All wrapped up in an Aeronautica Imperialis story in which an Imperial propagandist is sent to an embattled world to film an inspiring story of brave pilots crushing the pathetic orks…only to find that the greenskins are considerably less feeble and more ferocious than he’d been led to believe, and that the dashing fighter ace Lucille von Shard is not exactly the hero he’d expected. It’s a book about propaganda, about what the truth really is and what it costs, and really it’s a book about the fundamental flaws of the Imperium. This one came out of nowhere – the first anyone knew of it was when it was previewed a week before it went on sale – and absolutely blew me away. Read the accompanying short stories first if you can, to get a sense of who two of the assassins are, but if you’re at all interested in the idea of a 40k spy thriller (with added big stompy robots) then this is definitely one to check out.Ĭheck out my review of Assassinorum: KingmakerĬheck out Robert’s guest post where he discusses the spy novels that influenced Assassinorum: Kingmaker The assassins themselves are compelling in their own right, but what really makes this story is the combination of those characters and the complex culture and politics of the Knight world, resulting in a difficult mission and a fascinating story that grips from start to finish. What’s not to like about a mismatched group of Imperial Assassins teaming up and using a combination of force, subtlety and social manipulation to avert the secession of an Imperial Knight world?! That’s the gist of this excellent novel, and it’s just as much fun as it sounds – part all-out action story and part subtle, smart spy thriller, with characters who are each utterly lethal in their own ways but who are really not used to collaborating.
BEST BLACK LIBRARY BOOKS 2022 FULL
As usual with French’s writing it’s dense and intricate and full of rich detail, and I loved it!Ĭheck out my guide to John French’s Ahriman series I mean, it does still feel very familiar (in a comforting, satisfying way), but it’s a development of these characters that sees them facing off against totally new enemies, and not just the Necrons but also the terrifying warp-phenomenon known as the Pyrodomon. It’s very much in keeping with the tone and feel of the original series, so I think it will appeal to anyone who loved Exile, Sorcerer and Unchanged, but it’s definitely the start of something new, and it’s not just more of the same. dealing with the xenos Necrons and searching for the power to affect time itself.
And it’s so good, I’ve already read it twice! It follows on from the previous novels, and this time sees Ahriman, Ctesias, Ignis and co. Last year I picked one book out as my top choice, but this year it was hard enough narrowing things down to just these five and I really couldn’t choose just one – so I haven’t! Instead, I’ve just gone with my five favourites, which I’ve listed below in the order in which I read them.Īhriman might just be my favourite character in all of 40k, and the original Ahriman trilogy is right up there among my all-time favourite BL stories, so I couldn’t have been happier to see this novel kick off a new series. Lastly, I’m (largely) concentrating just on novels and not looking at novellas, omnibuses, anthologies or short stories. That means I’ve had to exclude some excellent titles I’ve read and enjoyed this year like Flesh and Steel, Warhawk and The Twice-Dead King: Ruin, all of which were originally published prior to 2022. The second caveat is that I’m only including books first published in 2022, so that’s anything which was published this year in its original format (so for example, if a book came out in LE format in 2021 and regular format in 2022, that wouldn’t count). I’m sure I’ve missed out loads of great titles simply because I haven’t got around to reading them. Black Library publishes somewhere in the region of 40 novels each year, of which I’ve read 14 that’s slightly more than last year, but still nothing like all of them. As always this comes with a few caveats, the first of which being that I can only talk about the books I’ve actually read. It was hard to cut things down to five though, so I’ve also added a few honourable mentions that I couldn’t help but include. There are plenty to choose from, but I’ve narrowed it down to just five that I can personally recommend as being genuinely fantastic reads. Every year, as we approach the end of December I look back at the best Black Library books I’ve read over the preceding twelve months, and it’s time now to take a look at 2022’s BL highlights.
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