Category Archives: Reviews

QUICK REVIEW : First To Hunt – Chris Dows

First To Hunt, by Chris Dows, is the sixth short story in Black Library’s Deathwatch serial, and the first to feature the White Scars chapter. Set on the planet Ballestae it sees Jetek Suberei on a solo scouting mission, accompanied only by his trusty bike and faithful cyber-eagle, hunting for intelligence on the invading eldar forces. As he approaches the eldar encampment he begins to realise that all is not well within the xenos ranks, and an opportunity presents itself to him to use the eldar’s division against them.
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QUICK REVIEW : Deadhenge – Justin D. Hill

The fifth Deathwatch short story in the current serial, Justin D. Hill’s Deadhenge follows Ennox Sorrlock, an Iron Hand grievously wounded by a dark eldar haemonculus and rebuilt as more machine than man. Joining a kill team led by Chaplain Cassius on a mission to an area of abandoned space known as Deadhenge to take out a dark eldar Archon, he learns that the same haemonculus will be in the Archon’s retinue. With the opportunity to take vengeance for his wounds and the deaths of his brothers, is there enough humanity in him left to relish the chance?
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QUICK REVIEW : Redblade – Robbie MacNiven

For the fourth short story in the ongoing Deathwatch serial we get the first tale from a new Black Library author, in the shape of Redblade by Robbie MacNiven. It sees young Space Wolf Drenn, or Redblade as he prefers to be known, recently attached to a Blood Claws pack and railing against the cautious leadership of his older pack leader. Reckless and arrogant, he butts heads with his superior even while defending a floating refinery platform from waves of orks, while members of the inscrutable Deathwatch look on.
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QUICK REVIEW : The Flesh of the Angel – Ben Counter

The third short story in Black Library’s Deathwatch serial and Ben Counter’s second contribution, The Flesh of the Angel follows brother Zameon Gydael of the Dark Angels as he infiltrates a brood nest of the xenos sslyth. Venturing alone through alien-infested territory in order to detonate a virus bomb at its heart, he approaches the conclusion of his mission only to find his loyalties torn between the objectives of his Deathwatch kill team and the hidden, ancient goals of his parent chapter as an unexpected enemy shows itself.
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Wolf King – Chris Wraight

For his second Horus Heresy novella, Wolf King, Chris Wraight picks up a story thread left hanging in his novel Scars, returning to the battered forces of the Space Wolves as they take shelter in the lethal twists and turns of the Alaxxes nebula. Hounded by the overwhelming firepower of the Alpha Legion and abandoned by the White Scars, the Wolves find themselves trapped, outmaneuvered at every turn, but while Bjorn and his brothers hunger to bring the battle to the Alpha Legion, their primarch Leman Russ hides himself away from the rest of the legion and broods on their future.

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Sons of Wrath – Andy Smillie

His second novella in Black Library’s Space Marine Battles series, Sons of Wrath sees Andy Smillie continue to delve into the psyches of the brutal Flesh Tearers chapter, this time setting his story almost immediately after the events of the Horus Heresy. Still struggling to come to terms with the emotional and psychological impact of Sanguinius’ death, Chapter Master Amit and his brothers rail against their new identities as Flesh Tearers – as they vent their rage first against each other and then in battle with a tricksy foe, it remains to be seen whether the blood-thirsty Flesh Tearers are truly able to control their thirst for violence.

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Ahriman: Unchanged – John French

The third and final novel in John French’s ambitious Ahriman trilogy, Ahriman: Unchanged sees the Thousand Son sorcerer firmly back at the peak of his powers. Using knowledge gleaned from the Athenaeum (see Ahriman: Sorcerer) he prepares to enact a new Rubric, a grand undertaking that will correct the mistakes of his past. To do so he has to lead his forces back to Prospero and the scene of his legion’s darkest hour, and from there to face their father Magnus deep within the Eye of Terror. Standing in his way are foes both seen and unseen, from within the Imperium and without. Keep reading…

Ahriman: Exile – John French

Released back in 2012, Ahriman: Exile was John French’s first novel for Black Library, and you’re unlikely to find a more assured, complex, detailed debut novel than this. The first in a trilogy regarding one of the most famous villains in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, when we first meet him Ahriman is at his lowest ebb, years after the failure of his Rubric and his exile from the Legion he tried to save. Masquerading as a lowly sorcerer serving a motley warband of Traitor Marines, he’s a far cry from the former Chief Librarian of the Thousand Sons, resigned to his fate as an exile and hiding away from his past, his enemies and his own power.
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Ajax Penumbra, 1969 – Robin Sloan

If ever there was a book which deserved a prequel it’s Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, and Robin Sloan has kindly obliged with the delightful novella Ajax Penumbra, 1969. There was so much implied backstory in the original novel that it would have been a crime not to have explored it further, so here we get to take a look at a young Mr Penumbra, just starting out on the path that would lead to 1960s San Francisco, a 24-hour bookstore, a sunken ship and two men who would come to shape his life.

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Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore – Robin Sloan

The kind of book that you’ll find shelved under Fiction simply for the sake of ease, Robin Sloan’s Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore confidently straddles modern fantasy and mystery with a dash of nostalgic epic fantasy and even a little social commentary thrown in. That might sound like a strange mixture, but this is a story – of Clay, a young man who finds himself working the night shift in a mysterious bookshop full of coded tomes studied by eccentric, nocturnal scholars hunting for an ancient secret – that gleefully mashes its influences up into a delightful whole that just works.

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