Tag Archives: Warhammer 40k

QUICK REVIEW: Extinction – Aaron Dembski-Bowden

After its initial publication in the limited-run Games Day Anthology 2012/13, Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s Extinction is finally available as a standalone e-short. Set shortly after the Heresy it sees the Sons of Horus scattered throughout the Eye of Terror, leaderless and embattled against the remnants of the other Traitor Legions. With Horus dead, his sons are the next best thing when it comes to finding someone to blame for the Heresy, so they bear the brunt of the other legions’ ire. As his former brothers are slowly wiped out, where is First Captain Ezekyle Abaddon?

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QUICK REVIEW: A Trick of the Light – Josh Reynolds

The first new Black Library e-short of 2017, Josh Reynolds’ A Trick of the Light is his second story featuring Lukas the Trickster after the audio drama The Art of Provocation. This time we go right back to Lukas’ induction into the Space Wolves and another event that’s enshrined in his backstory – his battle with the doppelgangrel. Abandoned in the harsh wilderness of Fenris, Lukas must battle all manner of dangers if he’s to return to the Fang and become one of the Sky Warriors, not least this most lethal of predators. He has a score to settle first, however…

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Warhammer 40,000 Legends Issue Four – Fifteen Hours by Mitchel Scanlon

For Issue Four of Hachette’s Warhammer 40,000 Legends Collection the action turns away from Space Marines and Inquisitors to the Imperial Guard, and a humble guardsman. Fifteen Hours by Mitchel Scanlon was first published waaaay back in 2005 and is one of those books that hasn’t quite made it to be an all-out Black Library classic, but is nonetheless held as something of an Imperial Guard must-read. A quick look on Goodreads shows it to be rated at 3.7 out of 5, which is pretty good, while on Amazon (UK) it’s got nine 5 star reviews and one 4 star review! Sounds like it’s worth a read, right?

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Warhammer 40,000 Legends – Overview

On the off chance that you haven’t heard (perhaps your head’s been in the sand for the last few months), Hachette and Black Library have teamed up to create a partwork series of Black Library 40k novels called the Warhammer 40,000 Legends Collection. Every fortnight a new book is released, and over time you can build up an awesome collection of 40k novels in lovely hardback format, complete with spine artwork that fits together to create (eventually) an original piece of art featuring all manner of famous 40k characters.
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The Red Path – Chris Dows

Also available as eight individual eshorts, The Red Path is Chris Dows’ first full novel for Black Library after a raft of White Scars and Imperial Guard short stories. Its focus is on Khârn the Betrayer, tying in with the new miniature and the current 13th Black Crusade story arc, as Abaddon the Despoiler dispatches one of his lieutenants to find Khârn and bring him back to the Warmaster. Meanwhile a living saint of the Imperium is returning to the planet Salandraxis after campaigning near the Eye of Terror, while Khârn himself is merrily taking skulls with his warband.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Librarian’s Acolyte – Graeme Lyon

Day one of Black Library’s 2016/17 12 Days of Christmas campaign brings us a free 40k micro-short story in the shape of Graeme Lyon’s The Librarian’s Acolyte. In the Ultramarines’ Librarium within the Fortress of Hera, Acolyte Loraeus is welcomed into the Librarius by Chief Librarian Tigurius himself. With his training due to start soon Loraeus is given a fairly straightforward first task, but events quickly spiral out of control and he’s forced to rely on his wits as well as his newfound power to deal with the escalating situation.

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QUICK REVIEW: Unearthed – Rob Sanders

The twenty-second of Black Library’s 2016 Advent Calendar stories is Unearthed by Rob Sanders, an Inquisition tale which pits the rash Interrogator Kiefer against the Alpha Legion warband which proved the death of his former master. Having tracked them to the ravaged agri-world of Grendl’s World, he’s certain that he has them where he wants them, so pushes on accompanied by Attillan Rough Riders and ogryn auxilia. You can probably see where this is going, given the Alpha Legion’s deserved reputation for trickery…

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QUICK REVIEW: The Art of Provocation – Josh Reynolds

The last of six audio dramas in the 2016 Black Library Advent Calendar, day twenty-one’s The Art of Provocation by Josh Reynolds features Lukas the Trickster, the irreverent Space Wolf having been sent to Polix Tertius ahead of his brothers to disable the invading orks’ communications. Always keen to take any opportunity to rile his superiors, instead of simply destroying the vox network he sets about putting a surprising knowledge of the ork language to good use. While Wolf Lord Kjarl Grimblood rages at his insubordination and ork reinforcements close in on his position, Lukas laughs his way to an unusual victory.

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QUICK REVIEW: Above and Beyond (Part 1) – Aron Nemeth

Above and Beyond (Episode 1) by Áron Németh is the first in a series of short stories and novellas that will make up The Caligari Archivum, a collection of stories tying in with the upcoming computer game Inquisitor – Martyr. In this first instalment we’re introduced to Theoden Mercer, captain of the merchant vessel Stormskipper, who’s approached out of the blue by an unusual customer looking for passage off-world. When complications arise as a result of the deal, Mercer and his crew are forced to fight their way out of trouble, and find themselves with serious questions about their passenger. Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW – Carcharadons: The Reaping Time – Robbie MacNiven

Day eighteen marks the three quarter mark of Black Library’s 2016 Advent Calendar, with Carcharadons: The Reaping Time by Robbie MacNiven. A prequel to the upcoming novel Red Tithe, it follows Carcharadons Librarian (sort of) Te Kahurangi as he accompanies Company Master Akia to the mining world of Zartak, whose rebellious rulers fear the Space Marines are coming to sanction them. In reality, Third Company are on Zartak for other reasons; though the Zartakians’ rebellion stems from the issue of tithes, it’s a very different tithe indeed that brings the Carcharadons Astra to Zartak.
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