Category Archives: Black Library

QUICK REVIEW: Master Imus’ Transgression – Dan Abnett

One of three Inquisition stories originally released as audio dramas (in Thorn and Talon) before the prose versions were made available, Dan Abnett’s Master Imus’ Transgression is a short story in which we see Eisenhorn in his youth, still an interrogator under inquisitor Hapshant. Master Imus, a quiet and honest man dedicated to his life as a book-keeper, comes to Eisenhorn to confess his unwitting involvement in an unusual crime – or a transgression, as he puts it. What seems at first to be a strange, inconsequential confession turns out to reveal something much more sinister beneath.

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QUICK REVIEW: Pestilence – Dan Abnett

Originally published in the 2001 reprint of the Deathwing anthology, Dan Abnett’s short story Pestilence is a slowly-unfurling mystery set to the backdrop of an astonishingly virulent plague wracking Imperial worlds. As Uhlren’s Pox rampages through the Genovingia system, Lemuel Sark – a recollector, tasked with researching long-buried medical knowledge – is one of many sent out to look for a cure. Travelling to an isolated hospice in search of a survivor of a similar contagion – ominously named the Torment – Sark gradually uncovers the horrifying truth of what happened amidst the broken remnants of so many shattered lives.

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Eisenhorn, Ravenor and Bequin

This article was originally published in 2018, and since then I’ve written an updated, more comprehensive guide to Dan Abnett’s Inquisition Cycle, which I would recommend you check out instead.

Dan Abnett’s trilogy of Inquisition trilogies – the Eisenhorn, Ravenor and Bequin books – are among the best that Black Library have ever published. With the release of The Magos & The Definitive Casebook of Gregor Eisenhorn – the fourth book in the Eisenhorn trilogy (I’m not calling it a quadrilogy…that just sounds daft) – and increased positivity from Abnett regarding getting the second and third Bequin novels written, I thought it was about time I started to slowly tackle the whole set of stories. The idea of this post is that it will list the recommended reading order for all of these stories, with links out to my reviews as and when they’re posted.

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Warhammer 40,000 Legends Issue Fourteen – Helsreach by Aaron Dembski-Bowden

Issue fourteen of the Warhammer 40,000 Legends Collection is Helsreach by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, the second Space Marine Battles novel to be included in this series. This one came fairly early in Dembski-Bowden’s career, and indeed early in the Space Marine Battles series (second, I think, after Rynn’s World), but it’s still largely considered something of a 40k classic. Set on the war-torn world of Armageddon – which, if you’ve read The Beast Arises, now has a little more resonance – it tackles the Black Templars’ defence of Hive Helsreach, headed up by Reclusiarch Grimaldus.

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QUICK REVIEW: Mercy – Danie Ware

For her first Black Library story, Danie Ware gives us Mercy – a Sisters of Battle short story in which Sister Superior Augusta leads her squad to a distant corner of Ultima Segmentum to investigate an ancient, ruined cathedral. Rumoured to contain an icon of her own Order, the cathedral is a powerful symbol that appeals to Augusta’s faith, but that faith is soon tested when it becomes clear that the Sisters are not alone. Orkish brutality meets fury and discipline as the Sisters fiercely defend the cathedral, while Augusta begins to wonder what the orks are actually doing there.

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Knightsblade – Andy Clark

The second novel in Andy Clark’s Imperial Knights series, Knightsblade follows on from the excellent Kingsblade, picking up events several years later. Luk Kar Chimaeros, now known as the Knight of Ashes, hunts his stepmother Alicia Kar Manticos from system to system alongside a small band of fellow exiles. Danial Tan Draconis, meanwhile, rules Adrastapol as High King, working to bring the three remaining noble Houses together and help his world to flourish. When he learns of a great danger threatening Adrastapol, Luk puts his quest aside and risks much to return home and fight alongside his former comrades.

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RAPID FIRE: Chris Wraight Talks Jaghatai Khan: Warhawk of Chogoris

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.

For this interview I spoke to Chris Wraight about his latest novel in the Primarchs series, Jaghatai Khan: Warhawk of Chogoris, which is available to order in all of the usual formats (including audiobook) right now!

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RAPID FIRE: Chris Dows Talks Titans’ Bane

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 Chris Dows about his latest 40k audio drama, Titans’ Bane, which is available to order right now. I picked this up at a Black Library event a while ago, and I’m really excited to see the response it gets once it’s released. You can have a read of my review as well – suffice to say I absolutely loved this!

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QUICK REVIEW: The Tau’va – Andy Smillie

Andy Smillie’s The Tau’va is a very short story that follows on from The Kauyon, this time (briefly) exploring the T’au Empire’s driving philosophy of the Greater Good. Kal’va’s actions (see the previous story) may have been performed with honour, but in seeking personal revenge he put his own desires before the Greater Good. To atone for his selfishness, he is tasked by one of the Ethereals with launching an all-out assault on a greenskin horde, spending his life in order to buy time for others to escape and survive.

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