Waiting on Wednesday – The Queen of Days by Greta Kelly

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Fantasy, Waiting on Wednesday1 Comment

Welcome to my weekly segment, Waiting on Wednesday, where I look at upcoming books that I am planning to order and review in the next few months and which I think I will really enjoy.  I run this segment in conjunction with the Can’t-Wait Wednesday meme that is currently running at Wishful Endings.  Stay tuned to see reviews of these books when I get a copy of them.  In this week’s Waiting on Wednesday, I highlight a very cool upcoming fantasy novel with The Queen of Days by Greta Kelly.

The Queen of Days Cover

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I’m always in the mood for epic new fantasy series and books and it looks like there is a very awesome one the horizon with The Queen of Days.  Written by established author Greta Kelly, best known for her Warrior Witch duology, The Queen of Days is an impressive sounding upcoming book currently set for release in late October 2023.

I came across the synopsis for The Queen of Days a few weeks ago and I was instantly intrigued by its awesome and elaborate sounding plot that will see a team of thieves go up against everyone in a fantasy city, including a powerful god in a massive, world-ending adventure.  I love the idea of a cool fantasy heist novel that has some major repercussions for the protagonists, and this sounds particularly good especially with its cast of eccentric and over-the-top characters.  Based on the synopsis alone, I am already very excited about The Queen of Days and I have a feeling that this will end up being on the most enjoyable fantasy novels of 2023.  As such, I am already quite keen to get myself a copy of this awesome book and I look forward to reading and reviewing The Queen of Days later in the year.

Plot Synopsis:

For Balthazar and his family of thieves, stealing a statue during the annual celebration of the god Karanis was just a good bit of fun…or a way to stick it to the governor who murdered his parents. And yeah, the small fortune in reward doesn’t hurt—even if his boss also hired the mysterious Queen of Days to join the crew as “the weapon of last resort…”

Whatever that means.

But Bal doesn’t know the ceremony isn’t simply empty words and dusty tradition; it’s true magic. The kind of magic that rips open a portal for the god himself. Only the idol that Karanis planned on using for a body now lies broken at the Queen of Days’ feet. And half of it is missing.

With the aid of a lovable brawler, a society lady turned bomb maker, a disgraced soldier, and a time-eating demon, Bal must hunt down the missing half of the statue if he has any hope of earning his money, keeping his crew alive…and perhaps even saving all of humanity. But as his journey sends him racing through the city—and across realities—he discovers that doing all this might just doom the city.

The city be damned. It’s time to kill a god.

Warhammer 40,000: Warboss by Mike Brooks

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Extended Universe, Science Fiction, Tie-in Novel, Warhammer29 Comments

Warhammer 40,000 - Warboss Cover

Publisher: Black Library (Audiobook – 25 March 2023)

Series: Warhammer 40,000

Length: 8 hours and 48 minutes

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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Prepare for the ultimate battle for control as several feuding ork bosses fight to become the new leader of the Waaagh! in this amazing and highly entertaining Warhammer 40,000 novel, Warboss by Mike Brooks.

2023 has been a big Warhammer 40,000 fiction year for me as I have been having an absolute blast reading all manner of cool novels from across the franchise (make sure to check out my recently released list about my favourite Warhammer 40,000 novels).  However, while I have read a ton of Warhammer books this year, I have not had the opportunity to read any 2023 Warhammer releases.  Well, I am on my way to rectify that by looking at the recently released Warboss by awesome author Mike Brooks, who also wrote the 2022 novel Huron Blackheart: Master of the Maelstrom.  Brooks did an outstanding job with this fantastic new book, and I had so much damn fun with Warboss and its highly entertaining and hilarious story.

In the far future of the 41st millennium, there are few things are more destructive or unstoppable than an ork warband on a rampage.  One of the most effective bands currently killing its way through the galaxy is that of Warboss Gazrot Goresnappa whose Waaagh! has conquered the once mighty human fortress world of Aranua.  After several decisive and bloody victories, the Waaagh! celebrates in front of the planet’s remaining bastion, the massive Davidia Hive.  All it will take is one final assault to totally defeat the humans on Aranua so Warboss Goresnappa can strip their resources and lead his boyz to bigger and better fights out in the stars.

However, before Goresnappa can achieve his great victory, an unfortunate accident sees him very, very dead under the giant decapitated head of a Gargant war machine.  With their leader squashed, the Waaagh! now has an opening for Warboss, and several ambitious orks from across the no-longer united clans step forward to fight for the job.  However, before the usual brawl for leadership can begin, a prophecy from the clan’s resident weirdboy, Old Morgrub, reveals that the ork gods have something very special in store for the Waaagh! and its next leader.  A mysterious gate lies underneath the human city that could transport the Waaagh! to fights anywhere in the galaxy, and whichever boss finds it first will be the new Warboss.

Forced to obey the words of the gods, the bosses engage in their own elaborate plans to breach the Hive City and claim the gate.  But which boss can triumph over the others?  Will it be the brutal Goff Big Boss Mag Dedfist, the suicidally fast Speedboss of the Evil Sunz, Zagnob Thundaskuzz, the sneaky and cunning leader of the Blood Axes, Da Genrul, or could it even be the leader of the grot uprising, the self-proclaimed prophet of Gork and Mork, Snaggi Littetoof?  All four believe that they are the only ones capable of leading the Waaagh! and they will fight tooth and nail to become Warboss.  But to succeed they’ll need to not only overcome all their rivals but the human defenders of the Hive City and an Aeldari army waiting in the depths to defend their gate.  May the best ork win!

Oh dear, oh dear, what a damn funny book.  Honestly, any Warhammer 40,000 novel that focuses on the orks is bound to be comedy gold, but Warboss is one of the better ones I have had the pleasure of reading.  Author Mike Brooks does a wonderful job of telling a tight and amazingly fun story that perfectly showcases the orks in all their green skinned glory.  I had so much fun with this book and I managed to power through Warboss in very short order.

This proved to be a pretty fast-paced and impressive story, and it’s one that I was able to have a blast listening to as it unfolded.  Primarily focusing on the various ork characters that are part of Waaagh! Goresnappa, Warboss starts off with a sudden game changer for the protagonists as the infamous Warboss Goresnappa is killed off in hilarious fashion thanks to a group of argumentative grots and the falling head of a massive war machine.  This leads several of the remaining ork bosses throwing their hats into the ring to become the Warboss, and all hell follows as a result.  Tasked with finding a hidden Aeldari gate under the human city, each of the ork bosses implements their own plans to get into the city first, whether that be through blowing down the walls, infiltrating from below, or driving around the city at high speeds, hoping for the best.  Brooks breaks the story up around the main three contenders nicely, and you soon get a good idea of their different, but very orkish strategies.  However, the story is made even more enjoyable thanks to some of the alternate perspectives that emerge.  This includes the ambitious grot Snaggi Littletoof who, after accidently killing Warboss Goresnappa, attempts his own grot uprising and tries to find the gate to gain his cause legitimacy.  Several human characters are also shown, often to add some interesting contrast to the orks, and it is fun to see their attempted counterattacks, which often leads to disaster.  This makes for an excellent first two-thirds of the book and Brooks does a great job of showcasing both the protagonists and the ork nation as a whole while also setting up a very entertaining story.

Unsurprisingly, the orks make it into the city and everyone starts arriving at the gate at the same time, often in comedic or unexpected ways.  This leads to a very fast-paced final third as everyone starts fighting everyone else to become Warboss, facing off against humans, Aeldari, and every rival faction of the Waaagh!.  Brooks showcases this final big battle in some excellent ways, and you get really drawn into the crazy carnage that follows thanks to the well-written and exciting action scenes.  The use of multiple perspectives was pretty useful here, and I liked how the author showed the same massive battle again and again, each time from the point of view of another character.  This added more detail to the brawl each time, as well as some amusing alternate opinions of events from some very different characters.  Brooks throws in some excellent twists and turns here and you are never quite certain who is going to come out on top in the battle for supremacy.  The eventual fate of every major character is pretty fantastic and really fits the storylines that have been building up throughout the book.  I personally came away from Warboss extremely satisfied and I loved all the cool developments and totally insane moments that occurred.  Overall, this was a very impressive standalone Warhammer 40,000 narrative and it is very hard not come away loving this story thanks to the awesome humour and all the fantastic, over-the-top interactions that occurred.

All fans of Warhammer fiction know that ork focused novels are some of the funniest novels out there, due to the way that they focus on the over-the-top antics of this beloved faction.  Some good examples of previous Warhammer books that strongly featured orks include Ghazghkull Thraka: Prophet of the Waaagh! by Nate Crowley (one of my favourite books of 2022) and Catachan Devil by Justin Woolley, and I think that Warboss is up there with these fantastic reads.  This outstanding book really dove into the humour as you watched the crude and eternally underestimated orks battle it out amongst each other and the other factions, often coming up with insane and funny solutions to all the deadly problems they encounter.  There honestly wasn’t a single chapter where I wasn’t laughing at some of the crazy stuff that just occurred, and Brooks had a real talent for writing from the ork perspective.  There was some great consistency in the way that the ork characters acted and thought throughout Warboss and every chapter focussed on them saw the characters using similar lingo, slang and descriptions of the other races in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.  As such, you get a great appreciation for the ork mindset and it was great to see the ork perspective on all the book’s over-the-top moments.

One of the things that I felt set Warboss aside from some other Warhammer 40,000 novels featuring orks is that Brooks didn’t fall into the trap of portraying them simply as funny simpletons.  Instead, Brooks shows that the orks are quite smart and complex in their way, it just that their culture, in comparison to humans or Aeldari, has more of a focus on violence and straightforwardness than the other races in the galaxy.  This is backed up by scene after scene of the orks utilising their skills, technology and cunning to win various encounters against seemingly smarter or more organised opponents, and it is always quite fun to see the orks looking down on their opponents for making mistakes that they wouldn’t do.  While this love of extreme violence is mostly played for fun, Brook’s also tries to show the darker side of it, as the orks are pretty damn brutal in how they deal with the humans and Aeldari they encountered.  I loved the great contrast between the ork and human characters that Brooks added into Warboss, as the humans were always so arrogant and condescending towards the orks’ intelligence, even when they were beating them.  This complete lack of understanding by most of the human characters really enhanced the various ork chapters, especially those that showed the orks managing to understand and outthink their human opponents, and I really appreciated this fantastic deeper dive into ork mindset and society.  I did think that Brooks might have made the orks slightly too overpowered in Warboss, as they manage to take on quite a few major enemies with relative ease, but this always added some fun to the story and it was interesting to see the full potential of the orks.

