Warhammer Wednesday - Eye of Terror: The Chaos Space Marines Collection

One of my old Black Library Space Marine short stories, Liberator, that first appeared in Treacheries of the Space Marines, has seen the light of day again in the new Eye of Terror eBook collection.

You can download yours here, today.

Warhammer Wednesday: Space Marines - The Omnibus

Black Library recently updated their Coming Soon pages which led to them making this public.

Space Marines: The Omnibus collects together the stories from the Heroes, Legends and Victories of the Space Marines anthologies, plus three long out of print Space Marine comic strips (apparently).

As long-time readers of this blog will already know, I had stories in both Legends and Victories (not to mention Treacheries), so I shall look forward to receiving my contributor copy of this publication in due course.

Meanwhile, you can pre-order your copy here.

Tie-in Tuesday: Liberator

Liberator is my contribution to the last ...of the Space Marines title from Black Library, edited by Christian Dunn. And like so much of my stuff, it appears to be dividing readers left, right and centre.

In the supporters' camp we have such reviews as the one that appeared on The Founding Fields website, which give Liberator a respectable 7.2 out of 10.

In the dissenters' camp we have reviews like this one that's appeared on Amazon:

`Liberator' is a rather unconvincing story of an element of a loyalist Space Marine squad who turn traitor. The reasons themselves are rather forced and the characters quite weakly drawn. I also found some of the terminology felt borrowed inappropriately - Nova Terra is the setting but no reference is made to whether this is the planet at the centre of the major schism in the setting (Nova Terra Interregnum in M35), a quoted Inquisitor has the first name of Gideon which is the same as Ravenor's first name and one person's title is Iconoclast which is the same as a Chaos Destroyer ship class. These are individually minor points but they do create a composite view that the author is lifting names lazily. The story is not helped by being told in semi-reverse either. On the positive side it is good to see the Iron Knights Chapter appear and their names at least are consistent with their appearance in `Tower of Blood' (Best of Hammer and Bolter Volume 1). I rate this as 2 stars.

I take issue with 'the author is lifting names lazily' bit. I believe the names I have used are appropriate, given the context (and who ever heard of more than one person sharing the same name?), but you'll need to read the story yourself to see why. As to the reasons why the characters fall to Chaos... that was already in the Chaos Space Marines Codex.

But those points aside... 72% or 40%? You're just going to have to read the story yourself to decide which is the fairer review.

You can pick up a copy of Treacheries of the Space Marines here.

 

 

PS - In case you hadn't noticed, I'm invoking the 'Black Library fiction as tie-in fiction' clause today.

 

Mission Games Workshop: Return to Brighton

As I was in Brighton for FantasyCon at the weekend, I popped into the local GW store (as is my wont). I was very pleased to see both The Best of Hammer and Bolter: Volume 1 and Treacheries of the Space Marines on display (since both contain stories by me), and there were some totally awesome gaming boards on show in the shop window.

The Empire/Skaven themed board.

 

The Dark Vengeance-inspired board.

But most pleasant of all was meeting Joe Gallup, who was on duty at the time, and who (it would appear) is a big Black Library fan. And I think I might just have persuaded him to pick up a copy of Shadows over Sylvania when it comes out (probably some time next year now).

Tie-in Tuesday: Treacheries of the Space Marines

It's Tie-in Tuesday once again, but today I'm invoking the 'I may talk about Black Library fiction on Tie-in Tuesday as well' clause.

You see Treacheries of the Space Marines, which won't be officially available until the end of September (or UK Games Day, whichever comes first) has already received an advance review over at The Founding Fields.

If you don't want to know anything about my story Liberator, look away now.

If you don't mind a few SPOILERS, then read on...

