Released to tie in with the cool new Imperial Knight miniatures from Games Workshop, Knights of the Imperium is a brand new novella by Graham McNeill, who given his track record with Heresy-era knights (Mechanicum) and the Mechanicus (the …of Mars series) was surely the only author ever in the frame to write this book.
Space Marine Battles books are tricky beasts. On the one hand they cover some of the coolest events in 40k history and give us the chance to see a range of different chapters in action, while on the other hand the authors writing the books are constrained by the nature of the series – they are after all, Space Marine battles, so they need to be based heavily around some pretty big scraps. The best of the bunch balance the action with a healthy dose of insight into the chapter(s) in question, and Catechism of Hate just about manages to achieve this balance.
We all love a baddie, right? Fans of Black Library probably do more than most, given the proliferation of great bad guys (and girls) in the worlds of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000. If that’s you, if you’re a fan of the dark(er) side, then Renegades of the Dark Millennium is for you. Unsurprisingly given the title, this is a celebration of all things dark, twisted and evil in the 40k universe, and is very much a Space Marines release.
From humble beginnings in 2006 Black Library’s Horus Heresy series has grown and grown, and we now have the 29th book in the series in the form of Graham McNeill’s epic novel Vengeful Spirit. Epic in both scale and physical size, over 500+ pages we get titans, Imperial Knights, five (yes, five!) primarchs, Malcador’s Knights Errant and the return to the printed page of a fan favourite from the original trilogy. Speaking of the original trilogy, Vengeful Spirit is the first novel since those heady days where we see Horus as a main protagonist – after 20-odd books of lurking in the shadows he has finally come out into the spotlight once again. And boy, has he come out swinging!
It’s a rare author who can move seamlessly between adult and children’s fiction and produce top work in both genres. One such author is Neil Gaiman, whose dark, twisted and magical style of writing works beautifully in any genre he chooses to use. One of the (many) great things about Neil Gaiman is his ability to remember what it’s like being a child and inject this into his writing, as shown to full effect in the daft but highly entertaining Fortunately, The Milk.
Some books are initially deceptive, and deliberately don’t give you much in the way of clues to their contents from their title, cover or blurb on the back. Others are completely up front about what you will find within their pages. With a title like Headhunter, and a cover showing a severed head on a spike, this one falls firmly into the second category, and it’s not too hard to work out that this book is going to be a little bit gruesome.
Fans of Black Library’s Warhammer novels may be familiar with the four-way contest for Karak Eight Peaks, as previously handled in Skarsnik (by Guy Haley, concerning the titular goblin boss) and Headtaker (David Guymer). Following on from his previous novel taking on the insane skaven warlord Queek Headtaker, David Guymer now gives us a novella-length story showing things from the dwarf viewpoint. It’s their city that’s being contested after all, so it’s about time we got their point of view.
A crown fire is a specific type of wildfire where it’s specifically material at the canopy level that burns, such as tall trees or vines. It’s an apt name for David Annandale’s first Jen Blaylock novel, the focus of which is Blaylock’s pursuit of those at the top of the corporate tree responsible for the deaths of her family.
For the fourteenth novel in the much-loved Gotrek and Felix saga, David Guymer sends the doom-seeking dwarf slayer and his human rememberer to Mordheim, the City of the Damned. Unlike the ‘Nounslayer’ books (the first 12 novels, from Trollslayer to Zombieslayer) this one doesn’t follow on chronologically, so it’s not clear exactly at what point in their careers we’re seeing them, and none of the cast of old friends that pop up throughout the other novels make an appearance (other than a brief mention for one).
In today’s increasingly secular world it’s worth posing the question of whether the non-religious among us (be they atheist, agnostic or simply not interested) might be missing out on something. After all, religions must be doing something right for people to remain involved despite the way in which science and technology have changed our world. Alain de Botton has clearly given this question some thought, the result of which is a beautifully written, clear and articulate book that proves genuinely thought-provoking at every turn.