Another month, another roundup of the best stories I’ve read and reviewed over the last few weeks. Last month I had a hard time picking just one story, but while I’ve had a blast with some fantastic books, audios and short stories recently, and it’s once again been a really tough call, one in particular does stand out as a real highlight from last month. As usual, however, I’ve picked a couple more which deserve recognising as well, so I’ll talk in a bit of detail about my main highlight before quickly taking another look at the other two honourable mentions.
My pick of the bunch from July is John French’s novel The Horusian Wars: Incarnation, the second novel in the incredible trilogy of Inquisition stories – check out this blog post for more about The Horusian Wars in general. Last year’s Resurrection was a dense, complex, mind-bending and thought-provoking book that had me scratching my head a little when I first read it but which has stayed with me in a way that very few books ever do. With that in mind, I’d been waiting for Incarnation with considerable anticipation, especially after having read a couple more of John’s accompanying short stories in the time between the two books being published, not to mention the two Agents of the Throne audio dramas.
Right from the off, I fell under Incarnation’s spell and was drawn back into the shadowy world of cults, priests and inquisitors that John is gradually revealing with these stories. I’m not sure whether it was by virtue of now being familiar with the characters, story and style or rather because of a slightly different tone to this book, but I straight away found it a little easier to get stuck into than Resurrection, which was fascinating but felt like it required more attention than 40k books often do in order to get the most out of. Incarnation felt no less interesting, just instantly accessible – and equally compelling!
Of course, in true John French fashion, it then proceeded to spin my head around every which way as I tried to figure out just what was going on. That’s a good thing, by the way! If you want your 40k books to give you all the information you need up front and let you sit back and enjoy the explosions…this series isn’t for you. That’s not a negative, it’s just a fact – I think John’s deliberately writing stories that ask the reader to pay attention and to trust that the destination will make the journey a) worthwhile and b) make sense. In context of the horrifyingly dark, complex, ambiguous 40k universe that just seems like a perfect fit, especially when you’re talking inquisitors, insidious cults, and all manner of morally flexible characters.
I heard John talk at Black Library Live in June, and one of the most interesting things he said was that he’s writing this series as though it’s one story split across three books. That might sound obvious given that it’s a trilogy, but when you read these books it’s clear what he means. With most trilogies – even other books from John like the Ahriman series – you tend to have connective threads and themes throughout, and even an overarching narrative, but you still have three individual stories that could, if need be, stand on their own. With The Horusian Wars, however, we’re getting books which do have the usual start, middle and end, but which feel more like chapters, or sections, of a wider story…because that’s what they are.
What that means is that Resurrection was the opening, kicking things off with a HUGE set piece, introducing characters, starting the plot going and providing the series’ first real turning point, while Incarnation takes those characters and starts to really put them through hell. Covenant doesn’t really change much during Resurrection, but by the time you finish Incarnation you can start to see what these events are doing to him, and the toll they’re taking. Each of the two books has an epic crescendo, and you finish (or at least I did) each one feeling satisfied with what you’ve read…but really, really keen to know what happens next. Personally, I’m now fully committed to this bonkers story, and desperate to get to the final act and put all of the pieces together – and I can’t think of a better compliment really.
Of all the authors writing for Black Library at the moment I feel like John asks the most of his readers, but also rewards them with the most beautifully complex and satisfying stories. There’s no doubt about it, both of these books have made me slow my reading speed down and really pay attention to what’s going on, but I’ve been willing to do that because there’s so much fascinating depth and detail to the characters, the setting and the plot. Now I just have to wait impatiently for the final book! If this all sounds up your street, do have a read of my review – and also this Rapid Fire interview with John about Incarnation. You can thank me later.
For my first honourable mention I want to mention a book that I’d been looking forward to ever since it came out in posh limited edition hardback format – Jaghatai Khan: Warhawk of Chogoris by Chris Wraight. I almost picked this one as my main highlight for July, I enjoyed it so much, but it was just pipped to the post by Incarnation. It’s always hard to wait the extra three months between the LE release and the standard hardback for the Primarchs books, but I’m such a big fan of Chris’ writing in general, not to mention his White Scars books in particular, that I was really, really looking forward to getting stuck into this one.
As you can probably guess, I wasn’t disappointed. If you’d like to read a structured run-down of my thoughts about the book, have a read of my review first, as that covers an overview of the plot as well as my overall thoughts. Suffice to say it’s at once both a prequel story to Chris’ previous Heresy-era White Scars stories and a continuation of the work he’s done building out the character of this most interesting of Space Marine Legions. This is a Legion which nobody knew anything about before Scars was published, but which now has perhaps as much written about it as any other and – crucially – has been moulded by a single author.
I touched upon it in my review, but it’s worth reiterating the fact that while most of the Primarchs books up to now have been written by authors exploring these characters properly for the first time, Jaghatai Khan represents Wraight expanding upon his existing depictions. On the one hand it would be fascinating to see how a different author would approach these characters, but on the other hand there’s just so much to enjoy in treating this as pretty much the fourth book in a self-contained series (if you include Brotherhood of the Storm). It’s everything I wanted it to be, cleverly tying the White Scars into the wider Great Crusade while further exploring what makes them unique – it’s a must-read, basically!
Lastly, I want to mention Guns of the Black Eagle by CL Werner, a short Kharadron Overlords audio drama for Age of Sigmar which landed out of the blue and made me chuckle from start to finish. Once again, have a read of my review for a more structured set of thoughts, but suffice to say a big part of the fun is in the script itself, which pits two sky-captains against each other in a squabble over a hold full of aether-gold. There’s something fundamentally entertaining in the concept of the Kharadron, a race of duardin in whom the conflicting forces of honour and greed are in constant competition, and who attempt to walk a knife-edge between the two through the application of a set of rules, the Kharadron Code.
It’s a setup that plays upon so many of the classic fantasy dwarf stereotypes, just in a typically bonkers Age of Sigmar fashion. If the idea of two grumpy dwarves arguing over plunder isn’t entertaining enough, you’ve got the voice cast working wonders with these characters through the inspired application of thick northern accents. There’s a palpable sense of fun throughout, as though all three of the cast (Werner sensibly keeps to three characters so as not to overburden such a short story) are having an absolute blast recording these lines. Perhaps it was just a change from voicing deadly-serious Space Marines and Stormcast Eternals, or maybe I was just imagining it, but in those gruff and gravelly accents there just seems to be a little extra spark of fun.
This sort of very short audio drama tends not to focus on ‘important’ events in the settings, and likewise they’re not often what you’d think of as essential to listen to, but what that means is that they can explore the fringes of the settings that might not get covered in full length stories. In this case it’s a single set-piece that while not connected to Clint’s other Kharadron stuff is, in its own way, quite an insightful little story. Being able to see (well, hear) the way the Kharadron make use of and/or exploit their code is actually quite fascinating, on top of being just hugely entertaining. As such, while I can’t in good conscience say that it’s essential listening, I really – really – would recommend checking it out.
So those are my three top picks for July’s Monthly Highlights – The Horusian Wars: Incarnation as my overall highlight, with honourable mentions for Jaghatai Khan: Warhawk of Chogoris and Guns of the Black Eagle. I’d love to know what you thought of these stories if you’ve read any of them, so let me know in the comments below or on Facebook or Twitter. I’ll hopefully write another one of these posts at the start of September, looking back at what I’ve read and reviewed in August!