QUICK REVIEW: Iron Sight – Robert Rath

Robert Rath’s second Warhammer 40,000 short story featuring agents of the Officio Assassinorum, Iron Sight pits a Vindicare assassin against a slippery Genestealer Cult sniper. Having pursued his mark for almost a month, Absolom Raithe has finally tracked down the Jackal Alphus and is closing in, confident of the kill which will see his fifth mission complete and his full status secured. As Raithe chases down the fleeing Alphus, however, he finds the tables turned against him; a long-distance kill isn’t possible, so he’s forced to abandon his usual tactics and take on his enemy up close and personal.

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Seven Devils – Laura Lam and Elizabeth May

Seven Devils, by Laura Lam and Elizabeth May, is a character-driven feminist space opera in which a thrown-together collection of badass women put their differences aside to help an embattled resistance strike back against the powerful Tholosian Empire. Once firm friends before bitterness and anger drove a wedge between them, engineer Clo and soldier Eris reluctantly team up again for what should be a relatively straightforward mission, only for things to be complicated by a trio of Tholosian defectors. The information provided by Ariadne, Nyx and Rhea gives the mismatched group of rebels the chance to strike a powerful blow to the Empire and save countless lives in the process, but in order to succeed they’ll each have to confront the pain they suffered at Tholosian hands.

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RAPID FIRE: Guy Haley Talks Avenging Son

Welcome to this instalment of Rapid Fire, my ongoing series of quick interviews with authors talking about their new releases. These are short and sweet interviews, with the idea being that each author will answer (more or less) the same questions – by the end of each interview I hope you will have a good idea of what the new book (or audio drama) is about, what inspired it and why you might want to read or listen to it.

In this instalment I spoke to Black Library author Guy Haley about his new novel Avenging Son, which was released in various formats (including special edition hardback AND standard paperback) on the 8th August 2020. This novel is the first volume in a new 40k series that’s being talked about as the ‘big new thing’, so I asked Guy to talk a little bit about the Dawn of Fire series and his role within it, as well as the new book itself.

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Monthly Highlights – July 2020

Welcome to August, everyone! Another month of 2020 strangeness has ticked by, so it’s time once again to take a look back at what I’ve been reading and listening to over the last few weeks. After a couple of months where I managed to read a ridiculous number of books – even for a quick reader – I slowed down a little in July…but I’ve still got plenty to talk about. I’ve continued to read a fair amount purely for escapism, i.e. without planning on writing reviews, but pending a couple of still-outstanding reviews I’m happy to see the ratio shifting a little bit back in favour of books I do want to write about.

As usual I’ve tried to keep things as succinct as possible, and I’ve linked out to reviews where they’re available. Without further ado, however, let’s get straight on (in the order in which I read them) with July’s books…

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Harrow the Ninth – Tamsyn Muir

Carrying on where the fabulous Gideon the Ninth left off, Tamsyn Muir’s second novel Harrow the Ninth continues to explore the setting and mythos of the Locked Tomb series while taking the narrative in an unexpected direction. Having attained Lyctorhood, Harrow finds life as one of the Emperor’s Saints to be not what she expected. There’s something strange going on with both her memories and her powers, someone appears to be trying to kill her, and of all people the entirely untrustworthy Ianthe is proving (much to Harrow’s disgust) to be the closest thing she has to an ally amongst the deeply dysfunctional family of the Emperor and his Lyctors. To make matters worse, an impending apocalypse is looming over them all in the shape of a deadly Resurrection Beast.

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RAPID FIRE: Chris Wraight Talks Bloodlines

Welcome to this instalment of Rapid Fire, my ongoing series of quick interviews with authors talking about their new releases. These are short and sweet interviews, with the idea being that each author will answer (more or less) the same questions – by the end of each interview I hope you will have a good idea of what the new book (or audio drama) is about, what inspired it and why you might want to read or listen to it.

In this instalment I spoke to Black Library author Chris Wraight about Bloodlines, his latest novel and the first book to be released under the brand new Warhammer Crime imprint. It’s available to pre-order right now, and should provide a fascinating opportunity to dig into a slightly different angle on Warhammer 40,000 than what we’ve seen before.

Over to Chris for some thoughts on what to expect from Bloodlines, and from Warhammer Crime as a whole…

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RAPID FIRE: Alec Worley Talks Dredge Runners

Welcome to this instalment of Rapid Fire, my ongoing series of quick interviews with authors talking about their new releases. These are short and sweet interviews, with the idea being that each author will answer (more or less) the same questions – by the end of each interview I hope you will have a good idea of what the new book (or audio drama) is about, what inspired it and why you might want to read or listen to it.

In this instalment I spoke to Black Library author Alec Worley about his latest audio drama, Dredge Runners, which is one of the first ever releases under the brand new Warhammer Crime imprint. It’s available to pre-order right now, and promises to be a brilliant introduction to the style and setting of this new brand of Warhammer stories.

Over to Alec for some thoughts on what to expect from Warhammer Crime and this new audio drama in particular…

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Profit’s Ruin – CL Werner

CL Werner’s 2018 novel Overlords of the Iron Dragon was a pacy, entertaining Age of Sigmar story and its sequel, Profit’s Ruin, hits many of the same notes and delivers a similarly fun, action-packed adventure. Having returned to Barak-Zilfin with empty holds to face the wrath of his investors, Captain Brokrin Ullisson is confronted with the very real possibility of losing both his charter and his ship, the Iron Dragon. His only hope is to accept a perilous mission to find the infamous Profit’s Ruin, a vast floating mass of weeds and vines which is said to have snared countless sky-ships, and return with enough salvage to settle his debts.

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QUICK REVIEW: Elizabeth on the Island – Josh Reynolds

First published in 2011 anthology Candle in the Attic Window, Josh Reynolds’ short story Elizabeth on the Island is a haunting gothic tale of rain-lashed rocks, troubled memory and inhuman strength. On an unnamed island in an unnamed sea, a lone woman ekes out a harsh existence hunting rats for food and with only the remnants of someone else’s life for company. When her troubled solitude is interrupted by a new presence on the island, the woman who calls herself Elizabeth, who emerged bleeding and bedraggled from the sea into this strange life, must face up to her fear of the unknown.

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Exuma – Mark Brendan

From Cartagena on the Gulf of Mexico to the time-lost isle of Exuma Obscura, Mark Brendans’ adventure-horror novella Exuma inhabits some of the darker corners of the 17th Century New World. Merchant Juan de Castro lives a quiet, largely contented life with his family until he’s accused of heresy by the Inquisition and sentenced to serve as a galley slave, for the crime of being a Protestant. When his galley is attacked and he’s washed up on the shore of a strange, mist-shrouded island, de Castro finds himself free once more but surrounded by dangers he can’t imagine.

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