Win a Signed Book and Support Mind – For Better Mental Health (Now Closed)

NOTE: we raised £160 with this raffle, which I’m delighted with! Thank you so much to everyone who donated.

The Black Library Events Anthology 2019/20 is a great collection of Warhammer short stories, and I’m offering a copy signed by all six authors (plus most of the Black Library editors) as a prize to raise money for Mind, a wonderful charity offering mental health support to those who need it in England and Wales. I also have a second, unsigned copy for a second prize! To stand a chance of winning, all you need to do is donate £5 to Mind between the 26th November and the 10th December.

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The Infinite and the Divine – Robert Rath

For his debut Black Library novel, Robert Rath goes big with The Infinite and the Divine, a grand tale spanning thousands of years of bitter rivalry between two virtually immortal Necrons. Trazyn the Infinite (archaeovist and Overlord of Solemnace) and Orikan the Diviner (Master Astromancer of the Sautekh Dynasty) have been rivals since their days of flesh and blood, opposites in both outlook and temperament. After Orikan steals the Astrarium Mysterios from Trazyn’s galleries on Solemnace, their enmity escalates into a deadly feud as, over the course of millennia, each attempts to outdo the other in pursuit of the ancient artifact and the power (or in Trazyn’s case, the collectible history) they hope it can unlock.

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AUTHOR INTERVIEW: David Annandale Talks The Harrowing of Doom

Welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview where today I’m talking to David Annandale about his upcoming Aconyte novel, The Harrowing of Doom! There have been a few Marvel prose novels already released by Aconyte, but this is the first in the Marvel: Untold range – “new tales of Marvel’s Super Heroes and villains”. It’s due out in ebook and as a US paperback on the 1st December, with the UK paperback following on the 7th January 2021.

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QUICK REVIEW: Judge Dee and the Limits of the Law – Lavie Tidhar

The first in a new series of short stories from Lavie Tidhar, published by Tor.com, Judge Dee and the Limits of the Law is a delightful mix of gothic vampire story and Golden Age mystery. Accompanied by his slightly hesitant human assistant Jonathan, Judge Dee – a wise old vampire prone to long stares and thoughtful pauses – travels to the Castello d’oro to investigate a squabble between two vampire nobles. As the enforcer of vampiric law (the pax lamia) it’s within his power to be judge, jury and executioner, but first he needs to uncover the truth of what really happened.

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AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Josh Reynolds Talks Poison River

Welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview, where today I’m talking to the ever-prolific Josh Reynolds about his latest novel for Aconyte Books – Poison River, which is set in the Legends of the Five Rings world. If you fancy a detective story set in a fantasy world inspired by feudal Japan, this is going to be the book for you…and it’s the first in a series too, so there’s more still to come! It’s due out in ebook and as a US paperback on the 1st December, with the UK paperback following on the 7th January 2021.

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From Humble Beginnings: 40k Short Stories That Deserve Their Own Series

There’s a long history in Black Library fiction – and Warhammer 40,000 in particular – of characters who started off in short story form and went on to bigger things. From the early Inferno! days of Gaunt’s Ghosts and the Last Chancers, to Severina Raine and Sister Augusta more recently, characters who started off in a single short story have regularly gone on to feature in novels and novellas of their own, or simply long-running series of short stories. I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some recent-ish 40k short stories and pick out a few which seem ripe for developing into longer stories, and whose characters (or settings) could go on to be the fan-favourites of the future.

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A Few Thoughts On: From A Certain Point of View

I’ve read very few Star Wars books, despite being a big fan of the IP, but I want to talk a bit about From A Certain Point Of View, published in 2017 to celebrate 40 years of A New Hope, which I read quite recently and absolutely loved. If you haven’t come across it before, this is a 40-strong short story anthology (from 43 authors – there are a few double-headers) in which each tale takes a character or a scene from the original film and expands upon it, providing fresh, unexpected and insightful new perspectives on otherwise familiar stories. From Imperial officers, stormtroopers, rebels and Jedi to Jawas, Tuskens, Bith and all manner of droids, on Tatooine, Alderaan, Star Destroyers and the Death Star, these stories explore the characters and locations of A New Hope like never before.

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AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Anna Stephens Talks The Stone Knife

Welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview – this time around I’m chatting to author Anna Stephens about her new novel The Stone Knife, the first book in a new trilogy called The Songs of the Drowned. It’s due out from Harper Voyager in hardback, ebook and audiobook on the 26th November, so take a look at the interview to get the lowdown on what you can expect, and then head out and get your pre-orders in!

Without further ado, on with the interview…

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Liberty & Justice For All – Carrie Harris

Carrie Harris’ Liberty & Justice For All kicks off the new series of Marvel: Xavier’s Institute novels with an action-packed adventure featuring a pair of young mutants determined to prove themselves as X-Men. For Tempus and Triage, otherwise known as Eva and Christopher, life as trainee X-Men isn’t quite what they expected. When they set out together in the X-Copter for their first solo flight, their delight at simply getting out of the school and away from their instructors quickly fades when they receive an SOS call from Sabretooth of all people. What they think will be a straightforward pickup, and a good opportunity to give their powers a quick workout, ends up becoming a battle that tests them beyond what they could have expected.

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Author Spotlight: Gary Kloster

Welcome to this instalment of my Author Spotlight series of interviews, in which I’m chatting to author Gary Kloster to find out a bit more about his work, especially the writing he’s done for Black Library in the Necromunda setting. With his first BL novella – Spark of Revolution – available to order now, there’s no better time to take a look at it, and what makes Necromunda such an interesting setting to explore.

Without further ado, let’s get straight into the interview and over to Gary.

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