Welcome to Where to Start with Black Library: Necrons, in which I offer up some suggestions for which Black Library stories to read if you’re particularly interested in the deathless legions of the Necrons. The expansive nature of the worlds of Warhammer can be both a strength and a weakness – there’s loads to explore, but it’s hard to know where to look and where to begin. That’s where this series of articles comes in, as I’ve scoured the dusty halls of the Black Library to pick out a range of great stories that will set you on the right path. I’ve split this article up into two main sections, looking at Necrons as protagonists and then Necrons as antagonists, each one further divided into older lore and more recent releases.
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Where to Start With Black Library: Age of Sigmar Grand Alliance Order
Hello and welcome to this instalment of my Where to Start With Black Library article series, where I’m offering suggestions for good entry points into BL’s various ranges, and attempting to demystify Warhammer fiction a little bit. Historically, Black Library hasn’t provided much in the way of guidance regarding its massive range of stories, so I was pleased to see a recent (at the time I’m writing this) Warhammer Community article offering suggestions for where to start with Age of Sigmar books exploring the Grand Alliance Order – the ‘good guys’ (ish) of the Mortal Realms. While I applaud the intentions of this article, I didn’t think it was very thorough, and I didn’t necessarily agree with all of its suggestions, so I’ve put together an article myself on the same topic.
Continue readingWhere to Start with Black Library: Necromunda
If you’ve ever looked at Black Library’s range of Necromunda stories and thought “that looks cool, but I’ve no idea where to start” then don’t worry – I’m going to do my best to help! As with pretty much everything BL produces, it’s tough to figure out in which order to read these stories and whether any of them are connected, but that’s where my series of Where to Start With Black Library articles comes in. I’m always keen to try to demystify Warhammer fiction, so in this article I’ll offer a few suggestions for what I think might be good entry points to Necromunda as a setting and as a fiction range.
Continue reading5 Lesser-Known Warhammer 40k Stories
Warhammer 40,000 is a huge, expansive setting, and Black Library churns out dozens of new stories every year, ranging from standalone short stories to grand, sweeping multi-novel series. In amongst the huge mass of 40k fiction out there, it’s inevitable that some stories don’t quite get the attention they deserve, especially bearing in mind BL’s relentless release schedule and the opportunities for new releases to fall through the cracks. Just because something isn’t mega popular doesn’t mean it isn’t worth tracking down and reading, however. In this article I’m taking a look at a few examples of 40k stories that – in my opinion – deserve to receive far more praise than I tend to see them getting.
Continue readingWhere to start with Black Library: Blackstone Fortress
With literally hundreds of Black Library books, short stories and audio dramas available, and new stories being released every week, it can be hard to know where to start, whether you’re brand new to Warhammer or you want to find out more about certain series, factions or characters. That’s where my series of Where to Start With Black Library articles comes in, as I try to demystify the process of getting into Warhammer fiction, suggesting some great stories that you could start with and talking about why they would make good entry points. In this article I’m looking at Blackstone Fortress, a sub-setting within Warhammer 40,000 which is relatively new but has already featured in some great stories.
Where to Start With Black Library: Sisters of Battle
Welcome to the first in a new series of Where to Start With Black Library articles on Track of Words, in which I’m going to try and demystify the process of getting into reading Warhammer fiction. With literally hundreds of Black Library books, short stories and audio dramas available, and new stories being released every week, it can be hard to know where to start, whether you’re brand new to Warhammer or you want to find out more about certain series, factions or characters. Hopefully I can help with that!
In this article I’m going to look at the Sisters of Battle, one of my favourite Warhammer 40,000 factions, and offer up some suggestions of great stories you might want to check out. The best place to start with these stories will depend on various factors, far too many for me to cover succinctly, so I’m going to suggest a few different lengths and mediums to give you options to choose from. Where possible I’ll stick to stories I’ve read and enjoyed myself, and link out to reviews where they’re available.
Getting Started With Black Library: Age of Sigmar
A few people have recently asked me about where they should start with reading Black Library’s Age of Sigmar fiction, so I thought it might be worth putting together an article with my recommendations on the subject. In a similar vein to my Getting Started With Black Library – Warhammer 40,000 article, I should point out that these are my personal recommendations, and everyone’s mileage may very well vary, but bearing that in mind these are a few suggestions for where (and how) to get stuck into Age of Sigmar. I’ll link out to reviews where appropriate, but you can also have a look at the overall Age of Sigmar reviews page on Track of Words for a full list of everything I’ve read/listened to and reviewed.
Black Library: Where to Start for Younger Readers
I originally wrote this article in 2018, in light of all the discussions regarding the just-announced Warhammer Adventures series of Warhammer books for 8 to 12 year olds, as I had been thinking about where I would suggest younger readers start in terms of the main Black Library range. There had never previously been Warhammer stories published specifically for youngsters (or at least not as far as I’m aware) so the question was whether there’s anything out there in the BL range which would provide a suitable place to start.
Getting Started with Black Library: Warhammer 40,000
EDITED 24th June 2017 with the inclusion of 40k 8th Edition
Someone asked me on Twitter recently if I’d written anything about where to get started with reading Black Library books, for someone just getting into Warhammer 40,000. That’s actually a really interesting question which I thought deserved more of an answer than I could give on Twitter, so here I’m going to have a go at answering it in a bit more detail.
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