Category Archives: Reviews

A Darker Shade of Magic – V.E. Schwab

Book one in the Shades of Magic series, V.E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic is a delightful, instantly engaging adventure story in a fantasy setting of linked worlds and blood magic. Each world is unique, but connected by a common factor – they each contain a city called London on the same spot, cities which were once linked freely but can now only be moved between by a tiny handful of individuals known as Antari. Kell, one of the last remaining Antari, is a risk taker – when luck catches up with him he finds himself trapped in the only London without magic of its own.

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QUICK REVIEW: Whispers – Alec Worley

Alec Worley’s third Black Library short story, Whispers sees the Adepta Sororitas in action, responding to the summons of missionary Marcus Amouris to a backwater world whose tribes he hopes to bring into the fold of the Imperium. Something has been hunting the tribespeople and Amouris needs it removing but as he and the Sisters of Battle, led by Dominion Superior Adamanthea, venture into the deep forests and reach the City of Whispers, his assertion that it’s merely a dangerous indigenous predator is quickly challenged.

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Forgotten Texts: Birth of a Legend by Gav Thorpe

“A small gift hardly compares to the life of a Dwarf King, now does it?”

Gav Thorpe’s first ever Black Library story, first published twenty years ago, Birth of a Legend is an old-school Warhammer story featuring an early incarnation of one of the setting’s greatest characters. When King Kurgan and his retainers are captured by the Orc warlord Vagraz Head-Stomper, things look bleak for the Dwarfs. That is, until the local human huntsmen arrive to investigate the intrusion into their territory, led by a young man with a powerful destiny. Determined to drive them off and free the Dwarf captives, he leads his men into battle against the Orcs…and the rest is history.

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Viking Fire – Justin Hill

A sweeping story of adventure, danger and drama, Justin Hill’s Viking Fire is a novelisation of historical events – the story of Harald Hardrada, from his youth in Norway to his invasion of England in 1066. It’s a wide-ranging story spanning the majority of Harald’s life and moving across large swathes of the continent as Harald pursues his fate, from the fjords of Norway to the warm seas of the Mediterranean. Along the way he fights on land and sea, meets Kings, Emperors and Empresses, wins hearts and loses friends; he’s driven to survive and succeed, and realise his ambitious dreams.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Volturung Road – Guy Haley

First published within the Fyreslayers anthology before getting the standalone ebook treatment, Guy Haley’s Age of Sigmar short story The Volturung Road has one foot in the Mortal Realms and the other back in the World That Was. As the Slaanesh-worshippers’ siege of his family’s hold approaches its one hundred and first year, runeson Ulgathern grows increasingly concerned, fearing that a prophecy deemed unreliable by most is coming to fruition. When tragedy strikes and his personal circumstances change, he sets out towards the Volturung lodge to reach his people’s ancestral home and escape the fate he sees approaching.

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QUICK REVIEW: Restorer – Chris Wraight

Day Seven of 2017’s Black Library Summer of Reading campaign

Chris Wraight’s White Scars stories are rightly acknowledged as some of the best in the Horus Heresy, but if you thought that arc was over after The Path of Heaven, the short story Restorer is a reminder that their story isn’t finished. Entirely spoilerific if you’re not up to speed with events – be warned – it sees Shiban Khan back on Terra, attempting to recover both physically and psychologically from the various traumas he’s suffered since Prospero. Taking in the corridors of the Imperial Palace and the wilds of pre-Siege Terra, it’s a story of reflection and atmosphere as much as action.

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QUICK REVIEW: Pride and Fall – Ian St. Martin

Day Six of 2017’s Black Library Summer of Reading campaign

Lucius the Eternal – the guy who, any time he’s killed and his killer takes satisfaction in the act, comes back to life in a rather gruesome fashion. How does that work if he’s not killed by a person, but rather a thing? That’s the question asked by Ian St. Martin in his short story Pride and Fall, an unusual and unexpectedly horrifying tale set relatively early on in Lucius’ eternal-ness. Without giving too much away, much to Lucius’ surprise he meets his temporary end not at the hands of a mighty warrior, but in an altogether more humble way. Continue reading

QUICK REVIEW: Auction of Blood – Josh Reynolds

Day Five of 2017’s Black Library Summer of Reading campaign

The book trade is a dangerous business, at least in Josh Reynolds’ Age of Sigmar short story Auction of Blood. Palem Bok, bookseller and spy, is tasked with attending an auction of rare items and acquiring what turns out to be a remarkably dangerous artefact for his mistress, the Mortarch Neferata. Danger abounds in the streets and houses of Greywater Fastness, and in order to complete his mission Bok must exercise all of the caution, judgement and skill a bookseller needs, along with a judicious serving of violence and death.

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QUICK REVIEW: Death Warrant – Robbie MacNiven

Day Four of 2017’s Black Library Summer of Reading campaign

The third in a growing series of stories featuring the Carcharadon Astra, Death Warrant sees Robbie MacNiven continue to explore this most unusual of Space Marine chapters. Two months after landing on the jungle moon of Terix IX, Rogue Trader Anjelika Trayn and her crew are getting close to finding what they came for, when the unexpected appearance of a force of terrifying grey-clad Space Marines changes everything. Journeying alongside the Carcharadons into the depths of an ancient temple whose guardians are slowly rousing, Trayn learns that even her Warrant of Trade can’t protect her from some things.

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QUICK REVIEW: Shadows of Heaven – Gav Thorpe

Day Three of 2017’s Black Library Summer of Reading campaign

Labelled as part of the Rise of the Ynnari series, Gav Thorpe’s short story Shadows of Heaven takes the character of Aradryan from the novel Path of the Outcast and brings him up to date in the new 40k setting. Now a Guardian of Alaitoc, he takes his place in the craftworld’s armies as they defend an Imperial world against a common enemy – the Black Legion. Troubled by memories of his previous paths and his fear of the eldar afterlife, he hopes to find clarity of purpose in the fires of battle.

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