Category Archives: Reviews

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.

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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.

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QUICK REVIEW: Master Imus’ Transgression – Dan Abnett

One of three Inquisition stories originally released as audio dramas (in Thorn and Talon) before the prose versions were made available, Dan Abnett’s Master Imus’ Transgression is a short story in which we see Eisenhorn in his youth, still an interrogator under inquisitor Hapshant. Master Imus, a quiet and honest man dedicated to his life as a book-keeper, comes to Eisenhorn to confess his unwitting involvement in an unusual crime – or a transgression, as he puts it. What seems at first to be a strange, inconsequential confession turns out to reveal something much more sinister beneath.

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QUICK REVIEW: Pestilence – Dan Abnett

Originally published in the 2001 reprint of the Deathwing anthology, Dan Abnett’s short story Pestilence is a slowly-unfurling mystery set to the backdrop of an astonishingly virulent plague wracking Imperial worlds. As Uhlren’s Pox rampages through the Genovingia system, Lemuel Sark – a recollector, tasked with researching long-buried medical knowledge – is one of many sent out to look for a cure. Travelling to an isolated hospice in search of a survivor of a similar contagion – ominously named the Torment – Sark gradually uncovers the horrifying truth of what happened amidst the broken remnants of so many shattered lives.

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QUICK REVIEW: Mercy – Danie Ware

For her first Black Library story, Danie Ware gives us Mercy – a Sisters of Battle short story in which Sister Superior Augusta leads her squad to a distant corner of Ultima Segmentum to investigate an ancient, ruined cathedral. Rumoured to contain an icon of her own Order, the cathedral is a powerful symbol that appeals to Augusta’s faith, but that faith is soon tested when it becomes clear that the Sisters are not alone. Orkish brutality meets fury and discipline as the Sisters fiercely defend the cathedral, while Augusta begins to wonder what the orks are actually doing there.

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Knightsblade – Andy Clark

The second novel in Andy Clark’s Imperial Knights series, Knightsblade follows on from the excellent Kingsblade, picking up events several years later. Luk Kar Chimaeros, now known as the Knight of Ashes, hunts his stepmother Alicia Kar Manticos from system to system alongside a small band of fellow exiles. Danial Tan Draconis, meanwhile, rules Adrastapol as High King, working to bring the three remaining noble Houses together and help his world to flourish. When he learns of a great danger threatening Adrastapol, Luk puts his quest aside and risks much to return home and fight alongside his former comrades.

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The Thunder of Madness – David Annandale

One of six monster vs monster novellas edited by Josh Reynolds and James Bojaciuk as part of a series called Cryptid Clash, David Annandale’s The Thunder of Madness offers a dark, unsettling throwdown between the Beast of Dean (a dirty great boar) and a tatzelwurm (a horrifying cat/lizard hybrid). It’s 1917 and while the Great War is engulfing continental Europe, in Gloucestershire two brilliant women – Miriam and Ingrid – are preparing to tap into the powerful ley lines running through the Forest of Dean. Meanwhile in Austria, Edgar Richter sets out on a perilous journey to bring a tatzelwurm into England. When it arrives, blood will flow and sparks will fly.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Tau’va – Andy Smillie

Andy Smillie’s The Tau’va is a very short story that follows on from The Kauyon, this time (briefly) exploring the T’au Empire’s driving philosophy of the Greater Good. Kal’va’s actions (see the previous story) may have been performed with honour, but in seeking personal revenge he put his own desires before the Greater Good. To atone for his selfishness, he is tasked by one of the Ethereals with launching an all-out assault on a greenskin horde, spending his life in order to buy time for others to escape and survive.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Kauyon – Andy Smillie

Andy Smillie’s short story The Kauyon, originally released as an audio drama, takes its name from one of the T’au Empire’s tactical philosophies, otherwise known as the Patient Hunter. A single T’au sniper, Kal’va, stands against an entire armoured column of Imperials, desperate to seek revenge for the deaths of his bonded teammates. In order to survive long enough to succeed, Kal’va must use his wits and the advanced technology of the T’au to manipulate his enemies to exactly where he wants them. As much as his rifle and the drones he commands, patience and planning are his most important weapons.

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Storm of Iron – Graham McNeill

2002’s classic Iron Warriors novel Storm of Iron was Graham McNeill’s second Black Library novel, and introduced us to Honsou, a villain who would go on to feature heavily in future books. On the barren world of Hydra Cordatus, the 383rd Jouran Dragoons man the defences of an Adeptus Mechanicus fortress. Nobody seems quite sure exactly what they’re defending, but a massive invasion force of Iron Warriors suggests it’s something important. The Imperial defenders believe themselves safe behind formidable fortress walls, but the Iron Warriors bring 10,000 years of guile and brutality as well as their mastery of siegecraft.

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