I appear to have published the previous post a little prematurely, as yet more awesome books have recently come in the mail.
Featuring: David Annandale, Monica Byrnes, C. Robert Cargill, Steven Erikson, Ari Marmell, Josh Reynolds, Rob Sanders, & graphic novels
A collection of short stories all focused on that enigmatic Space Marines legion, the Legion of the Damned, from some of Black Library’s best up-and-comers and a couple of not-quite-old-hands. The Legion are a peculiar addition to the WH40k lore. I remember when they first made models for them (they were a custom job by one of their professional modellers, if I remember correctly). Since then, there’s no doubt that they’ve fleshed out the background and the story of who and what the Legion is. Sadly, I haven’t been keeping up-to-date with more than the fiction set in Games Workshop’s science fiction and fantasy systems for well over a decade. As a result, these six stories contained some interesting new detail. I still don’t have a full picture of how the Legion ‘works’, but by no means does this bother me. These authors have done a great job of writing tales that tap into the horror and menace of the Legion of the Damned, and their mysterious appearances on the battlefields of the 41st millennium. I’ll deal with each of the stories individually, below…
I must have said it a hundred times on the blog, now, but I really must get around to reading Josh Reynold’s Road of Skulls, his first full-length novel featuring my favourite Dwarf Slayer and human companion… In advance of that, though, I spotted the artwork for Reynolds’s next novel in the series, The Serpent Queen:
Sorry for the low-quality image, but I wanted to share the cover anyway. It’s one of my all-time favourite fantasy series, so I’m always excited for news and more fiction (even if it does take me altogether too long to get around to reading them…). Here’s the synopsis:
Gotrek and Felix: unsung heroes of the Empire, or nothing more than common thieves and murderers? The truth perhaps lies somewhere in between, and depends entirely upon whom you ask... Travelling to the mysterious south in search of a mighty death, the Slayer Gotrek Gurnisson and his human companion, Felix Jaeger, find themselves caught up in a battle between warring kingdoms. Captured by the sinister Queen Khalida and forced to do her bidding, the adventurers must brave the horrors of the sun-soaked Land of the Dead, where the dead do not rest easy.
Serpent Queen is due to be published in March/April 2014. Road of Skulls and David Guymer’s City of the Damned are available now from Black Library. In addition, the first in the series, William King’s Trollslayer, has recently been re-released as part of the Black Library Classics series – it is, in my humble opinion, a must-read.
I’m only familiar with Joshua Reynolds through his work for Black Library (and have particularly impressed with his contributions to the Gotrek & Felix series). I spotted this via his Facebook page, though, and was rather intrigued…
JOHN DEE WAS THE FIRST.
Formed during the reign of Elizabeth I, the post of the Royal Occultist was created to safeguard the British Empire against threats occult, otherworldly, infernal and divine.
It is now 1920, and the title and offices have fallen to Charles St. Cyprian. Accompanied by his apprentice Ebe Gallowglass, they defend the battered empire from the forces of darkness.
In the wake of a séance gone wrong, a monstrous killer is summoned from the depths of nightmare by a deadly murder-cult. The entity hunts its prey with inhuman tenacity even as its worshippers stop at nothing to bring the entity into its full power…
It’s up to St. Cyprian and Gallowglass to stop the bloodthirsty horror before another notch is added to its gory tally, but will they become the next victims of the horror disguised as London’s most famous killer?
In the tradition of William Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki the Ghost-Finder, Josh Reynolds presents the Adventures of the Royal Occultist. Join Charles St. Cyprian and Ebe Gallowglass as they race to halt the workings of a sinister secret society and put an end to the monstrous manifestation in... THE WHITECHAPEL DEMON!
The novel will be published by Emby Press in November 2013.
A couple more Warhammer Undead novels in the pipeline from Josh Reynolds: Neferata and Master of Death.
Ok, so Neferata is actually already available (in paperback and eBook), but Black Library seem to be re-releasing their Warhammer Legends series with new (and, frankly, better) covers. Here’s the synopsis for Neferata:
The vampire queen Neferata plots to create a new empire.
Neferata is a queen without a kingdom. Lahmia has fallen, her vampire children have scattered and she is reduced to draining blood from the beasts of the mountains. After a chance encounter with a party of dwarfs, she sets her sights on a capital for her new empire – the stronghold of Silver Pinnacle. She calls her allies to battle – but can she truly trust Ushoran, Lord of Masks, and his bestial Strigoi vampires?
Neferata is due to be (re-)published in January 2014.
Next up is Master of Death, the follow-up novel (which has not been available before)…
An ancient follower of the Great Necromancer seeks power over death itself.
W’soran, one of the first vampires and former pupil of the Great Necromancer Nagash, plots to unravel the secrets of life and death. But his hunt for power is interrupted by a civil war in Mourkain, the mountain nation ruled by his former ally, Ushoran. Now W’soran must battle old friends and new enemies as he weaves a complex web of treachery and deceit in order to anoint himself the Master of Death…
Master of Death is also due to be published in January 2014.