This deep dive into the orks is further cemented thanks to the several outstanding character arcs that Brooks set up throughout Warboss, particularly around the four main characters fighting for control of the Waaagh! in their own way.  The three ork characters Mag Dedfist, Zagnob Thundaskuzz and Genrul Uzbrag (Da Genrul), are in some ways quite similar, in that they have several similar racial tendencies towards violence or leadership.  However, each of them represents a different clan, and so they have different battle tendencies which really helps to highlight the different factions within ork society.  Mag Dedfist is a Goff, and so he relies more on classic violence and explosions to achieve his goals in the most direct ways possible.  Zagnob is an Evil Sun boss who has dedicated himself to the Kult of Speed and believes in riding the fastest vehicle he can find right towards the enemy.  The most entertaining of these is probably Da Genrul, a member of the Blood Axe clan who admire human martial ability and utilise their own take on tactics, discipline and stealth to achieve their goals, often outsmarting the humans they are aping.

I was also a big fan of the character of Snaggi Littletoof, a grot with ideas of grandeur who attempts to start a grot uprising against their cruel ork masters.  The grots (also known as gretchins, essentially goblins from classic fantasy), smaller cousins of the orks who are used as slave labour and cannon fodder, aren’t particularly well featured in most Warhammer 40,000 fiction, so I had fun with a whole character arc around them in Warboss.  Snaggi and his band of rebellious grots (Da GrotWaaagh!), are a very entertaining inclusion, and I liked the revolutionary storyline that Brooks set around them that provided both humour and an interesting look at typical grot life.  It was so much fun to see Snaggi inspiring his followers to go against their nature and rebel, especially as the orks had no idea what they heck they were doing.  Thanks to Brook’s use of Mag, Zagnob, Da Genrul and Snaggi, you get a great understanding of each of their specific faction and the author did a particularly good job of featuring each of them equally.  Indeed, thanks to the appearance of several different ork characters in a supporting role, you get a pretty good idea of nearly every major ork clan, faction and designation, and even those readers completely unfamiliar with orks can come away from this book knowing most of the key things you need to know about them.

These ork and grot protagonists are well backed up by several entertainingly arrogant human characters who honestly make the orks seem reasonable and likeable in comparison.  The best is easily Captain Armenisu Varrow, who is held prisoner by Da Genrul as his pet and tactical advisor.  Varrow goes through so much hell in this book, but is so deliciously haughty while he does so that you really can’t feel sorry for him.  Despite his ironclad belief in his own intelligence, Varrow is outsmarted time and time again, and it is just great to see him cower his way through events while still thinking he is the smart one.  His story arc is very entertaining and I loved how very dark it gets, especially at the end.  The rest of the humans are also great in their own ways, even if they are only featured for a short amount of time, and their ongoing false remarks about the abilities of the orks in the face of the carnage they are laying down always made me chuckle.  An overall great group of characters who help to turn this amazing story into something truly special.

I checked out Warboss on audiobook, which honestly is becoming my go-to format for all things Warhammer.  This proved to be another excellent decision as the Warboss audiobook was a ball of absolute fun that I had a brilliant time listening to.  Coming in with a runtime of under nine hours, this is a pretty easy audiobook to power through quickly and I managed it in a few, hilarious sessions.  The outstanding, comedy laden story really works well in the audiobook format and so many of the great jokes come across that much better when you listen to them.  It definitely helped that they brought in established Warhammer narrator Harry Myers to voice this book as he did a spectacular job here.  I have deeply enjoyed Myers in several recent Warhammer audiobooks, including The Wraithbone Phoenix by Alec Worley (one of my favourite audiobooks of 2022) and Day of Ascension by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and he has another amazing performance in Warboss.  His voice is just perfect for all the alien characters featured within this novel, and the various gruff tones of the orks and high-pitched squeals of the grots are very spot on.  In addition, several of the human characters are shown in all their arrogant finery throughout the audiobook and you really appreciate just how stupid they are through this medium.  Each character is expertly showcased to the reader through Myers’ voice, and I loved every line he read out as a result.  I also deeply enjoyed how well his narration worked to convey all the fantastic jokes loaded throughout the production, including that hilarious bit involving the ork characters failing to know the chapter numbers.  This was a such a great audiobook to listen to and I cannot recommend this format enough for Warboss as you are guaranteed to have an exceptional time listening to it.

Mike Brooks continues to impress me as an outstanding author of Warhammer fiction with his amazing novel Warboss.  A comedy heavy novel that perfectly showcases the always fun orks, Warboss is pure entertainment from start to finish that both established fans of the franchise and new readers can easily enjoy.  Brooks has a clear appreciation for this faction which really shines through in his storytelling, and I loved his great take on everything orkish.  One of the funniest and enjoyable releases of 2023 so far, this is essential reading for all interest in hilarious Warhammer fiction, and I am very glad I checked it out.

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The Tyrant Skies by David Annandale

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Comics/Manga, Extended Universe, Superhero, Tie-in Novel1 Comment

The Tyrant Skies Cover

Publisher: Aconyte Books (Ebook – 2 May 2023)

Series: Marvel Untold

Length: 254 pages

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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Two of Marvel’s greatest villains square off in this highly entertaining tie-in novel from talented author David Annandale, The Tyrant Skies.

As most people familiar with this blog will know, I am a man who loves a good tie-in novel, be it related to Star Wars, Star Trek or Warhammer.  However, one genre of tie-in books that I haven’t had a great deal experience with is those based around comic books, having only read a few in recent years, such as Loki: Where Mischief Lies by Mackenzi Lee and Catwoman: Soulstealer by Sarah J. Mass.  However, that looks set to change as I was recently lucky enough to receive a couple of particularly fun Marvel tie-in novels through Netgalley.  The first of these is The Tyrant Skies by David Annandale, which focuses on the always awesome supervillain, Doctor Doom.  Introduced as part of the Marvel Untold novel sub-series, The Tyrant Skies is the third Doctor Doom novel by Annandale, who previously released The Harrowing of Doom and Reign of the Devourer.  This third novel also has a great story to it as it sees Doom face off against an old rival, the Red Skull.

After defeating the deadly monsters that haunted his realm, Victor Von Doom has established peace within Latveria.  However, this peace is short-lived as a new danger begins to rise in the world, one with an unhealthy obsession with both Latveria and Doom.  The newly formed island nation of Wolkenland has just revealed itself to the world and quickly establishes itself as a playground for the rich and powerful, while also appearing to offer new lives for the world’s dispossessed.  However, Wolkenland hides a dark secret at its heart: it’s true ruler is the insane fascist Red Skull.

Still enraged by his failed invasion of Latveria and his humiliating defeat at the hands of Doom, Red Skull is determined to gain revenge on his enemies by using the influence and power of Wolkenland.  Utilising advanced technology and cosmic power, Red Skull transports Wolkenland to float above Latveria and begins a deadly invasion to capture the country and its advanced technology.

Doom’s only choice is to travel to Wolkenland and confront Red Skull directly, but even the might of Doctor Doom is unable to face the full power his enemy has amassed.  With his country threatened, his body weakened, and the only woman he ever loved held hostage on Wolkenland, Doom will need to use every bit of cunning, intelligence and manipulation in his possession to face down the Red Skull.  But even if he succeeds, the Red Skull has an ace up his sleeve that could destroy Latveria and break the entire world.

This was a pretty solid and deeply enjoyable novel from Annandale that tells a great story while also referencing some interesting elements from classic Marvel comics.  The story in The Tyrant Skies follows on a degree from Annandale’s last two novels and this time sees Doctor Doom and his country facing an insidious invasion from the Red Skull and his new island fortress.  The story advances at a pretty awesome pace, and the early highlights include Doom invading Wolkenland and unleashing his trademark havoc upon his foes.  After the necessary setback for the protagonist, the story evolves into an intriguing phase with a de-powered Doom leading a slave rebellion against Red Skull, while down in Latveria several of the series’ supporting characters fight off the invasion using tools featured in the prior books.  The action and intrigue were pretty non-stop the entire way through, and Annandale keeps the reader hooked to the book with some amazing and elaborate sequences.  I personally loved some of the twists that developed, especially as Annandale brings in a couple of foes that haven’t been seen in comics for a very long time, and it was great to see how Doom faced off against them.  The story does get pretty big and explosive at times, and I liked some of the great underlying examinations of tolerance, fascism and the vices of the mega-rich, all of which were used to great effect to make Doom, the brutal and deadly tyrant, actually seem like the good guy.  The author ends everyone on a pretty compelling note, and I ended up coming away from The Tyrant Skies fairly happy with the cool action-filled and entertaining story that Annandale served up.

As I mentioned before, The Tyrant Skies serves as the third book in an intriguing trilogy from Annandale that dives into Doom’s connection to his country as well as his own dark ambitions and adversaries.  I felt that The Tyrant Skies continued this story thread extremely well, and it was interesting to see how several of the recurring characters and their storylines developed as a result.  However, Annandale also makes The Tyrant Skies quite accessible to new readers as well, and if this your first Marvel novel you can dive into it with very little prior knowledge about the series.  While substantial comic or Fantastic Four knowledge isn’t needed to enjoy this book, Annandale does fill the story with several compelling references to previous comics, some of which were published a very long time ago.  Not only does the origin of Doom and Red Skull’s feud emerge from the pages of these older comics, but there are references to Doom’s dark relationship with Valeria, especially her death in the main comics, as well as other previous adventures.  Annandale also pulls one particularly intriguing feature out of a very old, obscure comic by Jack Kirby, Larry Lieber and Stan Lee, which I had honestly never heard about.  The author’s fun description about this somewhat absurd comic will get a chuckle out of aficionados of classic comics who will appreciate the intriguing references.  Annandale’s love for all things comic related really shines through with his writing, and I loved how he was able to effectively describe and bring to life several scenes that would usually need a full comic spread to appreciate.  I personally thought this was an outstanding and very clever tie-in to the larger Marvel universe and The Tyrant Skies is a great book to check out no matter how connected you are to source material.

Of course, one of the major parts of The Tyrant Skies is Annandale’s excellent portrayal of Victor von Doom, who steals any scene he is in.  Doom is probably one of the best villains (or anti-heroes, depending at how you look at him) in the entire Marvel canon, so anything featuring him is bound to be good (excluding a few Fantastic Four movies).  Annandale’s use of Doom in The Tyrant Skies is pretty spot on, and he shows the protagonist at his full power and intelligence.  I love the sheer arrogance and pride that dominates much of Doom’s character, and every scene shown from Doom’s point of view works to highlight this.  Annandale also looks deep into the powers and abilities of Doom, puling out some interesting elements of his abilities over the years.  Not only do you get to appreciate the technological prowess of Doom, but Annandale also makes sure to fully feature his magical skills, something which the mainstream media usually avoids, and even his old-school abilities to hypnotise people.  However, the best part of Doom is his sheer intelligence as he manages to outsmart anyone he goes up against, even when disadvantaged in other ways.  There are some great scenes when a de-powered and vulnerable Doom manages to secretly organise and inspire a slave revolt and lead his new followers on a deadly rampage against a superior foe.  Watching him succeed in controlling everyone just with his sheer force of personality while tactically outthinking his opponents was pretty damn epic and it really captures just how impressive Doom can be as a character.

