Category Archives: Black Library

Warped Galaxies: Attack of the Necron – Cavan Scott

The Warhammer 40,000-set Warhammer Adventures series Warped Galaxies (for readers aged 8 and above) opens with Cavan Scott’s Attack of the Necron, a planet-hopping tale of action, danger and bravery in the face of an ancient alien menace. Zelia Lor and her mother, along with Lexmechanic Erasmus and young Martian tech-savant Mekki, travel the galaxy excavating ancient technology and unearthing pre-Imperial history. When their latest expedition is curtailed by a devastating alien invasion, Zelia finds herself torn from her familiar life and thrown into a perilous journey through the void of space with the relentless Necron threat looming ever-present.

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Hamilcar: Champion of the Gods – David Guymer

After appearing in various audio dramas and short stories, Hamilcar Bear-Eater – mightiest of Sigmar’s Stormcast Eternals (and modest, as ever) – gets his own novel in David Guymer’s Hamilcar: Champion of the Gods. Taking place in the Realm of Ghur, this sees the Astral Templars’ Lord Castellant boldly set out to drive the forces of Chaos from the region surrounding the ancient fortress known as the Seven Words. He soon realises that the real threat is actually from the skaven, and is forced to pit his strength – and his wits – against Ikrit, a worryingly powerful warlock engineer with designs on Sigmar’s secrets.

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Realm Quest: City of Lifestone – Tom Huddleston

Tom Huddleston’s Age of Sigmar series Realm Quest – part of the Warhammer Adventures range of stories for younger readers – kicks off with City of Lifestone, which introduces us to 14 year-old Kiri. After escaping from a life of slavery Kiri sets off alone in search of the city of her birth – Lifestone – where she hopes to find a new start. Things don’t quite work out how she hoped, and she’s soon being hunted by skaven and begrudgingly caught up with a strange group of children and their mentor, who tells her of a mysterious purpose for which she’s been chosen.

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RAPID FIRE: David Guymer Talks Hamilcar: Champion of the Gods

Welcome to this instalment of Rapid Fire, my ongoing series of quick interviews with Black Library authors talking about their new releases. 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.

In this instalment I spoke to David Guymer about Hamilcar: Champion of the Gods, his first Age of Sigmar novel and the first full-length adventure for the titular Hamilcar. Champion of the Gods is available to order right now, so check out the interview and then head over and grab a copy of the book!

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The Horus Heresy Weekender 2019

The 2019 Horus Heresy Weekender has been and gone, so as usual I wanted to write a little bit about the Black Library elements of the event specifically, and my thoughts about the event overall. As with previous years, my focus (while there, as well as in this article) is on the Black Library side of things rather than the models and the game, so I’m not going to talk much about those aspects here. There are plenty of people out there covering those sides of the event in LOADS of detail, so I’ll keep things focused on the books as usual.

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Black Library Monthly – January 2019

Welcome to Black Library Monthly for January 2019, the first in a new series of articles in which I’ll be taking a look back at the preceding month’s Black Library news and releases, and talking about what I’ve been reading and reviewing over that time. This is partially designed to replace the Black Library Weekly articles which I used to write (but which I found myself spending WAY too much time working on), and partly to give me the opportunity to just talk a little bit about what I’ve been reading and what’s been going on in the world of Black Library.

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Corax: Lord of Shadows – Guy Haley

For Guy Haley’s second novel in the Horus Heresy Primarchs series, he’s tackled the conflict at the heart of the Raven Guard primarch in Corax: Lord of Shadows. The 27th Expedition has stalled attempting to bring the Carinae Sodality – a civilisation spanning a thousand artificial moons – to compliance. While the Expedition’s commander requested assistance from the Night Lords, Corax answers instead and is determined to succeed without resorting to Curze’s tactics. The Sodality’s stubborn resistance forces Corax into escalating levels of violence, while back on Kiavahr conflict is brewing as resentment towards the Guilders spills over into bloodshed.

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Gods & Mortals – an Age of Sigmar anthology

In three and a half years the Age of Sigmar setting has grown from fairly humble beginnings into something wild and imaginative, with vast scope for storytelling and almost unlimited potential. In that time, alongside a couple of dozen novels we’ve seen a whole host of short stories published, some tying in with ongoing narratives and others standing alone. Over a whopping 400+ pages Gods & Mortals collects together eighteen short stories into an impressive anthology, eight of which are brand new while the other ten are drawn from those previously-published tales. Eighteen stories, nine authors, and lots to enjoy.

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RAPID FIRE: James Swallow Talks Red & Black

Welcome to this instalment of Rapid Fire, my ongoing series of quick interviews with Black Library authors talking about their new releases. 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.

In this slightly longer than usual instalment I spoke (in places at length) to James Swallow about his classic 40k Sisters of Battle audio drama Red & Black, which has just been reissued several years after its original release, and is once more available to order in CD and MP3 formats.

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Death Knell – Phil Kelly

Released under the Space Marine Heroes label, Phil Kelly’s novella Death Knell takes a close look at a single squad of Ultramarines in action against overwhelming Chaos forces led by the Crimson Slaughter. After a direct assault against the enemy-held island of St. Capilene fails miserably, the Ultramarines change tactics, with Sergeant Sevastus and his Tactical squad hoping that stealth will see them safely past the island’s outer defences. With a pair of guardsmen in tow, Squad Sevastus infiltrate the haunted island and seek out its defenders, but even for the hard-bitten Tactical Marines the odds of success are steep.

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