Tag Archives: Guy Haley

QUICK REVIEW : The Gift of Khorne – Guy Haley

Day six in Black Library’s 2015 Advent Calendar brings us The Gift of Khorne by Guy Haley, an Age of Sigmar story featuring another powerful Chaos champion (there’s a trend appearing here…), this time the more-beast-than-man Gigante. Besieging a still-intact city in the realm of life, Ghyran, he revels in his god-granted gifts and the carnage that he wreaks in the name of Khorne. Gifts from the Chaos gods tend to be a little risky however, so he had better hope that nothing puts a stop to his successes, like the unexpected appearance of the Stormcast Eternals…
Keep reading…

Meduson – Black Library Anthology

Of all the ‘exclusive’ products Black Library have released, perhaps the one most likely to rouse the anger of fans is Meduson – a venue-specific Horus Heresy anthology that can only be purchased in person from Games Workshop’s headquarters in Nottingham. Released to celebrate the re-opening of Warhammer World and the dedicated Black Library shop within, it’s a move designed to draw out the diehard fans and encourage visitors, but is bound to annoy those fans not willing or able to make it to Nottingham. Exclusivity aside, any new Heresy release is always going to be of great interest to fans of the series, and this is no exception. With a selection of brand new stories from some of Black Library’s most respected authors, this review is a little longer than usual in order to give as clear a picture as possible of the anthology.

Keep reading…

The Rise of the Horned Rat – Guy Haley

The Warhammer End Times series of novels gets its 4th instalment with Guy Haley’s The Rise of the Horned Rat, accompanying the Thanquol background book and exploring the skaven’s involvement in the series. In a similar way to The Fall of Altdorf this avoids trying to cover everything that happens in the background book, instead focusing on the ratmen’s all-out assault on the dwarfs. Queek Headtaker returns to the war-torn Karak Eight Peaks to finally cast out his great rivals, Skarsnik and King Belegar, while the all across their realm the dwarfs see only darkness and death. In the shadows, pulling strings, lurk the daemonic Verminlords.

Keep reading…

Blades of the Traitor – Black Library Anthology

A few months after Death and Defiance, the first novella-length, non-limited edition Horus Heresy short story anthology, comes Blades of the Traitor, a collection of five short stories from some of Black Library’s best-known authors. Interestingly, Black Library are offering readers a choice straight away of how to purchase these stories – the physical book is due for release soon (after pre-release at the Horus Heresy Weekender) while the ebooks are available either as a well-priced collection or as individual stories. It’s therefore up to readers whether to cherry pick the stories they’re most interested in or read them all as a collection.

Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW : Twisted – Guy Haley

In a series the size and scale of the Horus Heresy, it’s inevitable that some characters’ involvement will wax and wane. Such has been the case with Maloghurst the Twisted; introduced at the beginning of the series, he was absent for much of the time up until his return in Vengeful Spirit. In Guy Haley’s Twisted, we look closer at Horus’ equerry as he sees the safety of his position crumble while the legion changes around him. Plagued by the whisperings of the Neverborn, he turns to a dangerous, unlikely source of support.

Keep reading…

Valedor – Guy Haley

With a few notable exceptions the Warhammer 40k universe is largely shown to us through the eyes of the Imperium, lending it (not inappropriately) a very human perspective. Occasionally though, Black Library releases something which shows a different side to 40k, in this instance Guy Haley’s Valedor which follows in the footsteps of Gav Thorpe’s Path of the Eldar series to look through the eyes of this ancient, dwindling race. We see the eldar of Iyanden, still reeling from the latest in their string of disasters, as they set out to prevent the merging of two tyranid hive fleets; in order to avert a disaster that would have terrible consequences for their entire race, they are forced to ally with not only the eldar of another craftworld but also their dark kin.

Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW – Shield of Baal : Wraithflight – Guy Haley

On the fourth day of Christmas Black Library gave to us…a Shield of Baal short story by Guy Haley. Sitting within the wider Shield of Baal series but also tying in with Haley’s own novel Valedor, Wraithflight sees the eldar of Iyanden come to the aid of an embattled Imperial world against the might of Hive Fleet Leviathan. Spiritseer Iyanna leads a void attack, using the wrathful dead of the craftworld to combat the hive mind’s control over its fleet, but it remains to be seen exactly what the eldar are hoping to achieve with their intervention.

Keep reading…

QUICK REVIEW : The Final Compliance of Sixty-Three Fourteen – Guy Haley

On the first day of Christmas Black Library gave to us…a Horus Heresy short story by Guy Haley. The Final Compliance of Sixty-Three Fourteen takes a look at how a compliant world might react to Horus as he returns to to demand its fealty, claiming the Imperial Truth to be a lie. As the Sons of Horus fleet hangs in orbit as a blunt threat, and their emissaries wait impatiently, the Imperial governor must choose whether to turn away from The Emperor or defy Horus.

Keep reading…

Honour of the Space Marines – Black Library Anthology

Black Library tend to release a short story anthology to coincide with each of their events. The 2014 Weekender was no different, with Honour of the Space Marines available, a six-story anthology featuring everyone’s favourite 41st-millennium super soldiers. As with the other ‘…of the Space Marines’ collections (except perhaps ‘Treacheries of…’) the title is a bit misleading, as this only loosely a themed anthology. It’s more about showing the next steps in story arcs that the authors are already known for, from long-established characters to newer, less familiar faces.

Keep reading…

Legacies of Betrayal – Black Library anthology

2014 was a bumper year for the Horus Heresy. We saw the 29^th and 30^th books in the series released, Vengeful Spirit and Damnation of Pythos respectively, as well as a goodly number of novellas, anthologies, audio dramas and short stories. Now, on the one hand many Black Library fans are the kind of people who in the interests of completion will buy any new story as soon as it’s made available, while on the other hand many fans are unwilling or unable to fork out vast sums of money for limited edition releases, or just can’t get their head around audio dramas. If you’re Black Library, what do you do? How do you cater to both sets of fans? Well, with Legacies of Betrayal sneaking in just before the end of the year to make it 31 in the series, it looks like you release as much as you can in as many different formats as you can, then bring out an anthology that collects a bunch of those stories together in one place.

Keep reading…