Aside from Doom, there are several other great characters featured throughout The Tyrant Skies that add a lot to the story.  This includes the infamous villain of the story, the Red Skull, who serves as a great foil to Doom in this book.  Few villains can make Doom look like a sane, noble and reasonable figure, but the Red Skull is one of them, especially in Annandale’s hands.  The author seeks to make Red Skull as evil and diabolical as possible, causing chaos and initiating world-ending plots for petty reasons and prior defeats.  I loved seeing the rivalry between Doom and Red Skull that formed the basis for much of the novel, and the author did a great job capturing the hatred they both have for the other.  It was interesting to see Red Skull’s methods against Doom in this book, and he proves to be a very dangerous opponent, able to outsmart Doom at several turns, which works to make the novel pretty compelling and fun.  As such, Red Skull is a very impressive villain for this book and it was really something to see these two iconic figures square off once again.

I felt that the rest of the cast, which includes a combination of some over-the-top second-tier villains and several recurring figures from Annandale’s existing novels, were worked into the plot well, and there are some great scenes, especially with the characters of Doctor Elsa Orloff and Captain Kariana Verlak, who have become heroic figures within Latveria during the last two books.  I also deeply appreciated the inclusion of Valeria, Doom’s long-lost love, who is a key part of his origin story.  The powerful reunion the two have in this novel is quite impressive, especially as it is clear that Doom still has feelings for Valeria, despite her reluctance to trust him and his nature.  This was a very interesting inclusion, especially considering how their story spun out in the comics, and I am glad that the author attempted to dive into this older character element of Doom.  Throw in some craven, evil and incompetent members of the uber-wealthy, many of whom are parodies of certain business owners, and The Tyrant Skies proved to be a very rich novel in terms of character, and I liked the wider story elements that emerged thanks to this cool alternate focus.

Overall, The Tyrant Skies is an outstanding and highly entertaining novel that perfectly ties into the larger Marvel universe.  I deeply enjoyed how David Annandale set two of the genre’s best villains against each other in this novel, and I had a ton of fun with the thrilling encounters that emerged.  Featuring a great blend of story development, references to classic comics, and amazing portrayals of Doctor Doom and the Red Skull, The Tyrant Skies has something for all comic book fans, and you are guaranteed to have a fantastic time getting through this amazing novel.

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Top Ten Tuesday – My Favourite Star Wars Tie-in Novels and Comics – May 2023

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Comics/Manga, List, Star Wars2 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme that currently resides at The Artsy Reader Girl and features bloggers sharing lists on various book topics.  The official topic for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday was “The First 10 Books I Randomly Grabbed From My Shelf” which actually sounded like a ton of fun.  However, I might try and revisit that at a later date because it is time for my annual list were I highlight one of the coolest and awesome franchise out there, Star Wars.

As many of you may be aware, this week contains the annual celebration of all things Star Wars with May the Fourth, better known as Star Wars Day.  I am a pretty massive fan of the Star Wars franchise (just check out my extended Star Wars category on the side of this page), and in recent years have really fallen in love with the various aspects of its extended universe, including the films, television shows, animated series, comics and of course the tie-in novels.  Each year, a ton of cool novels, intense comics, and even some epic audio dramas are released with impressive connections to the extended Star Wars universe, covering various periods of the canon and beyond.  I have had an absolute brilliant time reading some of the very best of these tie-in novels and comics over the years, and there are some excellent and powerful adventures featured within them.  Due to how much I have enjoyed these books and comics, I have decided to celebrate the upcoming May the Fourth this year by once again highlighting my absolute favourite Star Wars novels and comics.  This is a continuation of several lists I have done in recent years, however this year, rather than splitting the novels and comics in separate lists, I am instead going to one giant list capturing all pieces of literary Star Wars media.

To pull this list together I looked at all the Star Wars novels and comics I have read (or listened to as an audiobook) over the years and tried to determine what my absolute favourites were.  I slightly cheated in places by featuring whole trilogies and series, particularly those with really well-connected storylines, as a single entry, although I don’t feel too guilty about that.  This allowed me to pull together quite a comprehensive list, which I expanded out to 20 entries to really highlight the awesome range of fiction surrounding this franchise.  I will admit that there isn’t a great deal of difference between this list and some of the previous ones I have featured, mainly because I’ve been a little light with my Star Wars reading in the last few months.  Still, I am pretty happy with how this list came together, and I think that this list fully highlights my absolute favourite Star Wars tie-in novels.  So let us see what makes the cut.

Top Twenty List (no particular order):

Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn

Thrawn Trilogy

Let’s start this list off with the epic trilogy of books that follow one of the best characters in the Star Wars extended canon, the Thrawn trilogy.  Made up of Thrawn, Alliances and Treason, these amazing books follow the Imperial career of Grand Admiral Thrawn in the current Disney canon.  Written by the legendary Timothy Zahn, who reinvents his greatest fictional creation for a new age, this series featured a brilliant central character, impressive storylines, and some intense and well-written space battle sequences.  It is so much fun to see the ultimate tactician go against the very worst the galaxy has to throw at him, and this ended up being a particularly awesome trilogy.  This trilogy also stands as essential reading before the Ahoska series comes out later this year, which will finally see the live-action debut of Thrawn (nerd squeal).

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Star Wars (2015)

Star Wars (2015) Volume 1 Cover

You really cannot talk about Star Wars comics without mentioning this awesome long-running series, which was the centrepiece of the Star Wars comic franchise between 2015 and 2020.  Set between the events of A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, this series features the joint adventures of Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, C-3PO and R2-D2 as they attempt to overthrow the Empire.  Filling in many gaps between the films, this series contained some clever and unique storylines that explore the Rebellion and the harsh battles they fought.  This series started off big with an epic first volume, Skywalker Strikes, which not only had some awesome opening issues as the team faces off against Vader for the first time but which also shows the first time that Vader found out that Luke was his son (a very epic scene).  There is an immense amount of talent behind these comics, with several awesome writers, including original writer Jason Aaron, Kieron Gillen and Greg Pak, as well as an outstanding array of artists, such as John Cassaday, Salvador Larroca and Phil Noto.  The different teams produce a little variability in the series, but they all managed to produce an excellent and clever array of stories and big moments that make this series an absolute treat to read from one end to the other.

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Thrawn Ascendancy trilogy by Timothy Zahn

Thrawn Ascendancy Trilogy Covers

Zahn followed up this initial Thrawn trilogy in a big way with the epic Thrawn Ascendancy prequel trilogy.  Featuring three great books, Chaos Rising, Greater Good and Lesser Evil, the Thrawn Ascendancy novels showcase a younger Thrawn as he battles to save his home system from a relentless and multi-pronged alien invasion.  Containing all the best elements of the Thrawn trilogy, as well as some intensive and detailed universe building that bears noticeable connections to the author’s previous work in the Legends extended universe, this is another exceptional trilogy that is well worth reading.

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Darth Vader (2015)

Star Wars - Darth Vader Volume 1 Cover

While I did read some other Star War comic series first, this would be the one the really made with fall in love with the genre.  Created by the awesome team of Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca, this great comic follows Darth Vader after A New Hope and sees Vader set out to gain more power and influence after discovering the true identity of Luke Skywalker.  Teaming up with his new subordinate/prisoner, Doctor Aphra, Vader smashes through the galaxy while coming to terms with the fact that he has a son.  An epic and powerful series that is consistently awesome from start to finish, this is one of the absolute best Star Wars comics out there and all four volumes (including Vader and Shadows and Secrets) are five-star reads.

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Alphabet Squadron trilogy by Alexander Freed

Alphabet Squadron Cover

Alexander Freed has probably had one of the strongest and most emotionally charged Star Wars trilogies in recent years with his exceptional Alphabet Squadron books.  Made up of Alphabet Squadron, Shadow Fall and Victory’s Price, this incredible trilogy followed five unique New Republic fighter pilots in the aftermath of Return of the Jedi, as they attempt to finish off the Imperial remnant.  This trilogy perfectly follows its five damaged and despairing central characters, as well as several morally grey Imperial characters, as they all seek redemption and deliverance in their own unique way.  Featuring some blistering and epic fighter combat sequences, as well as some of the best Star Wars character development you are ever likely to see, the Alphabet Squadron novels are extremely good, with Victory’s Price (one of my favourite books and audiobooks of 2021) serving as an intense and unbeatable finale.

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Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith

Darth Vader - The Burning Seas Cover

I really had to highlight one of the first Star Wars comic series I ever read fully on this list with the epic and insanely intense Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith.  Written by the legendary Charles Soule and drawn by Giuseppe Camuncoli, this series follows Darth Vader in the aftermath of his transformation from Anakin Skywalker in Revenge of the Sith.  This comic catches Vader at his rawest emotional period, and I loved the complex and powerful stories that Soule weaved around this iconic figure.  This comic had the perfect blend of emotion, action and character development, and every single entry (including Volume 2: Legacy’s End and Volume 3: Burning Seas), was exceptionally well written and intensely addictive.

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Darth Plagueis by James Luceno

Star Wars - Darth Plagueis Cover

There was no way that I couldn’t feature the very intriguing and comprehensive Star Wars Legends novel, Darth Plagueis on this list due to how damn interesting it is.  Written by the talented James Luceno, Darth Plagueis tells the entire story of the mysterious Darth Plagueis the Wise, including his complex relationship with his ambitious apprentice, Darth Sidious.  A clever novel that connects to multiple parts of the now defunct Legends canon, Darth Plagueis is a must read for all hardcore fans who love detailed Star Wars lore, and a potential source of great inspiration for anyone attempting to bring Plagueis to life in the future.

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Doctor Aphra (2016)

Doctor Aphra Volume 1

Spinning off from the Darth Vader (2015) series, this comic chronicles the wild adventures of the titular protagonist, Doctor Aphra, as she attempts to con everyone she comes across, be they family, former lover, deadly droid or Dark Lord of the Sith.  Initially produced by the character’s original creators, Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca, this long-running series was later written by Simon Spurrier, who produced some outstanding storylines with support from an excellent cast of artists, including Kev Walker, Andrea Broccardo and Emilio Laiso.  I absolutely loved this great series from its first issue, and it has some extraordinary storylines to it.  Both volumes I reviewed, Unspeakable Rebel Superweapon and A Rogue’s End got five star reads from me, and I would definitely give the same to most of the earlier volumes in this epic and extremely entertaining series.

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Dark Disciple by Christie Golden

Star Wars Dark Disciple Cover

Prepare to dive into the Dark Side of the Force with the excellent Dark Disciple from tie-in fiction extraordinaire Christie Golden.  Serving as a follow-up to The Clone Wars animated series (it is based on several unproduced episodes), this novel follows two fan-favourite characters from the extended universe, Quinlan Vos and Asajj Ventress, as they attempt to assassinate Count Dooku.  Containing an intense character-driven narrative that sees both protagonists at their very worst, Dark Disciple provides some intriguing closure to fans of The Clone Wars, as well as an exceptional story.

