Category Archives: Books

Warhammer : The End Times - Thanquol

Warhammer : The End Times – Thanquol

For the fourth Warhammer End Times background book, the focus is on the skaven as they attempt to put aside their traditional backstabbing and double-dealing, and work together for once. Emerging from their tunnels all across the world, they lay siege to the lizardmen cities of Lustria, the remaining cities of the Empire and the scattered dwarf holds in the mountains. In typical skaven fashion however, things don’t turn out to be so simple; the grey seers are in disgrace, Verminlords are getting personally involved in the various plots and plans, and both the dwarfs and lizardmen are determined to make the skaven pay for every victory.

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Warhammer : The End Times - Khaine

Warhammer : The End Times – Khaine

Following the template laid down in the the Nagash and Glottkin books, the third in the series of Warhammer End Times background books is Khaine, which unsurprisingly focuses on the fate of the elves during the End Times. A new chapter in a story thousands of years in the making, it sees the three elven races drawn back together in a battle for the soul of their combined race. The elven gods play out their own battle through mortal avatars as Malekith risks everything in an all-out assault on Ulthuan while the high elves reel from the latest daemonic assault and the wood elves reluctantly venture forth from Athel Loren to join the fray.

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The Curse of Khaine

The Curse of Khaine – Gav Thorpe

We’ve seen Nagash rise and Altdorf fall, and now it’s the turn of the elves to get involved in the events of the End Times. Accompanying the Khaine background book comes The Curse of Khaine by Gav Thorpe, which follows Malekith, the Witch King of the dark elves, as he leads his entire race in battle against his high elf cousins. It’s the natural continuation of his long-running arc as in the chaos and confusion of the End Times, Malekith sees the opportunity to finally claim what he sees as his birthright, although along the way things don’t quite end up how he expected.

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The End Times - Glottkin

Warhammer : The End Times – Glottkin

The second in Games Workshop’s latest series of Warhammer expansions, The End Times – Glottkin follows in the footsteps of Nagash and tells the next part of the apocalyptic End Times story. It keeps to the same format as Nagash before it, split across two volumes – one for the background and one for the rules – and while it’s noticeably shorter than its predecessor, this is still a hefty tome. With the Great Necromancer risen once again, the focus of the story now moves to the forces of Chaos, specifically the gruesome, rotting hordes of Grandfather Nurgle led by the horrifically mutated Glott brothers.

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The Fall of Altdorf

The Fall of Altdorf – Chris Wraight

The Warhammer world is changing, as The End Times carry on apace and the shadow of Chaos falls across the map. Released to accompany the Glottkin background book, the second Black Library novel in the series is The Fall of Altdorf, by Chris Wraight. After the dark events of Josh Reynolds’ The Return of Nagash, the focus now turns to the lands of men, as Archaon sends a vast horde deep into the Empire, led by the foul Glottkin, three siblings who have long since shed their past lives as men in favour of Grandfather Nurgle’s blessings. With the devastating loss of the Emperor, plague ravaging Altdorf, and the other cities of the Empire falling one by one, things are looking bleak for the stoic defenders of the realm.

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Blades of the Traitor

Blades of the Traitor – Black Library Anthology

A few months after Death and Defiance, the first novella-length, non-limited edition Horus Heresy short story anthology, comes Blades of the Traitor, a collection of five short stories from some of Black Library’s best-known authors. Interestingly, Black Library are offering readers a choice straight away of how to purchase these stories – the physical book is due for release soon (after pre-release at the Horus Heresy Weekender) while the ebooks are available either as a well-priced collection or as individual stories. It’s therefore up to readers whether to cherry pick the stories they’re most interested in or read them all as a collection.

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Tallarn : Ironclad

Tallarn : Ironclad – John French

Following hot on the heels of the general release for Tallarn : Executioner comes John French’s latest Limited Edition novella, Tallarn : Ironclad. Yes, it’s an expensive hardback novella that won’t please everyone, but for those willing to fork out for it, aesthetically it’s an absolute beauty, complete with creepy daemons embossed beneath the dust jacket. Following on from Executioner and Black Oculus it widens the view of Tallarn to take in the entire conflict, with Perturabo’s legion opposed by a ramshackle mixture of loyalist forces, while an emissary of Horus asks pointed questions regarding the Lord of Iron’s use of resources in this meat grinder of a battle. We see through the eyes of characters on both sides of the struggle, as it gradually becomes clear that for all its complexity, ultimately everything about this battle boils down to a single question – what are the Iron Warriors actually doing on Tallarn?
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The Slow Regard of Silent Things

The Slow Regard of Silent Things – Patrick Rothfuss

As a genre, Fantasy isn’t generally known for beautiful prose, generally focusing more on plot and worldbuilding. With his first two novels, The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man’s Fear, Patrick Rothfuss went some way towards reversing that trend, and now with his novella The Slow Regard of Silent Things he has proven once and for all that great Fantasy can be beautiful as well. Set within the world of his Kingkiller Chronicles, this explores the character of Auri, the shy, semi-feral woman who lives deep beneath the University in a place known only as the Underthing.

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Tallarn : Executioner

Tallarn : Executioner – John French

Ten million tanks! Or maybe one million tanks. Whatever the number, the Battle of Tallarn is famed for the vast numbers of armoured vehicles that were deployed. In his Horus Heresy novella Tallarn : Executioner, John French chronicles the opening sequence of this infamous battle, from the initial virus bombing of the once-verdant world to the early engagements that demonstrated to the Iron Warriors that Tallarn’s population wasn’t going to let them have their world without a fight. Originally available only as a Limited Edition novella, it’s now been re-issued in standard format to coincide with the release of Tallarn : Ironclad, the next in the Tallarn arc.

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Visions of War

Visions of War – The Art Of Space Marine Battles

Black Library’s series of Space Marine Battles books started in 2010 with Steve Parker’s Rynn’s World, and since then has expanded to contain well over a dozen novels and more than twenty assorted novellas, short stories and audio dramas. 2014 saw two notable additions to the series, in the shape of Andy Smillie’s Sons of Wrath (initially released as a First Edition), and the art book Visions of War (also initially a First Edition). A beautifully-presented hardback filled with a range of artwork from the series so far, it showcases the incredible work of artists such as Jon Sullivan, Kai Lim and Clint Langley (amongst others), and includes short stories from LJ Goulding and Anthony Reynolds.

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