Category Archives: Black Library

RAPID FIRE: Sandy Mitchell Talks Choose Your Enemies

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’m delighted to have spoken with legendary Black Library author Sandy Mitchell about his latest 40k novel Choose Your Enemies, and the long-awaited return of Ciaphas Cain. It’s available to order right now, but before you do that here are the questions and Sandy’s answers…

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I Miss the Days When Special Editions Were Special

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about how much money I’m spending on books, a line of thought which inevitably arrives at one of my biggest expenses over the last few years – special edition Black Library books (variously called Special Edition, Limited Edition, First Edition…). I’ve been planning to blog about special editions for a while now, but I’ve been finding it tricky to work out how to get my thoughts down into sensibly and thoroughly, so what I’m going to do in this post is take a look at just one issue that’s been bugging me for a while – the fact that special editions don’t really feel special any more. I might wright up some wider thoughts at some point, but for the time being I’m going to try and stick to this one point.

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Black Library Summer of Reading 2018 – Roundup

Black Library’s Summer of Reading campaign is a regular fixture on the calendar, a week full of brand new short stories released one a day. Now that this year’s campaign is over, and I’ve published my reviews for all seven short stories, I thought I would take a quick look back at the whole thing, and provide a single place to look for reviews and links for all of the stories. If this is the first you’ve seen about the Summer of Reading, don’t be put off by the distinctly not-very-Warhammer header image – it’s a bit bright and happy for Black Library, but that doesn’t reflect the tone of the stories!

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QUICK REVIEW: Prologue to Nikaea – David Annandale

As you can probably tell from the rather ominous cover, David Annandale’s Horus Heresy short story Prologue to Nikaea focuses on Malcador the Sigillite, the perils of the warp, and psykers…lots of psykers. Set during the Great Crusade, it sees Malcador searching for the origin of a great storm in the immaterium, desperate to understand what it portends and whether its influence stretches to the physical plane as well. What he finds, on a world recently wracked by rebellion, promises to haunt him for long years to come and have a profound impact on the future of the Imperium.

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QUICK REVIEW: Lightning Run – Peter McLean

Peter McLean’s second Black Library short story, Lightning Run is an Imperial Navy (Aeronautica Imperialis in modern parlance) story which, while not quite as grim as Baphomet by Night, is still a powerful demonstration of the bleak realities of 40k life. On the corrupted world of Elijan III, Flight Officer Salvatoria Grant finds herself tasked with a mission vital to the flagging war effort. Piloting her Valkyrie towards a distant Imperial base and a faint glimmer of hope, she trusts to her own skills and her faith in the Emperor to see her through to survival and Imperial victory.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Learning – David Guymer

David Guymer’s second Idoneth Deepkin story, The Learning takes a look at the cold, pitiless way in which their nature forces them to behave. Born with a rare pure soul, Ubraich is removed from his family at an early age and taught to manipulate powerful magic to hunt down the monsters of the deep ocean. The work of an embailor offers great prestige within idoneth society, but it’s difficult and dangerous work. Aiding his master in the breaking of a particularly stubborn beast, Ubraich learns an important lesson in how to survive and thrive, but will it come back to haunt him?

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Black Library Weekly – W/C 20/08/18

Hello and welcome to the latest instalment of Black Library Weekly, my regular look at what’s been happening in the world of Black Library. This week has been a little unusual in that there’s been very little in the way of BL-related news, but instead there’s been a load of new releases with the latest ‘Summer of Reading’ campaign. Let’s get straight into that, shall we?

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RAPID FIRE: Ian St Martin Talks Of Honour and Iron

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 Ian St. Martin about his new 40k novel Of Honour and Iron, which is available to order right now!

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QUICK REVIEW: The Armour of Fate – Guy Haley

Set between the events of the Rise of the Primarch background book and his novel Dark Imperium, Guy Haley’s short story The Armour of Fate is a rare action-free 40k story, but an absence of fighting allows for plenty of insight. When he was restored to life by the combined skills and knowledge of Belisarius Cawl and Yvraine, Roboute Guilliman was told that if he ever removed the life-giving Armour of Fate, he would die. After years of confinement within the armour, and long study of its workings, Guilliman is determined to remove it anyway, and reclaim his own fate.

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QUICK REVIEW: A Company of Shadows – Rachel Harrison

Following on from the fantastic Execution, Rachel Harrison’s short story A Company of Shadows sees the 11th Antari Rifles evacuating a city besieged by the forces of Chaos. When the Valkyrie carrying Commissar Severina Raine, a handful of troopers and an important military advisor is shot down before they can reach safety, it’s up to Raine and the decidedly untrustworthy Antari Sergeant Wyck to find a way to survive. With all of them carrying injuries, enemies all around, and Wyck twitchy at having cheated death for a second time, things look bleak for Raine and the Antari.

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