Author Archives: Michael

The Method of Madness – Peter McLean

Peter McLean’s first Black Library story to be set away from the Warhammer 40,000 universe, The Method of Madness – a fairly long short story, almost a novella really – is a Warcry story exploring the Cypher Lords and their subtle ways. In the Bloodwind Spoil of the Eightpoints, the bustling, stinking city of Carngrad is ruled over by a group of powerful warlords who maintain a brutal status quo. Considering himself a civilised man of politics, Thrallmaster Vignus Daneggia of the Cypher Lords sees in Carngrad’s hierarchy an opportunity for a scheme worthy of attracting the attention of Archaon himself.

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Highfire – Eoin Colfer

Best known for his Artemis Fowl novels for younger readers, with Highfire Eoin Colfer proves in no uncertain terms that his talents comfortably stretch to fantasy books for adults as well. Deep in the Louisiana bayou, Everett ‘Squib’ Moreau is trying hard to stay on the straight and narrow, but it’s not easy for a restless teenager, especially with the threat of the disturbing Constable Regence Hooke looming over him and his mum. When a potentially lucrative, albeit somewhat illicit, opportunity goes awry, Squib unexpectedly finds himself in the dangerous company of Vern, a foul-mouthed, bad tempered, vodka drinking dragon.

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Rogue – James Swallow

James Swallow’s excellent Marc Dane series continues to excite and entertain with its fifth instalment, Rogue, which sees the tenacious ex-MI6 operative caught up in a plot which threatens the survival of the Rubicon Group and its founder, Solomon Ekko. When a figure from his past emerges from the shadows to cause havoc, Dane and partner Lucy Keyes set out to uncover who it is and where they came from, stirring up old secrets along the way. As the mystery unravels it reveals attacks on Rubicon from within and without, uncovering yet more secrets and bearing the unmistakable hallmarks of the Combine.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Perfect Organism – CL Werner

CL Werner’s contribution to Aconyte Books’ Tales From the Crucible anthology is The Perfect Organism, which explores the warlike and scientific mindset of KeyForge’s martians. Convinced that they have created the ideal war machine, Elder Briilip unleashes the huge, artificially-engineered creature Number 647 into the desert of Nova Hellas, and pits it against the monster known as Tyrant. Briilip has a lot riding on Number 647’s success, especially with Elder Ghireen accompanying them as an official observer on behalf of the Prime Director, but watching the titanic clash from a safe distance, the martian scientist is utterly confident in their creation’s prowess.

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Cold Open Stories – 2020 Fast Fiction Collection

I was recently asked to be one of three community judges for the April 2020 Fast Fiction Collection over at Cold Open Stories, a call for fans of Warhammer fiction to submit 1,000 word stories in the Warhammer 40,000 setting. The deadline has now passed and the three judges – Colyn from Cold Open Stories, Jack from the Youtube channel Oculus Imperia and myself – have read through the submissions selected for inclusion in the collection and picked out our recommended choices. You can read the winning short story, along with all of the selected entries, over at the COS website. It’s been a really interesting experience to be part of this process, so I thought I’d write up a few thoughts on what was involved.

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May 2020 – Taking a Quick Break

In the month just gone I read twelve books and published sixteen posts here on Track of Words, on top of the usual day job and general real-world life. That feels great, but thinking back to how things felt at the time I’m amazed I managed to be so productive. I know I’m not the only one finding things tough at the moment – it’s a very strange time in so many respects – but while I consider myself pretty fortunate in a lot of ways, I’ve been feeling increasingly tired and worn out. With that in mind, I’m going to take a quick break from thinking about Track of Words – but first I thought I’d give a little update about why, and what I’m going to be doing.

TL;DR – I’m tired and I need a bit of time to myself, so I’m going to take a week (probably) to just read and relax and not think about writing reviews or blog posts (but I’ll probably still be on Twitter).

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Monthly Highlights – April 2020

It’s time again for another Monthly Highlights post, my regular look back at what I’ve been reading (and listening to) over the last few weeks. I’m sticking with the format I started last month, which involves a fairly quick look at each and every book I read in April – a couple of those were audiobooks, but most of them were in prose format. Once again I’ve excluded short stories, but with no fewer than twelve books to talk about there’s plenty to cover without extending to other formats (and it’s long enough as it is)! I’ve listed these in the order in which I read them, with links to reviews and author interviews where appropriate.

Without further ado, let’s get straight to the first book…

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Goldilocks by Laura Lam – via the British Fantasy Society

I’ve got another review for you over at the British Fantasy Society website, this time for the brand new sci-fi thriller Goldilocks by Laura Lam, so named for the ‘Goldilocks Zone’, the region of space around a star in which human-habitable worlds might exist. I do love a good space travel story, although considering it largely takes place on a spaceship on its way to another planet, this one turned out to be unexpectedly relevant to current events taking place right now! As usual, you’re very welcome to go straight over to the BFS website if you’d like to just read the review, but I thought I’d talk a little bit more about the book here.

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AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Laura Lam Talks Goldilocks

Welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview, my ongoing series of quick interviews with authors talking about their new or upcoming books. These are short and sweet interviews, with the idea being that each author will answer (more or less) the same questions – by the end of each interview I hope you will have a good idea of what the new book (or audio drama) is about, what inspired it and why you might want to read or listen to it.

For this interview I spoke to Laura Lam about her new sci-fi thriller Goldilocks, which is published on the 30th April from Wildfire in the UK, and on the 5th May in the US from Orbit. It’s a topical, relevant story of space exploration tackling big issues and complex character relationships – I’ve read it, and it’s well worth checking out.

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QUICK REVIEW: Useful Parasites – MK Hutchins

MK Hutchins’ second short story (after The Librarian’s Duel) in Aconyte Books’ KeyForge anthology Tales From the Crucible, Useful Parasites is a tale of loneliness, gentle kindness and the importance of grieving. Juniper-kin treewalker Taryx lives a quiet life tending his garden and ministering to the wounded creatures of the forest, mourning the absence of an important friend and waiting for his grief to fade. When his latest patient turns out to be a strange part-cybernetic creature the likes of which he’s never encountered before, he sees an opportunity to put his loneliness aside, but worries things aren’t all they seem with his patient.

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