UK Games Day Anthology 2012 Review: Part 1

Where does time go? I used to read so much fantasy and science-fiction, yet these days I rarely seem to get around to it. On UK Games Day, I vowed to change that and picked up the limited edition Black Library Anthology. It rested on my shelf for a bit, but now I’ve delved into it. Here are my opinions on the first three of the six short stories included in the book.

The UK Games Day Anthology 2012/2013

To start off, this is a fairly slim book. Just over 120 pages containing six short stories. In my opinion, this makes it an excellent little book to pick up when you just don’t have the time to delve into a 300+ page Horus Heresy Novel.

Games Day Anthology 2012/2012 contents:

• Distand Echoes of Old Night – a Warhammer 40K story by Rob Sanders
• Extinction – a Warhammer 40K story by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
• The Master of Mourkain – a Warhammer Fantasy story by Josh Reynolds
• The Blessing of Iron – a Warhammer 40K story by Anthony Reynolds
• The Memory of Flesh – a Warhammer 40K story by Matthew Farrer
• Perihelion – a Warhammer 40K story by Dan Abnett

A 5 to 1 bias for Warhammer 40K over Warhammer Fantasy. Some might criticize this, but it suits me just fine. I guess I am one of the people for whom this was made, as I’m far more enthused by Warhammer 40K than by Warhammer Fantasy Battle.

Anyhow, here is my take on story one, two and three:

1. Distant Echoes of Old Night (Rob Sanders)

Love this one. A strong start if there ever was one. More than any other writer, Rob Sanders clearly has a talent for summoning fantastic set-pieces and locations. In “The Iron Within”, his short story for “The Age of Darkness“, he conjured the extraordinary set of an inverted Iron Warriors’ fortress to drive his narrative.

In “Distant Echoes of Old Night”, the location is once again a key player in the story. This time it is the sinking wreck of a crashed Imperial Fist spaceship, drowning in a fetid swamp of the Death Guard’s own making, as they battle their way down to the bottom of their own quagmire grave.

The ‘Distant Echoes of Old Night’ that give the story its name are the inhumane weaponry deployed by the Death Guard ‘Destroyers’ (which, in essence, are an elite-unit of Devastators I guess). Here, Sanders ventures down some Grim Darkness lanes that even 40K rarely dares to go.  And his take on the Death Guard is a refreshingly original one.

Yet the highlight of the story is the fanatical Chaplain Murneau, whose fanaticism drives his Devastators from assured, but inglorious victory into their doom. The story is rife with symbolism of all sorts. Sanders also manages to write a story from the perspective of the “bad guys” and still keep them the “bad guys” through and through. No misunderstood, tragic and flawed heroes in this one. No. These Death Guard are as means as they get.

The ending is a killer. Beautifully set up and executed. This story alone is worth the price of the book.

2. Extinction (Aaron Dembski-Bowden)

I am a great, great fan of Aaaron Dembski-Bowden’s work. His Savage Weapons short story is, hands down, the greatest Dark Angels story of them all. His Night Lords Trilogy of Soul Hunter, Blood Reaver and Void Stalker is some of the best Warhammer 40K fiction out there.

That said, I didn’t really get much from Extinction. It is not even really a story. It is more a sequence of action scenes depicting the gory end of various Sons of Horus Marines. I get what ADB was trying to do… to showcase how Horus’ Legion is getting hammered from all sides after their Primarch’s death. The individual scenes, likewise, are well written and ADB’s skill of conjuring up a vivid picture of what is going on with very few choice words really helps it.

Yet, in the end, Extinction feels like the short-story equivalent of zapping through tv-channels, all of which show more or less the same thing. It doesn’t help that there is no “connection” to the characters that ADB kills off pager after pager after page. To me, they where just names passing through as I moved on to the next scene.

When Aaron Dembski-Bowden finally arrives at Abaddon, I got my hopes up that something relevant would happen. The vista ADB lays out for the final scene is suitably epic. Yet, ultimately, nothing really happens there either. I can see how Abaddon “doing nothing” may have been the point. But it doesn’t make for a very satisfying read.

Extinction was fun to read, don’t get me wrong, but it didn’t really leave a lasting impression. Yet, neither will this stop me from picking up ADB’s next book when it comes out (not least because it will feature Angron!).

3. The Master of Mourkain (Josh Reynolds)

The Master of Mourkain is the only Warhammer Fantasy story in the Anthology. As noted above, I am probably ill-suited to review this one. Anyhow, here’s what I thought about it.

In many ways, I believe that this was not a very good Warhammer Fantasy story for Black Library to include in this “Warhammer 40K-biased” anthology for the very reason that this was a story that I felt difficult to truly appreciate as someone who not thoroughly familiar with the Warhammer Fantasy mythology.

There are Warhammer Fantasy stories out there that are excellent reads. Nothing wrong with jumping straight into some dark and gritty fantasy sword-fights or intrigues, even if you’re not a close follower of Warhammer lore.

This story wasn’t one of them. It details the attempt of Ushoran, an ancient Vampire, to steal the crown of Nagash from the Necromancer-King Kadon, who rules the realm of Mourkain with the crown’s power. There’s lots of name dropping and allusions to places like Lahmia, Nehekhara and other Warhammer Fantasy staples. Enough, at least, to feel like I was missing something by not being able to place them beyond the simple recognition of the names.

That said, “The Master of Mourkain” did offer an entertaining “swords-and-necromancy” fight between Vampire and Necromancer battling it out through the latter’s lair. Though, once again, the ending left me puzzled and scrambling to Lexicanum to get an idea of what is going on, not closing the book with a satisfied grin as I did after “Distant Echoes of Old Night”.

In short: It probably wasn’t a story for me. If you’re into Warhammer Undead, you might enjoy it a lot more.

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So, there it is. A brief rundown of my thoughts on the first half of this anthology. Rob Sander’s opening story is a real treat. ADB’s Extinction oddly flat for a story by one of my favourite 40K authors. The ‘Master of Mourkain‘ was perhaps just written for a different audience.

Z.