Author Archives: Michael

36 Streets – T.R. Napper

After the incredible, immersive experience that was his 2020 short story anthology Neon Leviathan, T.R. Napper returns with 36 Streets, a full-length novel in the same setting that delivers mystery, action, compelling questions and heart-wrenching emotion. Born in Vietnam, raised in Australia and comfortable with neither heritage, Lin ‘the Silent One’ Vu is a brutally efficient gangster living and working in the dangerous streets of Hanoi’s Old Quarter. When her boss tasks her with investigating a murder at the request of a strange, rich Englishman, Lin has the opportunity to put her skills to a different use to normal. As her investigation proceeds though, the secrets she uncovers force her to confront her own painful past, and consider anew her place within the thirty-six streets.

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A Few Thoughts On The Successors – Black Library Anthology

A collection of 13 short stories from 10 different authors, Black Library’s Warhammer 40,000 anthology The Successors looks beyond the usual First Founding Chapters of Space Marines and sets out to explore some of the Chapters who haven’t been seen as often in 40k fiction. It does actually feature some Chapters who have had plenty of their own stories before (Crimson Fists, Flesh Tearers, Soul Drinkers), but the majority of the stories focus on Chapters from the semi-familiar (Angels Penitent, Black Dragons, Carcharadons, Emperor’s Spears, Mortifactors) to the new or much more obscure (Consecrators, Iron Lords, Wolfspear). There’s even a rare Exorcists story, and most – although not all – of the stories take place in the ‘current’, post-Great Rift era of 40k.

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Monthly Roundup – February 2022

Hello and welcome to another Monthly Roundup post here on Track of Words, where today I’m going to take a look back through everything I posted in February, and talk a bit about how the month went as a whole. I slowed down a little bit further in February, with just nine new posts and one new site page, but as I’ll talk about later on I think I’ve maybe found a new rhythm for working on the site so perhaps this is going to be the new norm. We’ll see! As usual though, I’m quite happy with what I did get written, and I’ve had a pretty good week when it comes to reading.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Sins of My Brothers – Peter Fehervari

Available in Black Library’s The Successors anthology, The Sins of My Brothers is the 11th short story in Peter Fehervari’s Dark Coil series, and serves as both a fascinating companion to his novel The Reverie and a revelatory extension of his short story The Crown of Thorns. High up on the walls of Kanvolis, the ancient fortress of the Angels Resplendent – now the Angels Penitent – a warrior walks alone, and recounts his story of betrayal, grief and determined purpose. Through his recollections he confesses the part he had to play in his Chapter’s fall, and reveals more of the truth behind this bleak tragedy.

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Opinions: On the Black Library Celebration 2022

Another year, another mildly disappointing Black Library Celebration, an annual event which should provide an opportunity to get existing BL readers hyped and encourage new fans to try out some great storytelling, and which should celebrate Black Library fiction as something valuable and enjoyable in its own right. Instead, it inevitably ends up as a safe exercise in box-ticking that does the bare minimum but really only serves to remind readers like me – who aren’t especially interested in the miniatures or the games – that we’re not an audience segment which Games Workshop really cares about. Ok, that’s a bit melodramatic – but if you look at what was available to buy this year and what the coverage of the Celebration entailed…it’s also kinda true.

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Warhammer Horror – The Range So Far

Since its launch in 2019, Black Library’s Warhammer Horror imprint has grown in fits and starts into quite a considerable range spanning novels (and one novella), audio dramas and short stories across both the Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Age of Sigmar settings. Having already published something similar for Warhammer Crime, I thought it was about time I put together an article gathering all of the Warhammer Horror range in one place with the publisher’s synopsis for each title along with links to my reviews and author interviews where available. As the range continues to grow, I’ll try to keep this updated so that it remains an accurate and useful hub for anyone interested in Black Library’s horror-focused offering.

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AUTHOR INTERVIEW: CL Werner Talks Three Swords

Hello and welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview where today I’m welcoming back the fantastic CL Werner to talk about Three Swords, his latest novel in the Marvel: Legends of Asgard range from Aconyte Books. This is his second book in the series, after The Sword of Surtur, but it concentrates on a different set of characters from last time and broadens its horizons to take in much more of the Ten Realms…including one location that comes complete with dinosaurs! Three Swords is out right now in ebook, with the paperback editions coming soon, so read on to find out more about the latest adventures of the Warriors Three, then get your order placed and get ready for action and adventure!

Without further ado then, let’s get on with the interview.

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Black Library: What’s Next After the Horus Heresy?

Black Library’s epic, ridiculously huge Horus Heresy series has proven incredibly popular, and for a lot of fans it’s the ‘premium’ BL range, the series that takes top billing and gets readers most excited. For all that it started small and exploded into something utterly massive, as readers we’ve always known that it has a definitive end point, and for almost as long as there’s been the Heresy range there’s been speculation over what Black Library will do once the series has finished – what ‘the next Heresy’ will be. With the Siege of Terra mini-series drawing to a close – at the time of writing there are just two books remaining of the planned eight – and heralding the long-awaited end of the Heresy, that question of what might come next seems more pertinent than ever.

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The Last Adventure of Constance Verity – A. Lee Martinez

If you’ve ever wondered how heroes feel about finding danger and adventure everywhere they look, about always just happening to be in the right place at the right time to stop the villains and monsters, then A. Lee Martinez’s The Last Adventure of Constance Verity may have some answers for you. In Constance Verity’s case, after having battled enemies since the age of seven and saving the world more times than she can remember, all she really wants now is to have a regular life. Bored of adventure and hankering after peace and quiet, she decides the best thing to do is to find and kill the fairy godmother who blessed – or perhaps cursed – her with her destiny. It’s the obvious answer, surely! As it turns out however, Connie’s fate is rather more complicated than she realised, and there’s a surprisingly large number of people who aren’t so keen on her giving up the adventuring life.

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You Sexy Thing – Cat Rambo

I love a good space opera, especially if it features a sentient spaceship, but I don’t think I’ve ever read a science fiction novel before in which food and cookery play such a big part as they do in Cat Rambo’s You Sexy Thing. A fun, action-packed SF adventure with a brilliantly diverse cast of characters and a pacy, page-turning plot, it opens on a remote space station with a group of ex-soldiers whose only way of escaping service to the Holy Hive Mind was to set up a restaurant and throw themselves into their new line of work. When TwiceFar station is destroyed, the soldiers-turned-restaurateurs escape on the aforementioned sentient spaceship (the titular You Sexy Thing, of course) only to find themselves in arguably even more trouble – involving a dead celebrity, a dubious food critic, pirates, an awkward ship and an unexpected new addition to the team.

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