It’s been a while since the last Black Library open submissions window, but 2018 has barely begun and the latest opportunity is now available to get yourself published by your favourite purveyor of awesome Warhammer fiction! Hurrah, hooray and let general excitement commence! If you haven’t already seen the announcement on the Warhammer Community site, take a look here for all the details: https://www.warhammer-community.com/writeforblacklibrary/ Keep reading…
In David Guymer’s Age of Sigmar short story Four Thousand Days, a Fyreslayer lodge sets off on an epic quest in search of war, and a return to their ancestral lands, in a journey that will take – as the title suggests – a really long time. Among their number is Dunnegar who, having survived the Trial of Wrath to become a Grimwrath Berserker, hurls himself into the thickest fighting in their numerous battles. As the years pass and their numbers dwindle, the lodge’s identity and purpose is slowly worn away.
Chris Dows is developing a fine reputation for writing Imperial Guard, and with his audio drama Titans’ Bane he turns his attention away from Elysians and towards Cadians, with a story focusing on the crew of a Shadowsword super-heavy tank. Having taken a beating by the forces of Nurgle, Lieutenant Quiller and the crew of Titans’ Bane limp back to Imperial lines, desperately trying to repair their wounded tank even as its machine spirit ails. To make matters worse, frictions within the tank threaten to boil over as Quiller attempts to integrate two non-Cadian replacements into her veteran crew.
Harking back to some of Josh Reynolds’ earlier Undead-focused Warhammer stories, Nagash: The Undying King is an Age of Sigmar novel set in the Mortal Realms long before the actual Age of Sigmar. Available as a Warhammer World-exclusive hardback before its Christmas Day 2017 e-premiere release, it looks at the Rictus clans of Shyish, Nagash-worshipping human tribes being driven out of their lands by the inexorable forces of Nurgle. Tamra ven Drak leads what remains of her clan north in search of survival, following two of Nagash’s Mortarchs whose plans she finds herself increasingly bound up in.
Hello and welcome to the first 2018 instalment of Black Library Weekly, my regular look at what’s been happening in the world of Black Library. Happy New Year, and all that! Now that all the Advent excitement has well and truly died down, we’re back to business as usual – the first week of which has brought with it two short stories and a novel, as well as confirmation of another month’s new releases. Plenty to look at, so let’s jump straight in…
Welcome to the first 2018 instalment of Rapid Fire, my ongoing series of quick interviews with Black Library authors talking about their 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 it.
In this instalment I spoke to David Annandale about his new novel Castellan, the second in the Castellan Crowe series (after Warden of the Blade), which is available to buy right now.
I’m a little late, seeing as it’s already 2018 when I’m writing this, but as usual I’m hopping on board the recap-of-the-year bandwagon and taking a look back at how 2017 went here on Track of Words. For me it’s been a year chock full of great books, short stories and audio dramas – especially on the Black Library front – and it’s also been a year of real growth for the site…but more on that later. For now, let’s start off as usual with some figures.
A necron-tinged Deathwatch short story from Anthony Reynolds, available as a standalone e-short or within the Deathwatch: Xenos Hunters anthology (or indeed Deathwatch: The Omnibus), The Infinite Tableau sees a small Deathwatch squad investigating the disappearance of an Adeptus Mechanicus mission on a remote, ice-locked moon. Cassiel of the Blood Angels leads brothers from the White Scars and Mortifactors chapters, first exploring their frozen surroundings before finding themselves fighting for their lives as the fate of the Adeptus Mechanicus explorers becomes unpleasantly clear.
Set somewhere between the novels Primogenitor and Clonelord, Josh Reynolds’ short story Light of a Crystal Sun sees Fabius engaged in one of his experiments, this time attempting to prise vital knowledge from the crystallised fragments of long-dead eldar that he recovered from Craftworld Lugganath. Searching, as ever, for a way to prolong his existence and halt the advancement of the blight that haunts him, he pits his own ironclad mind against the residual spirits held within the crystal. The ghostly eldar seem unsurprisingly unwilling to part with their knowledge, however.
Warning: there may be spoilers in this review, and the story itself, if you haven’t read Ruinstorm.
Originally available only in the Black Library Events Anthology 2017/18, David Annandale’s An Atonement in Fire is billed as a Primarchs short story, although it’s a pretty direct follow-on from Ruinstorm. With the Blood Angels making for Terra, Guilliman launches an all-out attack on a World Eaters fleet threatening both Sanguinius’ path and a loyal Imperial system. Never one to make it easy on himself, Guilliman is determined to protect Diavanos, allow the Blood Angels safe passage, and atone for the sin he feels he committed in creating Imperium Secundus.