Tag Archives: Warhammer 40k

The Hunt for Magnus – Chris Wraight

Part of the ever-growing Space Marine Battles series, The Hunt For Magnus is the latest novella to be released as a companion piece to a previous novel, in this case Chris Wraight’s excellent The Battle of the Fang. Available either as a standalone novella or packaged with its accompanying novel into a collection called War of the Fang, it takes the form of a prequel following Great Wolf Harek Ironhelm as he searches far and wide for signs of his chapter’s old enemy, determined to finish what Russ started and finally kill Magnus the Red.

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Adeptus Mechanicus : Tech-Priest – Rob Sanders

The second in Rob Sanders’ mini-series of short Adeptus Mechanicus novels, Tech-Priest continues the story started in Skitarius, as the forces of Archmagos Omnid Torquora battle to take the Dark Mechanicum forge world of Velchanos Magna. Where Skitarius showed the world of the Adeptus Mechanicus from the front lines, seen through the eyes of Haldron-44 Stroika, this time the perspective switches to Stroka’s master, the ancient Tech-Priest overseeing the battle remotely from orbit. Locked in a stalemate but with enemies on all sides, Torquora’s options appear to be limited.

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Assassinorum : The Emperor’s Judgement – Joe Parrino (audio drama)

A recent trend in Black Library’s releases is for a linked audio drama to accompany a novel, novella or short story – in this case Joe Parrino’s novella Assassinorum : Execution Force is accompanied by The Emperor’s Judgement, a 75-minute audio drama centered around Klara Rhasc, the Callidus assassin from the novella. A direct prequel to the novella, this sees Rhasc tracking down a crazed Eversor assassin who beat her to a target and took the kill for himself. With new mission parameters and no time to lose she must find a way to subdue the Eversor while avoiding death at his hands.

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Assassinorum : Execution Force – Joe Parrino

While Black Library’s raison d’être has always been to provide tie-in fiction to expand upon the worlds of Warhammer and Warhammer 40k, some books tie in closer than others with new Games Workshop releases. One of those is Assassinorum – Execution Force, a novella by Joe Parrino which accompanies the new board game of the same name. It follows the progress of a team of Imperial Assassins, dispatched in a rare show of force and cooperation to stop a sorcerer of the Crimson Slaughter from enacting a ritual that could spell doom for the Imperium.

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Lemartes : Guardian of the Lost – David Annandale

David Annandale’s latest Black Library release is Lemartes : Guardian of the Lost, a novella in the Lords of the Space Marines series. Having already looked at the only Blood Angel ever to conquer the Red Thirst (in his previous Mephiston novella), he now turns his attention to the only one ever to contain the other of the Blood Angels’ curses – the Black Rage. Roused from his stasis to lead the Death Company into battle on Phlegethon, a world consumed by madness and anger, Lemartes must cling tight to his tenuous grip on reality as the Blood Angels face a dark mirror of themselves in the form of blood-hungry traitors.

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Adeptus Mechanicus : Skitarius – Rob Sanders

Continuing a recent trend of books released to tie in with new Games Workshop miniature ranges, Rob Sanders’ latest novel – Skitarius – is the first Black Library release to feature the new Adeptus Mechanicus forces. It follows the impersonally-named Alpha Primus Haldron-44 Stroika (largely referred to as just Stroika, or occasionally the even more impersonal Stroika-unit) as he leads his Skitarii cohorts into battle, enacting the wishes of his distant Adeptus Mechanicus masters. After a new discovery leads to the invasion of a Dark Mechanicus forge world, Stroika finds himself battling daemon engines and twisted machine cultists in an increasingly desperate battle for survival.

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The World Engine – Ben Counter

The latest Space Marine Battles novel – The World Engine – is Ben Counter’s second in the series and promises to be about as epic a story as it’s possible to be. The titular World Engine is a mobile planet, a vast and apparently indestructible necron construct that has been marauding through Imperial space and devastating systems with impunity. With few options remaining, the entire Astral Knights chapter launches a suicidal assault, crashing their battle barge directly into the planet in a last ditch attempt to stop the World Engine. The Space Marine Battles series is built on the premise that the stories told are enjoyable, entertaining and fun, and with such a ridiculously over the top concept this should deliver all three in spades.

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Bloodspire – CZ Dunn (audio drama)

Released back in 2012, CZ Dunn’s Bloodspire was the very first Space Marine Battles audio drama that Black Library published, two years after the series began with the novel Rynn’s World. Based on a short paragraph in an old codex, it follows the Blood Angels’ assault on the hive world of Axonar; stymied by the hives’ defences, they turn to less conventional methods in order to gain entry and quell the insurrection, using scouts to infiltrate ahead of a massed drop assault.

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Master of the Hunt – Josh Reynolds (audio drama)

The 40k universe is all about suspension of disbelief, and perhaps the Space Marine Battles series especially so. After all, genetically engineered giants who can spit acid, absorb memories through eating their enemies. survive the loss of limbs and internal organs…and still prefer fighting with swords? It’s not exactly grounded in realism. Which is why it’s perfectly acceptable for the series to include Josh Reynolds’ audio drama Master of the Hunt, which follows Kor’sarro Khan of the White Scars as he pursues the daemon prince Doomrider – let’s face it, a story about a 10,000 year old, motorbike-riding daemon is unlikely to be very realistic.

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Mortarion’s Heart – LJ Goulding (audio drama)

The idea behind Black Library’s series of Space Marine Battles novels and audios is that they showcase some of the most famous actions featuring the Imperium’s finest, but while Space Marines are fundamentally cool, there’s often a risk of these stories being a little…well, a little silly. Step forward Mortarion’s Heart, the story of a single Grey Knight battling a daemon primarch and (SPOILERS) emerging victorious. It’s all well and good having things like this as colour text for a codex, but as a full story there’s a definite whiff of the preposterous. So how does LJ Goulding do as he tackles this particular tale?

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