Category Archives: Reviews

QUICK REVIEW: Fire and Thunder – Rachel Harrison

One of several excellent 40k short stories featuring Commissar Severina Raine and the 11th Antari Rifles, Rachel Harrison’s Fire and Thunder is a bleak and powerful examination of the grubby, confused horror of war in the 41st millennium. Raine and the Antari are redeploying from the cathedral city of Whend when they find themselves under heavy fire and cut off from Imperial lines. With walking wounded and no chance of extraction, their only hope is a dangerous forced march through enemy-held territory, but with ammunition running low and enemies pressing in all around, the odds are heavily set against them.

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QUICK REVIEW: Blood Gold – Gav Thorpe

A standalone Age of Sigmar short story, Gav Thorpe’s Blood Gold features the Zharrthagi fyreslayers, an unusual clan who can trace their lineage back to before the Age of Chaos. With their mountain lodge besieged by Chaos worshippers, the Zarrthagi march out to confront their enemies. At the behest of one of his warriors, runefather Ungrimmsson Drakkazak looks back to the clan’s earliest days as he tells the tale of the Zarrthagi curse, relating the actions of the clan’s original runefather and the events that led to where and what they are now.

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QUICK REVIEW: Old Wounds, New Scars – Graham McNeill

Following on from Vengeful Spirit and Wolf Mother, Graham McNeill’s Horus Heresy short story Old Wounds, New Scars follows Alivia Sureka, the Perpetual, as she reluctantly returns to Terra. Over the course of a long and dangerous journey through the warp on a battered warship along with her adopted family and countless thousands of refugees from Molech, Alivia has worked hard to ensure as many people survived as possible. As their destination draws closer, and the whispers of the warp grow louder, Alivia recalls moments and people from her long life, and looks ahead in concern to the dangers approaching on Terra.

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Dreadwing – David Guymer

The second of two Siege of Terra prequel novellas (see also Spear of Ultramar), David Guymer’s Dreadwing explores a little of what Lion El’Jonson and his Dark Angels were getting up to that prevented them from reaching Terra. Engaged in a campaign of harassment against Traitor-held worlds, tensions within the I Legion are rising as the question of whether to return to Terra becomes ever more important. While the Lion broods in silence, his lieutenants Redloss and Holguin – of the Dreadwing and Deathwing respectively – are at odds, one keen to continue the campaign and the other desperate to head for Terra.

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Spear of Ultramar – David Annandale

One of two Horus Heresy novellas billed as prequels to the Siege of Terra, David Annandale’s Spear of Ultramar provides a brief but satisfying exploration of the challenges facing Guilliman and the Ultramarines as they race for Terra. Set after the events of Ruinstorm, the Ultramarines find their path blocked by the Carchera system, which is defended by a single Grand Company of Iron Warriors. Despite being vastly outnumbered the Iron Warriors are determined to delay Guilliman for as long as they can, so lay a trap that they know the Avenging Son will recognise, but will have no choice but to spring.

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QUICK REVIEW: Spiritus in Machina – Thomas Parrott

This short story is featured in Inferno! Volume 2, which is due out at the very end of 2018.

Thomas Parrott’s debut Black Library story, Spiritus in Machina is a smart story of obedience and loyalty among the Adeptus Mechanicus. Skitarius Alpha-Primus 7-Cyclae wakes from stasis aboard a Mechanicus Ark ship to find he’s the only survivor in his maniple after a rebellion amongst the ship’s crew. Guided by a servo-skull operated remotely by Magos Explorator Aionios, Cyclae braves the dangers of the damaged ship to try and restore power and allow the Magos to complete his mission. Despite an unsettling absence of data, Cyclae willingly obeys the Magos’ instructions, but gradually realises things aren’t quite what they seem.

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QUICK REVIEW: Son of Sek – John French

Originally published in the Sabbat Crusade anthology and linking in with Dan Abnett’s Gaunt’s Ghosts series, John French’s short story Son of Sek is a sinister, ambiguous tale which offers an insight (of sorts) into the dark world of the Sanguinary Tribes and what it means to become a Son of Sek. It’s the interwoven stories of a Son waiting to hear his master – the voice of his god – speak and give him purpose, and an Imperial warrior rising through the ranks in blood and violence without finding any meaning in his life.

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Spear of the Emperor – Aaron Dembski-Bowden

The first novel in a new series, Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s Spear of the Emperor explores the grim realities of life for the defenders of Elara’s Veil, in Imperium Nihilus. Over a century after the Great Rift, the Imperium sends Amadeus Kaias Incarius of the Mentor Legion to assess the status of Elara’s Veil’s defences. The Star Scorpions are long gone, the Celestial Lions crippled, so the Spears of the Emperor hold the line almost alone. Despite a cold welcome from the Spears, Amadeus recognises that there’s no way back to the Imperium, so resolves to stay and fight, and help the Spears however he can.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Thirteenth Psalm – Peter Fehervari

A typically complex and compelling 40k story from Peter Fehervari, The Thirteenth Psalm takes a closer look than ever before at the Angels Penitent as Chaplain Castigant Bjargo Rathana and his brothers seek out an artefact from their past. On the frozen, rebellion-wracked world of Oblazt, while exploring the decadent halls of a noblewoman’s seemingly undefended estate, Rathana and his brothers at last find the object of their search. In doing so they endure trials of the soul which test their commitment to the Chapter’s ideals, and force Rathana to question even his own purity, and the consequences of his past deeds.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Merchant’s Story (At the Sign of the Brazen Claw Part Two) – Guy Haley

This is the first story featured in Inferno! Volume 2.

In The Merchant’s Story, the second instalment of Guy Haley’s five-part Age of Sigmar serial At the Sign of the Brazen Claw, it’s the turn of duardin Idenkor Stonbrak to regale his impromptu companions with a story from his past. Stonbrak hails from Ulgu, the Realm of Shadows, and his is a tale of duardin business and aelven trickery, of miraculous craft and debts not paid on time. It is a sad story of misty Barak Gorn where once a duardin craftsman was commissioned by a grey aelf to craft a necklace fit for a princess, with tragic consequences.

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