Tag Archives: Warhammer 40k

RAPID FIRE: Mike Lee Talks Legacy of Dorn

Welcome to this instalment of Rapid Fire, my ongoing series of quick interviews with Black Library 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 Mike Lee about his latest 40k Crimson Fists novel, Legacy of Dorn, which is available to order right now.

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Traitor’s Gorge – Mike Lee

Mike Lee’s Space Marine Battles novella Traitor’s Gorge picks up where Steve Parker’s Rynn’s World leaves off, with Pedro Kantor left leading a pitiful number of Crimson Fists once Rynn’s World is relieved and Snagrod’s ork hordes driven off. With the Imperial reinforcements long gone, it’s left to Kantor to wipe out the last remaining pockets of orks – a dangerous task, but one the vengeance-hungry Crimson Fists approach with relish. Bringing one such group to battle at Traitor’s Gorge, Kantor doesn’t realise the trap he’s fallen into until it’s too late, but help is on hand from an unexpected quarter.

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Rynn’s World – Steve Parker

The very first Space Marine Battles novel, published back in 2010, Steve Parker’s Rynn’s World kicked the series off in style with an action-packed story of Crimson Fists battling a vast ork invasion. Despite the apparent folly of attacking a Space Marine home world, the Arch-Arsonist Snagrod’s unusual tactics surprise the Crimson Fists, resulting in huge numbers of orks landing onto Rynn’s World. When a million-to-one accident sees the Fists’ ancient and treasured fortress-monastery destroyed and the majority of their warriors slain, a determined defence turns into a desperate fight for the survival of the Chapter itself.

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QUICK REVIEW: Rise – Ben Counter

Ben Counter’s short story Rise is a modern Black Library tale with an old-school feel, a quest story where the final goal isn’t necessarily what the protagonist thinks it’s going to be. Skanis is a kabalite down amongst the blood and darkness of Commorragh, who commissions a haemonculus to sculpt him into a new form – that of a winged Scourge – so that he can rise above his old life and start again. Waking to an unfamiliar body, he ascends through the myriad dangers of a Commorite spire intending to reach the pinnacle and leap into the unknown, free and complete.

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Agent of the Throne: Truth and Dreams – John French

The second audio drama in John French’s Agent of the Throne series, part of the wider Horusian Wars arc, Truth and Dreams once again finds Ianthe in reflective mood as she relates the tale of another mission. This time she’s on the trail of Silas Norn, a rogue psyker capable of horrifying manipulation if he can get close enough to touch. When her hunt results in both Ianthe and Norn being imprisoned in the same high-security facility it becomes a contest of wills as much as anything, between the powerful Norn and the ferociously driven, determined Ianthe.

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RAPID FIRE: John French Talks Agent of the Throne: Truth and Dreams

Welcome to this instalment of Rapid Fire, my ongoing series of quick interviews with Black Library 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 John French about his latest 40k audio drama, Agent of the Throne: Truth and Dreams, the second in that series after the excellent Blood and Lies. You can order this in MP3 or CD formats right now.

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QUICK REVIEW: Regia Occulta – Dan Abnett

Originally released in audio drama form as part of Thorn and Talon, Dan Abnett’s short story Regia Occulta sees a young Eisenhorn, not long qualified as a full inquisitor, working as a sort of temporary travelling magistrate-slash-investigator. Stranded on the dreary world of Ignix, he braves the weather and the strange electrical storms to investigate a series of killings which at first have all the hallmarks of cult activity. It quickly becomes apparent that the culprit is not a cult after all, but Eisenhorn’s continuing investigation proves dangerous all the same.

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QUICK REVIEW: Flayed – Cavan Scott

Cavan Scott’s short story Flayed, originally published in the Black Library Anthology 2013/14, is a tale of an ordinary Imperial citizen caught in the middle of a conflict between two horrifying foes. As necron Flayed Ones rampage through her township, Alundra races to find her brother and try to escape the carnage. Though grim Space Marines of the Death Spectres intercede on behalf of the Imperium, to Alundra and her brother there’s little to choose between the two forces, and it’s unclear quite why the Death Spectres are there and what they want.

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Malleus – Dan Abnett

Published the very same year as the seminal Xenos, Dan Abnett’s second Eisenhorn novel – Malleus – is set a hundred or so years after the conclusion of the Necroteuch affair. Following a near-death experience at the hands of Beldame Sadia, Eisenhorn reluctantly returns to his estate on Thracian Primaris to join a great celebration taking place. When disaster strikes during the Triumph, Eisenhorn sets out to discover the culprits, but despite his best intentions he begins to find that his reputation has been tarnished by his association – such as it is – with the daemonhost Cherubael.

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QUICK REVIEW: Master Imus’ Transgression – Dan Abnett

One of three Inquisition stories originally released as audio dramas (in Thorn and Talon) before the prose versions were made available, Dan Abnett’s Master Imus’ Transgression is a short story in which we see Eisenhorn in his youth, still an interrogator under inquisitor Hapshant. Master Imus, a quiet and honest man dedicated to his life as a book-keeper, comes to Eisenhorn to confess his unwitting involvement in an unusual crime – or a transgression, as he puts it. What seems at first to be a strange, inconsequential confession turns out to reveal something much more sinister beneath.

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