I haven’t had a chance to read Neferata, yet, but after reading Master of Mourkain, a short story by Reynolds, my appetite was certainly whet for more of his Undead fiction.
It should be no secret to long-time readers of the blog that I am a fan of the Gotrek & Felix fantasy series from Black Library. First conceived of and written by William King, then ably continued by Nathan Long, the series continues to grow – now with a growing roster of authors writing about the two heroes and the ever-extending cast of companions, enemies and peripheral characters.
Gotrek and Felix: unsung heroes of the Empire, or nothing more than common thieves and murderers? The truth perhaps lies somewhere in between, and depends entirely upon whom you ask...
A collection of timeless tales featuring the Slayer Gotrek Gurnisson and his human companion Felix Jaeger. From the undead-ridden marshes of Hel Fenn, where an ancient evil lurks, to the court of a skaven lord in the depths of a dwarf hold, the duo face excitement, danger and intrigue at every turn.
Gotrek & Felix: The Lost Tales will be published by Black Library in August 2013. It features novellas written by Josh Reynolds, David Guymer, Jordan Ellinger,* and Frank Cavallo. The book is edited by Laurie Goulding.
* Hopefully not the one I just bought today… Don’t like doubling-up…
A Gotrek & Felix short story
When Gotrek and Felix agree to help an impoverished nobleman reclaim his birthright, they are thrown into a battle for survival against a creature from their darkest nightmares.
Previously printed in the Black Library Weekender 2012 Saturday Anthology, Berthold’s Beard is a quick tale featuring the Dwarf Slayer and his human companion. It’s quite fun, too, indicating once again that the Gotrek & Felix franchise remains in safe hands.
A Warhammer Undead Short Story
Nagash is dead, but his legacy lives on as the vampire Ushoran embarks upon a quest to retrieve the Great Necromancer’s crown from Kadon, the deadly Master of Mourkain.
Previously printed in the Black Library Games Day Anthology 2012, this is a short story that ties into Reynold’s new Neferata novel, and also the Blood of Nagash trilogy by Mike Lee. It’s a great intro to both Reynolds’s writing and the Warhammer land of the undead. I really enjoyed this, and it whet my appetite for more of Reynolds’s work.
A bumper crop of Gotrek & Felix short stories
In many ways, my interest in fantasy began with Gotrek and Felix – the short snippets you used to find in the Warhammer Armies books and White Dwarf magazine were great fun. Then I discovered the oft-mentioned-on-this-blog early Warhammer anthologies: Ignorant Armies (1989), Wolf Riders (1989) and Red Thirst (1990). Ever since then, I have tried to read everything Gotrek & Felix related. I’ve not done badly, reading all of the main series’ novels, but with the release of the Gotrek & Felix Anthology, I realised that there were actually quite a few other short stories I’d missed – I haven’t really been keeping up-to-date with the Warhammer anthologies. Thanks to Black Library’s extremely-well-managed move into eBooks, I was able to read them all, and bring you this bumper-review. While it did end up feeling just a tad overwhelming to get through all fifteen of these short stories in basically one go, it was nevertheless great fun to spend more time with these characters.
If you’re not familiar with Gotrek & Felix, or Warhammer in general, then this is a series you must read. It’s a great introduction to the setting, and is written with style and humour, and not a little bit of carnage.
Reviewed Herein: Gotrek & Felix Anthology (Various), Red Snow (Nathan Long), Charnel Congress (Josh Reynolds), The Oberwald Ripper (Laurie Goulding), Slayer of the Storm God (Nathan Long)
I’m a little late posting this, but I thought I’d still share a few thoughts on some of my most anticipated books coming out in March 2012. As usual, there are more new books coming out than I would be able to read, so I like to give them at least a hat-tip in these posts.
A collection of dark fantasy fiction
The dark origins of the Warhammer World are soaked in blood. Epic wars between kindred races reshaped continents, vast civilisations rose and fell, the dead walked the earth in legions. This is an age of mighty heroes whose like will never be seen again, such as the mangod Sigmar and Caledor, the Phoenix King of the elves. It is also an era of dread villains like the Witch-King Malekith and Nagash, the Lord of the undead. In these troubled times, dragons still flock the skies and magic exists that can doom or save the world.
It used to be that all Warhammer fiction came in the form of short stories, so it’s nice that Black Library are maintaining output of shorter slices of Warhammer (and WH40k) action and adventure. In Age of Legends, we have ten stories from a number of established masters of the world, as well as some new blood. Overall, this is another great anthology of dark, engaging fantasy fiction, with some particularly enjoyable contributions from newer authors.
I know I’ve been offering a lot of artwork posts, recently, but there really has been such a great slew of recently-unveiled, eye-catching pieces. And, really, who doesn’t like to look at nice artwork? Exactly.
I saw this particular cover appear rather quietly on Black Library’s website without any apparent fanfare or even announcement, but… damn it really should have. This is one of the best book covers I’ve seen in a long time, for any genre/publisher…