Liberator by Jonathan Green

Heresy is insidious, sometimes obvious and sometimes subtle. And nobody is immune to its siren song, least of all the Adeptus Astartes. Though brother does not turn on brother commonly, it is not unheard of for a loyal servant of the Emperor to abandon his oaths of fealty to Chapter and Imperium and to embrace the Ruinous Powers, indeed many Traitor Marines are born this way. This is the story of one of these traitors, one whose legacy endures even today, one who will forever be a black stain on his proud Chapter’s history. This is the tale of Constantinus the Liberator.

Jon Green has chosen to write up a Codex story here, and he made a good choice because Constantinus is a great story about how a loyal marine can fall to Chaos and become a monster, and Jon elaborates on that even further in the story, explaining the motives of Constantinus and his actions in conquering Nova Terra and becoming a Chaos Space Marine. Heresy starts with small steps and very few actually embrace evil for the sake of evil, Jon clearly understands that as the story tells of both Constantinus’s rise and fall. One enjoyable aspect was that the story started backwards, with Constantinus as a tyrant and then moved backwards, showing how he made each step towards heresy before moving to the end and showing the results of his actions.

The only actual character in the story is Constantinus himself, the others are all secondary or background. Jon does a good job of making Constantinus a clear tyrant and a brutal monster, and yet he is shown to have been a noble marine who inspired fierce loyalty in his men. His motives are understandable and can even be empathized with if you look at it from a soldier’s point of view, its these details that make Constantinus an interesting character rather than just a marine who one day decided he wanted more in life than just praising the Emperor, and these details really add to the story and make it a much better read.

Liberator does not utilize action scenes in any real number or detail, only one short battle against some xenos and the final few pages detailing the Imperial retaliation are the only actual battles that appear. Two scenes that could have been very attention-grabbing and powerful battles unfortunately cut away before violence has a chance to occur. Fortunately the story is good enough that it can hold its own without any real battle scenes in it.

The pacing of the story is surprising in that for a story that moves backwards it is still an easy read, Liberator should not confuse anyone who is quick enough to see that the story is telling itself in a reverse order. I do think that perhaps it could have been a few pages longer, mainly to add in those two battle scenes I mentioned earlier, but the story is fine as it stands.

Now my favourite quote has got to be this one,

“For I shall not rest until this world has been liberated from the traitor’s tyrannical rule. This I swear!”

Now the ending is of course not surprising as I knew how this would end because I have read the Chaos Space Marines 4th Edition Codex, but had I not read that I would have been wondering if Constantinus could win and it would have had me a bit more desirous to see the ending. But Jon does good work and he has chosen a cool format to end the story in, but to find out what you’ll have to read the story.

For a good story about an event that I was interested in since I read the CSM Codex I give Liberator a grand score of 7.2/10. This is my first real sample of Jon Green and I like what I have read, I look forward to reading more of him in the future and I hope he has some full-length novels in his plans.

Mission: Games Workshop - Salisbury again

It's been a while since I last dropped by the Salisbury GW store (for one reason or another) but I made it back there today and was very impressed with the new layout. And it wasn't only the store that had had a make-over - Manager Anthony and Full Timer Matt had too!

Whilst there I had a thumb through of the new White Dwarf and picked up the new Black Library Previews Catalogue, uttering the famous last words, "even though I'm not in this one" - completely forgetting that my second Path to Victory gamebook Shadows over Sylvania would be included (and I'm also in the anthology Treacheries of the Space Marines, of course).

The mocked-up cover looks cool (in fact I'd be very happen if this was the final cover) and the write-up should get any warm-blooded Warhammer fans excited about the gamebook:

You are a vampire, a shadow-clad terror of the night. Vlad von Carstein, the closest your cursed breed had to a leader, is dead, killed at the gates of Altdorf by the head of the Imperial Sigmarite church. Now your kind fight amongst themselves, each desperate to grab the power that Vlad held. You have been sent by your dark master to retrieve three powerful artefacts - a sword, a ring and a chalice - that are prophesied to provide the wielder with ultimate power. With other vampires ahead of you and the witch hunters of the Empire at your heels, can you claim the artefacts and unite the armies of Sylvania?

