Author Archives: Michael Dodd

Black Library – Upcoming Releases (Oct 2016)

EDIT: since I first posted this, a Coming Soon page has gone live on the Black Library website! I’ve put up an updated post with more information here.

For a short while this morning there was a whole host of upcoming releases showing up on the Black Library website – a plethora of 40k and Horus Heresy goodness, enough to set the heart of any Black Library fan racing. Since then everything has been removed from the site, but I was quick enough to snag a bunch of screenshots of most of the upcoming titles. Fancy a look? Read on…
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QUICK REVIEW: Massacre – Aaron Demsbki-Bowden

Also available in the Eye of Terra anthology, Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s Horus Heresy short story Massacre takes a quick look at the cast of the Night Lords trilogy in their pre-40k incarnations. That’s right, it shows Talos, Xarl, Cyrion and even the Exalted as they all were back in the days of the Heresy, pre- and during the Dropsite Massacre. Seen through Apothecary Talos’s eyes it’s a rare chance to see these fan-favourite characters in their prime – cynical, callous warriors given to black humour, snide commentary and an unfair fight.
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Black Library Weekly – W/C 26/09/16

Hello and welcome to another instalment of Black Library Weekly, where I take a look at the Black Library-related news from the preceding week – announcements, pre-orders and new releases.

This time round we saw a new Horus Heresy novel and a short story tying in with a recent novel, as well as some more Black Library Live news and the launch of a brand new app. Sound interesting? Keep reading…
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Legends of the Dark Millennium: Genestealer Cults – Peter Fehervari

The latest in this burgeoning series, Legends of the Dark Millennium: Genestealer Cults sees the welcome return of Peter Fehervari with his second Black Library novel after a three-year wait since his first, Fire Caste. Set on the troubled shrine world of Redemption, the coming of an insidious alien menace results in the rise of a strange religious sect in place of the planet’s previous defenders. When distant sect members make pilgrimage to the shrine world, instead of welcoming arms they’re met by harsh, paranoid guardsmen led by officers who treat the sect with deep suspicion.
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Fire and Ice – Peter Fehervari

EDIT (26th June 2017) – this is now available as a standalone ebook novella, branded as an ‘Inquisition and T’au Empire’ story…

Despite being only available in the Legends of the Dark Millennium: Shas’O (or Tau Empire, depending on which version you have) anthology, Peter Fehervari’s novella Fire and Ice is as much an Inquisition story as a tau one. Hunted by a conclave of his Inquisitorial masters, Interrogator Mordaine searches for evidence of a tau conspiracy that might clear his tarnished name. Though guided by the mysterious Calavera, and aided by the savage Iwujii Sharks regiment, time is not on Mordaine’s side with the Inquisition looming and a tau-inspired uprising about to erupt.

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The Last Son of Dorn – David Guymer (The Beast Arises Book Ten)

IMPORTANT: This is book ten in a series – there will be spoilers unless you’ve read I Am Slaughter, Predator, Prey, The Emperor Expects, The Last Wall, Throneworld, Echoes of the Long War, The Hunt for Vulkan, The Beast Must Die or Watchers in Death.

The Beast Arises reaches book ten of twelve with David Guymer’s The Last Son of Dorn, his second in the series. After the disastrous events of The Beast Must Die and the subsequent regrouping in Watchers in Death, Lord Commander Koorland now has a plan to defeat the Beast, albeit a desperate and as yet untested one. Making good use of the newly formed Deathwatch and the once-mythical Sisters of Silence he sets out on what is essentially a dry run, as his forces return to some familiar locations with something specific in mind.
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QUICK REVIEW: Casts A Hungry Shadow – Peter Fehervari

In the creepily titled short story Casts A Hungry Shadow, Peter Fehervari weaves a dark, apocalyptic story set between the prologue and the main body of his novel Legends of the Dark Millennium: Genestealer Cults. On the troubled world of Redemption, two rival cults each seek out a newly-revealed power for their own ends, gathering their forces and striking out to lay their claims. The worshippers of wildly different gods, both are equally horrifying in their appearance and ideals…

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Savant – Nik Abnett

From Solaris Books comes Savant, the first full novel from Nik Abnett, who might be more familiar to some under the name Nik Vincent. A brave, adventurous book, it’s set in a recognisable but clearly different world where the Earth is protected from the rest of the galaxy by a shield generated by the minds of certain key individuals. A complex system of roles and organisation keeps minds like these around the world calm and functioning in order to safeguard the shield, but when one man begins to stray from his usual routine the entire system risks falling apart.
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Black Library Weekly – w/c 19/09/16

Hello and welcome to another instalment of Black Library Weekly, where I take a look at the Black Library-related news from the preceding week – announcements, pre-orders and new releases.

Week commencing 12th September had a massive announcement in the shape of Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s Master of Mankind being confirmed for Black Library Live! 2016, so I was keen to see whether Black Library would follow that up with more big news, or stick to the usual new releases. As it happened, the main excitement came in the form of Genestealer Cults – a new codex and an accompanying Black Library novel. Read on for more details…
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Praetorian of Dorn – John French

The seventh Horus Heresy book of 2016, the thirty-ninth in the main numbered series, and John French’s first ‘full’ novel in the series, Praetorian of Dorn comes with high expectations. Not least because it’s set in the Solar system, where the Alpha Legion launch a coordinated attack on Terra’s outer defences, testing the resolve and skill of Rogal Dorn and his Imperial Fists. With legion operatives, both human and legionnaire, activating across the system, Dorn and Archamus – Master of the Huscarls – are pulled two ways as they attempt to maintain Terra’s defences and stop the Alpha Legion.
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