Tag Archives: Tau

QUICK REVIEW: Voice of Experience – JC Stearns

JC Stearns’ Warhammer 40,000 short story Voice of Experience takes a look at the T’au Empire through the eyes of its auxiliaries, exploring how the t’au interact with their gue’vesa allies. Having turned from the Throne and firmly embraced the Greater Good, Captain Kalice Arkady of the Follaxian 113th is now the highest-ranking and most trusted human on the orbital shipyard Suu’suamyth. When a series of worrying accidents seem to suggest sabotage, she’s called upon to investigate on behalf of the ruling council, and in the process comes to question her understanding of – and place within – t’au society.

Keep reading…

Farsight: Crisis of Faith – Phil Kelly

Phil Kelly’s Farsight: Crisis of Faith follows on from his 2016 novel Blades of Damocles, and continues to explore the career of the headstrong t’au Commander at a pivotal moment in time. As the T’au Empire rebuilds after the aborted Imperial crusade, Farsight is tasked with leading a massive expedition back across the Damocles Gulf to reconquer worlds lost to the humans. Uncomfortable with the role given to him by the ethereals, Farsight has to deal with conflicting emotions regarding his people’s leadership and secrets lurking within the expedition even as he faces up to the brutal, uncompromising might of the Imperium.

Keep reading…

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.

Keep reading…

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.

Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW: The Battle of Blackthunder Mesa – Phil Kelly

A sequel to Blades of Damocles and a companion piece to the various Farsight stories, Phil Kelly’s short story The Battle of Blackthunder Mesa tells a tale of the fundamental differences between the T’au and Imperial ways of war. On the embattled world of Dal’yth Prime, the T’au forces are being pushed back by endless numbers of Imperial tanks, but Commander Bravestorm is determined to strike a telling blow before withdrawing. With a new weapon at his disposal – the Onager Gauntlet – he has a tool to do just that, but its use seems to go against the T’au’s very ethos.

Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW: The Tau’va – Andy Smillie

Andy Smillie’s The Tau’va is a very short story that follows on from The Kauyon, this time (briefly) exploring the T’au Empire’s driving philosophy of the Greater Good. Kal’va’s actions (see the previous story) may have been performed with honour, but in seeking personal revenge he put his own desires before the Greater Good. To atone for his selfishness, he is tasked by one of the Ethereals with launching an all-out assault on a greenskin horde, spending his life in order to buy time for others to escape and survive.

Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW: The Kauyon – Andy Smillie

Andy Smillie’s short story The Kauyon, originally released as an audio drama, takes its name from one of the T’au Empire’s tactical philosophies, otherwise known as the Patient Hunter. A single T’au sniper, Kal’va, stands against an entire armoured column of Imperials, desperate to seek revenge for the deaths of his bonded teammates. In order to survive long enough to succeed, Kal’va must use his wits and the advanced technology of the T’au to manipulate his enemies to exactly where he wants them. As much as his rifle and the drones he commands, patience and planning are his most important weapons.

Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW: The Greater Evil – Peter Fehervari

Continuing his exploration of the shadowed corners of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, The Greater Evil is a typically dark tale from Peter Fehervari, digging beneath the surface of the T’au Empire to a strange truth beneath. Accompanied by an enigmatic Ethereal, a small T’au embassy investigates the reappearance in the Damocles Gulf of an emissary long thought lost, and the possibility of bringing an Imperial world into the Greater Good. One of the embassy’s human auxiliaries, Ulver Voyle, carries with him a darkness from the days before his conversion that sees him drawn deep into the web of coming events.

Keep reading…

Fire and Ice – Peter Fehervari

EDIT (26th June 2017) – this is now available as a standalone ebook novella, branded as an ‘Inquisition and T’au Empire’ story…

Despite being only available in the Legends of the Dark Millennium: Shas’O (or Tau Empire, depending on which version you have) anthology, Peter Fehervari’s novella Fire and Ice is as much an Inquisition story as a tau one. Hunted by a conclave of his Inquisitorial masters, Interrogator Mordaine searches for evidence of a tau conspiracy that might clear his tarnished name. Though guided by the mysterious Calavera, and aided by the savage Iwujii Sharks regiment, time is not on Mordaine’s side with the Inquisition looming and a tau-inspired uprising about to erupt.

Keep reading…

Blades of Damocles – Phil Kelly

The first full-length Space Marine Battles book from Black Library since 2015’s Damocles anthology, Phil Kelly’s Blades of Damocles takes us back to before the time of its predecessor to look at the events of the first Damocles Gulf Crusade. Here we see sergeants Numitor and Sicarius of the Ultramarines 8th Company, still young and prior to their ascension to company captaincy, taking the fight to the Tau on the sept world of Dal’yth. As the headstrong assault marine sergeants lead their forces into battle, Commander Farsight leads the Tau defence in the name of the Greater Good.
Keep reading…