Black Library’s Deathwatch serial continues with The Silence, Steve Lyons’ second contribution, in which Raven Guard Edryc Setorax puts his stealth skills to use on an eldar exodite world. Leaving his Deathwatch brothers to their own devices and infiltrating deep into enemy territory, he plys his lone (and deadly) trade in pursuit of intelligence on the enemy’s movements and the opportunity to strike a grave blow for the Imperium of Man.
Keep reading…
Black Library’s Space Wolves serial continues with Dark City, the fourth short story in the series and Steve Lyons’ second contribution. The Wolves’ original mission of finding Logan Grimnar has been put on hold as Krom Dragongaze has been captured and taken to Commoragh to fight for the amusement of its dark eldar residents, while Ulrik the Slayer launches an audacious rescue mission through the Webway in search of his captured brothers.
Keep reading…
The third story in the ongoing Space Wolves serial, Eye of the Dragon sees the reins handed over to Steve Lyons, who picks up where Ben Counter left off at the end of The Caged Wolf. Reinforced by the headstrong Krom Dragongaze, Ulrik the Slayer continues his quest to find the Great Wolf, the Wolves venturing into a ruined city in search of Grimnar. They soon find a new foe however, as Dark Eldar Raiders come between them and their hunt.
Keep reading…
Please note, if you haven’t read The Unremembered Empire then this review will contain spoilers.
Mysteriously numbered as 34 in Black Library’s Horus Heresy series despite Deathfire coming in at number 32, Pharos by Guy Haley continues the wider Imperium Secundus arc, picking up plotlines from Dan Abnett’s The Unremembered Empire as well as Haley’s own short story A Safe and Shadowed Place (from Death and Defiance). While the new Emperor Sanguinius sits uneasily upon the throne, Guilliman continues to tend to the Imperium Secundus with the aid of the alien artefact discovered on distant Sotha, as directed by the unlikely pairing of Barabas Dantioch and Alexis Polux. Meanwhile the Night Lords have been watching from the shadows, and choose their moment to launch an attack on Sotha.
Keep reading…
Since the introduction of the Age of Sigmar, Black Library’s Warhammer output has been mostly shorter format releases, in the shape of short stories, novellas and audio dramas. War Storm, book one of the Realmgate Wars series, is the first full-length novel to be released for Age of Sigmar, except…it isn’t. While it’s packaged as a single book, it is in fact three novellas combined into one volume, from Nick Kyme, Guy Haley and Josh Reynolds. Each novella follows a different Warrior Chamber of Stormcast Eternals in the early stages of Sigmar’s campaign to retake the mortal realms from the forces of Chaos.
Keep reading…
The second in the set of Black Library books released to coincide with the new Betrayal at Calth game, The Unburdened is the companion piece to Rob Sanders’ The Honoured and sees David Annandale delving into the darkness once more to tell the Word Bearers’ side of the story. Set primarily on Calth at the very beginning of the Underworld War, it actually takes things back much further to begin with, to Monarchia and the humbling of the Word Bearers by The Emperor and his XIIIth Legion. We meet Kurtha Sedd at a turning point in his life, taking his first steps on a path that will lead him to Calth and a fateful confrontation with Captain Aethon of the Ultramarines, a man he once called friend and brother.
Keep reading…
Released to accompany the new Betrayal at Calth Horus Heresy board game, Rob Sanders’ The Honoured is one half of a pair of short novels that tell the story behind the game, set on Calth in the aftermath of the Word Bearers’ surprise assault on Roboute Guilliman and his Ultramarines. As the Veridia star dies, irradiating the planet’s surface and forcing the remaining combatants of both sides underground, Ultramarines Captain Aethon rallies his troops in defence of what remains of Calth, facing off against his old friend Kurtha Sedd of the Word Bearers.
Keep reading…
With the Horus Heresy series at 30+ books and counting the last thing anyone expected Black Library to do was to start a brand new headline series, but that’s exactly what they’ve done, with Dan Abnett’s I Am Slaughter providing the opening book in a 12-strong series entitled The Beast Arises. Set after the Heresy but thousands of years before the main 40K timeline, with an Imperium essentially at peace, it sees almost the entire chapter of Imperial Fists in action on Ardamantua against the xenos Chromes. With the Fists fully occupied and Terra left unguarded, Grand Master Vangorich of the Officio Assassinorum watches and analyses the Imperial Senatorum, concerned about the petty politics which he believes risk the safety of the Imperium.
Keep reading…
After a break for the 24 stories in Black Library’s 2015 Advent Calendar, the Deathwatch series continues with part seven, in the form of City of Ruin by Ian St. Martin. When Rodricus Grytt of the Imperial Fists leads his squad to their deaths fighting to clear an Imperial system of orks, he readily accepts a commission in the Deathwatch as his own form of penance. The reckless Marine soon finds himself butting heads with his new squadmates as they launch a mission to rescue a captured member of the Navis Nobilite from the clutches of the invading orks.
Keep reading…
With Christmas over for another year, Black Library’s 2015 Advent Calendar has come to a close in a flurry of bolt shells and Tzeentchian spells. It’s been a little different this year with the combination of Black Library and Warhammer Digital, but as usual I’ve been concentrating on the fiction as opposed to the gaming supplements, and while the standard has been pretty good across the board I’d say that there has been a little bit of a sense of disappointment compared to 2014’s Advent Calendar.
Keep reading…