Category Archives: Reviews

Traitor’s Gorge – Mike Lee

Mike Lee’s Space Marine Battles novella Traitor’s Gorge picks up where Steve Parker’s Rynn’s World leaves off, with Pedro Kantor left leading a pitiful number of Crimson Fists once Rynn’s World is relieved and Snagrod’s ork hordes driven off. With the Imperial reinforcements long gone, it’s left to Kantor to wipe out the last remaining pockets of orks – a dangerous task, but one the vengeance-hungry Crimson Fists approach with relish. Bringing one such group to battle at Traitor’s Gorge, Kantor doesn’t realise the trap he’s fallen into until it’s too late, but help is on hand from an unexpected quarter.

Keep reading…

Rynn’s World – Steve Parker

The very first Space Marine Battles novel, published back in 2010, Steve Parker’s Rynn’s World kicked the series off in style with an action-packed story of Crimson Fists battling a vast ork invasion. Despite the apparent folly of attacking a Space Marine home world, the Arch-Arsonist Snagrod’s unusual tactics surprise the Crimson Fists, resulting in huge numbers of orks landing onto Rynn’s World. When a million-to-one accident sees the Fists’ ancient and treasured fortress-monastery destroyed and the majority of their warriors slain, a determined defence turns into a desperate fight for the survival of the Chapter itself.

Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW: Where Icathia Once Stood – Graham McNeill

Conquered long ago by the Shuriman Sun Empress, the Kingdom of Icathia has for a thousand years desired its freedom from Shurima. In his short story Where Icathia Once Stood, Graham McNeill tells the story of Icathia’s long-awaited uprising, the brutal response from Shurima’s vast armies, and the lengths the Icathians were prepared to go to for freedom and survival. Told through the eyes of Axamuk, a young artisan-turned-soldier, it’s a nonlinear narrative that both details the events and repercussion of the uprising, and illustrates one man’s very personal response to what takes place and what it ends up meaning.

Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW: Rise – Ben Counter

Ben Counter’s short story Rise is a modern Black Library tale with an old-school feel, a quest story where the final goal isn’t necessarily what the protagonist thinks it’s going to be. Skanis is a kabalite down amongst the blood and darkness of Commorragh, who commissions a haemonculus to sculpt him into a new form – that of a winged Scourge – so that he can rise above his old life and start again. Waking to an unfamiliar body, he ascends through the myriad dangers of a Commorite spire intending to reach the pinnacle and leap into the unknown, free and complete.

Keep reading…

Agent of the Throne: Truth and Dreams – John French

The second audio drama in John French’s Agent of the Throne series, part of the wider Horusian Wars arc, Truth and Dreams once again finds Ianthe in reflective mood as she relates the tale of another mission. This time she’s on the trail of Silas Norn, a rogue psyker capable of horrifying manipulation if he can get close enough to touch. When her hunt results in both Ianthe and Norn being imprisoned in the same high-security facility it becomes a contest of wills as much as anything, between the powerful Norn and the ferociously driven, determined Ianthe.

Keep reading…

Ferrus Manus: Gorgon of Medusa

Book seven in Black Library’s Primarchs series of short novels, David Guymer’s Ferrus Manus: Gorgon of Medusa provides a rare long-form glimpse of the Iron Hands’ primarch. In the middle stages of the Great Crusade, when three primarchs are still to be found and rumours of the Emperor’s future plans are just beginning to circulate, the Iron Hands and Emperor’s Children are performing joint exercises when they hear of the 413th Fleet’s difficulties bringing the Gardinaal empire to compliance. Instead of waiting for reinforcements, Ferrus decides to take Gardinaal himself and send a statement to his brothers and father.

Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW: Regia Occulta – Dan Abnett

Originally released in audio drama form as part of Thorn and Talon, Dan Abnett’s short story Regia Occulta sees a young Eisenhorn, not long qualified as a full inquisitor, working as a sort of temporary travelling magistrate-slash-investigator. Stranded on the dreary world of Ignix, he braves the weather and the strange electrical storms to investigate a series of killings which at first have all the hallmarks of cult activity. It quickly becomes apparent that the culprit is not a cult after all, but Eisenhorn’s continuing investigation proves dangerous all the same.

Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW: Of Rats and Cats and Neon Mice – Ariel Lawrence

In Ariel Lawrence’s League of Legends short story Of Rats and Cats and Neon mice, down in the depths of Piltover enforcer Vi is having a tough first day on her new job. Tasked with investigating the killing of a back-alley doctor, despite her new partner’s disapproval Vi heads straight to the scene of the crime, keen to get her gauntlets dirty. Who and what she finds there draws her into an unexpected alliance and a trip down amongst the dirt and the desperate masses to the Heap, for a confrontation with a deadly foe.

Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW: Flayed – Cavan Scott

Cavan Scott’s short story Flayed, originally published in the Black Library Anthology 2013/14, is a tale of an ordinary Imperial citizen caught in the middle of a conflict between two horrifying foes. As necron Flayed Ones rampage through her township, Alundra races to find her brother and try to escape the carnage. Though grim Space Marines of the Death Spectres intercede on behalf of the Imperium, to Alundra and her brother there’s little to choose between the two forces, and it’s unclear quite why the Death Spectres are there and what they want.

Keep reading…

Malleus – Dan Abnett

Published the very same year as the seminal Xenos, Dan Abnett’s second Eisenhorn novel – Malleus – is set a hundred or so years after the conclusion of the Necroteuch affair. Following a near-death experience at the hands of Beldame Sadia, Eisenhorn reluctantly returns to his estate on Thracian Primaris to join a great celebration taking place. When disaster strikes during the Triumph, Eisenhorn sets out to discover the culprits, but despite his best intentions he begins to find that his reputation has been tarnished by his association – such as it is – with the daemonhost Cherubael.

Keep reading…