Last month when reviewing the most recent eShort subscription week, Cult Mechanicus Week, I noted with disappointment that the subscription had just sprung out of nowhere. No teasers, no anticipation, no whetting of the appetite.
Thankfully, that turned out to be a fluke as the newest theme week, Raiders of the Realms, was properly teased in a Sunday Preview on Warhammer Community. Sure a week isn’t a lot type to build anticipation, but just enough to give folks something to look forward to. Was it worth the wait? Today we’ll look at all five of this week’s stories, the last of which dropped yesterday, and see how the collection holds up!
Slinktalon, by Robbie MacNiven
It’s been an exciting year for Robbie MacNiven, and not just because his beloved Glasgow Rangers recently was bought by American investors with (assumedly) deep pockets for transfers.
Not only did his two Carcharodons books (2017’s Red Tithe and 2018’s Outer Dark) got striking special edition reissues, but we’re all eagerly awaiting the teased release of the third in the series later this year. And of course, we can’t forget about the release of Oaths of Damnation just this past August (review here).
While the bulk of MacNiven’s writing for the Black Library has been for 40K (and a splash of Horus Heresy and Necromunda), he’s written a few Age of Sigmar stories. In Slinktalon, the kickoff story for the Raiders of the Realms Week, we’re introduced to a trio of mid-level Skaven assassins of Clan Eshin, Ichit, Quik, and Relq.
Relq has risen far in the ranks, but Ichit (small and stabby) and Quik (hulking and brutal) have become rivals of one another. When Relq pulls the other two in on a job, it’s a chance to let bygones be bygones. But of course, these are Skaven assassins, and nothing’s ever quite that simple.
Instead, the pair make a beeline for their target, only working together when absolutely necessary. This drives the crux of the story, with both Eshin assassins vying for the honor of being the one to kill their target- a Warlock-Engineer by the name of Queem.
It turns out, though, that Queem has retained the services of the Eshin as a way to test his own defenses out, not unlike a white hat hacker undertaking a penetration test. But again, these are Skaven we’re talking about, and how things go sideways is the heart of Slinktalon.
Most of the story is an action narrative, but the only misstep the veteran MacNiven puts is in an ending that perhaps concludes rather too abruptly. This is a terrific opener to the week of Age of Sigmar stories.
Conn Crowhand’s Last Oath, by Graham Wilcox
About two years ago in April of 2023, there was another Age of Sigmar eShorts week entitled Dawnbringers Week. It was there our next author marked his debut with the story Grimnirsson, and while he’s been quiet since then he returns with a double this week.
Wilcox is an Editor at Old Moon Quarterly, a literary magazine that exists at the intersection of sword-and-sorcery fantasy and weird fiction. Consider this an occasional reminder that the things we want to see in the world survive only through our active support. I love to see anthology magazines like this thrive, so I bought a paper copy of the most recent issue (which I’d be reading right now if we weren’t in the midst of Raiders of the Realms Week!).
Back to the story at hand, Conn Crowhand’s Last Oath is a Darkoath story of loyalty and betrayal. Not loyalty to a person or cause, but loyalty to the oaths one has sworn and contending with what the limit of that loyalty is. How much personal gain- or avoidance of personal misfortune- would it take for you to betray your principles? As a reflection on that question Wilcox delivers a fantastic story here, one with a kicker of an ending leaves the implications of that question hanging.
In terms of the writing itself, Wilcox is capable of turning a mighty phrase. Time and again as I read I found myself not only enjoying this first-person story but also how it was told, filled as it was with lines like
- We killed no one, which was neither here nor there.
- Together, we dissolved laughing, merry as ghouls with a bone.
- Crowhand boasted loudly, and often, and I knew many of the boasts for lies – but this was, perhaps, one of his few remaining truths.
- She owned a sword’s beauty, and an axe’s smile
- I laughed and we embraced and kissed, and upon my blade I swear, nothing has ever tasted so sweet as Syve’s lips after battle. Some joys a man learns over and over. That truth I brandish as proof the gods do not loathe us entirely.
This might have been an Age of Sigmar fantasy story, but Wilcox has written it with a hard-bitten, almost noir-ish quality to it which was electric. I enjoyed this story so much that not only did I find myself wanting more, but I started looking at last year’s Darkoath Army Set. Cynics often reduce paper to plastic, saying the entire point of the Black Library is to sell more miniatures. I reject that at least in part (can’t it be both to move product and tell great stories?), but in this case it absolutely worked. Well done, Graham, this was a fantastic entry not just in Raiders of the Realms Week, but in Black Library short fiction.
As a result, Conn Crowhand’s Last Oath is awarded my “Best in Show” selection for Raiders of the Realms- but keep reading, as there’s plenty to enjoy ahead!
Reclaimed Honour, by Jacob Peppers
This story marks the debut effort of author Peppers, though he himself has been highly prolific in writing serial fantasy ranging from the straightforward heroic (The Last Eternal series) to the seemingly Pratchettesque (The Antiheroes).
