Showing results by narrator "John Banks" in All Categories

Desperate and isolated, Sergeant Estabann and Brother Cordoba of the Crimson Fists Space Marines are hunting the daemon that destroyed their battle-brothers.

Even as the Imperium faces the renegade Legions of the Warmaster, the ruling Council of Terra is becoming paralysed from within by petty bureaucracy. Fabricator General Kane has seen his fellow Mechanicum adepts dismissed again and again by the High Lords - with his traitorous predecessor Kelbor-Hal still at large on the Red Planet, the political status of the tech-priesthood remains ambiguous. New alliances must be forged from the old if Mars and Terra are to survive the final battle.

Oakharrow has been conquered—for now. But Aelthena has never given up easily. Fleeing her city, she goes to the jarls of Baegard, seeking their aid to take back her home. But politics are at play, and Ha-Sypt is on the move. Only one can wear the Iron Circle and lead Baegard's armies. In determining who will wear the crown, Aelthena must make a choice: do what is best for her nation, or for herself.

The beleaguered Astra Militarum defenders of Varasine fight against the alien menace of a tyranid invasion, but their only possible salvation approaches in the form of something almost equally inhuman. Warleader Kardan Stronos of the Iron Hands, long having studied the xenos threat, now brings his fearless battle brothers to join the war - only he can save Varasine, measuring his Chapter's infallible logic and ruthless strategy against the cost in human lives.

While voyaging through the depths of the warp, the infamous blademaster Lucius the Eternal is challenged by a servant of another god - a champion of the old Death Guard Legion, no less. Keen to remain dominant over his preening and ambitious rivals in the Cohors Nasicae, Lucius takes up his sword without a second thought...but could an unfeeling daemonhost of Nurgle, or the voices inside his own head, be the undoing of his Slaaneshi curse?

The Red Sunz Meks are back! Uggrim, Snikgob, Bozgat, Talker the Madboy and Frikk the grot return. Their space hulk knocked out of the sky following the Great Rift, the boyz have fallen on hard times. Stranded on yet another backwater world, they are locked in an endless series of skirmishes over diminishing supplies with rival Mek Grimgutz. When Fat Mork is beset by an invasion of snotlings and attacked by ork Wildboyz and Talker the Madboy goes a bit nuts, the boyz reckon a Waaagh is coming. Uggrim and his mekboys set out to join it.

Nineteen thirty-four, London. Into the decaying cul-de-sac of Bleeding Heart Square steps aristocratic Lydia Langstone fleeing an abusive marriage. However, unknown to Lydia, a dark mystery haunts Bleeding Heart Square. What happened to Miss Penhow, the middle-aged spinster who owns the house and who vanished four years earlier? Why is a seedy plain-clothes policeman obsessively watching the square? What is making struggling journalist Rory Wentwood so desperate to contact Miss Penhow?

Salvor Lermentov, Astra Militarum officer turned would-be freedom fighter, languishes in a dark cell deep within an Inquisition fortress. Captured for the crime of treachery, he is sure of his innocence - for did he not aid a servant of the Inquisition in preventing a grievous threat to Terra itself? As he and Inquisitor Crowl match wits in an interrogation, Lermentov outlines his reasons for deserting - but Inquisitor Crowl knows darker truths about the Imperium of Man, and with them in mind, can he possibly allow this traitor to live?

As Marat's siege engine bores through the Tower, Senlin can do nothing but observe the mayhem from inside the belly of the beast. Edith and her crew are forced to face Marat on unequal footing, with Senlin caught in the crossfire, while Adam attempts to unravel the mystery of his fame inside the crowning ringdom. And when the Brick Layer's true ambition is revealed, neither the Tower nor its inhabitants will ever be the same again.

The mighty Unbak lodge is beheaded. Runefather Aruk-Grimnir and his heir, Angruk, have been assassinated in their hearth by a vile and mysterious foe. To restore the honour of the Unbak and determine who will take up the mantle of Grimnir, the fearsome Runesons declare that whoever can slay the killer of their kin will be declared Runefather. It is a perilous task that will take the Fyreslayers into the heart of enemy lands, battling the most ancient foes of the duardin: the accursed skaven and fiendish grots.

