Category Archives: Article

40k Reading Order: Ultramarines and Iron Warriors – Graham McNeill

Welcome to this 40k Reading Order article, where today I’m actually looking at two series which intersect and overlap, both by Graham McNeill, as part of an ongoing set of articles in which I’m providing recommended orders for various Black Library series. The Ultramarines series – (mostly) featuring Uriel Ventris – and the Iron Warriors series – featuring Warsmith Honsou – can be read separately, but fit together brilliantly to form one larger whole, and between them they include almost 30 stories. Graham has kindly provided his suggested (in-universe chronological) reading order for the whole lot, so if you’ve ever wanted to read these series but haven’t known where to start, look no further than this article!

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Aconyte Books Roundup: April 2021

Welcome to my latest Aconyte Books roundup, where I’m taking a look at a couple of brand new novels alongside a recap of the last couple of month’s releases. April brings with it a pair of brilliant-sounding new books – the latest Arkham Horror novel, and the first full KeyForge novel – which between them, if my maths is right (not a certainty), take the total number of published books from Aconyte up to 20! Huge congratulations to all the team at Aconyte for hitting this landmark, and doing it during a pandemic too! I say this every time, but if you haven’t yet taken the plunge and checked out some of the brilliant books Aconyte are publishing, I would really recommend you remedy that very soon…

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Monthly Roundup – March 2021

Welcome to my Monthly Roundup for March 2021, here on Track of Words. For me, March was one of those strange months that seemed to both go on for ages, and fly past rapidly – weird. I’ve mostly settled into my posting schedule of four per week (albeit I only managed three, one week), which continues to keep me feeling busy but in a manageable way, but I had a couple of tough weeks where I really struggled to get into reading. I’ll talk a bit more later about why and what I did to get my head back in the right place, but suffice to say I did actually end up reading plenty, and I think I’m back on the right track now.

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40k Reading Order: Sister Augusta – Danie Ware

Welcome to this 40k Reading Order article, where this time I’m taking a look at Danie Ware’s Sister Augusta series of Adepta Sororitas stories. This is part of an ongoing set of articles where I’m looking at a range of Black Library series and providing recommended orders in which to read the various stories. At the time of writing there are three novellas, one novel and a range of short stories available in the Sister Augusta series, and with a little help from Danie I’ve put together two reading lists – one for a recommended reading order, and one for the chronological (in-universe) order in which the stories take place. If you’ve ever wanted to read this series but haven’t known where to start, then look no further than this article!

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40k Reading Order: Silver Skulls – Sarah Cawkwell

Welcome to this 40k Reading Order article, the first of many where I’ll be taking a look at a range of Black Library series and providing recommended orders in which to read the various stories – in this case Sarah Cawkwell’s excellent Warhammer 40,000 Silver Skulls stories. If you’ve ever wanted to read this series but haven’t known where to start, then look no further than this article! With a little help from Sarah, including a handy page on her website, I’ve put together a comprehensive list of all of her Silver Skulls stories, along with a couple of other stories that link off at a bit of a tangent and some suggestions for what to read next.

As well as the recommended reading order, I’ve also included a breakdown of each story with the publisher’s synopsis, suggestions of the best way to get hold of each one, and links out to my review where they’re available.

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3 Wishes for the Black Library Celebration 2022

The annual Black Library Celebration has been running since 2018, an event which in the words of Warhammer Community offers a chance to “celebrate your passion for the fiction of the Warhammer universes”. It’s a great idea in principle, using Games Workshop stores (when they’re not all shut due to Covid) and the Warhammer Community site to bring the Black Library community together – readers, authors, and everyone involved in the community. Every year, however, I find myself disappointed that instead of actually celebrating the breadth of storytelling on offer across BL fiction or the incredible work that goes into writing these stories, this event is basically just an opportunity to release a bunch of new 40k books all on the same day, along with a new Games Workshop miniature of a BL character.

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Monthly Roundup – February 2021

Welcome to my Monthly Roundup for February. 2021 continues to be a bizarre year, but February seemed to fly past at speed and I can’t quite believe it’s March already! Over the last two months my Track of Words output has settled down to roughly four posts per week (give or take) which I think is about right, and February certainly felt busy in terms of writing but not crazily so. On the reading front, I got through a dozen books over the course of the month – I’ll talk a little bit later about some of the highlights from those books, but spending time reading and listening to audiobooks has really helped me stay sane of late! I hope you all had as good a February as possible under the circumstances…

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Black Library: Age of Sigmar Grand Alliances

If you’re familiar with Warhammer Age of Sigmar then you’ll probably know that in the game at least, the various armies are grouped loosely into four Grand Alliances – Chaos, Death, Destruction and Order – each containing a range of different factions and races, not all of which always see eye to eye. Recently I got to wondering about how this concept is represented in Black Library fiction, and whether I could think of one standout book for each Grand Alliance – one thing led to another, and the end result is this article. I’ve picked out four Age of Sigmar books that I’ve really enjoyed, and I’ll talk a bit about why each one is – in my opinion – the best place to start (so far) with its Grand Alliance.

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Found Family and the Characters of First Team – Robbie MacNiven Guest Post

Hello and welcome to the latest guest post here on Track of Words, where today I’ve got the fantastic Robbie MacNiven on board to talk about the characters and one of the main themes in his new X-Men novel First Team. The second instalment in the Marvel: Xavier’s Institute series from Aconyte Books, First Team is due to be published in global ebook and US paperback on the 2nd March, with the UK paperback following on the 15th April. To start things off, check out the cool cover art for First Team – by the talented Anastasia Bulgakova – and then take a look at the book’s synopsis.

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A Guide to Dan Abnett’s Inquisition Series

Dan Abnett’s trilogy of Inquisition trilogies – the Eisenhorn, Ravenor and Bequin novels – are among the best that Black Library has ever published, and certainly some of my personal favourites. With the upcoming release of Penitent, the second Bequin novel, there are now more than twenty individual stories across the overarching Inquisition series, with the nine novels (with at least one more still to come) accompanied by a dozen or so short stories. As with many Black Library series, the tricky part is knowing where to start if you’re keen to check out these stories, or where to go next if you’ve read some of them and are keen for more!

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