Author Archives: Michael

Yearly Roundup: 2020 in Numbers

Another year gone by (and what a weird year it’s been), and it’s time once more to take a look back at another year of running Track of Words – my seventh year! I’m going to follow the pattern I started last year, of splitting things across several articles, starting with a look at some of the numbers for 2020 pulled from my website’s stats. I’ll take a look at the overall visitor numbers and give a quick breakdown of the content I published in 2020, then finish off with the most popular articles (across a few categories) on Track of Words over the last year. All being well, I’ll then take a look in a couple of separate articles at some specific highlights, referring back to the goals I set for 2020, and look ahead to what 2021 might hold.

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Monthly Roundup – December 2020

Welcome to December’s Monthly Roundup here on Track of Words, the final article I’m going to post in 2020! As usual I’ll take a look back over the last month in terms of what I’ve been writing about on ToW, and what I’ve been reading. For the second month running I’ve posted a review, author interview or blog article every day this month (it’s become something of a tradition for each November and December), so there’s lots to talk about here. I’ll take a quick look at each piece of content and provide links out to all of them so you can take a longer look if you’re interested, then write up a few overall thoughts for a general update on the month’s reading and writing.

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A Guide to Guy Haley’s Prince Maesa Stories

Over the last couple of years, one of my personal highlights in Black Library’s Age of Sigmar range has been Guy Haley’s slowly-growing series of stories featuring Prince Maesa and Shattercap. Haley has written a lot of 40k and Horus Heresy stories but relatively little for Age of Sigmar, however this ongoing saga of an aelven Wanderer in search of a way to bring his lost love back to life – told across multiple stories and different mediums – is well worth checking out. As it’s not a novel, however, I sometimes wonder if it falls under the radar for a lot of readers, especially as BL hasn’t provided any guidance on how everything links together or in what order to read the different stories.

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The Harrowing of Doom – David Annandale

For his first Marvel novel, The Harrowing of Doom – part of the Marvel: Untold range from Aconyte Books – David Annandale tells a tale of iron will and fierce obsession as Doctor Doom sets out to turn the tables on Hell itself. Each year at midsummer, Doom must battle a champion of Hell to try and free his mother’s soul, an impossible task that he’s fated to lose every time. Setting out to change the terms of the duel and weigh things in his favour at last, Doom enlists the help of the sorceress Maria von Helm and a reluctant Father Zargo and embarks on a bold but risky gamble. Even as he works feverishly on this new project, the security of Latveria is threatened by the deposed crown prince Rudolfo Fortunov.

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Top 20 Books of 2020

I’ve already published a few articles in which I look back at my favourite Black Library stories of 2020 for all the Warhammer fans out there, but as the year is very nearly finished it’s now time for a wider roundup of all the best SFF/horror books in general that I’ve read this year. I would normally do a top 10, but I couldn’t resist making this the ‘top 20 of 2020’ so I’ve doubled the usual number of books…which, to be fair, did make my life easier as I’ve read so many great books this year! Narrowing the list down to 10 would have been really tricky, and even getting it down to 20 required a few sacrifices.

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Rise of the Ynnari: Wild Rider – Gav Thorpe

Word is that 2019’s Wild Rider, Gav Thorpe’s second Rise of the Ynnari novel, is likely to be the final instalment in the series, which is a shame as it’s both an entertaining story in its own right and a fantastic exploration of the Ynnari and their role within Aeldari culture. After unintentionally awakening a Necron tomb complex on the maiden world of Agarimethea (see the events of short story Fireheart), Wild Lord Nuadhu Fireheart returns to Saim Hann to try and rouse his Craftworld into an alliance with the Ynnari of Yvraine. Nuadhu hopes to reclaim his honour by returning to Agarimethea in force to deal with the Necrons before they can fully awaken, but the council of Saim Hann are loath to commit their forces, wary of Yvraine’s motives.

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5 Great Worlds of IP Fiction

If you’re a regular reader of Track of Words you’ll know how much I enjoy IP (or tie-in) fiction – stories which expand and develop fantasy and science fiction worlds that already exist in board games, video games, films and other media. I’ve tended to read a lot of Warhammer fiction from Black Library, and I know a lot of ToW readers are BL fans too, but there are all manner of fantastic IPs out there as well, bringing their worlds to life with great fiction. Over the course of the last year or two I’ve been dipping my toe into a few other IPs and really enjoying the results, so in this article I’m going to pick out a few recommendations for anyone who’s keen to try exploring a new world or two.

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QUICK REVIEW: His Will – Guy Haley

Labelled as ‘a Dark Imperium prequel story’, Guy Haley’s short story His Will features Frater Mathieu aboard the captured Macragge’s Honour, tying this character – and the Dark Imperium series as a whole – in nicely with the earlier Gathering Storm-era narrative around the return of Roboute Guilliman. With the Ultramarines’ flagship under the control of the Red Corsairs, Mathieu and his flock – including young, nervous Brother Clydeus – share their faith in secret, despite the dangers. When they risk the ire of the traitors to help a crewmember in need, Clydeus finds himself exposed to truths that challenge his faith like never before, but somehow bring hope as well.

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Garen: First Shield – Anthony Reynolds

The first ever League of Legends novella from Riot Games, Anthony Reynolds’ Garen: First Shield is an action-packed tale of duty and determination that offers a glimpse into the life of the elite soldiery of Demacia. Still wracked with guilt for his inability to prevent the assassination of the Demacian King, Garen Crownguard leads a small force of the Dauntless Vanguard on a peace-time mission to a neighbouring, allied nation. Recent communications from Demacia’s ambassador to the Nockmirch have proven suspicious, and the mission is simply to check that all is still well, but when the Vanguard’s arrival reveals a plot that threatens the security of Demacia, Garen and his warriors find themselves vastly outnumbered by a ferocious enemy out for their blood.

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QUICK REVIEW: Live Wire – Robert Rath

With his third 40k Officio Assassinorum short story, Live Wire, Robert Rath returns to Callidus Assassin Sycorax (previously introduced in Divine Sanction) for a second instalment of stealthy, polymorphine-induced infiltration. At the frozen pole of Sanga Kappa, one of the twenty planets of the Meloc Worlds, the heretek Programmator Quavarian works to perfect a potentially deadly meme-virus. When engine-master Jezette Vaal is captured and brought to Quavarian’s base to be infected by the virus and ‘reformatted’ to serve the glory of Chaos, an unexpected chance to serve the Omnissiah one last time provides the cover that Sycorax needs to finally track down and deal with the heretek before he can do any more damage.

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