Category Archives: Reviews

QUICK REVIEW: Death’s Head – Josh Reynolds

The first new Necromunda story from Black Library for over a decade, Josh Reynolds’ Death’s Head tells the tale of Topek Greel, an unusually literate young Goliath ganger sent on a dangerous initiation mission. Muscling his way to the dirty streets of Down Town, Greel is on the hunt for the legendarily lethal hired gun Lothar Hex – the Widwomaker – with instructions from his boss to return with Hex or not at all. Greel is savvier than most Goliaths, and he’s going to need all of his brawn and brains if he’s to survive his mission to find the Widowmaker.

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Embers of War – Gareth L. Powell

Book one in a trilogy of the same name, Gareth L. Powell’s Embers of War is the first instalment of an instantly familiar-feeling sci-fi story, a tale of sentient ships and down-at-heel characters in the aftermath of a terrible war. Captain Sal Konstanz and the crew of the Trouble Dog race to the site of a downed ship, among whose passengers is someone of surprising importance to both sides of the war. Members of the humanitarian House of Reclamation, the Trouble Dog and its crew are on a rescue mission, but they soon find themselves tangled in something much more complex and dangerous.

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Wolfsbane – Guy Haley

Book 49 in the Horus Heresy series, Wolfsbane is a pretty-much-direct sequel to Vengeful Spirit and Wolf King, and also a lead-in to Weregeld from the Corax anthology. The Vlka Fenryka have returned to Terra, but are champing at the bit to take the fight to Horus. Sanguinius’ arrival in the Sol system prompts Leman Russ, against his brothers’ wishes, to take his battered and bloodied legion back to Fenris in an attempt to divine Horus’ weakness. Meanwhile in the Trisolian system, gateway to Beta-Garmon, a young and disruptive tech adept named Belisarius Cawl finds himself under unwelcome scrutiny from his superiors.

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QUICK REVIEW: Shattered Crucible – David Annandale

One of two David Annandale short stories first published in the Legends of the Age of Sigmar: Fyreslayers anthology, Shattered Crucible follows the Krelstrag Lodge as, guided by a vision of victory and an ancient oath, its armies set out on a perilous journey to bring their wrath to whatever enemies await. Leaving their isolated lodge and crossing molten ocean and Chaos-warped land in search of long-forgotten kin, the Fyreslayers are horrified at the decay and corruption they find all around as they’re tested in both body and spirit.

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Sons of the Emperor – Anthology

First released at the Horus Heresy & Necromunda Weekender in February 2018, Sons of the Emperor is a Horus Heresy Primarchs anthology comprising eight brand new short stories, one each from Dan Abnett, Aaron Dembski-Bowden, John French, LJ Goulding, Guy Haley, Nick Kyme, Graham McNeill and Gav Thorpe. These tales range from the earliest days of the Great Crusade to long after the end of the Heresy, each taking a different approach to representing one (or more) of the primarchs and their legionary sons. Featuring eleven primarchs and even the Emperor, chances are there’s a story here for every Heresy fan.

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Heirs of the Laughing God: A Deadly Wit – Gav Thorpe

A rare non-Imperial 40k audio drama, Gav Thorpe’s Heirs of the Laughing God: A Deadly Wit introduces the Masque of the Fading Dawn, a troupe of Harlequins led by the idiosyncratic Duruthiel, or the ‘Red Swan’ as he refers to himself. Despite the disapproval of his Death Jester companion Adroniel, Red Swan leads his troupe in a risky assault on the fortress of a powerful ork warlord. When the mission proves more dangerous, and the warlord more deadly, than he had anticipated, Duruthiel is forced to open up about the real reasons for choosing this particular, reckless mission.

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QUICK REVIEW: Misbegotten – Dan Abnett

Dan Abnett’s Misbegotten is a Primarchs short story set just prior to the Ullanor campaign, in which Horus joins Captain Hastur Sejanus to see out the bitter end of a grinding compliance action. Where other systems have welcomed the Imperium with open arms, Velich Tarn resists with deadly force, its tiny population utilising horrifying biomechanical constructs in battle against the Lunar Wolves. To Sejanus it’s a blot against the record of the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet, but Horus believes he sees the root of what would drive someone to fight so hard against an Imperium promising hope for mankind.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Ancient Awaits – Graham McNeill

In Graham McNeill’s Primarchs short story The Ancient Awaits, set centuries after the Heresy, a trio of Thousand Sons are commanded by Magnus the Red to seek out the source of a faint prophetic vision. Eventually reaching a barren, unnamed world Vistario and his brothers find the remnants of a city long destroyed, beneath which waits the origin of the faint psychic beacon which has drawn them inevitably across time and space. Venturing down beneath the ruined city they find the truth of what happened to the devastated world, and an unexpected presence.

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QUICK REVIEW: Prince of Blood – LJ Goulding

There’s more to the World Eaters than the Butcher’s Nails, and in Prince of Blood LJ Goulding explores the strange relationship they have with their primarch in a dark companion piece to Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s Heart of the Conqueror. To the exhausted crew of the Conqueror the presence of daemon Angron is affecting the very nature of the ship and their difficult existence, while to Khârn the impact cuts deeper, to the heart of his identity. Seeking out Angron in the bowels of the ship, he risks everything in a desperate attempt to connect with what’s left of his primarch.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Emperor’s Architect – Guy Haley

A companion piece to the Primarchs novel Hammer of Olympia, Guy Haley’s short story The Emperor’s Architect is an interleaved tale combining glimpses of Perturabo’s earliest days with a Crusade-era story of two Remembrancers attempting to write the definitive history of the Iron Warriors’ primarch. Until now the Lord of Iron’s story began on the Phyrgean cliffs, but here we see Perturabo’s first days on Olympia and his earliest, almost-forgotten interactions with humans. Meanwhile Olivier and Marissa LeBon’s unusual mission provides a personal drama tackling faith, relationship troubles and different perspectives on the truth as they delve into Perturabo’s complex and challenging character.

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