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Vader Down

Vader Down Cover

There was absolutely no way I could exclude this fantastic limited series off this list as it is the very definition of pure awesomeness.  Vader Down is a clever and memorable crossover between the 2015 Star Wars and Darth Vader series and features the creative teams from both comics coming together to create a joint story.  This cool limited series sees Vader forced down on a Rebel controlled planet while trying to capture Luke.  Facing off against a horde of Rebel soldiers and vehicles, Vader does what he does best and annihilates everyone he comes across as he hunts his prey and the people who betrayed him.  At the same time, Han, Leia, Doctor Aphra, and the entire supporting cast of both series get drawn into an epic showdown as they all try to escape with what they want.  An outstanding and action-packed comic with some amazingly clever inclusions to it, this is an incredible piece of Star Wars fiction to check out.

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Scoundrels by Timothy Zahn

Star Wars Scoundrels Cover

While Zahn is best known for his epics around Thrawn, he has also written some thrilling standalone novels, such as the excellent Star Wars Legends novel Scoundrels.  Essentially a Star Wars heist novel, Scoundrels sees Han, Chewie, Lando and several of their villainous compatriots attempt to pull off the ultimate theft, while also facing gangsters, Imperial agents and multiple betrayals from within.  An outstanding novel that showcases just how good a crime fiction novel in the Star Wars universe can be, this is an exceptional read I cannot praise enough.

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Star Wars (2020)

Star Wars (2020) - Volume 1 Cover

Following the coordinated end of the original range of Star Wars comics, Marvel immediately started a new assortment of series in 2020, set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.  The flagship series of this new range is the Star Wars (2020) comic, written by Charles Soule and featuring art by Jesus Saiz, Ramon Rosanas and Jan Bazaldua.  This series has been pretty incredible since the first volume, The Destiny Path, I am deeply enjoying this fantastic narrative which follows the key original trilogy protagonists (with the exception of Han, because he’s frozen) as they come to terms with their defeats in The Empire Strikes Back.  Some of the major storylines include Luke’s journey to become a Jedi master after finding out his father is Vader, Leia’s attempts to bring the Empire down and save the man she loves, a determined Imperial officers plot to destroy the scattered Rebel fleet, and Lando’s quest for redemption.  This series has been pretty incredible so far, especially with its connections to some of the big comic tie-in events (which are also usually written by Soule) and it is one of the stronger newer entries in the canon.

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The High Republic: The Rising Storm by Cavan Scott

Star Wars - The Rising Storm Cover

While Light of the Jedi serves as a great introduction to the High Republic books, and there have been some excellent later books, such as The Fallen Star, I think that the current best entry in this fantastic sub-series is the intense and captivating The Rising Storm by Cavan Scott.  Continuing many great storylines from the first book, The Rising Storm sees the villainous Nihil raid the high-profile Republic Fair in a brazen public attack.  Containing scenes of utter chaos, as well as some outstanding character development, The Rising Storm serves as a perfect middle novel for the first High Republic phase and was a deeply captivating and powerful read.

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Darth Vader (2020)

Darth Vader - Dark Heart of the Sith

Another great addition to this list from the current range of comics is the excellent Darth Vader (2020) series by Greg Pak and Raffaele Ienco.  Set directly after Luke refuses to accept him as his father, this series contains an epic and powerful narrative about Vader as he comes to terms with his rejection in the most destructive way possible.  The first volume in this series, Dark Heart of the Sith, was one of the best things I read in 2020, and the rest of the series, which has focused on Vader’s relationship with the Emperor, as well as the discovery of someone from his past, has turned into quiet the incredible and powerful thrill ride.

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Kenobi by John Jackson Miller

Star Wars - Kenobi Cover

An intriguing and unique Star Wars Legends novel that was hopefully on everyone’s to read list after a certain epic 2022 television series, Kenobi is a key addition to this list, and one that is very well deserved.  Written by the insanely talented John Jackson Miller, Kenobi follows the titular character in the immediate aftermath of Revenge of the Sith, as he attempts to settled down on Tatooine.  However, trouble is always around the corner for this former Jedi, and Kenobi soon finds himself involved in a brewing war between the Tuscan Raiders and local farmers.  Containing a great, outside look as this iconic character during his darkest days, Kenobi is an impressive read that serves as an alternative to the Obi-Wan Kenobi show, and many readers will be interested to see the previous Legends take to Kenobi’s time on Tatooine.

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Poe Dameron

Poe Dameron Cover

Charles Soule is currently the MVP of the Star Wars comic community, and I had to include another one of his key series with the Poe Dameron comics.  Working with artists Phil Noto and Angel Unzueta, Soule did an incredible job of making Poe and his cohorts in the Resistance compelling and complex protagonists in this series, which is something the films struggled with.  With fascinating connections to other Star Wars comic series, this great work is set in the lead-up to The Force Awakens and examines the complex shadow war between the Resistance and the First Order.  I deeply appreciate how much extra depth that Soule and his team gave these characters and this series is a must read for fans of the franchise as a result.

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Lords of the Sith by Paul S. Kemp

Lords of the Sith Cover

An indisputable fact about the Star Wars universe is that some of the very best stories are all about the franchise’s amazing villains, and Lords of the Sith is an impressive example of this.  Following the characters of Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine, Lords of the Sith pits these legendary Dark Side users against rebels, monsters and traitors, all of whom are set on killing them.  Featuring an addictive story and some entertaining depictions of the Sith Lord’s destructive powers, skills and malevolence, Lords of the Sith is a brilliant read that will try to tempt you to the Dark Side.

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Master & Apprentice by Claudia Gray

Master & Apprentice Cover

I am a major fan of this awesome novel from a few years ago by Claudia Gray.  Master & Apprentice tells a powerful story of the early relationship between Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi as they investigate strange occurrences around an upcoming coronation.  Providing a deep dive into both these key characters, this was a moving and intense novel that is really worth checking out especially in its epic audiobook format.

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Star Wars: The High Republic: Convergence by Zoraida Córdova

Star Wars - Convergence Cover

One of the newer entries on this list is Convergence by rising author Zoraida Córdova.  Set in the current phase of High Republic fiction, Convergence is an emotionally powerful and character driven narrative that sees the Jedi attempt to bring peace to warring planets through a political marriage.  However, the intense hatred of the planet’s citizens, as well as malign influences from other interested parties, result in all manner of chaos and heartbreak, especially when some of the twists are fully revealed.  This was probably one of the strongest Star Wars novels of 2022 and it ended up being one of my top audiobooks of the year as a result.  I look forward to seeing what contributions Córdova makes to the Star Wars universe in the future, and I am sure she will make more appearances on this list when she does.

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Maul: Lockdown by Joe Schreiber

Star Wars - Maul - Lockdown Cover

The final entry on this list is the extremely cool and epic Star Wars prison novel, Maul: Lockdown.  Following a young Darth Maul in the Legends canon as he infiltrates an infamous prison that broadcasts death matches between its prisoners, Lockdown was an outstanding and highly entertaining read.  I was already a big fan of Schreiber before reading Lockdown thanks to his excellent Star Wars zombie novel, Death Troopers, but this is probably his best novel in the franchise.  A highly recommended read and a great book to finish off this list with.

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Overall, this latest version of the list looking at my favourite Star Wars tie-in novels and comics contains some fantastic reads and really covers the full spectrum of what a Star Wars story can achieve or contain.  All the entries above are very epic reads and come highly recommended to anyone who wants to get into the Star Wars genre.  I am going to have to make an effort to read more Star Wars books in the next year or so, as there are some really cool upcoming novels, as well as a few older entries, that I have my eye on.  Let me know which Star Wars tie-in novel or comics is your favourite in the comments below and as always, May the Fourth be with you!

Book Haul – 30 April 2023

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Book Haul3 Comments

I have been having an absolutely fantastic couple of weeks for book, as I have been lucky enough to receive several incredible and amazing new novels from some of my local publishers.  These novels include some truly awesome new releases, including some books that have the potential to be the top novels of 2023.  I am extremely keen to check out all of the books below and they should make for some amazing reads.

Battle Song by Ian Ross

Battle Song Cover

The first book I recently received was the amazing historical fiction adventure novel, Battle Song by Ian Ross.  Set during one of the earlier English civil wars, Battle Song follows a young squire and his devious master as they try to figure out which side to fight for. I love a great historical adventure and this book sounds particularly fun.  I am hoping to read it in the next few weeks, and I have no doubt I will love it.

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Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 38: The Green Dragon by Stan Sakai

Usagi Yojimbo - Volume 38 - The Green Dragon Cover

One of the highpoints of my year has to be the release of the new volume of the Usagi Yojimbo comic by Stan Sakai.  One of my all-time favorite comic book series, the Usagi Yojimbo books are so much damn fun and I love the great combination of clever stories and breathtaking artwork. Well Stan Sakai just released his new volume of this series, The Green Dragon, which features several amazing new stories.  I naturally read this comic the very second I got my hands on it and The Green Dragon was everything I wanted and more.  I absolutely loved this comic and I will hopefully get a review up for it soon.

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Falling Sky by Harry Sidebottom

Falling Sky Cover

I was pretty happy to finally get my hands on a copy of the latest book from one of my favourite historical fiction authors, Harry Sidebottom, Falling Sky.  Set in ancient Rome, Falling Sky will continue the adventures of Sidebottom’s original protagonist, a barbarian turned Roman soldier, as he fights to defend the Emperor and his adopted city of Rome. This new book will feature a deadly civil war in the Italian Alps and should be a particularly awesome read.  I have been eager for this book for ages, and I am very glad to finally have my hands on it.

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The Malevolent Seven by Sebastien De Castell

The Malevolent Seven Cover

One of the books that I was particularly happy to get a copy of was The Malevolent Seven by Sebastien De Castellari, which looks to be an outstanding and intriguing fantasy novel. This awesome sounding novel will see a group of rogues attempt to take down seven of the most powerful mages in the world.  I love the epic plot surrounding The Malevolent Seven and I honestly think that this book has potential to be one of the best fantasy novels of 2023. I really hope I get the chance to read this book soon as it sounds like something I will have a lot of fun with.

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The Fire and the Rose by Robyn Cadwallader

The Fire and the Rose Cover

An intriguing and powerful sounding historical fiction novel by a great Australian author, The Fire and the Rose sounds like an amazing book and I look forward to reading it.

 

The Book That Wouldn’t Burn by Mark Lawrence

The Book That Wouldn't Burn Cover

I managed to receive an early copy of The Book That Wouldn’t Burn from one of the top fantasy authors at the moment, Mark Lawrence. The Book That Wouldn’t Burn is a particularly awesome sounding novel set in a massive magical library and I am deeply excited to read it as soon as I can.  I am actually planning to dive into it later this week and I have no doubt it will be one of the best books of the year.

