Track of Words

The Purge – Anthony Reynolds

Hot on the heels of the 30^th Horus Heresy book’s official release comes the latest limited edition novella – The Purge, by Anthony Reynolds. It’s the author’s first Heresy book, following on from a couple of short stories and an audio drama, and is a welcome return to his beloved Word Bearers. Some will undoubtedly wish for a non-limited release, but once again Black Library have produced a beautiful object complete with blood-stained cover and silver page edges. Is it worth the asking price? Irrelevant really, as for collectors and completionists it’s another piece of the Heresy puzzle.

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The Bone Season – Samantha Shannon

Fantasy books are all about escapism, and in order to transport the reader away from reality the best examples have vibrant, fully-realised worlds with complex, exciting structures and systems (be they magic, technology, religion and so on). With her first novel The Bone Season, Samantha Shannon shows that she’s a natural world builder, weaving together past, present and future England to create a compelling mixture of epic fantasy and dystopian future. Here we have a world of the near future, at once frozen in Victorian times and developed past today’s technology, populated with poltergeists, angels and monsters. Part of the population are ‘clairvoyants’ with cleverly realised abilities that are beyond the ken of others, and thus are shunned and persecuted for being different. Their whole world is built around the control of this social underclass, through segregation, propaganda and fear.

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Baneblade – Guy Haley

While tanks are obviously a hugely important (and entertaining) part of the Imperial Guard, a book solely about a tank is perhaps not the most exciting prospect. Thankfully then, Guy Haley’s Baneblade – despite the title – is very much a human story. Yes, in true 40k style we get to see a bit of the tank’s personality in terms of its machine spirit, but this is really a story about two men’s different viewpoints on and relationships with the tank.

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The Circle – Dave Eggers

Imagine if Google could provide all of your online needs – social media, communication, banking, entertainment, all in one place. No need for multiple passwords and user names, no need in fact to log in at all – your identity is linked indelibly with Google. Doesn’t that sound so much simpler and more convenient than what we have at the moment? Scale that up – think about global tracking to keep track of where your children are, or permanently-on video cameras keeping an eye on your house, your family, the things most previous to you. Sounds ideal, right?

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The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat – Oliver Sacks

For many of us the thought of suffering from any type of neurological disorder is enough to fill us with dread. Any loss of memory, mental facilities or awareness can be a terrifying prospect for ourselves, and heartbreaking to see in a loved one. Over many years of work, Dr Oliver Sacks has worked with patients suffering from a dizzying array of afflictions, from phantom limbs to Tourette’s, from visions and psychoses to autism and Parkinson’s. In this book from 1985 he tells the stories of a number of these patients in clear, human detail.

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Creativity, Inc – Ed Catmull

While Ed Catmull may not be a household name, chances are most of us will be familiar with the companies he runs. As co-founder of Pixar and president of both Pixar and Disney he provides the leadership for two of the most exciting, inspirational companies that exist today and is uniquely placed to give an insider’s insight into how these creative powerhouses tick. Creativity, Inc. draws upon his experiences with both of these companies to provide a fascinating, thought-provoking read that’s equal parts autobiography, history of Pixar and management bible.

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The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden – Jonas Jonasson

Like the ‘difficult second album’ effect that plagues so many successful bands, some authors face a tricky decision when writing their second novel – do they branch out and try something totally different from their successful first novel, or try to recapture what worked so well and stick to formula? In his follow up to the hugely successful ‘The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared’, Swedish author Jonas Jonasson has stuck pretty close to the formula that resulted in the delightfully absurd ‘Hundred Year Old Man…’ but just about manages not to simply repeat himself.

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Sedition’s Gate – Black Library Anthology

Released at the 2014 Horus Heresy Weekender as an event-exclusive anthology, Sedition’s Gate collects together short stories from five Black Library authors in a format to match the limited-edition Horus Heresy novellas. There is no overarching theme for these stories, so instead they each focus on a different snapshot of the Heresy, some focusing on familiar characters and others on brand new characters and story lines.

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Ravenlord – Gav Thorpe

As the seventh limited edition novella in the Horus Heresy range, the release of Gav Thorpe’s Ravenlord will no doubt prove a ripe topic for conversation among Black Library fans regarding cost versus value. Irrespective of price however, the great thing about the Horus Heresy novellas is that they bridge the gap between short stories and full novels, allowing authors to go into more detail on specific characters or engagements than they would be able to otherwise. With Ravenlord we get a second novella featuring Corvus Corax (after Corax : Soulforge), this time focusing on the Raven Guard’s assault on the prison planet of Carandiru.

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The Damnation of Pythos – David Annandale

The clue is in the title really – ‘Damnation of Pythos’. Not salvation, damnation. Given David Annandale’s love of horror films and monsters it should come as no surprise to find that his first novel in the Horus Heresy series is somewhat on the bleak side. For the 30^th novel in this every-growing series we find ourselves back with the Iron Hands in the aftermath of Isstvan V and the Dropsite Massacre, with the loss of Ferrus Manus still fresh and raw in their minds.

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