You may have spotted that Black Library have released an ebook-only collection of novels to celebrate thirty years of Warhammer 40,000. Priced at £166.80, which works out as £5.56 per book, it’s actually pretty good value overall – as long as you’re prepared to fork out that much all in one go! Pricing aside, however, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the thirty novels that are included, and have a think about how well each one fits into the collection.
Some of Black Library’s earliest and best-loved books tackled the mysteries of the Inquisition, away from 40k’s usual battlefields, but for a while it seemed those sorts of stories had fallen out of favour. Chris Wraight’s Vaults of Terra: The Carrion Throne offers a welcome return, featuring Inquisitor Erasmus Crowl and Interrogator Luce Spinoza as they work to root out a dangerous cult deep within the heart of the throneworld, Terra itself. As the sacred festival of Sanguinala approaches and Terra swells with countless pilgrims, can Crowl and Spinoza cut to the heart of the unfolding events in time to prevent disaster?
The Flesh Tithe represents the Black Library debut of Miles A. Drake, a dark and powerful short story which pits Sister Hospitaller Lucia against the horrors of an invading necron army. In the dark reaches of the Ghoul Stars, the Imperial world of Sygera is rapidly falling to ruin as its defenders are scattered and massacred. As guardian of her city’s cathedral, Sister Lucia rallies a few surviving soldiers in a desperate attempt to hold out as long as possible in the midst of the chaos, although even with some unexpected allies there appears to be little hope of survival.
Hello and welcome to another instalment of Black Library Weekly, my regular look at what’s been happening in the world of Black Library. It’s been the first full week of September, which means another month’s forthcoming releases were confirmed, along with the usual set of releases for the week, so there’s plenty to look at…
Thanks to Subterranean Press and Netgalley for the digital advance copy in exchange for this review.
The first novella-length story to be published in Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series, The Furthest Station sits somewhere between Foxglove Summer and The Hanging Tree in terms of the series’ timeline. As with the various graphic novels, it deals with a story that runs at a tangent to the series’ main arc, in this case taking a closer look at how Peter’s cousin Abigail is fitting in with things. After a rash of sightings on the Metropolitan Line, Peter, Jaget and Abigail head off up the line to find out what’s causing ghosts to start joining the rush hour commute into London.
If you’d like to read more about Lucius: The Faultless blade, check out this quick interview with the author Ian St. Martin.
As the title suggests, Lucius: The Faultless Blade by Ian St. Martin features Lucius the Eternal, Champion of Slaanesh, in a surprisingly rare non-Heresy outing for such a well-known 40k character. Set at an unspecified point pre-Gathering Storm, it sees Lucius and his dwindling warband – the Cohors Nasicae – at low ebb, much reduced from their glory days and forced into making decisions and alliances they would normally prefer not to make. Lucius himself is plagued by the voices of those whose bodies he’s usurped after having perished at their hands, struggling to maintain a grip on his mind and his warband.
Book one in the Shades of Magic series, V.E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic is a delightful, instantly engaging adventure story in a fantasy setting of linked worlds and blood magic. Each world is unique, but connected by a common factor – they each contain a city called London on the same spot, cities which were once linked freely but can now only be moved between by a tiny handful of individuals known as Antari. Kell, one of the last remaining Antari, is a risk taker – when luck catches up with him he finds himself trapped in the only London without magic of its own.
In the first part of my interview with games developer, Black Library author and all round top guy Gav Thorpe we talked about his early career with Games Workshop and Black Library, and his first couple of stories in Inferno! magazine. In this second part we talk more about his ongoing work with Black Library, as well as a little bit about what he’s got coming up, and the realities of life as a freelance author.
Alec Worley’s third Black Library short story, Whispers sees the Adepta Sororitas in action, responding to the summons of missionary Marcus Amouris to a backwater world whose tribes he hopes to bring into the fold of the Imperium. Something has been hunting the tribespeople and Amouris needs it removing but as he and the Sisters of Battle, led by Dominion Superior Adamanthea, venture into the deep forests and reach the City of Whispers, his assertion that it’s merely a dangerous indigenous predator is quickly challenged.
Hello and welcome to another instalment of Black Library Weekly, my regular look at what’s been happening in the world of Black Library. After last week’s Summer of Reading campaign we’re back to normal service now, so I’ve gone back to the usual structure for this article. Let’s kick things off in the usual way, beginning with the start of the week.