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The Isles of the Gods by Amie Kaufman

The Isles of the Gods Cover

One of Australia’s leading young adult fantasy authors, Amie Kaufman, returns with another amazing novel, The Isles of the Gods. An intriguing nautical themed adventure that sees a young sailor and a rogue prince head off on a dangerous adventure across the seas, The Isles of the Gods sounds like an outstanding young adult adventure and I am very keen to check it out.  I really enjoyed some of Kauman’s previous work, including the Aurora Cycle series she wrote with Jay Kristoff (Aurora Rising, Aurora Burning and Aurora’s End) and I look forward to seeing how her new novel turns out.

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A Hunger of Thorns by Lili Wilkinson

A Hunger of Thorns Cover

Another young adult fantasy novel from an Australian author I was very happy to get was A Hunger of Thorns by Lili Wilkinson.  Wilkinson is another author who has really impressed me in recent years with her two amazing young adult novels, After the Lights Go Out and The Erasure Initiative.  Her latest novel also sounds really amazing as it features a unique tale about magic and hidden horror.  I am very intrigued by Wilkinson’s new book and I will hopefully dive into it in the next few weeks.

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Dragonfall by L. R. Lam

Dragonfall Cover

The fantasy hits keep on coming with the outstanding Dragonfall by L. R. Lam. A fantastic sounding novel about dragons, thieves and forbidden love, Dragonfall has a lot of potential and I will be very interested in seeing what elaborate story Lam has come up with.

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The Ferryman by Justin Cronin

The Ferrymany Cover

A dark and twisty science fiction dystopian novel that sees people in a futuristic paradise transported to another island against their will when their time is up. I love the mysterious narrative surrounding The Ferryman and I think this could be quite the awesome read.

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Night Angel Nemesis by Brent Weeks

Night Angel Nemesis Cover

The last book I received was a copy of Night Angel Nemesis by Brent Weeks, one of the most anticipated fantasy novels of 2023 and the sequel to his iconic The Night Angel trilogy. While this book sounds cool, I unfortunately have never read the original Night Angel trilogy and I am a bit reluctant to go diving into this series with the sequel. I honestly would prefer to go back and read the original books first (I have heard they are pretty epic), although I doubt I’m going to have time to do that soon.  I will have to see about how I go reading Night Angel Nemesis in the near future but at the very least I’ll hold onto my copy of this book and hopefully read it at some point in the future when I manage to read Weeks’ original trilogy.

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Well, that’s the end of this latest Book Haul post.  As you can see I have quite a bit of reading to do at the moment thanks to all these awesome books that have come in.  Let me know which of the above you are most interested in and make sure to check back in a few weeks to see my reviews of them.

Throwback Thursday – Warhammer 40,000: The Guns of Tanith by Dan Abnett

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Extended Universe, Science Fiction, Throwback Thursday, Tie-in Novel, Warhammer14 Comments

The Guns of Tanith Cover

Publisher: Black Library (Audiobook – 25 April 2002)

Series: Gaunt’s Ghosts – Book Five

Length: 10 hours and 10 minutes

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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Welcome back to my Throwback Thursday series, where I republish old reviews, review books I have read before or review older books I have only just had a chance to read.  After having such a great time reviewing the previous Gaunt’s Ghosts novel, Honour Guard, in my last Throwback Thursday, I immediately read the fifth fantastic entry in the series, The Guns of Tanith, which proved to be just as awesome and exciting.

As I mentioned last week, I have been really getting into the works of Dan Abnett over the last year, and I now consider several of his books to be amongst the best Warhammer 40,000 novels I have had the pleasure of reading.  Not only did I deeply enjoy his epic Eisenhorn trilogy (made up of Xenos, Malleus and Hereticus) but I have also been powering through his Gaunt’s Ghosts books.  The Gaunt’s Ghosts books are some of the more iconic novels in the Warhammer 40,000 franchise and are often considered essential reading by fans of the franchise due to the captivating way they capture the gruelling experiences of ordinary human soldiers in this grim, futuristic setting.  The first four novels in the series, First and Only, Ghostmaker, Necropolis and Honour Guard, as well as the prequel novel The Vincula Insurgency, are all excellent and exciting in their own way, and I have had a ton of fun seeing the impressive war narratives set around the men of the Tanith First-and-Only, informally known as Gaunt’s Ghosts.  As I was still in the mood for some awesome action at the end of last week, I just had to keep going with these books and I quickly picked up the fifth entry, The Guns of Tanith.

As the massive Sabbat Worlds Crusade continues to pit the forces of the Imperium of Man against the foul forces of Chaos, the battlelines extend across multiple planets and systems, drawing in millions of soldiers.  The latest phase of the crusade has severely stretched the supply lines of the Imperial assault and the Chaos foes are quick to take advantage, threatening to cut off and surround the main Imperial force.  To stave off disaster, Warmaster Macaroth, needs the Tanith First-and-Only to recapture the vital promethium producing planet of Phantine so the crusade can be resupplied and continue.

Led by the heroic Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt, the Tanith First-and-Only engage in a deadly airborne assault on several of the planet’s domed cities.  Relying on their unique skills of navigation and infiltration, the Ghosts prove to be vital to the operation and soon take the key city of Cirenholm.  However, holding the city proves to be harder than expected.  While preparing for the next assault, the vile murder of a freed Cirenholm civilian places a Ghost on trial and opens up the festering cultural divides within the regiment.

As Gaunt attempts to get to the bottom of the crime and ensure that the innocent are left alive, the Ghosts are given a vital mission to undertake.  A dangerous Chaos warlord has taken command of the final occupied city, Ouranberg, and his lethal command threatens to devastate an attack by the Imperials.  To ensure a successful invasion of this Chaos stronghold, a specialised team of Ghosts is tasked with infiltrating the city and assassinating the enemy leader in advance of the main assault force.  Featuring some of the best the Ghosts have to offer, the assassination squad will be forced to walk through hell to achieve their objective and not everyone will be coming back.

In this fifth entry in this amazing series, Abnett continues to impress with another powerful and captivating character-driven read that takes the Ghosts through a gruelling round of battles, tragedy and growth that proves near impossible to put down.  The Guns of Tanith was a pretty strong entry in the series, expanding on some of the interesting storylines from the first novel while also introducing a new dark scenario for the characters to deal with.

The Guns of Tanith features a fantastic narrative from Abnett that contains his usual blend of high-intensity action, character growth, and intriguing examinations of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, that make all the Gaunt’s Ghosts novels such a treat to read.  Following on from the events of the previous books in the series The Guns of Tanith is told in Abnett’s typical style, with a ton of unique character perspectives, mostly those of the Ghosts, which presents the reader with a rich and vibrant view of the events, as well as the unique, character-driven storylines that emerge.  While this fifth Gaunt’s Ghosts novel can be read as a standalone book, The Guns of Tanith does see several ongoing, character focused storylines come to a head or get even more complicated. As such, readers should really consider checking out the previous novels first so they can get the full emotional weight of the revelations and twists that emerge.

The main narrative of The Guns of Tanith is bookended by major extended battle sequences that see the Ghosts and their allies engage in elaborate fights across two separate cities.  The first of these battles, in Cirenhom, sees all the Ghosts forced to engage in a particularly bloody battle with limited ammunition against a dangerous and determined foe that has set up some elaborate traps.  This extended sequence is both epic and useful as it provides the reader with a ton of intense action to draw them into the novel while Abnett introduces the characters and storylines that this latest novel is focused on.  You also get a good overview to the new setting of Phantine, a polluted planet with a toxic atmosphere that requires multiple forms of airship to traverse.  This unique location adds some great spice to the overall story, especially as it requires the characters to learn some unique aerial skills, while also allowing Abnett to have fun featuring several impressive dogfights.  There are some great moments during this first extended battle sequence, and it sets the rest of the book up nicely.

The middle of the book is where the reader gets into the real meat of the story, especially as it lowers the intensity levels down from the action-packed introduction and allows the reader to breathe and absorb all the intriguing story elements to come.  At first, I wasn’t too keen on a quieter middle section to this novel, especially as I thought it would make The Guns of Tanith more of a bridging novel in the series, rather than a book that could stand on its own.  However, Abnett soon proved me wrong as this intriguing central storyline contained a lot of major character moments and intriguing plot lines, while also expertly setting up the final third of the book.  The main storyline explored in the centre involves a murder investigation when one of the Ghosts is accused of killing an innocent civilian.  Abnett does a great job with this murder storyline, especially as it brings in compelling mystery and legal thriller elements to it, while also driving the characters in some excellent directions.  However, the real joy of this part of the book is the focus on the camaraderie and factions within the Ghosts, and the fracturing coherence in places leads to some memorable moments later on.

The final section of the book focuses on the assault of the Phantine city, Ouranberg, and the special Ghosts mission to assassinate the Chaos warlord.  Following several supporting members of the cast, this final third of The Guns of Tanith takes these characters on a particularly dark mission through a Chaos stronghold, and Abnett throttles up the tension and brutality to the maximum, ensuring that the readers are strongly hooked on everything unfolding.  Watching the separated teams attempt to navigate through enemy territory leads to some dark and bloody sequences, and everything comes together in a brutal confrontation where all the characters get a moment to shine.  The invasion in the aftermath of this assault brings the entirety of The Guns of Tanith together in an outstanding way, as several major storylines are expertly and impressively resolved, often in ways that leave the characters even more damaged than when they started.  This is also a particularly shocking death of a major character that is guaranteed to move long-term readers of the series.  Abnett does a masterful job of setting this death up, including by showcasing several misleading near-misses, so you really don’t know who is going to live or die right up to the end.  His eventual choice is one designed to wound his readers, and you will have to come back to see how it impacts the rest of this series.  Overall, this was an extremely solid and impressive Gaunt’s Ghosts narrative, and I deeply enjoyed how Abnett continued and finalised some of the great character storylines from the previous books, while also providing the reader with more action and intrigue than they can handle.

As with most of the Gaunt’s Ghosts books, The Guns of Tanith is an open read to all those unfamiliar with the wider Warhammer 40,000 canon.  Abnett goes out of his way to make his books accessible for new readers, and he always provides enough detail and background so that anyone can catch up and enjoy the subsequent story.  However, for those fans more familiar with the Warhammer universe, there are always a ton of great elements or unique world building details that they will find particularly fascinating.  The new locations in The Guns of Tanith are pretty damn spiffing, and I had a lot of fun with the polluted planet, especially as it requires multiple arial sequences.  This is turn leads to the introduction of the Phantine XX Fighter Corps, who Abnett will go on to feature in his spin-off novel, Double Eagle, and it was fun to see how they get their start here.  For me, though, the best part of the universe expansion was Abnett’s in-depth look at the day-to-day life of the common soldier in the Imperial Guard.  While Abnett has always done a masterful job of capturing the footslogger experience in his novels, I felt that The Guns of Tanith was one of his best attempts to dive into the core of his beloved regiment.  Not only is there are lot of story focus on the various members and factions of the regiment, but Abnett also spent some time trying to explore the downtime and personal lives of the characters, and it was pretty intriguing to see the accompanying civilian baggage train of the regiment, which includes their families and other vital services.  I also personally loved the scenes that examined the problems associated with the Imperial bureaucracy as the Ghosts come up against their greatest enemy: bad paperwork.  Certain mistakes ensure that the Ghosts are left with minimal ammunition as the Departmento Munitorum orders the wrong power packs for their lasguns.  The following extended sequence which saw the regiment unable to fight effectively because their ammunition couldn’t fit their guns was an impressive part of the book and it definitely raised the stakes during the book’s introduction.

