Welcome to another Monthly Highlights post on Track of Words, where I’m taking a look back at what I’ve been reading and listening to over the last month and pulling out a few top picks. It’s almost the end of 2018 (somehow!) and the Black Library release schedule is showing no signs of relenting, so it’s perhaps not surprising that all three of my choices for November are BL stories – I’ve gone for two novels (although I’m cheating a bit with one as I’ve read it but not yet reviewed it) and an audio drama…and what an audio drama it is! To be fair, all three of these stories are pretty damn spectacular, and I’m confident that most Black Library fans will enjoy each and every one of them as much as I did.
Let’s start off with Spear of the Emperor by Aaron Dembski-Bowden – the first in a brand new series exploring what life is like (hint: REALLY bad) on the wrong side of the Great Rift, in a region of Imperium Nihilus known as Elara’s Veil. There was never really any doubt that I was going to like this book, but while I was fully expecting to enjoy it I’m not sure I was prepared for just how much I’d end up LOVING it. Two fascinating Chapters of Space Marines (the Spears and the Mentors) seen through the eyes of a complex, kickass human character, set in a region of space that’s literally gone to hell? A Mentor Legion character who fights with the assistance of three helots observing through the eyes of servo skulls and feeding him data? A completely fresh and eye-opening take on the Dark Imperium? Yes please!
This provides the sort of in-depth, detailed exploration of a Chapter that Aaron’s renowned for, as the Mentors characters – and therefore we as readers – are introduced to the Spears of the Emperor (I won’t spoil anything, but the Spears are very cool), wrapped up in a plot that starts off pretty slow before relentlessly powering onwards. That’s one of the things I enjoyed the most; it’s almost a third of the way into the book before there’s anything resembling a battle, which means there’s a MASSIVE chunk of story taken up purely by character development and world building. It’s all tied together by a viewpoint character whose struggles we as readers can relate to (rather than a distant Marine), and a cleverly constructed plot. I’m very grateful that Aaron’s already writing the next part of the series, as I can’t wait to read more! You can check out my review here.
Next up I’m going to stick with 40k, but go from the first in a series to the last in an arc – Dan Abnett’s Anarch, the 15th Gaunt’s Ghosts novel and the final part of The Victory. I picked up an advance copy of this at the BL Weekender, and read it after having first re-read The Warmaster to make sure I was fully keyed into what had happened in the lead-in…and boy was I happy with it! Dan talks about this series being essentially a soap opera, and that’s right on the money – I’m so engaged with these characters that the actual events taking place are almost incidental, I just want to know how the characters get on! Thankfully the events in Anarch are exciting, action-packed and hugely entertaining, as are the conclusions of so many of these characters’ arcs.
By conclusions I don’t necessarily mean deaths – as you’d expect plenty of them do bite the dust, though not all, but this wraps up a good number of the characters’ journeys over the course of the last few books. There was perhaps a sense of inevitability around some of those characters, but to me that was part and parcel of the wider story that’s been ongoing since Blood Pact, and this felt like a powerful closing statement to this series-within-a-series. There’s lots going on, all moving at a rapid pace that kept me turning page after page, and Abnett brings it all together in a way that feels appropriate in-universe, and satisfying to the reader without being contrived. There’s clearly room for more Gaunt’s Ghosts stories, but as a conclusion to The Victory I thought was brilliant, and very nicely judged. I’m hoping to get a review written soon-ish, so keep an eye out for that.
Lastly, I’m going to move away from 40k and over to Age of Sigmar with the epic 4-hour (and counting) audio drama box set Realmslayer, by David Guymer. I’ve been a Gotrek and Felix fan for many a year, and when Gotrek’s return to the Mortal Realms was first announced I was filled equally with excitement and trepidation. Excitement because I love Gotrek’s character, trepidation because I wasn’t sure how it was going to work, bringing him back on his own and introducing him to the Age of Sigmar. I needn’t have worried – with Brian Blessed leading a FANTASTIC cast of voice actors, and a tremendously entertaining script from David, Realmslayer had me hooked from the first minute to the last. This might be contentious, but having listened to and loved this four-part story, I can’t imagine it having been released as anything other than an audio!
There’s something tremendously enjoyable about listening to a longer-form audio drama like this, told across four stories which are individually engaging and entertaining, but come together to form a wider story arc that’s brilliantly satisfying. I loved the way in which each part saw Gotrek saddled with a different companion who each remind him of Felix in a different way, and how Felix’s presence was felt despite him not actually being in the story. I thought Guymer handled Gotrek’s character perfectly, slowly allowing him to settle into his new surroundings in the Mortal Realms and get used to all the things which really annoyed him at first (sound familiar, Warhammer fans?), and also nicely calling back to a few of characters and events of the Gotrek & Felix series without feeling too self-referential. The cast and the production obviously had a huge part to play, and brought the story to life beautifully, but it’s testament to the quality of the writing that they had such good material to work from. Have a read of my review here – I can’t wait to find out more about what Gotrek gets up to next, and likewise to listen to the next long-form audio drama from BL!
So there we are, my top three picks for November’s Monthly Highlights – in no specific order Spear of the Emperor by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Anarch by Dan Abnett, and Realmslayer by David Guymer. I read plenty more fantastic stories in November so do have a look through the latest reviews, but those three stood out to me as genuinely special. 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 aim to write another one of these posts at the start of January (along with a whole-year roundup for 2018, probably), looking back at what I’ve read (or listened to) and reviewed in December!