Category Archives: Article

Monthly Highlights – December 2018

It seems like only yesterday that I was writing my first Monthly Highlights post, looking back at the stories that I’d read and listened to in January 2018 – but somehow it’s the very end of 2018 and I’m now looking back to choose my highlights for December! It’s hard to believe that 2019 is so close! I’ve spent a lot of December reading and listening to the various stories released as part of Black Library’s annual Advent Calendar collection, but I’ve talked a lot about those stories elsewhere so I’ve deliberately chosen three different stories for this month’s top picks.

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Black Library Advent Calendar 2018 – Recap

We’ve reached the very end of 2018, and now that the Black Library Advent Calendar has finished for another year, I’m taking my usual look back at what the series contained and whether there’s anything we can extrapolate from what’s been included. As with previous years I’m not going to go into too much detail about each story in this article, as you can check out links to all of my reviews by clicking here. Instead I’m going to have a look at each of the different settings in turn, and think about things as a whole.

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Inferno! Volume 2 – in the Authors’ Words

After many years in the wilderness, September 2018 saw the return of Inferno! to Black Library, with a new format – a paperback anthology instead of the old magazine format – and a load of cool new stories. I celebrated this momentous occasion with an article in which I took a quick look at each of the stories in Inferno! Volume 1, and also asked the authors to give a little insight into their stories and how it felt to be included in this new anthology. Fast forward a few months and the second instalment of the new Inferno! is now available to order, so I felt it was only appropriate to put together something similar.

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Monthly Highlights – November 2018

Welcome to another Monthly Highlights post on Track of Words, where I’m taking a look back at what I’ve been reading and listening to over the last month and pulling out a few top picks. It’s almost the end of 2018 (somehow!) and the Black Library release schedule is showing no signs of relenting, so it’s perhaps not surprising that all three of my choices for November are BL stories – I’ve gone for two novels (although I’m cheating a bit with one as I’ve read it but not yet reviewed it) and an audio drama…and what an audio drama it is! To be fair, all three of these stories are pretty damn spectacular, and I’m confident that most Black Library fans will enjoy each and every one of them as much as I did.

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Black Library Advent Calendar 2018

December has come round once again, which means it’s time for the 2018 Black Library Advent Calendar! As is the Black Library tradition, there’s going to be 24 days of Black Library fiction in the run up to Christmas, with a new* short story or audio drama revealed each day. This year it’s mostly short stories, with just six of the tales coming in as audio dramas (compared to 10 audios in 2017), and things are split across 40k (including Blackstone Fortress!), Age of Sigmar, Necromunda and the Horus Heresy.

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Upcoming Black Library Titles (as of November 2018)

Every so often I’ll trawl the internet to put together a roundup of all the information I can find about upcoming Black Library releases. It’s been a while since I last did one of these posts, so I thought it was about time for another – this time I’m looking at releases from the middle of November onwards, and I’ve pulled information from the Coming Soon section of the Black Library website, information provided at the Black Library Weekender (and the Warhammer Community post covering that), and elsewhere online.

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The Black Library Weekender 2018 – Roundup

It’s the week after the Black Library Weekender, and I’m slowly catching up on life and processing all of the fun and excitement of two days spent absorbed in the worlds of Black Library and Warhammer. As usual after one of these events, I want to talk a bit about how it all went, so in this article I’ll try to provide an overview of the Weekender as a whole as well as a few highlights of the seminars I attended, and the news and information I gathered (at least, all that I can remember!). I’ll do my best to be concise, but there’s going to be lots to talk about because it was another phenomenal Weekender!

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Monthly Highlights – October 2018

Another month has rolled by, and we’re somehow into November already. As usual I want to take a look back at everything I’ve read and listened to in October and pick out a few highlights, the stories that have really stood out to me across the month. For this particular Monthly Highlights post I’ve gone for a novel, a short story anthology and a standalone short story, and while most of those selections are Black Library stories I’m going for something non-BL in there as well. I’ve read and listened to some really great stuff in October, but these were comfortable highlights.

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Black Library Weekender 2018 – A Survival Guide

The 2018 Black Library Weekender is rapidly approaching, and it promises to be a great weekend at the Nottingham Belfry (3rd and 4th November, in case you were wondering). I’ve been to all of the Black Library Weekenders so far, and a few of the Horus Heresy Weekenders too, so I’ve got a pretty good idea of what to expect – barring surprises, at least. There’s going to be a lot going on, and I find it’s usually best to try and plan ahead and get organised before the event kicks off. In this article I’m going to take a look at the sort of preparations you might want to think about, and offer some suggestions for how to get the most out of the event.

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One Thousand Posts on Track of Words

I can’t quite believe I’m writing this, but after four years and nine months of working on Track of Words this article is my 1,000th post! To celebrate that milestone, I asked around – in my reading/gaming group, and on Twitter – to see what sort of article might be of interest, and the resounding majority of responses asked for some form of retrospective looking back at the last few years of Track of Words, and my own history with Black Library and Warhammer. The people have spoken, and who am I to deny the will of the people?

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