As usual, one of the major highlights of The Guns of Tanith is the amazing characters that the story focuses on, as Abnett once again fits a huge number of character-driven storylines into the book.  At this point in the series, Abnett has introduced a pretty substantial cast of characters, many of whom have ongoing storylines, and it is intriguing to see them unfold even further in The Guns of Tanith, especially as Abnett does a great job featuring most of them equally and then combining them into the larger narrative.  Many of the more intriguing character arcs in this book carry over from the previous novels and there are some great conclusions and expansions to them here that helps to improve the already great narrative of The Guns of Tanith.  At the same time, several new characters are introduced here or finally given prominence, and it was interesting to see how they fit into the already established character dynamics that Abnett has been building up.  The cohesiveness of the Ghosts as a regiment ends up becoming a huge fixture of this book as the Tanith-Verghastite divide is explored in greater detail by many of the characters.  It was fascinating to see how Abnett handled these character storylines in The Guns of Tanith, and several of them ended up being some of the best parts of the book.

As with most of the novels in the series, quite a lot of character focus goes towards the main protagonist, Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt, whose experiences as the commander of this unique regiment continue to trouble him in various ways.  In The Guns of Tanith, this takes the form of his apparent unconscious bias towards the Tanith elements of his regiment over the Verghastite recruits, which is showcased by his differing reactions during two court cases.  This results in several intense interactions between Gaunt and members of his team, which helped to showcase the protagonist’s idealism and a certain degree of naiveté when it comes to Imperial politics, both of which will cause him trouble in the future.  This is also an intriguing look at the issues caused by Gaunt holding the dual rank of Colonel and Commissar, which make him simultaneously a command officer and a political officer in charge of discipline.  This is the first time the duality of his roles has caused some major problems for him, and it was interesting to see several characters question him about it.  Watching Gaunt try to balance his various hats while also maintaining the respect of his men and his superiors makes this a rather compelling novel for Gaunt and I will be intrigued to see how this affects the character in the future.

While there is always a lot of focus on Gaunt, many of the other characters have big moments here, and it is always interesting to see which characters Abnett will focus on in each particular novel.  Firstly, this is one of the Gaunt’s Ghosts books where the major characters of Colm Corbec and Elim Rawne do not get a lot of focus, as Abnett sets them aside to make room for others.  Corbec is once again wounded early on in the plot to keeps him out of the action, while Rawne, after getting a good needling into Gaunt, is showcased as the senior commander, but that’s about it.  Instead, a lot of the focus goes towards some of the newer members of the cast, such as Gol Kolea, whose attempts to balance his complex family concerns leads only to tragedy and despair for him and the reader.  Cuu continues to be a menace, while surgeon Ana Curth acts as several character’s consciences throughout the book.  The previously overlooked but surprisingly lucky Bonin finally got some prominence in this novel, and I loved finding out how he survived Necropolis.  The newer characters of Commissar Hark and Captain Ban Daur also proved to be essential parts of the plot, and I am really glad that Abnett continued to utilise them, as they helped Gaunt see the errors of several decisions while simultaneously taking on some of Gaunt’s more unorthodox methods.  Members of the original Ghosts, such as Brin Milo, Larkin, Bragg and Mkoll all had good roles in The Guns of Tanith as well, and their balanced scenes showcased different triumphs and tragedies.  Finally, I was glad that Abnett decided to keep featuring the mysterious preacher, Ayatani Zweil, after his fun introduction in Honour Guard.  Zweil is an always entertaining yet serious figure, and it was great to see him knock some sense into several characters when they needed it.  I’m honestly only scratching the surface here, as a ton of other characters were well featured throughout The Guns of Tanith as Abnett continues to build and bring together his final cast of major characters.  Each of these amazing protagonists had some superb impacts on narrative of this novel, and I cannot wait to see how Abnett continues to develop them in the later books of the series.  I am assuming it is only a matter of time until more of the characters start to die, and I am sure that will break my heart just as much as the big death in The Guns of Tanith did.

Due to my love of the format, I of course listened to The Guns of Tanith on audiobook, which is easily the best way to enjoy any Warhammer book.  I have gone on a lot about the fantastic Gaunt’s Ghosts audiobooks in recent reviews, and The Guns of Tanith has all the same advantages, as one of my favourite audiobook narrators, Toby Longworth, brings the reader right into the heart of the action with his great voice work.  Every scene is masterfully showcased by his narration, and all the characters are brought to life thanks to the great voices he utilises for them.  Longworth really stretched himself when it came to accents in this latest novel, and he features a ton of great new voices, as well as the existing tones from the previous audiobooks, to bring this entire audiobook together.  With the standard runtime of just over 10 hours, The Guns of Tanith audiobook is a real snap to power through, and I honestly finished it off in only a few days.

Unsurprisingly, I absolutely loved the fifth entry in Dan Abnett’s exceptional Gaunt’s Ghosts books, The Guns of Tanith, which proved to be another powerful and enjoyable Warhammer 40,000 novel.  Filled with Abnett’s usual impressive battles, The Guns of Tanith also had a brilliant focus on characters-driven storylines that dominated most of the plot and kept the readers hooked the entire time.  An intense, addictive, and deeply personal Gaunt’s Ghosts books, The Guns of Tanith was pretty damn outstanding and I loved every second of it.

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Quick Review – Warhammer 40,000: Huron Blackheart: Master of the Maelstrom by Mike Brooks

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Extended Universe, Quick Review, Science Fiction, Tie-in Novel, Warhammer11 Comments

Huron Blackheart Cover

Publisher: Black Library (Audiobook – 7 May 2022)

Series: Warhammer 40,000

Length: 6 hours and 23 minutes

My Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

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I am really in love with the Warhammer 40,000 universe at the moment as they are producing some incredible books.  While many feature huge casts or examine vast conflicts, some of the very best Warhammer 40,000 novels provide greater context and insight into the game’s legendary characters.  These major character driven novels often result in some intriguing and powerful reads, and I love the complex stories that they tell.  One of the more interesting ones recently was the epic Huron Blackheart: Master of the Maelstrom by rising Warhammer 40,000 fiction author Mike Brooks.  This was a great and exciting read from last year, which I unfortunately never got the chance to properly review.  However, as I have just started listening to one of Brooks’s more recent novels, Warboss, I thought it would be beneficial to do a quick review of Huron Blackheart.

Plot Synopsis:

Huron Blackheart is the lord of the Red Corsairs, master of the lawless Maelstrom and its piratical denizens – but oathbreakers and renegades can seldom rely on the loyalty of their followers. With the galaxy thrown into turmoil by the return of Roboute Guilliman, the former Tyrant of Badab faces a renewed Imperium and fresh challengers emerging within his own ranks.

Huron must call on every trick he knows to stay in control – and alive. Yet even a warrior as ferocious and opportunistic as the Blood Reaver must be wary, for although there are many bargains he can strike, all power comes at a price…

Brooks has produced a very awesome and enjoyable read with Huron Blackheart which drags you in with its intense and entertaining story.  As the name suggests, the book primarily focuses on one of the more interesting characters from the wider Warhammer 40,000 canon, Huron Blackheart.  Huron Blackheart is a particularly cool character with a well-established background as a former loyal space marine who turned traitor and become a notorious pirate lord, haunting vast swathes of the Imperium.  Rather than diving into the full history of the character, Brooks instead tells a more contemporary narrative that shows the current actions of Huron Blackheart in the aftermath of the return of Roboute Guilliman.

The story sees Huron planning his next great offensive against the hated Imperium when one of his subordinates suddenly becomes a threat when he arrives with a mighty war prize, a legendary Ultramarines battle cruiser and Roboute Guilliman’s personal flagship, which the canny underling had managed to capture.  Now faced with a potential rival, Huron is further blindsided when several of his underlings ensure that a powerful daemonic relic falls out of his hands, further weakening his hold on his minions.  Forced into a corner, Huron soon finds himself caught between his murderous minions and the dark powers that surround him, and he’ll need to make a deadly decision that could change his existence and the remnants of his soul forever.

This is a pretty enjoyable and compelling overall narrative, and it is always quite a lot of fun to see events unfold from a villain’s perspective.  The author did a good job of balancing out some of the elements of the story, and the reader is treated to a great mix of Chaos politics, intense action, and a focus on the always awesome figure of Huron Blackheart.  Brooks makes good use of a multi-character perspective throughout Huron Blackheart, which is mostly effective in telling the fun and enjoyable narrative.  The main one of course is from Huron itself, which gives you some very interesting views into his mind, but several other characters are also well featured, including a captured Tech Priest who is forcibly recruited into Huron’s ranks at the start of the novel.  She provides a great outsider perspective to the entire story, and, when combined with Huron’s own cynical observances, you get a great view of the book’s events, especially all the backstabbing, politicking and carnage that emerges.  Not every character is given this great treatment however, as several of the supporting cast end up being a bit one-dimensional in places, which make their subsequent perspective shots a bit hard to care about.  Still, Brooks’s great use of perspective does capture the novel’s slightly darker and more bloody tone that some of the other Warhammer 40,000 novels out there as Brooks attempts to capture the villainous edge to every character.  I particularly enjoyed several of the scenes that showed the entire elaborate nature of Huron’s corsair organisation, and it was a lot of fun to see all the different factions, as well as several different groups of Chaos Space Marines, working together for piratical purposes.  I did think that the story itself was a little basic in places, especially when it came to its direction, and several of the twists or reveals were well telegraphed.  Still, I was pretty entertained the entire way through Huron Blackheart, and readers are guaranteed a pretty good time with the story.