Shadows over Sylvania will be released this October as a Black Library Direct Exclusive.

Short Story Saturday: Treacheries of the Space Marines

My Black Library releases are rather like London buses: nothing for ages and then two come along at once.

On Wednesday I received my author copies of Herald of Oblivion (my first Warhammer 40K gamebook) and then the very next day I received my contributor copies of Treacheries of the Space Marines.

I've not spoken about this book much yet. Here's the blurb from the back cover.

The Space Marines of the Adeptus Astartes are the defenders of mankind, the ultimate superhuman brotherhood standing against the evils of the galaxy. But even among their hallowed ranks, there are those who would turn their backs on their brothers and follow the path of the traitor. Gathered within these pages, you will find tales from the dark side of the Imperium – remember, that which can defend, can also betray...


New York Times bestselling editor Christian Dunn presents a selection of short stories from some of Black Library’s finest authors: Anthony Reynolds, Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Matthew Farrer, Sarah Cawkwell and many more*.


My story is called Liberator, and if you've read the most recent iteration of the Chaos Space Marines Codex then you may already have an idea as to who the story is about...

Treacheries... is available for pre-order now, although it isn't actually scheduled for release until October**.

Of course in the real world, my two most recent BL releases are Herald of Oblivion and The Best of Hammer and Bolter: Volume 1, which features my Warhammer story Sir Dagobert's Last Battle.

Such is the way of publishing. I'm currently working on a book that should see the light of day before the end of the year whereas the project I finished yesterday won't see print until well into 2013.

* As usual, I'm one of the 'many more'.


** Although I expect it may well be available early at this year's UK Games Day, where you will also be able to pick up physical copies of Herald of Oblivion (and maybe even Iron Hands or The Armageddon Omnibus).

Warhammer Wednesday: Treacheries of the Space Marines

Apparently this now exists!

The Space Marines of the Adeptus Astartes are the defenders of mankind, the ultimate superhuman brotherhood standing against the evils of the galaxy. But even among their hallowed ranks, there are those who would turn their backs on their brothers and follow the path of the traitor. Gathered within these pages, you will find tales from the dark side of the Imperium – remember, that which can defend, can also betray...


New York Times bestselling editor Christian Dunn presents a selection of short stories from some of Black Library’s finest authors: Anthony Reynolds, Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Matthew Farrer, Sarah Cawkwell and many more.

I'm included among the 'many more'.

Short Story Saturday: Black Library shorts

At the last count, I think I've written about 16 conventional short stories* for the Black Library, set within the worlds of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000. And I have a 17th coming out this autumn as part of Treacheries of the Space Marines.

Several of my previously published BL short stories are now available for download as eBooks. So to get you in the mood for the forthcoming Liberator, why not check out one of my previous Space Marine stories, or even one of my Warhammer tales?

The Relic
As Ghazghkull Thraka’s second invasion engulfs Armageddon, Dreadnought Brother Jarold leads warriors from the Black Templars Chapter in battle against the greenskins in the frozen Dead Lands. Following a distress beacon, they find another Dreadnought in the ice, buried for half a century. When the orks attack en masse, the two Dreadnoughts make a last stand against the bestial invaders.

But Dust in the Wind
Investigating a distress signal from an ice-shrouded mining colony, Space Marines of the Imperial Fists find themselves outnumbered and surrounded by the soulless necrons. Facing impossible odds, the Imperial Fists struggle desperately to find a way to survive.

Sir Dagobert's Last Battle
A small Bretonnian village is menaced by greenskin raiders – only a renowned Grail Knight stands against the horde. Unfortunately, he has been dead for years…

Mark of the Beast
Torben Badenov and his band of warriors hunt a tribe of beastmen who are harrying the Empire. Little do they suspect that treachery awaits them when they find the beasts…


 * So not including any of the colour text pieces I wrote for the old Army Books and Codexes.