Product Description

This collection of all new "SF" short stories is based around the topic of planetary destruction. With stories from some of the Black Library's favourite authors as well as some hot new talent, this anthology will appeal to all Warhammer 40,000 fans.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #294918 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 320 pages

Customer Reviews

Each story with synopsis and rated individually.
Voidsong by Henry Zou
Inquisitor Obodiah Roth is dispatched to Sirene Primal. His mission is to investigate the mild psychic disturbances emanating from the planet. Obodiah is on-world for close to a month before his group meet the female Blade Artisan named Bekaela. At first Obodiah believes Bekaela is guarding the ship behind her from intruders. Instead, Bekaela of the Blade is guarding against whatever lay within from getting out.

**** This is the first time I recall reading about an inquisitor being so new to his career. The author has done a pretty good job; however, Roth does not come across as being ready for a solo investigation, no matter how minor it was supposed to be. ****



Mortal Fuel by Richard Williams
The planet of Bahani has been depleted of all natural resources. The result is for the Imperium to evacuate and leave Bahani's people to their doom, except from some Bahani who are bonded to the Navy. Midshipman Dal Marcher is with Governor-Adept Kaizen when the area is attacked. His heroism under fire, which also saves Kaizen, gets Marcher promoted to Sub-Lieutenant. However, once aboard the Relentless> Marcher becomes a pawn. The ship's captain has been dead several months and First Officer Tomias Ward is acting Commander. Needing to put those beneath him back into line, Ward sets Marcher up to become an example. At the same time, there is a Bahani saboteur in hiding, waiting for the perfect time to dispense revenge on behalf of his people.

***** This story happens BEFORE the beginning of the novel "Relentless". If you have already read the novel, you will already know most of the characters. If not, the author has done a terrific job with minor explanations and you will have no trouble what-so-ever. More than one nice bout of irony comes into play as well. *****



The Heraclitus Effect by Graham McNeill
They wear a variety of Imperial uniforms, but are the opposite of what the uniforms stand for. The group consists of former members of the Raven Guard, Adeptus Mechanicus, and more. Warsmith Honsou is after revenge against one who had walked away from a fight. Ardaric Vaanes is the new champion of Honsou. It is Vaanes's duty to train the monster recently created, known only as the newborn. The newborn is a creature of Chaos. Biological hot-housing, demonic magic and debased tech of genetic theft has accelerated his growth with strands of geneseed from Uriel Ventris (a man Vaanes loathes). Their target is a planet well loved by Ventris. This is where they will leave a terrifying message.

*** Though very interesting as a whole, there is a lot of unnecessary scenes and information. The title of the story does not make any sense until close to the ending. This story reads as if it were a segment ripped out of a full-length novel. ***



The Emperor Wept by Simon Dyton
Life-Eater is what the Imperium of Man uses to administer Exterminatus. However, an evolved Life-Eater is about to be used for the planet's sterilization. It is named The Emperor's Tears. When the Doom Warriors use it for the first time they learn the true meaning of betrayal. "Doom ye!"

*** Fans of the Adeptus Mechanicus will get a very interesting glimpse into the chapter this time. ***



Phobos Worked in Adamant by Robey Jenkins
The Fabricator Lords, the Nine, hear that the Planet Killer is coming to Celare Artem. Desperately needing some sort of defense, the Nine allow Archmagos Ghuul to explore the ancient alien relics for possible salvation. Ghuul finds it in the form of a shield generator which can cover the entire world. However, the device requires one last element to work, life-force.

**** This story shows that many people will gladly make sacrifices to climb the corporate ladder. The author did a wonderful job. ****



Seven Views of Uhlguth's Passing by Matthew Farrer
The planet of Uhlguth misses its master and all the ones who once worked upon its back. Not content to sit and wait for a new master, Uhlguth begins to travel. Uhlguth will travel forever if that is what it takes. The rogue world's velocity dashes apart all in it path. Its travels will even go through the most chaotic of spaces. During its search, seven entities notice its passing.

** I simply did not like the writing style of this story. Squeezing seven different views, not including Uhlguth's, into such few pages only succeeded in making the story choppy. I would have rated this story even lower, except that I honestly enjoyed the sixth view about a captain, a seer, and a spirit revolting. The author should turn the main character, Ashya Drael, and the spirit revolting synopsis into a full-length novel. **



Mercy Run by Steve Parker
An ork warlord has sent seventeen massive asteroids hurtling through space on a collision course with the Imperial planet of Palmeros. Just before Sergeant Wulfe and his crew were scheduled for evacuation, they are pulled for one last mission. The Cadian 81st Armored (tanks) are ordered to escort Sister Superior Dessembra of the Adeptus Sororitas and two others from the Order of Serenity to the town of Ghotenz on a mission of mercy.

***** I would dearly enjoy seeing more of Sergeant Oskar Wulfe and his men in future novels. This leader understands the necessity of successfully completing the mission, but still has enough humanity to feel pain when forced to make extremely tough decisions with little or not hesitation. The author has done an outstanding job with this story. *****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

" Steam, stench and cordite hung thick in the air."
First a disclaimer, I have never played the Warhammer games, nor am I much a fan of the fiction. I AM a fan of short fiction, and I do like war science fiction short fiction so I was game enough to give this original anthology of seven war, apocalyptic, and war-apocalyptic novelets and novellas published here a chance.

That said, I had to judge the stories "Planetkill" on their own merits, not on how good a piece of Warhammer fiction they were. This is why there are no star ratings to these stories, I'm unqualified to do so. I'll let the Warhammer fans do the rating instead, so if you are thinking of whether or not to read this book, for outsiders I hope mine helps, for insiders see Detra Fitch's.

