pre-order as of Saturday the 27th October.

Let’s get straight on with the interview – over to Richard!

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