Tag Archives: Rob Young

Best of Black Library 2023

Following on from my Best SFF Books of 2023 article, this time I’m turning my attention to Black Library in particular (as I always do), and picking out the best BL books that I’ve read over the last twelve months. It’s always interesting to go back through and think about what the highlights have been, and as ever there have been some really great releases this year. Compared to previous years (like 2018 for example, when I read a whopping 65 BL books) I haven’t read quite as many BL books in 2023, but the 24 I did read this year still gave me a decent pool to choose from, and all the books I’ve picked out are genuinely fantastic, and very much worth reading!

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Longshot – Rob Young

The fourth volume in Black Library’s multi-author Astra Militarum novel series, Longshot marks the long-form debut of Rob Young with an absolute bullseye. Set after the events of short stories Transplants and Memories of Broken Glass, it follows Sergeant Darya Nevic of the Cadian 217th as she leads her squad of snipers into battle against the t’au on the wintry manufactorum world of Attruso. When the Cadian advance is stymied by the stubborn, technologically-superior t’au, Darya finds herself in high demand for both her combat skills and the morale-boosting impact of her heroic reputation. With deadly enemy snipers on the prowl though, and facing the mistrust of some of her own for not being a ‘pureblood’ Cadian, Darya’s fight becomes more complex, not to mention dangerous, by the day.

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RAPID FIRE: Rob Young Talks Longshot

Hello and welcome to this Rapid Fire author interview, where today I’m chatting to Black Library author Rob Young about Longshot, his debut Warhammer 40,000 novel. Rob’s written a few 40k short stories already, and he’s previously featured on Track of Words as a guest reviewer (you can read his review here), but this is the first time we’ve chatted for an interview – and what better opportunity to talk than to celebrate the launch of his debut novel? Part of a growing range of new Imperial Guard Astra Militarum books, Longshot offers an unusual perspective on a Guard novel and promises to be an excellent read. Read on to find out what you can expect from Longshot, the challenges of writing about snipers, where Rob thinks he’d find himself if he was part of a Guard regiment, and loads more.

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Writing For Black Library – Open Submissions January 2023 Part 3: Writing Samples

Hello and welcome to the third and final instalment of my January 2023 edition of Writing For Black Library here on Track of Words – in this part our nine brilliant Black Library authors are discussing the tricky task of planning out short stories and putting together writing samples. If you haven’t already, I’d recommend checking out the previous two articles first: part one, in which we discussed writing 100-word story pitches, and part two, which was all about what makes a great Space Marine story. If you’ve already read both of those, read on to find out what advice and recommendations our authors have for writing short stories in general.

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Writing For Black Library – Open Submissions January 2023 Part 2: Space Marines

Welcome to the second in my three-part series of Writing For Black Library articles released to coincide with BL’s January 2023 Open Submissions window. For these articles I spoke to nine Black Library authors who kindly agreed to share their advice and ideas regarding three topics: pitch summaries, Space Marine stories, and generally writing short stories and samples. In Part 1 we covered writing pitches – if you haven’t already, definitely check that out – while for this second part the focus is on Space Marines. Specifically, I asked each of the authors this question: “What would you say makes a great Space Marine story?”

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Writing for Black Library – Open Submissions January 2023 Part 1: Pitching

Every year or two, Black Library announces an Open Submissions Window – a short period of time during which anyone can pitch a short story to the BL editorial team. Towards the end of 2022 BL announced that its next open subs window will begin in January 2023, with a specific theme of stories exploring Space Marine successor Chapters. In previous years I’ve put together articles and interviews full of advice from Black Library authors on how to pitch and write short stories, but it’s been a while since I’ve done that so now seems like a good time to do another one. Or, to be precise, another three! If you’re interested in writing for BL in general, and submitting to this open subs window in particular, I think you’ll find a lot of interest in these articles.

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The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers – Rob Young Guest Review

Hello and welcome to this guest review on Track of Words, where today I’m handing over to author Rob Young to talk about The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. Rob’s debut Black Library story The Roar of the Void is featured in the Inferno! Presents The Inquisition anthology, and it’s a genuinely fantastic debut, so I’m calling it now – Rob is a new BL author to watch! I’m delighted he has agreed to write this guest review, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I’ve been meaning to read this book for ages, so when Rob suggested it as the subject for a review I jumped at the chance to get his thoughts on it…and now I’m even more determined to read this asap!

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