Naturally for a book titled Huron Blackheart, a lot of the story is built around the exploration of who Huron is and what role he fills in the galaxy.  I must admit that this was one of those established Warhammer characters that I wasn’t particularly familiar with, so I was quite keen to see how the author would feature them.  Unsurprisingly, Brooks does a good job of setting Huron up as a particularly intense and ghastly central character for the novel, and you soon get a good idea of his motivations and the rage burning within him.  While Brooks was a little light on Huron’s full character history, readers fully understand his hatred, as well as other intriguing aspects of his character, such as his pragmatism, his deep-seated rage, and an actual understanding of the powers he has bound himself to.  I loved seeing the world through Huron’s eyes in parts of the book, especially as you see all his canny and cynical insights into the motivations of his minions and the key players of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.  Watching Huron attempt to manipulate every situation to his advantage is a ton of fun, and he cuts quite a distinctive figure in this book, even when on the losing end of a potential scheme.  Despite some of the setbacks he suffers in this novel, Huron comes away as a particularly strong and intelligent character, and it was fun to follow a Chaos leader that can control so many naturally treacherous beings.  Brooks also does a good job of tying Huron’s story into the wider current canon of the Warhammer 40,000 universe and it was fascinating to see what role Huron envisions his raiders having in the current wars of the galaxy.  There are some great references to other recent books and events, particularly when it comes the events around the captured Ultramarines ships, and I felt that this entire novel slid in nicely into this wider canon.

I ended up listening to Huron Blackheart on audiobook, which is always my preferred medium for Warhammer stories.  The Huron Blackheart audiobook ended up being a pretty awesome listen, especially with the impressive narration of Andrew Wincott.  Wincott captured every dark and bloody setting perfectly with his narration, and you got a real sense of the scale and menace of every scene, especially those focused on Huron himself.  Wincott made sure to also feature some great voices which really showed the full range of crazed figures that made up the supporting cast.  However, the best voice work was saved for Huron Blackheart himself, as Wincott wanted to inject some intensity into him.  Wincott gives him a deep, loud, and croaky voice, that perfectly captures his inhuman nature and helps readers to envision his mutilated flesh.  As such, the Huron Blackheart audiobook is an outstanding way to the enjoy the story, and with a run time of just under six and a half hours, it is one that you can power through pretty quickly.

Overall, Huron Blackheart: Master of the Maelstrom was a great Warhammer 40,000 book and I am glad that I got the chance to listen to it last year.  Mike Brooks had a lot of fun bringing the intriguing central protagonist to life in this new book, and his subsequent story of treachery and survival was interesting and easy to get through.  This was a particularly solid entry in the Warhammer canon, and all established fans of the franchise will have an excellent time with Huron Blackheart, especially in its audiobook format.

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WWW Wednesday – 26 April 2023

On By The Unseen LibraryIn WWW Wednesday1 Comment

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Taking on a World of Words, where bloggers share the books that they’ve recently finished, what they are currently reading and what books they are planning to read next. Essentially you have to answer three questions (the Three Ws):

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

So, let’s get to it.

What are you currently reading? 

Fire With Fire by Candice Fox (Trade Paperback)

Fire With Fire Cover

I just started reading the cool crime fiction novel, Fire With Fire, by Australian author Candice Fox today and it is off to a pretty good start.  Fox is a pretty impressive author and I have had a great time with some of her recent releases.  Her new book sees two desperate parents take over a police forensic lab and hold all the evidence within hostage to finally get information about their missing daughter.  While I haven’t made too much progress with this book yet, I am loving the cool scenario and I think that Fire With Fire has a lot of awesome potential.

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Warhammer 40,000: Warboss by Mike Brooks

Warhammer 40,000 - Warboss Cover

I am still in a mega Warhammer 40,000 mood so I thought I would try and get through some recent releases from the franchise, and the one that stood out to me the most was Warboss by Mike Brooks.  This fantastic novel follows several Ork characters as they duke it out to become Warboss of their massive warband after the unfortunate death of their previous leader. I have made a great deal of progress into Warboss so far and it is proving to be one of the funniest and more entertaining books I have enjoyed all year, especially on the audiobook format.  I will hopefully finish this off in the next couple of days, but I can already tell that Warboss is a particularly great addition to the amazing Warhammer canon.

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What did you recently finish reading?

The Tyrant Skies by David Annandale (eBook)The Tyrant Skies Cover

I managed to finish off the awesome tie-in book The Tyrant Skies by David Annandale which I received on Netgalley.  Featuring a cool story about Doctor Doom taking on the Red Skull, The Tyrant Skies was a ton of fun and I loved getting through it.

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Warhammer 40,000: Honour Guard by Dan Abnett (Audiobook)

Warhammer 40,000 - Honour Guard Cover

I managed to read more of Dan Abnett’s Gaunt’s Ghosts series this week, as I finished of the fourth book Honour Guard. This was an amazing addition to the series with a good focus on characters and I really powered through it.  Make sure to check out my review for it in last week’s Throwback Thursday.

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Warhammer 40,000: The Guns of Tanith by Dan Abnett (Audiobook)

The Guns of Tanith Cover

After having fun with Honour Guard I also quickly listened to the fifth Gaunt’s Ghosts book, The Guns of Tanith, which was just as awesome as the previous novels from Abnett.  Featuring an intense and captivating narrative that really dove into the heart of the regiment, The Guns of Tanith was a brilliant read and I am planning to get a review for it up tomorrow night.

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What do you think you’ll read next?

Star Wars: Battle Scars by Sam Maggs

Star Wars - Battle Scars Cover

I’ve had to delay reading Battle Scars a couple of times over this last few weeks, but I’m still hoping to read this cool Star Wars books soon, especially as we are so close to the new Star Wars Jedi game coming out. I am very curious to see how Sam Maggs captures the feel of both the game and the extended Star Wars universe and this sounds like it will be a fun and interesting read.

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Echo Lake by Joan Sauers

Echo Laker Cover

I am also planning to dive into the awesome Australian crime fiction novel, Echo Lake, in the next week or so.  Featuring an intriguing murder mystery in an iconic Australian setting, Echo Lake sounds pretty great and I always enjoy seeing crime fiction set close to where I live.

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The Book That Wouldn’t Burn by Mark Lawrence

The Book That Wouldn't Burn Cover

I am also very keen to start reading the upcoming Mark Lawrence novel, The Book That Wouldn’t Burn, in the immediate future.  An epic and impressive sounding fantasy novel, The Book That Wouldn’t Burn will probably be one of the top releases of 2023 and I am very excited to get to grips on a brand new Mark Lawrence series.

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That’s it for this week, check back in next Wednesday to see what progress I’ve made on my reading and what books I’ll be looking at next.

Waiting on Wednesday – Napoleon’s Spy by Ben Kane

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Historical Fiction, Waiting on WednesdayLeave a comment

Welcome to my weekly segment, Waiting on Wednesday, where I look at upcoming books that I am planning to order and review in the next few months and which I think I will really enjoy.  I run this segment in conjunction with the Can’t-Wait Wednesday meme that is currently running at Wishful Endings.  Stay tuned to see reviews of these books when I get a copy of them.  For this latest Waiting on Wednesday, I take a look at an awesome upcoming historical fiction epic from one of the leading authors in the genre, with Napoleon’s Spy by Ben Kane.

Napoleon's Spy Cover

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As many readers of my blog will be aware, I am a massive fan of the historical fiction genre, and I have reading it for years.  There is something about powerful battles and dances of intrigue in iconic historical settings that has always appealed to me, and it helps that this genre is chock full of talented and exceptional authors who know how to deliver a brilliant and exceptional read.

One of the best of these historical fiction authors is the always impressive Ben Kane.  Kane is a very well-established author who has produced several amazing series over the years with a variety of different historical backings.  The author is probably best known for his awesome Roman historical fiction, which has formed the backbone of his most excting works.  This includes his Forgotten Legion trilogy (which was some of the first historical fiction I ever read), his compelling Hannibal series, and the absolutely brutal Eagles of the Rome series.  Kane has also dived into other intriguing historical periods, including with his last series, The Lionheart books.  As the name suggests, The Lionheart series focused on the life of Richard the Lionheart, and contained some exceptional novels, including Lionheart and Crusader.  All of Kane’s books that I have read have been pretty damn good, and I love his ability to tell an exciting tale while also ramping up the historical detail.

Due to how good some of his previous novels have been, I am always very eager to see what Kane is writing next, and when I found out the details about his upcoming 2023 release, I got pretty damn excited.  That is because his next book, Napoleon’s Spy, will focus on a whole new historical period for Kane, the Napoleonic Wars, and will place the reader right into the heart of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia.

Napoleon’s Spy, which is set for release towards the end of May sounds like a particularly intriguing and outstanding novel.  I am very excited to see Kane’s take on the invasion of Russia and knowing him he will provide a highly detailed examination of the all the key events involved with it.  This, combined with an intriguing spy protagonist makes Napoleon’s Spy very appealing to me and I am exceedingly keen to get my hands on a copy as soon as I can.  This honestly has the potential to be one of the best historical fiction novels of 2023 and I will no doubt enjoy every second of it.

Plot Synopsis:

Russia, 1812. Has France finally met its match?

On the eve of the invasion of Russia, half-French, half-English Matthieu Carrey finds himself in the ranks of Napoleon’s five hundred thousand strong army. With Tsar Alexander seemingly ill-prepared, a French victory seems certain. The Grande Armee will obliterate everything in its path.

Carrey’s purpose is less clear. Blackmailed into becoming a spy in the emperor’s army, he hopes to follow his lover, a French actress who has gone to work in the Moscow theatre.

As supplies grow scarce and temperatures plummet, the Grande Armee begins to crumble. Caught up in the maelstrom of war, Carrey embarks on an epic journey, while the Russians circle like hungry wolves.

Hundreds of miles lie between Carrey and safety.

To reach it seems utterly impossible.

Top Ten Tuesday – My Favourite Audiobook Narrators – April 2023

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, List39 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme that currently resides at The Artsy Reader Girl and features bloggers sharing lists on various book topics.  In this week’s Top Ten Tuesday, participants are required to list their favourite audiobook narrators, which is a subject near and dear to my heart.  As readers of this blog will be well aware, the audiobook format is a particular favourite of mine and I have listened to a ton of awesome novels over the years.  Indeed, this subject is so important to me, that I already did a version of this list a few years ago back in 2021 (see my previous list here).  However, now is as good as time as any to quickly review and rethink my previous list, so I fired it up and had a look to see how it could be updated or altered.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like I’ll be making too many changes to my previous list.  While I have enjoyed some new narrators over the years, the favourites I featured on my previous list have also continued to impress me in the intervening years, and I have a hard time removing too many of them.  Still, I had a go at moving some names around, and I eventually came up with a slightly altered list.  I was also able to add in a few new audiobooks from the existing narrators to talk about so it should be an interesting change for those who read the last list.  Now, let us see what made the cut this time.

Honourable Mentions:

Jay Snyder – Gray Man series

The Gray Man Cover

Over the last few years, I have been really getting into the Gray Man books, and a lot of that is because of Snyder whose audiobook versions are pretty exceptional.  Snyder has lent his voice to all the books in the series, and his work on The Gray Man, One Minute Out, Relentless, Sierra Six and Burner were pretty incredible.  As such, he gets a good honourable mention here, as I really enjoy his work.

 

Jim Dale – Harry Potter series

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Cover

I had to include actor Jim Dale somewhere on this due to his outstanding work narrating the Harry Potter audiobooks.  While Stephen Fry also did a version, I have only had the pleasure of listening to Dale’s version, and it is such an outstanding way to enjoy this iconic series.

