Category Archives: Black Library

RAPID FIRE: Victoria Hayward Talks Deathworlder

It’s been a while since my last Rapid Fire interview with a Black Library author, but I’m back with my first of 2024 and it’s a doozy – please welcome the fantastic Victoria Hayward to talk about her debut novel, Deathworlder! After several great 40k short stories, I’m sure I’m not the only reader who’s been looking forward to Victoria’s first novel (which goes up for pre-order from BL/GW tomorrow), and joining the ever-growing and consistently impressive range of Astra Militarum novels, Deathworlder promises to be a Catachan novel like no other. If you’re keen to find out more about what to expect, we’ve definitely got you covered with this interview.

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Ten Years of Black Library

It’s been almost 10 years since I started Track of Words, and over that time I’ve read somewhere north of 400 Black Library books (not to mention goodness knows how many short stories), and reviewed a large proportion of those! As I draw to the end of this 10-year period, I thought it might be interesting to look back at all those BL books and pick out my personal highlights from the last decade. I’ve gone through each year from 2014 to 2023 and, from the books that a) were published that year, and b) I actually read that year, selected a single book as my pick for each year – and I tell you, that was not an easy task!

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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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40k Reading Order: Minka Lesk – Justin D. Hill

Hello and welcome to this 40k Reading Order article – there’s a whole range of these articles here on Track of Words, but for this one I’m focusing on Justin D. Hill’s fantastic Minka Lesk series of Cadian Shock Troops stories. Black Library’s Cadians range has grown a lot recently, and there are loads of options for where to start, but the Minka Lesk series is really the backbone of the whole range. At the time of writing there are eight stories in this series – four novels and four short stories (although I’m also going to mention a few additional short stories that subtly tie in with the Minka Lesk series) – and with Justin’s generous help I’ve put together a comprehensive list of the whole lot, based on their in-universe chronological order.

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5 Age Of Sigmar Books That Deserve Sequels (But Probably Won’t Get Them)

For a while now Black Library’s Age of Sigmar range has been focused very much on individual books rather than trilogies or sequels*, but with the announcement of Richard Strachan’s Temple of Silence – the follow-up to Hallowed Ground – it looks like maybe, maybe, that might be changing. This got me thinking about which other AoS novels deserve the sequel treatment, so I’ve picked out five books that I personally loved, and which have been crying out for sequels. Most of these books have been out for quite a few years already, so chances are the window for sequels is long gone, but that doesn’t mean we as readers should stop talking about them, and asking BL for more!

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Creed: Ashes of Cadia – Jude Reid

Jude Reid’s debut novel for Black Library, Creed: Ashes of Cadia introduces readers to the character of Lord Castellan Ursula Creed, in a story about the burden of legacy and questions of Cadian identity. Pulled away from her current campaign by the returned Primarch Guilliman himself, Ursula is entrusted with a daring mission to return to what’s left of her homeworld and retrieve a weapon purportedly left behind by her father, Ursarkar E. Creed, before the Fall of Cadia. She knows it’s a propaganda exercise as much as anything, but she has her reasons for accepting it. Far from a glorious return home though, this proves to be a clumsy, chaotic mission driven – to Ursula’s mind – by all the wrong reasons, and plagued by disaster right from the off.

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SPOILER REVIEW: Kasrkin – Edoardo Albert

Edoardo Albert’s first Black Library novel tackled the sinister, almost inhuman Carcharadons, but with his second novel, Kasrkin, he returns to telling stories about regular human soldiers in wild, harsh environments (like short stories Last Flight or Green and Grey). It follows a single squad of Kasrkin – the elites of the Cadian elite – delving into a vast desert in search of a downed Valkyrie and the general it was transporting, attempting to retrieve their target before the forces of the T’au Empire find him. Led by the veteran Captain Obeysekera and accompanied by an inexperienced but politically-connected Commissar, the Kasrkin are challenged as much by the desert as by their enemies, although it’s not long before they realise that Dasht i-Kevar holds a terrible secret beneath its burning sands.

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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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Where to Start With Black Library: Necrons

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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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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