Category Archives: Reviews

QUICK REVIEW: Argent – Chris Wraight

Originally released as part of the event-only Black Library Live! 2016 chapbook alongside A Memory of Tharsis by Josh Reynolds, Chris Wraight’s Argent is an Inquisition short story that links in with his excellent novel Vaults of Terra: The Carrion Throne. In it, Interrogator Luce Spinoza tells a tale of joining the Imperial Fists in an assault on a traitor-held hive, during which her perception of the Angels of Death is profoundly affected. Fighting alongside the Fists as part of a wider mission to cleanse the hive, she faces both the horror of corruption and the ferocity of the Space Marines’ ardent faith.
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QUICK REVIEW: A Memory of Tharsis – Josh Reynolds

Currently only published in the Black Library Live! 2016 chapbook (alongside Argent by Chris Wraight), Josh Reynolds’ short story A Memory of Tharsis sees Fabius Bile paying a visit to Lady Spohr, Magos-Queen of the forge world Quir, to make a trade. He needs her services to repair his ancient medicae equipment in order for him to continue his grand work, but if he’s to succeed he knows he will have to offer her something new and unique. If he fails to provide something suitable he might not survive the visit, but he has something up his (rather disturbing) sleeve.
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QUICK REVIEW: The Road of Blades – Josh Reynolds

Day four of Black Library’s Advent Calendar sees the first Age of Sigmar story, in the shape of The Road of Blades by Josh Reynolds. Tying in loosely with his Black Rift novel and setting things up for the upcoming The Eight Lamentations, it follows Ahazian Kel, Deathbringer of Khorne, as he searches for the Road of Blades that will lead him further on his path to claiming ever more powerful weapons. Constantly being tested as he strives to prove himself in the eyes of the Blood God, he uses both his strength and his wits on the perilous journey.
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QUICK REVIEW: Into Exile – Aaron Dembski-Bowden

Day three of Black Library’s 2016 Advent Calendar takes us back to the Horus Heresy with Into Exile by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, in which technoarchaologist Arkhan Land finds himself caught up in the rebellion on Mars. With the red planet burning around him and enemies keen to either capture or kill him, Land has to abandon his home and put his faith in the Imperial Fists to see him safely off the surface. His flight is not unopposed however, as a hunter is on his trail, and even his vaunted intellect can’t protect him.
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QUICK REVIEW: The Maiden of the Dream – John French

Day two of Black Library’s 2016 Advent Calendar brings us The Maiden of the Dream by John French, the second ‘story of the Horusian Wars’ after The Purity of Ignorance. The titular Maiden is Mylasa, a powerful psyker who, as one of Inquisitor Covenant’s acolytes, uses her gifts to interrogate prisoners of the Inquisition and purge their memories. Can she be trusted, however? Beneath the accumulated memories ripped from the minds of others, is her soul still pure? Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW: Perpetual – Dan Abnett

It’s day one of Black Library’s 2016 Advent Calendar, and the first story is Perpetual by Dan Abnett, a Horus Heresy audio drama. Continuing the story of Oll Persson, first introduced in Know No Fear, it picks up where the short story Unmarked (in Mark of Calth) left off with Oll and his companions journeying through time and space in search of Terra, only now they’re becalmed, unable to go forward. Time is passing – not normally an issue for a Perpetual, but with his mission to complete and dangerous foes in pursuit, Oll knows he will have to find a way to keep moving eventually…
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The Beheading – Guy Haley (The Beast Arises Book Twelve)

This is the final book in the series, so beware – if you haven’t read all of the other eleven books, there may be spoilers ahead…

Black Library’s The Beast Arises series comes to an end with book twelve, Guy Haley’s The Beheading. After the heroics of Shadow of Ullanor the Imperium is still reeling and in need of leadership, but the High Lords of Terra have proved themselves unequal to the task. Elsewhere First Captain Zerberyn and Warsmith Kalkator are still battling against the orks, while back on Terra, Inquisitors Wienand and Veritus are laying plans against the ambitions of Grand Master Vangorich. All the while, Chapter Master Thane of the reformed Imperial Fists seems the obvious candidate to lead the Imperium forward…
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Sons of Titan – David Annandale

A compilation of four Grey Knights stories, David Annandale’s Sons of Titan tells a single story over four different tales, all featuring Justicar Styer. It combines together the previously-released novella Maledictus and the prose versions of two audio dramas (Incorruptible and True Name) along with a short story currently only available in this book (The Mourning Tower). Set in and around the Sanctus Reach system, and tying loosely in with other stories set therein, it sees Styer leading his men alongside Inquisitor Furia, following the strands of fate to try and put a stop to worryingly vague daemonic threats.
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The Master of Mankind – Aaron Dembski-Bowden

The clue is in the title. Book forty-one of Black Library’s colossal Horus Heresy series, Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s The Master of Mankind brings The Emperor front and centre. Set five years after Magnus the Red’s intrusion into the Great Work it sees the forces of the Imperium losing the webway war against the endless hordes of daemons and traitors pouring in. Even the combined might of the Custodes, Sisters of Silence and the Mechanicum isn’t enough to avoid being them pushed ever further backwards, as long as The Emperor remains away from the front lines. Meanwhile something stalks the fringes of the conflict, unseen.
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QUICK REVIEW: Manglers Never Lose – Josh Reynolds

The release of a brand new edition of Blood Bowl provides a perfect opportunity for Black Library to produce accompanying stories, the first of which is Manglers Never Die by Josh Reynolds. When Middenplatz Manglers star player Marius Hertz is found dead on the morning of a crucial game, head coach Tyros Bundt turns to necromancy in order to avoid forfeiting the match. In the bonkers world of Blood Bowl that isn’t even the craziest thing to happen in this story!
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