Category Archives: Reviews

QUICK REVIEW : Hollow Beginnings – Mark Clapham

Four days into Black Library’s Summer of Reading and the Space Wolves are back, in Hollow Beginnings by Mark Clapham. Following on from In Hrondir’s Tomb (way back in 2012’s Hammer & Bolter 20, now released as an e-short) it sees Anvindr and his pack braving a burning ork fortress to make sure the warboss is really dead, unwilling to trust to the guns of the Imperial Guard. Billed as looking at the Wolves’ objectives and whether they’re really there to help the Guard, it’s actually much simpler than that – it’s a case of Marines doing what mortals can’t.

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QUICK REVIEW : Monolith – Chris Dows

The third short story in Black Library’s Summer of Reading, Monolith sees Chris Dows return with a second tale of Veteran Sergeant Zachariah and his Elysian Drop Troops (see Hammer & Bolter 21 for the first – The Mouth of Chaos). Here we see Zachariah and his squad attempting a daring high-altitude drop to reinforce a beleaguered Cadian outpost situated at the summit of the titular monolith, facing off against the Traitor Marine Raptors of the Blood Disciples. Forced to fight in the air and on the ground against superior opponents, things look bleak for the Elysians.

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Demon Road – Derek Landy

After nine novels in the successful Skullduggery Pleasant series, Derek Landy’s latest book – Demon Road – sees the start of a brand new series. Swapping wizards and talking skeletons for demons, vampires and a surprising amount of gore, it sees Landy retain much of his usual style while adding in an extra edge that will appeal to slightly older readers than his original series. We follow sixteen year-old Amber, an average American teenager (well, at first anyway) whose life turns upside down when her parents start trying to kill her. With demons on her trail she’s forced to accept help from unexpected quarters, and finds herself on the run through the dark roads of America.

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Tracer – Rob Boffard

In the world of Rob Boffard’s Tracer, mankind has long since abandoned the Earth, leaving behind a ruined planet and taking up residence in an orbiting space station called Outer Earth. Set 100 years into its lifespan we find Outer Earth overcrowded, rusting and faded, its government barely in control and many of its population only just scraping a living. The book follows Riley Hale, a young woman working as a tracer – a sort of courier/gang member – who finds herself and her friends in very real danger after a tricky delivery sees her on the wrong side of some very dangerous people as a crisis erupts which threatens the entire station.

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The Shipping News – Annie Proulx

Despite boasting a Pulitzer Prize and a big-name Hollywood adaptation, Annie Proulx’s The Shipping News is an unhurried and unconventional novel, a simple story which nonetheless requires a fair amount of thought to get the best out of. It follows the life of a man referred to only as Quoyle, one of life’s permanent losers, burdened with crippling self doubt and never quite able to succeed at anything he does. When his painful marriage comes to a harrowing end, he takes his daughters and joins his aunt in returning to the home of his ancestors in the wilderness of Newfoundland, where he tries to start his life over again.

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QUICK REVIEW : One Bullet – Ben Counter

Ben Counter’s contribution to a loose series of Deathwatch-themed stories from Black Library, One Bullet looks at the Ultramarines of Third Company as they face off against a vast army of orks among the wreckage of an industrial city. Led by the fiery rhetoric of a young Chaplain Cassius, and supported by a squad of experienced Sternguard veterans, the Ultramarines must make use of every weapon in their arsenal if they are to emerge victorious.

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QUICK REVIEW : Whiteout – Andy Clark

The second of Black Library’s Summer of Reading stories sees a new name added to the author pool in Andy Clark, whose story Whiteout sees a Deathwatch team launching a pinpoint strike against a vast ork Waaagh! that’s threatening to overwhelm the Imperial defences. When their insertion goes wrong the Marines find themselves in the midst of a blizzard, battling against time as well as a vast tidal wave of orks as they attempt to destroy a vital bridge and deny the enemy an easy route into the Imperial lines.

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QUICK REVIEW : The Cost of Command – Sandy Mitchell

The first in a week’s worth of new short stories for Black Library’s Summer of Reading campaign, Sandy Mitchell’s The Cost of Command features the Astral Knights way back before their fateful all-out assault on the necron World Engine. Here we see two of their number duking it out in an honour duel, the reason for which gradually becomes clear as the protagonist looks back on his squad’s last mission and the toll it incurred on each of them.

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Cybernetica – Rob Sanders

[This review was originally written after the release of the Limited Edition version of Cybernetica, although it’s now available in standard formats as well.]

While most recent Horus Heresy releases have moved the story forward chronologically, for the latest Limited Edition novella, Rob Sanders’ Cybernetica, Black Library have taken us back to an earlier point in the timeline. Set on Mars just as the Heresy begins, we follow a Raven Guard known as The Carrion, sent to train as a Techmarine after he was grievously wounded and left unable to follow his legion’s way of war. Alongside brothers from other legions he finds himself fighting to survive against the might of the Mechanicum, while on Terra, Rogal Dorn looks for a way to deal with the escalating situation on Mars.

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The Silkworm – Robert Galbraith

Once again published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, The Silkworm is JK Rowling’s second crime novel featuring the private detective Cormoran Strike, and picks up several months after the events of The Cuckoo’s Calling. After an unwanted moment in the spotlight for his work on the Lula Landry case, Strike finds things getting back to normal when he takes on a case from Leonora Quine, whose husband Owen, an author of dubious taste and talent, has gone missing. As he begins his investigation it quickly becomes clear that there is more to Owen’s story than a man hiding away from his wife, with the inflammatory manuscript for his latest book having been circulated amongst his publishers and peers just before his disappearance.

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