Category Archives: Reviews

QUICK REVIEW: Contract – Tristan Palmgren

Tristan Palmgren’s KeyForge short story Contract, the opening tale in Aconyte Books’ Tales From the Crucible anthology, explores the baffling logic of the Crucible through the eyes of an elven assassin aiming to pull off an audacious hit. Having gradually lost her sense of identity ever since her city was ripped from its world to join the Crucible, Vira lives for moments of exhilaration and the faint hope of some kind of vengeance. When she takes on a commission to kill a supposedly unkillable Archon, she knows how dangerous the consequences will be but determinedly accepts the contract anyway.

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QUICK REVIEW: Loyal to the End – Thomas Parrott

Thomas Parrott’s Warhammer 40,000 short story Loyal to the End is a tale of Imperial Knights told from the viewpoint of a Knight Armiger pilot, elevated to her position from peasant stock rather than through noble birth. Utterly loyal to House Viti and her liege lord Sir Valeon, Bondswoman Constance battles the forces of Chaos on the beleaguered Forge World of Agripinaa, fighting alongside her fellow Knights until disaster befalls them. Forced to flee and strike out on her own, Constance must find a way back to Imperial forces in time to warn her House of a terrible danger.

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Watchers of the Throne: The Regent’s Shadow – Chris Wraight

Book two in the Watchers of the Throne series, Chris Wraight’s novel The Regent’s Shadow picks up where 2017’s phenomenal The Emperor’s Legion left off, and delivers another brilliant slice of Warhammer 40,000 storytelling. In the wake of Roboute Guilliman’s departure to lead the Indomitus Crusade, Terra begins the process of returning to some kind of new normality. With a reshuffled council of High Lords and a populace still suffering, however, discontent and disorder is growing on the Throneworld. Sister of Silence Aleya, Custodian Valerian and new Imperial Chancellor Anna-Murza Jek each find their roles fundamentally changed in Guilliman’s wake, and set out in their own ways to understand what those changes mean.

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Lords of the Storm – Edoardo Albert

Edoardo Albert’s Warhammer 40,000 novella Lords of the Storm is his first longer-form story for Black Library, a tale of the Primaris-only Fulminators chapter of Space Marines exploring their relationship with the mortals whose lives they safeguard. On the shrine world of Chevreuse, home to the sacred bones of Saint Blaise, the forces of the Ruinous Powers move ever closer to victory. Montalte, of the loyal Faithful, is tasked with guiding a small force of Fulminators (Sergeant Augustin and his Reivers) to the saint’s remains, navigating the dangers of Chaos cultists, traitor Guard and a living storm apparently conjured up by the saint himself.

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QUICK REVIEW: Vaultheads – David Guymer

David Guymer’s short story Vaultheads – his contribution to Aconyte Books’ Tales From the Crucible anthology – shows what happens when you cross the crazy world of KeyForge with the dedicated world of historical re-enactment…with entertaining results. In Hub City, battles between Archons for access to the Vaults have become legendary, over the years gathering serious historical aficionados keen to recreate the glory days with painstaking accuracy. After the successful completion of his latest re-enactment, one such enthusiast – having played the role of dashing skirate Raymon D’arco to perfection – finds his dreams of derring-do one step closer to reality.

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QUICK REVIEW: Savage – Guy Haley

Available in either Warriors and Warlords or the Black Library Events Anthology 2018/19, Guy Haley’s Imperial Guard short story Savage provides a quiet, thoughtful accompaniment to his novel Shadowsword. Alongside the rest of the Paragonian Seventh, the crew of the Cortein’s Honour are at rest, whiling away their time under the baking Omdurman sun. When whispers of redeployment begin circulating, Senior Loader Gollph is drawn into an illicit scheme which relies on the prejudicial views many of the Paragonians hold about his people, the Bosvodar, who hail from a feral world and are considered slow and primitive by many.

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Saturnine – Dan Abnett

Black Library’s Siege of Terra series reaches its halfway point with Saturnine by Dan Abnett, a 500+ page beast of a book in which secrets are revealed, big names start to fall, and the stakes – somehow – get even higher. Having taken Lion’s Gate spaceport, the traitor host marches on the fortifications of the Lion’s Gate itself while simultaneously driving at the Eternity Gate spaceport, stretching the loyalist defenders to breaking point. With battles raging on multiple fronts and resources dwindling, Dorn faces impossible questions of compromise and sacrifice, as he searches for a strategy that might tip the balance in his battle of wills and wits with Perturabo.

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Sanctuary – V.V. James

Combine a small-town suburban American drama with a crime thriller and add in a dash of magic, and you’ll get somewhere near the sort of territory V.V. James’ Sanctuary occupies – a gripping page-turner exploring how grief and pain can tear friendships and communities apart. The quiet town of Sanctuary hides a darkness beneath its calm facade, and tensions which come to light after the tragic death of a popular young man. As a mother grieves and an out-of-town detective investigates what happened, rumours start to swirl that magic was involved and bitter eyes turn to the town’s resident witch.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Jagged Edge – Maria Haskins

For her debut Black Library story Maria Haskins tackles a tale of desperation, sacrifice and familial bonds within the Imperial Guard in The Jagged Edge. Sergeant Aurelia Shale and her squad of Keplerian Scrappers are sent on a dangerous mission to infiltrate and destroy an enemy-held manufactorum, approaching through tunnels in the mountains of Kepler-Gamma. Accompanying them is Commissar Theodora Shale, Aurelia’s sister – in the darkness beneath the Jagged Edge, Aurelia must contend with not just the heretic cultists of the enemy but her painful memories of a once-close sibling who abandoned her long ago and never really returned.

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Anthemas – Warhammer Horror Anthology

Black Library’s third Warhammer Horror short story anthology, Anthemas follows in the footsteps of Maledictions and Invocations not just in terms of the naming convention and visual design, but by offering up a compelling collection of low-key tales highlighting the strange, sinister fringes of the 40k and Age of Sigmar universes. Across fourteen stories from thirteen authors, all but two of which are published here for the first time, it’s an exploration of characters driven by fear and desperation, ordinary people just trying to survive in the midst of terrible, horrifying worlds. These are stories to unsettle, that keep you wondering where they’re going and leave you feeling uncomfortable afterwards.

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