Category Archives: Books

Ragnar Blackmane – Aaron Dembski-Bowden

The first Space Marine Legends title – not to be confused with the Lords of the Space Marines series – Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s Ragnar Blackmane is a short novel tackling perhaps the most well known of all Space Wolves, the titular Ragnar. Released in Limited Edition hardback and standard ebook formats back in 2015, it takes the form of two interlinked stories set approximately 40 years apart but both taking place towards the very end of the 41st millennium. In one strand we see Ragnar as Wolf Lord, leading his Great Company in the defence of Cadia against the 13th Black Crusade, while in the other we see him as a newly promoted Wolf Guard, still headstrong and clashing variously with Dark Angels, Flesh Tearers and his own packmates.
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Career of Evil – Robert Galbraith

For Career of Evil, the third crime book written by JK Rowling under the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith, Cormoran Strike returns and this time it’s personal. When someone sends a severed human leg to his partner, Robin Ellacott, along with a note that links the crime to Strike’s semi-famous mother, several names from his past jump out. With the police focusing on the only one he doesn’t think is guilty, Strike and Robin undertake their own investigations into the remaining suspects. Meanwhile Robin’s wedding looms, and questions arise over exactly what Strike and Robin’s partnership entails.
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The Realmgate Wars: Hammers of Sigmar – Black Library

Book three in the Realmgate Wars series, Hammers of Sigmar once again combines two novellas into a single volume, collecting together Stormcast by Darius Hinks and Scion of the Storm from CL Werner. Both are new story arcs, Hinks tackling a Stormcast chamber sent to reclaim a daemon-infested Realmgate while Werner introduces Sigmar’s greatest champion – the Celestant Prime – who’s tasked with rescuing a lost force of Stormcast and defeating a Tzeentchian champion.
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Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes

First published in 1966 and no less potent fifty years later, Daniel Keyes’ Flowers for Algernon is a justifiable classic, a science fiction story which, like so many of the genre’s finest, holds a mirror up to reality and gives us a glimpse at what might be. It follows Charlie Gordon, a man with an IQ of 68 who spends his days sweeping floors in a bakery, happily ignorant of how the world sees him, until he’s chosen for an experiment to artificially enhance his intelligence. The procedure has been successfully completed once before, on a white mouse called Algernon, but Charlie is the first human test subject.
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Warhammer Quest Silver Tower : Labyrinth of the Lost – Andy Clark

With a new version of the legendary Warhammer Quest game just announced, Black Library are in on the act as usual with the release of the novella Warhammer Quest Silver Tower : Labyrinth of the Lost by Andy Clark. Harking back to the classic game but updated for the Age of Sigmar setting and a more contemporary audience, it follows a disparate group of heroes trapped inside the titular Silver Tower and forced to work together to survive and reach the master of the tower – the Gaunt Summoner. Cue an adventure full of monsters, treasure, bickering and lots of blood.
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The Path of Heaven – Chris Wraight

Book 36 in Black Library’s Horus Heresy series, and (incredibly) the fourth in the series released so far in 2016, The Path of Heaven sees Chris Wraight pick up where he left off in Scars – albeit several years further on in the timeline. After years of hit and run attacks aimed at slowing Horus’ advance on Terra, the Scars now find themselves trapped with no route back to the throneworld and with traitor forces closing in, led by Mortarion. With his options limited, Jaghatai is forced to take more and more risks to avoid the straight fight that he knows would spell doom for his legion.

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Scars – Chris Wraight

First released as a twelve-part serialisation before being recombined as a standard novel, Chris Wraight’s Scars is the 28th novel in Black Library’s Horus Heresy series. It opens with the White Scars isolated on the fringes of the Great Crusade, only just beginning to receive contradictory reports of the events taking place elsewhere in the galaxy. Railing against the powers aiming to manipulate him – Russ’ Wolves request aid against the Alpha Legion in the Alaxxes Nebula, while a separate XXth Legion fleet blockades the Scars within the Chondax system – Jaghatai Khan chooses his own path and sets out to discover the truth of what’s really happening.
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Echoes of the Long War – David Guymer (The Beast Arises Book Six)

Echoes of the Long War, book six in the Beast Arises series and the first from David Guymer, sees the halfway point in this twelve book series. Picking things up after the events of Throneworld it focuses mostly on the Fists Exemplar, specifically newly-promoted First Captain Zerberyn as he he drags the Exemplar fleet into battle with the orks in support of Black Templar Marshal Magneric and his unusual allies. Elsewhere we see Koorland and Vangorich attempting to take control of the situation back on Terra, and Magos Urquidex conspiring against his Martian masters, feeding information back to Vangorich.
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Throneworld – Guy Haley (The Beast Arises Book Five)

IMPORTANT: This is book five in a series – there will be spoilers unless you’ve read I Am Slaughter, Predator, Prey, The Emperor Expects or The Last Wall.

Black Library’s The Beast Arises series continues with book five, Throneworld by Guy Haley. Following on from the disastrous events of The Last Wall, it sees the ork attack moon still looming in orbit over Terra and the High Lords paralysed by fear, while a troupe of Harlequins emerges from the Webway into the Imperial Palace in search of an audience with The Emperor himself. Meanwhile in the Phall system the Imperial Fist successor chapters gather their strength to form the Last Wall, in preparation for striking back at the orks. As Koorland leads a largely unified force to the defence of a conflicted Terra, elsewhere Marshall Magneric of the Black Templars pursues the Iron Warriors of Warsmith Kalkatos right into the teeth of the oncoming orks.
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Blades of Damocles – Phil Kelly

The first full-length Space Marine Battles book from Black Library since 2015’s Damocles anthology, Phil Kelly’s Blades of Damocles takes us back to before the time of its predecessor to look at the events of the first Damocles Gulf Crusade. Here we see sergeants Numitor and Sicarius of the Ultramarines 8th Company, still young and prior to their ascension to company captaincy, taking the fight to the Tau on the sept world of Dal’yth. As the headstrong assault marine sergeants lead their forces into battle, Commander Farsight leads the Tau defence in the name of the Greater Good.
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