Category Archives: Article

Monthly Roundup – January 2021

Welcome to my first Monthly Roundup of 2021, in which I’m taking a look back over what’s been going on with Track of Words this January! As usual I’ll link out to all of the reviews, interviews and blog articles that I’ve published over the last few weeks, and then talk a bit about the month as a whole. After two months of posting something every day at the end of 2020 (in fact I managed 73 days in a row) I’ve slowed back down to a comfortable four posts per week, which is roughly what I’m going to aim to maintain for the majority of 2021. I might throw in an extra post here and there (potentially in the week I’m publishing this article, in fact), and maybe try for one a day again in November and December, but for the most part I think this is going to be the shape of things to come.

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February 2021 Releases From Aconyte Books

February is here, so it’s time for me to take a quick look at the cool new novels being published this month by Aconyte Books – this time around we’ve got two new books, set in the worlds of Legend of the Five Rings and Descent: Journeys in the Dark! After last month’s extended article, with its recap of all of Aconyte’s 2020 releases, I’m back to the usual format again, so I’ll give you the publisher’s synopsis for the two new novels for February, talk a little bit about each of them, and link out to my author interviews for both books and a review for one of them. I’ve now read 11 of Aconyte’s novels, and they just keep turning out fantastic books – if you haven’t yet taken the plunge, I really can’t recommend them enough!

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A Guide to John French’s Ahriman Series

Regular readers of Track of Words will probably know how much of a fan I am of John French’s Warhammer 40,000 series of Ahriman stories. I remember reading Ahriman: Exile back in 2012 and just being blown away by the atmosphere, the storytelling and the depth of this intriguing character, and as the trilogy progressed it developed into one of my all-time favourite Black Library series. It might not be for everyone, but I just love the narrative complexity and the detail of these characters! There’s more to this series than just a trio of novels (and counting) though, and one of its strengths is the way the books are complemented by a host of additional short stories. The only problem is, it’s not necessarily easy to know where to start – so that’s where this article comes in!

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Cover Reveal: The Splinter King by Mike Brooks

Today I’m thrilled to reveal the amazing cover for Mike Brooks’ upcoming fantasy novel The Splinter King, book two in The God-King Chronicles, which is due to be published by Orbit on the 15th July 2021. It’s an unusual situation as the first book in the series – The Black Coast – isn’t out yet (it’s coming very soon, on the 18th February in the UK), but the way I see it this just means we’ve got TWO awesome new fantasy novels in this series to look forward to in 2021! Along with the cover itself, I spoke to Mike to get a few of his thoughts on the artwork and what we can expect from the series as a whole – so read on to find out more.

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Black Library: Getting Hold of Limited Editions

For many fans of Warhammer fiction, the swanky Limited Editions, Special Editions and Mega Editions that Black Library produces are must-have items, but actually getting hold of them before they’re all snapped up by other fans (or scalpers) can feel stressful and difficult. They are, after all, limited in number, with demand usually (if not always) exceeding supply, and so most of them tend to sell out very quickly. In this article I’m going to offer up some suggestions for what to do if you want to get your hands on one of these books, and how you can give yourself the best possible chance of success. I’m aiming this mostly at anyone who’s looking to get hold of their first LE, but even if you’re a long-term BL fan there might be something useful here for you to take away.

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Black Library: ‘New 40k’ Reading List

After decades of remaining more or less static, these days the Warhammer 40,000 setting is evolving before our eyes, and many of the new and upcoming novels from Black Library are helping to shed light on these new developments in the lore. It’s not always clear how the various stories fit into the ongoing timeline, however, and Black Library as usual doesn’t seem inclined to provide anything in the way of an official reading order. I’ve put together this reading list to try to fit together where all of the recent books go in the ‘new 40k’ timeline – it’s entirely unofficial, and I can’t guarantee that I’ll have got everything right, but hopefully it will be a useful resource to anyone interested in keeping up with Warhammer 40,000 fiction.

NOTE: until such time as BL produces an official resource, I’ll do my best to keep this reading list up to date with new releases as and when they’re published. This version of the article was created in January 2021, but I’ve added books in here and there along the way – the last minor update was in August 2022.

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Yearly Roundup: 2021 Goals

I’m not much of a fan of new year’s resolutions in general, but I do like to have goals to work towards, so in this third Yearly Roundup post – after my 2020 in Numbers and 2020 Highlights articles – I’m going to talk a bit about what I want to achieve for Track of Words in 2021. This is my eighth year running the site, and while there have been a few ups and downs along the way I’m grateful for all the enjoyment that I’ve got out of it so far. Hopefully I can continue to enjoy myself in 2021, and at the same time keep producing content that you can enjoy and appreciate.

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Aconyte Books – January 2021 Releases and 2020 Recap

It’s time for me to take a look at the cool new novels coming this month from Aconyte Books, but this time I’m doing something a little different, because it’s the start of not just a new year, but the second year that Aconyte have been publishing new books! As well as taking a look at the two new novels released today, I’m also going to include a quick recap of everything Aconyte published in 2020, split out by the various IPs/worlds that are featured. If you haven’t yet taken the plunge with Aconyte, this should be a great place to start – I’ll include links to all of my reviews and author interviews so you can find out more about anything that catches your eye.

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Yearly Roundup: 2020 Highlights

Last year I put together a few different Yearly Roundup posts for 2019, and I’m now doing the same for 2020 – I’ve already done a 2020 In Numbers article, and today it’s time to take a look back at some of my personal highlights from last year. Obviously 2020 was A YEAR so in some respects it feels weird to be talking about highlights, in light of all the madness that’s transpired recently. I think it’s important to look for positives though, rather than focusing on all the horrible stuff, especially as reading and working on Track of Words were two of the main things that got me through last year!

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Yearly Roundup: 2020 in Numbers

Another year gone by (and what a weird year it’s been), and it’s time once more to take a look back at another year of running Track of Words – my seventh year! I’m going to follow the pattern I started last year, of splitting things across several articles, starting with a look at some of the numbers for 2020 pulled from my website’s stats. I’ll take a look at the overall visitor numbers and give a quick breakdown of the content I published in 2020, then finish off with the most popular articles (across a few categories) on Track of Words over the last year. All being well, I’ll then take a look in a couple of separate articles at some specific highlights, referring back to the goals I set for 2020, and look ahead to what 2021 might hold.

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