The Measure of Iron – Jamie Crisalli

Marking Jamie Crisalli’s first longer-form Black Library story (after a couple of short stories), The Measure of Iron is an action-packed Age of Sigmar novella exploring the Warcry setting. Dominar Syzek Govius of the Iron Golems leads his warband on a quest to find glory and honour, seeking out suitable components to forge a weapon fit for the Everchosen himself. More used to his old role as a forge-master than leading a warband, if Syzek is to succeed then he’ll have to survive not just the dangers of the Eightpoints and its inhabitants but also the attentions of his own warriors.

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Yearly Roundup – 2019 Highlights

For the second of my Yearly Roundup articles for the year just gone – after the first one, which looked at 2019 in numbers – I’m taking a look at some of my highlights from the last twelve months. It’s been another busy year, that’s for sure, but a year which has brought with it a couple more interesting milestones, some really great interactions with readers and writers in the science fiction and fantasy community, and an awful lot of tremendously entertaining reading. With that in mind, I’ll talk about some of my personal highlights from running Track of Words before looking at the year in Black Library, and then some of the best stories I read over the course of the year.

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Yearly Roundup – 2019 in Numbers

A whole new year is ahead of us – a whole new decade, in fact – and so it’s time for me to write my usual roundup of the year just gone. Roundups, in fact, as this year I’m going to break things down into a few shorter posts rather than the usual HUGE roundup I tend to end up with. In this article I’ll take my usual look back at the year just gone via some numbers pulled from my Track of Words stats, and talk a little bit about which reviews, interviews and blog posts were the most popular in 2019. Keep an eye out for future articles looking at some of my personal highlights from the last twelve months, and then thinking ahead to what I’m hoping for in 2020.

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Monthly Highlights – December 2019

Not only have we reached the end of December, but we’ve come to the very end of 2019! I’ve talked recently about my personal favourite Black Library novels of the year, in my January to June and July to December articles as well as a post on the Warhammer Community site, but in this article I’m taking my usual look back at what I’ve been reading over the last few weeks. December is always an interesting month for me as it brings with it the Black Library Advent Calendar – 24 new short stories/audios – and I try to cram in as much reading as I possibly can before the end of the year.

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What Do You Want To See on Track of Words?

As 2019 comes to a close I’m increasingly looking ahead to what I can do with Track of Words over the next year and onwards. I’ve been running this site for six years now, growing it from nothing (I hadn’t written a book review for about 15 years!) to the point it’s at now, with – I think – a pretty wide range of reviews and articles across over 1300 posts. I don’t want to rest on my laurels, however, so in this article I’m asking for your thoughts on what you would like to see on Track of Words in the future.

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QUICK REVIEW: Fates and Fortunes – Thomas Parrott

Available in the Vaults of Obsidian anthology, Thomas Parrott’s Blackstone Fortress short story Fates and Fortunes tells the tale of a man running from his past and finding a calling, of sorts, in the darkness of the Fortress. After acquiring an item of great supposed value from the vault of Rogue Trader Janus Draik, self-identified thief Ilden joins a ragtag team of adventurers in heading deep into the Fortress, intending to use the artefact to unlock a treasure trove from the Dark Age of Technology. As the Blackstone takes its toll on them, however, Ilden feels his past catching up.

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Black Library Advent Calendar 2019 – Recap

Another year’s Black Library Advent Calendar series is over, after nearly a month’s worth of brand new short stories, audio dramas and digital-only novels. As is now tradition, I’ve been writing daily reviews for each story as they’re released (excluding the novels – I don’t read that quickly), and you can find all of the links for those reviews right here. In this article, however, I’m taking a look back at the series as a whole to reflect on what’s been released, and talk about how individual stories connect to existing series…and maybe suggest what might be coming in the future.

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The Best Black Library Novels of 2019: July to December

I do like a good ‘best-of’ list, even though they’re tricky to put together! I was recently asked by the Warhammer Community team to write a ‘best Black Library novels of 2019’ article, which was fun (you can find that here), while back in July here on Track of Words I published a series of articles looking back at the first six months of 2019 and highlighting my favourite BL novels, short stories, audio dramas and anthologies that published up to then. It’s almost the end of the year now, so it’s time to do the same thing for the second half of 2019 – July to December. In this article I’m going to focus solely on the novels which stood out to me as the best reads.

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RAPID FIRE: JC Stearns Talks The Oubliette

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 up and coming Black Library author JC Stearns about his new 40k novel The Oubliette, the latest to be published under the Warhammer Horror imprint. The physical edition is due out in February 2020, but the ebook is available early as a ‘digital premiere’, as part of the 2019 Advent Calendar series. Read on to find out more about what horrors await in this latest tome of horrors.

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RAPID FIRE: Gav Thorpe Talks Armageddon Saint

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 Gav Thorpe about his new 40k novel Armageddon Saint, the first new Last Chancers novel for over fifteen years! The physical edition isn’t due out until March, but the ebook is available as a ‘digital premiere’ as part of the 2019 Advent Calendar series. Whether you’re excited about a new Last Chancers story or wondering what all the fuss is about, read on to find out more!

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