Author Archives: Michael

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: James Swallow and Josh Reynolds Talk Day Zero

Welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview, which (I think) is a first as I’m chatting to not just one but two authors – James Swallow and Josh Reynolds about their new novel Day Zero. It’s a tie-in to the new Watchdogs: Legion game from Ubisoft, and is out now from Aconyte Books as an ebook, with the US paperback due on the 3rd November and the UK paperback on the 12th November. Whether you’re a fan of the game or not, if you fancy a pacy, high-tech modern thriller set on the streets of London then this collaboration between two fantastic authors sounds like one to look out for!

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QUICK REVIEW: A Dead Djinn in Cairo – P. Djèlí Clark

When a djinn is found dead – exsanguinated, to be precise – it’s Fatma el-Sha’awari’s task, as an investigator for Egypt’s Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, to find out how and why, in P. Djèlí Clark’s intriguing urban fantasy A Dead Djinn in Cairo. What at first appears to be a simple case of suicide (however unlikely that may be among immortals) quickly develops into a mystery involving djinn mythology, mechanical angels and flesh-eating ghuls rising from Cairo’s slums. Whatever it is that’s stirring amongst the city’s supernatural denizens, it’s up to Fatma to put a stop to it.

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RAPID FIRE: Richard Strachan Talks Blood of the Everchosen

Welcome to this instalment of my Rapid Fire series of quick author interviews, in which I’m chatting to Richard Strachan about his debut novel for Black Library, Blood of the Everchosen. It’s the first full novel to be set in the Warcry subset of Age of Sigmar, promising to explore this unique setting and its variety of competing Chaos warbands like never before, and here’s Richard to give the lowdown on what we can expect. It’s available to pre-order as of Saturday the 27th October.

Let’s get straight on with the interview – over to Richard!

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Tales From the Loop – Simon Stålenhag

The first of Simon Stålenhag’s ‘narrative art’ books, Tales From the Loop is a fascinating example of storytelling delivered across both prose and visual art, in which evocative images of stunning Swedish landscapes, populated by wildly imaginative sci-fi creatures and machines, are contextualised and expanded upon with episodes of text interspersed throughout. In this alternative history of 1980s and 90s Scandinavia, Stålenhag explores the realities of growing up amongst the fading grandeur of the Loop, a vast particle accelerator constructed in the 50s beneath the Swedish countryside. Despite having been largely decommissioned by the time these stories take place, the presence of this ambitious technological marvel is clearly felt on the landscape and in the lives of the locals.

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The Mirrored City – Josh Reynolds

Published in 2018 as a tie-in to the then-new Warhammer Underworlds sub-setting of Age of Sigmar, Josh Reynolds’ The Mirrored City introduces the city of Shadespire, exploring the curse laid upon it and its Katophrane rulers by Nagash, and the damned souls caught within its tangled streets. Seguin Reynar is one such soul, a deserter from the Freeguild who made his way to Shadespire seeking his fortune only to find himself hunted, trapped, and caught up in the schemes of one of the city’s ancient, bitter ruler-spirits. As he explores the city, battling its many and varied denizens and doing his best to avoid the attentions of the blood-crazed Chaos worshipper tracking him, Reynar searches for a way to escape both the attentions of Katophrane Sadila and the cursed city itself.

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QUICK REVIEW: Blood of the Flayer – Richard Strachan

After a few Warhammer Horror short stories, Blood of the Flayer is Richard Strachan’s first main-range Age of Sigmar story for Black Library, an intriguing tale of an unusually non-committal Chaos warlord. In Chamon, the realm of metal, Lord Huthor gathers warriors to his banner and dreams of power and purpose. When a Slaaneshi seductress lures him away from Chaos Undivided, Huthor leads his warband into the service of the god of excess, but never truly embraces that path. As the years pass and his armies grow, Huthor walks many different paths in search of his destiny, confidently taking only what he needs from each.

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5 Lesser-Known Warhammer 40k Stories

Warhammer 40,000 is a huge, expansive setting, and Black Library churns out dozens of new stories every year, ranging from standalone short stories to grand, sweeping multi-novel series. In amongst the huge mass of 40k fiction out there, it’s inevitable that some stories don’t quite get the attention they deserve, especially bearing in mind BL’s relentless release schedule and the opportunities for new releases to fall through the cracks. Just because something isn’t mega popular doesn’t mean it isn’t worth tracking down and reading, however. In this article I’m taking a look at a few examples of 40k stories that – in my opinion – deserve to receive far more praise than I tend to see them getting.

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The Head of Mimir – Richard Lee Byers

The first novel in Aconyte Books’ new Marvels: Legends of Asgard series, Richard Lee Byers’ The Head of Mimir is a fun, fast-paced fantasy adventure. With Asgard under siege by armies of Frost Giants, and Odin trapped in an unusually long Odinsleep, the thoughtful young warrior Hemidall worries that his fellow Asgardians are underestimating their enemies. Speculating that something supernatural is affecting his king’s sleep, Heimdall and his sister Sif slip into Odin’s inner sanctum and find that the Head of Mimir, a powerful relic said to possess great wisdom, has been stolen. Despite the evidence of an intruder, and the suggestion of a traitor in Asgard’s court, Heimdall and Sif soon find themselves on the path to Jotunheim alone, desperate to recover the relic, foil the Jotuns’ plans, and redeem themselves in the eyes of Asgard.

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Domino: Strays – Tristan Palmgren

Aconyte Books’ Marvel: Heroines range – one of several new series of Marvel prose novels – kicks off with Domino: Strays by Tristan Palmgren, an action-packed blast of balletic violence and snappy dialogue with an unexpectedly thoughtful, psychological core. Mercenary Domino, otherwise known as Neena Thurman, has a history with cults and dangerous idealogues, so when she’s offered a job to extract a pair of twins from a dubious religious sect in Chicago, she takes it on despite all of her concerns. With the aid of a few fellow mercs she sets out to get the job done, but she can’t help to draw parallels between the task at hand and the lasting impact of her own painful upbringing as part of the secret genetics experiment known as Project Armageddon.

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October 2020 Releases From Aconyte Books

Over the last few months I’ve been having a lot of fun reading the first titles to be published by Aconyte Books – the new ‘novels division’ of Asmodee Games. While I’m not much of a board gamer, so I’m not really familiar (yet) with the worlds these stories are illustrating, I am a big fantasy and science fiction fan, so the idea of a whole heap of new settings to explore is pretty exciting! I mean, that’s the joy of reading IP fiction, right? Aconyte’s release schedule is absolutely packed full of great-sounding books, so I thought it might be useful to take a look at everything that’s coming out this month. For each title I’ve included links to my reviews and author interviews where available!

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