Tag Archives: Warriors and Warlords

QUICK REVIEW: The Death of Uriel Ventris – Graham McNeill

Graham McNeill’s provocatively-titled short story The Death of Uriel Ventris, available in Warriors and Warlords or the Black Library Events Anthology 2018/19, revisits a much-loved Black Library hero in a thoughtful, action-light story of consequences and change. As Uriel Ventris lies dying, the Captain of the Ultramarines 4th Company finds his mind disassociating, and he relives – in a way – the pain and suffering that forged him into the Space Marine he would eventually become. Unaware of what’s happening to his physical body, he’s tested in spirit by not just physical and emotional pain but also the manifestation of his greatest fears.

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QUICK REVIEW: Unification – Chris Wraight

Chris Wraight’s short story Unification, available in the special edition hardback of The Lords of Silence or the Warriors and Warlords anthology, shows Vorx of the Death Guard – main protagonist of The Lords of Silence – in various earlier incarnations, sort of ‘Vorx through the ages’. When the Death Guard fight alongside Blood Angels in a pre-Heresy compliance, Blood Angels captain Camanio offers Vorx an insult that leaves him speechless. As Vorx recalls his youth on Barbarus fighting by his primarch’s side, the gravity of Camanio’s insult – what it means to the Death Guard – becomes clear. Much later, so too do the consequences.

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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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QUICK REVIEW: Sand Lords – Peter McLean

Peter McLean continues to impress with his fourth Black Library short story, this time tackling the Tallarn Desert Raiders. On the arid world of Marbas II, the Tallarn 236th Sand Lords have deployed in force, an armoured column storming into the ork-held city of Iblis Amrargh intending to reclaim a lost relic of their regiment. The story begins as Captain Amareo Thrax is leading the battered remnants of his force in a desperate retreat through the baking desert. As they race for safety, Thrax bitterly recalls the horrors that took the lives of so many of his warriors.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Battle of Blackthunder Mesa – Phil Kelly

A sequel to Blades of Damocles and a companion piece to the various Farsight stories, Phil Kelly’s short story The Battle of Blackthunder Mesa tells a tale of the fundamental differences between the T’au and Imperial ways of war. On the embattled world of Dal’yth Prime, the T’au forces are being pushed back by endless numbers of Imperial tanks, but Commander Bravestorm is determined to strike a telling blow before withdrawing. With a new weapon at his disposal – the Onager Gauntlet – he has a tool to do just that, but its use seems to go against the T’au’s very ethos.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Twisted Runes – Matt Smith

Matt Smith’s second Black Library short story, The Twisted Runes is a tale of the Silver Skulls and the unusual way in which they rely on and revere their powerful psykers. Having received a forceful vision promising dire portents for the entire Chapter, young and proud Prognosticator Beynan Rhondus petitions his masters for permission to track down the location seen in his vision and prevent a tragedy from occurring. Casting the runes once owned by his mentor, Rhondus interprets their meaning and leads his men into grave danger, always confident in the truth of the runes and his manifest destiny.

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QUICK REVIEW: Lightning Run – Peter McLean

Peter McLean’s second Black Library short story, Lightning Run is an Imperial Navy (Aeronautica Imperialis in modern parlance) story which, while not quite as grim as Baphomet by Night, is still a powerful demonstration of the bleak realities of 40k life. On the corrupted world of Elijan III, Flight Officer Salvatoria Grant finds herself tasked with a mission vital to the flagging war effort. Piloting her Valkyrie towards a distant Imperial base and a faint glimmer of hope, she trusts to her own skills and her faith in the Emperor to see her through to survival and Imperial victory.

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QUICK REVIEW: A Company of Shadows – Rachel Harrison

Following on from the fantastic Execution, Rachel Harrison’s short story A Company of Shadows sees the 11th Antari Rifles evacuating a city besieged by the forces of Chaos. When the Valkyrie carrying Commissar Severina Raine, a handful of troopers and an important military advisor is shot down before they can reach safety, it’s up to Raine and the decidedly untrustworthy Antari Sergeant Wyck to find a way to survive. With all of them carrying injuries, enemies all around, and Wyck twitchy at having cheated death for a second time, things look bleak for Raine and the Antari.

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QUICK REVIEW: By Your Command – Gav Thorpe

A stylised but brilliantly effective short story, Gav Thorpe’s By Your Command ties into his novel Imperator: Wrath of the Omnissiah (it’s included in the special edition hardback) by virtue of its setting, but works very well as a standalone. Deep within the Imperator Titan Casus Belli, a maniple of Kastelan battle robots is awakened and tasked with defending the Titan against invading Heretic Astartes. Told from the perspective of the Kastelan Alpha-6-Terror, it’s a story which delves into the inner workings and thought processes of the robot even as the bolt shells are flying.

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QUICK REVIEW: Light of a Crystal Sun – Josh Reynolds

Set somewhere between the novels Primogenitor and Clonelord, Josh Reynolds’ short story Light of a Crystal Sun sees Fabius engaged in one of his experiments, this time attempting to prise vital knowledge from the crystallised fragments of long-dead eldar that he recovered from Craftworld Lugganath. Searching, as ever, for a way to prolong his existence and halt the advancement of the blight that haunts him, he pits his own ironclad mind against the residual spirits held within the crystal. The ghostly eldar seem unsurprisingly unwilling to part with their knowledge, however.

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