Author Archives: Michael

Thoughts on The Ahriman Boxed Set by John French

Yesterday, out of the blue, Black Library released a limited edition boxed set of John French’s Ahriman trilogy. 500 copies only. It wasn’t on the Coming Soon section of the website, it hadn’t been hinted at or teasered…it was a complete surprise. Well. It is, after all, Tzaanuary – according to Games Workshop – so in hindsight it’s not actually surprising that a series of novels featuring Tzeentch’s favourite 40k pawn should get the posh hardback treatment in a month dedicated to the Changer of Ways…

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Forgotten Texts: The Demon Bottle by Alex Hammond

“All that is foul and pestilent will be washed away…”

Set in the Necromunda underhive, Alex Hammond’s 1997 short story The Demon Bottle follows hapless half-ratskin Sarak as he attempts, without much success, to get his life back on track. Dependent on cheap booze and dubious pills and scraping a living as a pest exterminator, he dreams of life in the heady heights of the Spire as an escape from the harsh realities of the underhive. When his debts are called in however, he finds himself hunting some unusually dangerous pests.

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QUICK REVIEW: Above and Beyond (Episode 3) – Aron Nemeth

Áron Németh’s four-part novella set within the Inquisitor: Martyr ‘sandbox’, Above and Beyond continues with Episode 3 as Mercer and his team attempt to dig beneath the surface of Rengris VII’s government. Using the cover of an elaborate reception to spend some time investigating the planet’s ruling elite, Mercer looks for allies in his mission but soon finds that there’s more going on than he realised at first.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Corpse Road – Graham McNeill

Graham McNeill’s short story The Corpse Road does for Honsou what Do Eagles Still Circle the Mountain? did for Uriel Ventris, picking up after The Chapter’s Due and showing us what the Warsmith did next. While Ventris went off hunting orks, Honsou took an unusual route out of the Ultramarines’ domain…in a corpse-hauler. His mission to see Ultramar burn may not have ended how he’d hoped, but his ‘failure’ certainly hasn’t dented his ambition. Here we get a sense of what he’s got his sights set on next…

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Black Library Weekly – W/C 16/01/17

Hello and welcome back to another instalment of Black Library Weekly, where I’m taking a look through this week’s Black Library activity. It’s been a remarkably quiet week on the Black Library front, with nothing really in the way of news and hardly anything released at the weekend. As usual though, let’s start at the beginning…

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QUICK REVIEW: The Shadowmasters – Gav Thorpe

The Shadowmasters by Gav Thorpe has seen three releases; first in prose inside the dust jacket for the Limited Edition Corax: Soulforge, next as a standalone 12-minute audio drama, and finally in prose again within Book 41: Corax. However it’s consumed, it’s a short but sweet exploration of the Mor Deythan, those Raven Guard able to tap into Corax’s gift and become one with the shadows. Set during the events of Soulforge it sees Sergeant Chamell leading his fellow Shadowmasters behind enemy lines to sow fear and confusion as part of the wider Raven Guard assault on Atlas.
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Corax: Soulforge – Gav Thorpe

First published in 2013, Gav Thorpe’s Corax: Soulforge was the fourth Limited Edition novella to be released in the Horus Heresy series. Set after the events of Deliverance Lost it sees Corax and the Raven Guard fighting their shadow war, determined to be a thorn in the side of the forces of Horus. After learning that Word Bearers are working alongside the Mechanicum overlords of the forge world Constanix II, Corax leads part of his legion to investigate and deal with whatever the XVIIth are planning. Meanwhile Commander Agapito continues to wrestle with his emotions after the horrors of Isstvan V.

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Forgotten Texts: Jonathan Green Talks Salvation

The first of my Forgotten Texts reviews, looking back at vintage Black Library short stories from the days of Inferno! Magazine, was for Jonathan Green’s classic Ultramarines vs Tyranids short story Salvation. As an extra treat, Jonathan has kindly agreed to talk a little about this 20 year old short story and the process of writing it! Without further ado, over to the author…

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Forgotten Texts: Salvation by Jonathan Green

“Left behind, as he himself had been…”

A classic short story from way back in 1997, Jonathan Green’s Salvation follows Brother Rius of the Ultramarines’ 1st Company as he and his brothers battle the Tyranid menace on Jaroth, a newly rediscovered Imperial world. After chancing upon the planet during a routine patrol, the Ultramarines acknowledge their duty to protect its natural resources and defenceless population, despite facing appalling odds. Brother Rius and his squad find themselves in the thick of the action, determined to wipe the Tyranids out to the last creature, but when Rius is badly wounded he earns a newfound respect for the honest, hardy locals.

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Introducing…Forgotten Texts

There’s been fiction set in the Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 universes for a LONG time, in one form or another. Way back in the depths of time you could buy novels set in these world (and indeed all sorts of other Games Workshop-related settings) published by GW Books and then Boxtree, before Black Library itself was set up in 1997, originally as part of the wider BL Publishing division of Games Workshop and later its own division.

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