 

Scott Brick – Orphan X and Cotton Malone series

Into the Fire

Scott Brick is the narrator of two awesome thriller series, the Orphan X and Cotton Malone books.  I have listened to several great books narrated by Brick, including Into the Fire, Prodigal Son and Dark Horse by Gregg Hurwitz, and The Malta Exchange, The Warsaw Protocol and The Kaiser’s Web by Steve Berry, all of which were fantastic and compelling listens.

 

Joe Jameson – King of Assassins, Fire Made Flesh and The Legacy of the Mercenary King series

king of assassins cover

One narrator who keeps growing on me is Joe Jameson, a talented voice worker who has been narrating several amazing fantasy novels.  This includes the audiobook version of King of Assassins by RJ Barker, and the Warhammer 40,000 novel, Fire Made Flesh by Denny Flowers, both of which were really good.  However, I best know Jameson for his work The Legacy of the Mercenary King series by Nick Martell (The Kingdom of Liars, The Two-Faced Queen and The Voyage of the Forgotten), where I was deeply impressed with his exceptional ability.

Top Ten List (unranked):

Ray Porter – Joe Ledger, Rogue Team International and Kagen the Damned series

Rage Cover

The first entry on this list is the incredible Ray Porter, a narrator whose work I always have such an amazing time with.  While Porter has narrated an excellent number of books, I know him primarily through his collaboration with author Jonathan Maberry.  Porter has narrated most of Maberry’s novels over the years, and they are an impressive and captivating team.  I particularly enjoyed Porter’s work in Maberry’s Joe Ledger series (which includes books like Patient Zero, Code Zero, and Dogs of War) and the sequel Rogue Team International series (featuring Rage and Relentless), as Porter always perfectly fits into the skin of the titular protagonist.  Porter also followed Maberry over to his dark fantasy Kagen the Damned series (Kagen the Damned and Son of the Poison Rose), where his trademark flair really enhances the already exceptional reads.  I also really enjoyed his work on the standalone horror novel Ink, which was one of the best audiobooks of 2020, and the compelling debut, The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield.  Porter always gives 100% to his narration, and he was a very easy first entry for this list.

 

R. C. Bray – Planetside series, The Dark, Mind Bullet and Tribe

The Dark Cover

Another fantastic narrator whose work I have been appreciating lately is R. C. Bray, who has lent his voice to some amazing audiobooks.  I first came across Bray through his work on Michael Mammay’s Planetside series, including Planetside and Colonyside.  Bray did an outstanding job on these science fiction military thrillers, and his gruff voice was perfect for the veteran soldier the series followed.  However, Bray can also voice some other unique characters, a fact I discovered when I listened to the wildly entertaining horror novel, The Dark by Jeremy Robinson.  In this book, Bray voiced a stoner character who finds himself leading the fight against a horde of invading demons.  Not only did Bray really get into this different protagonist, but he helped to turn The Dark into one of the best audiobooks of the year.  Indeed, Bray’s narrator was one of the reasons why I continued to seek out more books from Jeremy Robinson and I also enjoyed his compelling releases Tribe and Mind Bullet.  Both impressive novels were made that much better by Bray’s narrator, and it ended up being a real joy to listen to them.  I look forward to checking out more from Bray in the future, especially as there are so many other great books by Robinson that he has brought to life.

 

James Marsters – Dresden Files series

Battle Ground Cover

The next entry on this list is someone who I was a fan of well before I enjoyed their audiobook work, actor James Marsters.  Best known for his roles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, Marsters has also provided his voice to the audiobook versions of the Dresden Files urban fantasy series by Jim Butcher.  I found this out in 2020 when I listened to the awesome latest entry in the series, Battle Ground, and I instantly fell in love with Marsters’ take on the various characters.  Marsters really dived into the role of titular protagonist Harry Dresden, and I appreciated all the cool voices he did throughout this novel.  I was very excited to see that Marsters narrated all the prior Dresden Files audiobooks as well, so it was an easy choice to check them out.  I have so far enjoyed the first six Dresden Files novels, Storm Front, Fool Moon, Grave Peril, Summer Knight, Death Masks and Blood Rites, and each of them has featured some exceptional voice work from Marsters, which is really worth checking out.

 

Robert Petkoff – Star Trek audiobooks

Star Trek - Picard Cover

Each year there are a ton of Star Trek tie-in novels released, all of which get adapted to audiobook.  Of these multiple Star Trek books, nearly all feature the voice of Robert Petkoff.  Petkoff has an excellent voice for Star Trek, especially as he can perfectly replicate most of the Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation cast.  I have already listened to a great number of his Star Trek audiobooks including More Beautiful Than Death by David Mack, Agents of Influence by Dayton Ward, The Unsettling Stars by Alan Dean Foster, Picard: The Last Best Hope by Una McCormack and The Captain’s Oath by Christopher L. Bennett, just to name a few.  I currently have several of his audiobooks currently loaded up on my phone, and I will hopefully listen to some of them soon. 

 

Marc Thompson – Star Wars audiobooks

Thrawn Cover

Moving from Star Trek to Star Wars the next narrator I need to highlight is the outstanding Marc Thompson.  Thompson is a wonderfully talented narrator who has been lending his voice to some of the best Star Wars tie-in novels out there, and perfectly bringing them to life.  I love the outstanding range of characters that he can voice, including those from the films, characters from the animated shows, and new characters never seen on screen.  I am a particular fan of the voice he uses for the character of Grand Admiral Thrawn, as he perfectly captures the character’s complexities, especially in books like Thrawn, Chaos Rising, Greater Good and Lesser Evil by Timothy Zahn.  Other impressive examples of his voice work can be seen in the audiobook versions of Scoundrels, Dark Disciple by Christie Golden, Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule and The Rising Storm by Cavan Scott, just to name a few.

 

Steven Pacey – First Law and Age of Madness trilogies

The Trouble with Peace Cover 2

I am a major fan of Joe Abercrombie’s First Law series, so I also must highlight the impressive Steven Pacey.  Pacey is a great narrator who I primarily know through his work on Abercrombie’s novels.  I deeply enjoyed the narration he provided to Abercrombie’s iconic dark fantasy series, the First Law trilogy, with each of the complex characters perfectly portrayed by this talented narrator.  Pacey really puts a lot of himself into this exceptional audiobook adaptions, and I was very happy that he continued to provide his voice to Abercrombie’s Age of Madness sequel trilogy, providing his exceptional voices to books like A Little Hatred, The Trouble with Peace and The Wisdom of Crowds.

 

Jonathan Keeble – Trollslayer series

Vampireslayer Cover

One narrator I had to include on this list due to my continued love of him was the amazing and impressive Jonathan Keeble.  Keeble is a well-established narrator with an intense and powerful voice, and anything he narrates becomes very hard to stop listening to.  I personally known him best as the guy that Black Library entrusted to narrate the audiobook version of the classic Gotrek and Felix series from the Warhammer Fantasy universe.  I have so far enjoyed all the original Gotrek and Felix novels (those written by William King) on audiobook including Trollslayer, Skavenslayer, Daemonslayer, Vampireslayer and Giantslayer and each of these has featured some impressive voice work, especially around the main characters.  I deeply enjoy just how much Keeble thrusts himself into the narrative with his narration, as you can literally here the excitement when he describes all the cool action.  I am hoping to enjoy more of the Gotrek and Felix novels in the future, and as Keeble is lending his voice to the rest of the audiobooks, I will no doubt listen to them on this format as well. 

 

Nigel Planer/Stephen Briggs – Discworld series

Moving Pictures Cover

There was no way that I could do a list about audiobook narrators without mentioning the epic duo of Nigel Planer and Stephen Briggs.  Both Planer and Briggs are talented actors and narrators, but I love them the most for their work on adapting the epic Discworld series by Terry Pratchett.  The Disworld books (such as Moving Pictures and The Last Continent), are my absolute favourite books, and I have so much love for them, especially in their audiobook format.  All the Discworld novels (as well as some other standalone books that Pratchett wrote), were voiced by either Planer or Briggs, with Planer voicing the first 23 books, while Briggs narrated the last 18 books.  Each of these narrators brings something a little different to the books they adapted, but both do an amazing job capturing Pratchett’s unique humour and compelling characters.  I would strongly recommend any Discworld audiobook that these two narrate, and I have so much appreciation for them.  However, this might change in the future as there are some new Discworld audiobooks out with celebrity narrators.  I haven’t had a chance to listen to them yet, and it will be interesting to see how they stack up against the original audiobook versions.

 

Jonathan Davis – Star Wars audiobooks

Star Wars - Kenobi Cover

Another great narrator who has lent his voice to the Star Wars tie-in genre is the talented Jonathan Davis.  Like Thompson, Davis is a leading Star Wars audiobook narrator, and he always does a great job portraying some of the iconic characters from the franchise.  I have had a lot of fun listening to Davis’ work on such books as Master & Apprentice by Claudia Gray, Lords of the Sith by Paul S. Kemp, Maul: Lockdown by Joe Schreiber and the Dooku: Jedi Lost audio drama by Cavan Scott.  I also really need to highlight his work on the awesome Kenobi audiobook (written by John Jackson Miller), which features a really good impersonation of Obi-Wan Kenobi.  I also deeply enjoy his take on iconic characters like Emperor Palpatine, Qui-Gon Jinn and Jabba the Hutt, and it is crazy how good Davis is at replicating their voices.  As such, any Star Wars novel by Davis is really worth listening to, especially if it features characters from the movie, and I cannot recommend this narrator enough. 

 

Toby Longworth – Eisenhorn and the Gaunt’s Ghosts audiobooks

Warhammer 40,000 - Xenos Cover

The final narrator I want to highlight on this list is a relatively new addition for me which is tied into my recent obsession with Warhammer novels.  Longworth is a very impressive narrator who has lent his voice to so many different audiobooks over the years.  However, I have particularly enjoyed his work in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, where he is mostly widely associated with author Dan Abnett.  Longworth has really become the go-to narrator for all Abnett’s classic novels, and I have deeply enjoyed his outstanding take on all these amazing books.  This includes the high concept Eisenhorn trilogy (Xenos, Malleus and Hereticus), as well as the amazing Gaunt’s Ghosts books (First and Only, Ghostmaker, Necropolis, Honour Guard, The Guns of Tanith and The Vincula Insurgency).  In all these audiobooks, Longworth provides an exceptional range of different voices that capture the complex nature of all the relevant characters.  I deeply enjoyed every single audiobook that Longworth works on, and I look forward to listening to all his amazing collaborations with Abnett in the future.

 

 

That’s the end of this latest list.  I think it turned out pretty well, although I do wish I could have made some more changes to it.  I do think I am being a little lazy only rewriting my existing list, so I have come up with some extra lists for this Tuesday which I am hoping to get up later today.  Make sure to check them out and let me know what you think in the comments below.