Lords of the Storm – Edoardo Albert

Edoardo Albert’s Warhammer 40,000 novella Lords of the Storm is his first longer-form story for Black Library, a tale of the Primaris-only Fulminators chapter of Space Marines exploring their relationship with the mortals whose lives they safeguard. On the shrine world of Chevreuse, home to the sacred bones of Saint Blaise, the forces of the Ruinous Powers move ever closer to victory. Montalte, of the loyal Faithful, is tasked with guiding a small force of Fulminators (Sergeant Augustin and his Reivers) to the saint’s remains, navigating the dangers of Chaos cultists, traitor Guard and a living storm apparently conjured up by the saint himself.

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QUICK REVIEW: Vaultheads – David Guymer

David Guymer’s short story Vaultheads – his contribution to Aconyte Books’ Tales From the Crucible anthology – shows what happens when you cross the crazy world of KeyForge with the dedicated world of historical re-enactment…with entertaining results. In Hub City, battles between Archons for access to the Vaults have become legendary, over the years gathering serious historical aficionados keen to recreate the glory days with painstaking accuracy. After the successful completion of his latest re-enactment, one such enthusiast – having played the role of dashing skirate Raymon D’arco to perfection – finds his dreams of derring-do one step closer to reality.

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AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Matthew Ward Talks Legacy of Ash

Welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview, my ongoing series of quick interviews with authors talking about their new or upcoming books. 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 interview I spoke to Matthew Ward about his epic fantasy novel Legacy of Ash, which is out this week in paperback from Orbit. If you’re a fan of epic (in more than one sense of the word) fantasy novels, then this should be of interest – it’s getting great reviews, and sounds fantastic!

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QUICK REVIEW: Savage – Guy Haley

Available in either Warriors and Warlords or the Black Library Events Anthology 2018/19, Guy Haley’s Imperial Guard short story Savage provides a quiet, thoughtful accompaniment to his novel Shadowsword. Alongside the rest of the Paragonian Seventh, the crew of the Cortein’s Honour are at rest, whiling away their time under the baking Omdurman sun. When whispers of redeployment begin circulating, Senior Loader Gollph is drawn into an illicit scheme which relies on the prejudicial views many of the Paragonians hold about his people, the Bosvodar, who hail from a feral world and are considered slow and primitive by many.

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Saturnine – Dan Abnett

Black Library’s Siege of Terra series reaches its halfway point with Saturnine by Dan Abnett, a 500+ page beast of a book in which secrets are revealed, big names start to fall, and the stakes – somehow – get even higher. Having taken Lion’s Gate spaceport, the traitor host marches on the fortifications of the Lion’s Gate itself while simultaneously driving at the Eternity Gate spaceport, stretching the loyalist defenders to breaking point. With battles raging on multiple fronts and resources dwindling, Dorn faces impossible questions of compromise and sacrifice, as he searches for a strategy that might tip the balance in his battle of wills and wits with Perturabo.

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Monthly Highlights – March 2020

Welcome to March’s Monthly Highlights post here on Track of Words, in which I’m looking back at what I’ve been reading over the last few weeks. I’ve been playing around with the format of these posts recently, and I’m going to change things up again this time around. I’ve done a lot of reading this month but my brain hasn’t been in the best of states (as I’m sure many of you can understand, with the weird state of the world right now)…and to be honest, still isn’t. With that in mind, rather than talking about a few books in more detail, this time around I’ll give a quick overview of all the books I’ve read recently. It won’t be in-depth, but hopefully I can give you a flavour of each one.

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Sanctuary – V.V. James

Combine a small-town suburban American drama with a crime thriller and add in a dash of magic, and you’ll get somewhere near the sort of territory V.V. James’ Sanctuary occupies – a gripping page-turner exploring how grief and pain can tear friendships and communities apart. The quiet town of Sanctuary hides a darkness beneath its calm facade, and tensions which come to light after the tragic death of a popular young man. As a mother grieves and an out-of-town detective investigates what happened, rumours start to swirl that magic was involved and bitter eyes turn to the town’s resident witch.

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AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Rob J Hayes Talks Along the Razor’s Edge

Welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview, in which I talk to Rob J. Hayes about his new fantasy novel Along the Razor’s Edge – which is available to order in ebook and paperback right now. This is the first time for this series that I’ve chatted to an author who has chosen the self publishing route for their books, so read on to find out more about who Rob are, what he writes and what his latest book is about, and to talk a little about his experiences of self publishing. Rob is well known in the self-published world, so who better to talk to about self publishing?

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QUICK REVIEW: The Jagged Edge – Maria Haskins

For her debut Black Library story Maria Haskins tackles a tale of desperation, sacrifice and familial bonds within the Imperial Guard in The Jagged Edge. Sergeant Aurelia Shale and her squad of Keplerian Scrappers are sent on a dangerous mission to infiltrate and destroy an enemy-held manufactorum, approaching through tunnels in the mountains of Kepler-Gamma. Accompanying them is Commissar Theodora Shale, Aurelia’s sister – in the darkness beneath the Jagged Edge, Aurelia must contend with not just the heretic cultists of the enemy but her painful memories of a once-close sibling who abandoned her long ago and never really returned.

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AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Jonathan Green Talks Dracula Curse of the Vampire

Welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview, part of my ongoing series of quick interviews with authors talking about their new or upcoming books. 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.

This time around I spoke to Jonathan Green about his new gamebook Dracula: Curse of the Vampire, which at the time of writing is approaching the end of a successful Kickstarter campaign. Whether you’re a veteran of gamebooks and interactive novels or you’ve never come across the concept before, read on to find out more about what to expect from this intriguing new adaptation of a classic horror novel.

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