The Relictors Space Marine Chapter are renowned for gathering artefacts of Chaos and delving into the secrets of the Dark Gods. Captain Vidarna and Apothecary Achaon are tasked with the interrogation - and torture if necessary - of a captured prisoner, a warrior of the Death Guard. After 10,000 years of war and corruption, what secrets might he yield? The pair attempt to find out, with hideous results.

On the warship Messenger of Hermes, Ahzek Ahriman and his servant, Ignis, study a most unusual prisoner - a metal construct containing the consciousness of a member of a long-extinct race - the necrontyr.

As they interrogate the necron Setekh, he is also learning about them - over and over again as he uses ancient technology to relive the moment and plot his escape. Will he succeed, or will Ahriman prevail?

As the renegade forces of the Warmaster storm across the galaxy, a very different kind of war rages in the shadows of the Imperium - the Knights Errant, chosen of Malcador himself, move quietly in the dark places where others cannot. Battle-captain Nathaniel Garro makes his way to the Imperial Fists' mighty starfort Phalanx, seeking out another kindred soul for his elite band of warriors.

Matt Richter may be dead, but he'll still crack ths case. His mean streets are the city of the dead, the shadowy realm known as Nekropolis. This place has always been ruled by the vampire overlords. Now they're plotting to destroy the city. Over my dead body. Tim Waggoner is a novelist and college professor.

Greymane believed he'd outrun his past. With his school for swordsmanship in Falar, he was looking forward to a quiet life, although his colleague, Kyle, wasn't as enamoured with life outside the mercenary company, the Crimson Guard. However, it seems it is not so easy for an ex-Fist of the Malazan Empire to disappear, especially one under sentence of death from that same Empire.

It gave the Empire its name, but the tiny island and city of Malaz is now a sleepy, seedy back-water port. However this night things are a little different. This night its residents are bustling about, barring doors and shuttering windows. Because this night a once-in-a-generation Shadow Moon is due and threatens the good citizens of Malaz with demon hounds and other, darker, beings.... And it was also prophesied that on this night the Emperor Kellanved, missing for all these years, will return.

The return of the mercenary company the Crimson Guard could not have come at a worse time for the Malazan Empire. Drained by constant warfare, betrayals and rivalries, many see the grip of Empress Laseen weakening. Conquered kingdoms and principalities test their old independence. Into this fermenting civil war on Quon Tali - the empire's homeland - comes the Guard and the ingrained memory of their vow of undying opposition to the existence of the empire.

After a disastrous mission leaves their ranks decimated, Sergeant Zachariah must rapidly train a fresh batch of recruits to restore the 158th Elysian. The regime is harsh, lethal, and only the best will survive to become full-fledged drop troopers. But when a savage feud with a high-ranking officer threatens the 158th and Zachariah and a handful of men barely out of training are sent on a deadly reconnaissance mission, he begins to wonder if his life might also be in jeopardy.

After the war to save Ultramar from the traitor hosts of Horus ended, formerly disgraced Ultramarines Sergeant Aenoid Thiel believes that enemies still linger within the borders of the empire. Finding other men of purpose, fellow Space Marines known as the ‘Red-Marked’, Thiel wages a guerrilla war to root out these enemies and vanquish them for good. Following the threads of a previous mission, the Red-Marked arrive on the moon of Bael. There they find an underwater rigging station that has seemingly been abandoned.

The Sun is about to go Nova. Earth and Moon have ceased their axial rotation and present one face continuously to the sun. The bright side of Earth is covered with carnivorous forest. This is the age of vegetables. Gren and his lady - not to mention the tummybelly men - journey to the even more terrifying dark side. One of Aldiss' most famous and long-enduring novels, fast moving, packed with brilliant imagery.