--The first story is "Vaidsong" by Henry Zou and in it. Zou's character Inquisitor Obodiah Roth sends down more troops and personally engages the enemy after Captain Gonan of the 8th Amartine Scout Cavalry is ambushed in the mountains of Sirene Primal. He later teams up with Bekaela of the Blade who is guarding a downed merchant ship, not from anything, but from everything that is in the ship. The story doesn't have a clean ending, and could have been the opening chapters of a novel, but as is, it's still a solid war mystery story of two terrible forces that will make a stand on a backwater planet. It is also a story that could have been published in one of the old sf pulps.

--"Mortal Fuel" by Richard Williams could be a metaphor about what happens when a hungry imperialist empire decides to strip mine a country (here it is a planet) of anything of worth (here it is water) leaving only the dry husk remaining, leaving the natives behind to rot. Not a war story per se, this is more of a bleak apocalyptic story with a social message. Worth reading by all fans of science fiction.

--Next up is Graham McNeill's "The Heraclitus Effect" and Magos Third Class Evlame is being hunted, unfortunately for him, Evlame has crossed his destiny with that of the now rogue Honsou of the Iron Warriors. This is a fast-paced war/adventure mini-novel that has several acts, and deals with outlaw warriors, the destruction of a planet, and biological warfare. I didn't get the ending as it depended on knowing more about the Warhammer universe than I did. Still, I liked this story with a strong nihilistic streak.

--"The Emperor Wept" by Simon Dyton seems to be a story that will probably be appreciated more by fans of the Warhammer universe, as it deals with Adept Biologis Hieronym Rottle's attempt at creating a new weapon for the empire. A pure science fiction story filled with fictional doubletalk and scientists doing their jobs as researchers, that has a twist ending as there is an unforeseeable consequence to the weapon.

--"Phobos Worked In Adamant" by Robey Jenkins starts out with a scientist (Ghuul) creating a machine to help save Celare Artem from the Planet Killer. Ghuul finds that power source for his machine is human lives, and power mad Ghuul orders the deaths of thousands and thousands of people to feed his machine, only something goes wrong and the machine takes control. This falls into the "things man was not meant to know" genre, and ends up with ending on a truly ironic note. Again, I think some knowledge of the Warhammer universe would have helped.

--Much like the Doomsday Weapon from the original "Star Trek" series, Uhlguth is an annihilation machine, and it has lost his master, and not wanting a new one goes in search of its old one. Basically, Uhlguth is more of a framing device for "Seven Views Of Uhlguth's Passing" by Matthew Ferrer as Uhlguth wanders from one star system to another. There is no one main character here, what we have is seven mini-stories, each one dealing with a different character as they come into contact with Uhlguth. This is a story that would appeal to any reader of science fiction, and it doesn't seem that any familiarity with the Warhammer universe is really needed. "Seven Views Of Uhlguth's Passing" isn't a war story, although battles are fought, or an apocalyptic tale. I know that I would have given it five stars if I were grading these stories.

--I read this anthology a year ago, and Mercy Run" by Steve Parker is the story that has stuck with me the most. Palmeros is a dead world, only it hasn't died yet. It's a vibrant world and it is fighting a war, only the war is going to end with Armageddon. Seventeen massive meteors are on their way to pulverize Palmeros and make all conflict moot. Sergeant Oskar Wulfe is commander of Cadian 81st Armoured regiment and he is on a mission, it is a mission with a time limit, and with an "at-all-costs" order. The objective is to get to the isolated Ghotenz and retrieve a very valuable person and get back to the evacuation point before the meteors strike. Wulfe may be in charge of his regiment, but he is not in charge, in charge of him is the cold and bloodthirsty Sister Superior Dessembra of the Order of Serentity. The regiment must not let anything get in its way, as it cannot go back unless the objective is successfully completed. The only real trouble is that Wulfe is a professional soldier, a soldier's soldier, and the Sister Superior is working on a secret agenda of her own. Despite a massacre, the end-of-the-world, and several costly battles, Wulfe is constantly wrestling with moral center about what he's doing, and ultimately the way that he has to do it will make the term "mercy run" a sick joke. I said I couldn't really grade these stories but I'll make an exception in this case. Five stars, no, five stars plus. A must read for anybody interested in war fiction of any kind.

I had some trepidation about reading this anthology, suspecting that you would have to be familiar with the Warhammer universe to appreciate or understand any of the stories, but no, this is not the case. I think that anybody interested in science fiction/war fiction could understand and appreciate the Zou, Williams, Farrer, and Parker stories, although most of the McNeill, Jenkins and Dyton stories should be able to be appreciated as well. Zou, McNeill, and Parker have all published Warhammer novels.

A couple of weak points, but otherwise a welcome addition to my own Black Library
I was fooled (not in a bad way) when I grabbed this one. For some reason, I thought this would be one of the Imperial Guard series, I don't know why. (and if anyone from BL is reading, we need more of the one offs and fewer character series! Especially given the breadth of the universe) This is an anthology of stories relating to planet death in a number of ways, and not always in the way you think of. The first few pages of the first story (Voidsong) are terribly over done... I was waiting for the author to tell me how many eyelets are in the boots of one the characters, but it settles down after a bit into a decent little story about an Inquisitor. The remainder of the stories were much better and I think that only the one by Graham MacNeill(sic) (surprisingly) was slightly less attractive than the others. The only reason I didn't like the Graham MacNeill story was that it was a tie-in to the Ultramarines series which seemed out of place.

Overall, this is a good read with plenty of antagonists to go round. Most of the authors are newer, so don't expect high caliber writing, but they serve the medium well.