Author Archives: Michael

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Ari Marmell Talks Litany of Dreams

Welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview, in which I’m chatting to Ari Marmell about his upcoming novel Litany of Dreams, the latest instalment in Aconyte Books’ growing range of Arkham Horror novels. It’s due out from Aconyte Books as a global ebook and US paperback on the 13th April, with the UK paperback following on the 24th June, and if you’re on the lookout for something supernatural which leans towards the cosmic horror end of the spectrum then this might just be the book for you. Read on to find out more about Arkham Horror and what to expect from Litany of Dreams.

Continue reading →

The End of Enlightenment – Richard Strachan

After tackling the human followers of Chaos in his debut novel for Black Library, Richard Strachan returns to Age of Sigmar with The End of Enlightenment but focuses on two very different factions – the Lumineth Realm-Lords and the Ossiarch Bonereapers. In the wake of the Necroquake, the Lumineth march on Shyish determined to bring Nagash to account. Stonemage Carreth Y’gethin holds himself aloof from the war, determined to leave behind the violence of his youth during the Spirefall, but when his sister is killed fighting the Bonereapers he finds himself drawn into the conflict regardless. Tasked by Teclis himself with defeating a dangerous general of the Ossiarch legions and staving off a terrible future, Carreth struggles to balance his god-given duty with his own spiritual equilibrium.

Continue reading →

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: M Darusha Wehm Talks The Qubit Zirconium

Welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview, where today I’m talking to M. Darusha Wehm about their upcoming novel The Qubit Zirconium, a brand new tale of alien detectives in the world of KeyForge. It’s due out from Aconyte Books as a global ebook and US paperback on the 13th April, with the UK paperback following on the 24th June – read on to find out more about KeyForge, the Crucible and the unusual pairing of Wibble and Pplimz! First of all though, here’s the publisher’s synopsis:

Continue reading →

The Second Bell – Gabriela Houston

Bleak yet hopeful, grounded but magical, Gabriela Houston’s debut novel The Second Bell is a quiet, powerful story of family, community and survival inspired by dark Slavic mythology. In a remote, mountainous village, Miriat gives birth to a child with two hearts – a striga – and is forced to choose between abandoning her daughter or leaving the village forever. Choosing exile, Miriat raises her daughter amongst other strigas, who teach Salka to control her second heart and the dark powers it possesses. Life in the striga village is hard but safe until nineteen year-old Salka faces a choice of her own, which puts both her and her mother at risk and threatens the balance of her life, and the village as a whole.

Continue reading →

RAPID FIRE: Richard Strachan Talks The End of Enlightenment

Welcome to this instalment of my Rapid Fire series of author interviews – today I’m speaking to Richard Strachan about his upcoming novel The End of Enlightenment, part of Black Library’s range of Age of Sigmar fiction. A new AoS novel is always something to look forward to, and a novel featuring the Lumineth Realm-Lords doubly so, as this faction of aelves still feels very new, so I’m sure this novel is going to be of interest to a lot of Black Library fans! It’s available in hardback, ebook and audiobook editions, so check out this interview, have a read of my review (link below), and then go out and grab a copy of the book!

Continue reading →

Bear Head – Adrian Tchaikovsky

Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Dogs of War (2017) was a bold, powerful piece of typically smart sci-fi; its sequel Bear Head picks up some of the same characters and themes and runs with them. Life for construction worker Jimmy Marten is pretty dull, despite the fact that he lives on Mars and has all manner of interesting body modifications, right up until the digital awareness of a talking bear takes up residence in his digital headspace. Honey the bear is a bit confused about what she’s doing, but she knows that she wants to make contact with her old friend Bees, the Distributed Intelligence who laid the foundations of human life on Mars. These days Bees is something of a digital bogeyman however, and while Honey tries to put her fragmented memories into order, back on Earth the tide of political opinion continues to turn ever more extreme, led by the relentless, loathsome presence of World Senate hopeful Warner S. Thompson.

Continue reading →

A Few Thoughts On: What Abigail Did That Summer by Ben Aaronovitch

I’ve been reading and loving Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series ever since I picked up the first book in a London Waterstones back in 2011, but his 2021 novella What Abigail Did That Summer might just be the most fun I’ve ever had with this series! It’s set at the same time as Foxglove Summer, and explores what young Abigail Kamara – not yet a trainee wizard herself, but getting there – is doing while Peter Grant is up in Herefordshire searching for missing girls. What Abigail is doing, it turns out, is engaging in an unofficial investigation of her own to work out why teenagers are going briefly missing on Hampstead Heath only to reappear, somewhat confused, back with their families. Along the way she meets and befriends a slightly strange boy called Simon, does her very best to avoid as much adult involvement as possible, and makes good use of a small army of talking foxes.

Continue reading →

RAPID FIRE: Edoardo Albert Talks Silent Hunters

Welcome to this instalment of my Rapid Fire series of author interviews – today I’m speaking to Edoardo Albert about his first full Black Library novel – Silent Hunters, a Warhammer 40,000 novel featuring the Carcharadons. It’s available to buy now in hardback, ebook and audiobook editions, so if you’d like to know more about what to expect from this book and Edoardo’s take on the Carcharadons, read on! To begin with, here’s the publisher’s synopsis:

Continue reading →

QUICK REVIEW: The Carbis Incident – Victoria Hayward

Released as part of Black Library’s digital-only ‘Inquisition Week’ in January 2021, The Carbis Incident marks the BL debut of Victoria Hayward with a tale of the Ordo Xenos and a world recently surfaced from a warp storm. The venerable Inquisitor Venicii and his small retinue land on Carbis and begin to hack their way through its jungles, following in the unreliable footsteps of the last man to escape before the world was swallowed by the warp storm. While Venicii remains tight-lipped as to the purpose of their search, Interrogator Esme Mzinga grows increasingly concerned over the erratic behaviour of her mentor and the unsettling nature of the world upon which they walk.

Continue reading →

40k Reading Order: Silver Skulls – Sarah Cawkwell

Welcome to this 40k Reading Order article, the first of many where I’ll be taking a look at a range of Black Library series and providing recommended orders in which to read the various stories – in this case Sarah Cawkwell’s excellent Warhammer 40,000 Silver Skulls stories. If you’ve ever wanted to read this series but haven’t known where to start, then look no further than this article! With a little help from Sarah, including a handy page on her website, I’ve put together a comprehensive list of all of her Silver Skulls stories, along with a couple of other stories that link off at a bit of a tangent and some suggestions for what to read next.

As well as the recommended reading order, I’ve also included a breakdown of each story with the publisher’s synopsis, suggestions of the best way to get hold of each one, and links out to my review where they’re available.

Continue reading →