Reclaimed Honour is a straightforward story that relies on a few tropes in its setup and execution. The hero is a Wildercorps hunter in Ghyran, the heavily-vegetated Realm of Life. Haunted by his past as the only surviving member of his regiment after they were wiped out by Khornites, he lives under a cloud of suspicion and mistrust.
Stationed at Fort Satler, with their Commander away in Hammerhal he is ordered by the Commander’s sneering, entitled son (my mind went here immediately) to help them track down the culprits behind a mysterious killing in the woods. What they find is far worse than even their fears, but therein he might just find a chance at redemption.
Overall I found it entertaining and serviceable if a bit unprepossessing, and while the prose never feels rushed the story had room to stretch its legs a bit more if it wanted to. There’s a ton of opportunity to build suspense when it comes to the weird-things-inside-of-fog-banks device (just ask Stephen King), but Reclaimed Honour wastes little time in getting right to the reveal. A shame- but hardly a grave one. And if the worst thing one can say about a story is, “gee, I wish there was more of it,” then that’s not a bad place to be.
Particularly in the wake of our recent conversation about authors and their digital presence, I was also happy to see that Peppers has free copies of his novella The Silent Blade available. If you’d like to see more of this Black Library debutant while awaiting his next visit to the Mortal Realms, there’s your chance!
Vipers of Marsh, by Bryce Mainville
Mainville is this week’s other new arrival, and there’s a certain symmetry to his debut alongside Jacob Peppers. Both stories feature the expert trackers of the Wildercorps in the dangerous Ghyran landscape. Here we are introduced to Mattias and Jekk, two fresh recruits to the Wildercorps that are thrust into the hostile, hazardous Barony marshland.
Survival is perilous amongst the brackish reeds, where the land can kill you through infection or disease just as easily as a gnashtoof or orruk, and the two must adapt to their new home and new assignment as they hunt an orruk warband led by a shaman- a warband that is also hunting them.
This was an excellent story, and Mainville- a New Englander himself- did a superb job of painting the Connecticut marshlands I remember from my youth. Filled with little touches of detail from the reeds to the need to avoid water in your boots, the land feels every bit as alive here as a character and I found myself really enjoying the unusual setting as a result. If one test of a short story is, would I want to read this if it were a novel, here it’s a resounding yes. Vipers of the Marsh has the feeling of a ‘hero origin/coming of age story,’ and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if we were to see more of Mattias and Jakk down the road.
As for other work outside the Black Library, I wasn’t able to find much on Mainville beyond a story published in a quarterly science-fiction magazine back in 2011. Another one to watch out for!
This Rough Beast, by Graham Wilcox
Somewhat unusually, here we get a second story from the same author as Wilcox follows Conn Crowhand’s Last Oath with another story of the price of oathkeeping.
This time we follow Marcuccio, a Soulblight Gravelord and Knight of the Wolf Rampant. The Knights have vowed to recover the Black Chalice, putting an end to the curse of thirst that has chained the vampires from Ushoran on down. All they need is the blood of the legendary duardin Whitebeard, and with victory in sight they press an attack that ultimately sees them scattered and slain.
Wounded and taking refuge in a nearby cave, Marcuccio must choose which of his oaths to keep.
Many years ago in high school I ran a one-shot RPG session for a group of friends where they played human-appearing aliens looking for a rare fruit on the planet Earth. They were given a vague description on what the herb looked like, what it did, and why they needed it, and a few precious clues to get them started on what I’d expected to be a fun evening’s hunt.
Alas, aiming to be clever I didn’t fully change the name of the ‘fruit,’ taking delight in ‘hiding it in plain sight.’ We were just half an hour in when one of my players looked me right in the face, completely deadpan, and said, “it’s garlic, isn’t it. That’s what we’re looking for. Garlic.”
They scrounged some human money, went into a store and bought some and headed offworld. Job done, game over, we had the rest of the evening suddenly free up.
I was reminded of that a bit as I read This Rough Beast, as Marcuccio reverently quoted from an old book he always carried with him. I won’t spoil the connection, but thankfully unlike my RPG adventure, the whole thing doesn’t collapse if you happen to figure it out early.
One element I often enjoy in stories is sympathy between enemies, and as the story concludes in the duel between Marcucchio and the dwarven champion, their conversation and that glimmer of understanding between them helped the story stick the landing.
With both of Wilcox’s stories this week being very strong, I hope were not waiting another two years for his next contribution to the Black Library.
But for now, all good things come to an end and with this last story we come to the conclusion of the Raiders of the Realms Week. I found this one to be well worth the price of admission, with a nice variety of stories for a setting that typically takes the backseat to Warhammer 40,000.
For those who may not have picked up much Age of Sigmar yet, this isn’t a bad place to start. The stories are nicely self-contained, and do a good job for the most part in providing whatever background lore you need to fully appreciate the tale.
If you’ve read these stories, I’d love to hear your thoughts below as well. Which story (or stories) was your favorite, and why?
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