Games Workshop’s Black Library imprint is probably best known for either its magazine-style efforts like White Dwarf or for the seemingly endless novel-length treatments of the franchise’s various settings — I cut my BL teeth on a package of eBooks from the seemingly endless Horus Heresy series, for instance.
But in between these two extremes, BL also quietly churns out a good number of anthologies. Some tread well-established Fantasy or Space Marine material, but there are some compelling efforts in smaller but worthwhile niches. I’m thinking specifically of the Warhammer Horror and Warhammer Crime lines.
Recently, they launched two compilations—Broken City and Sanction & Sin—under the Crime banner which I of course immediately picked up. (Self-control is overrated, no?) I finished off the reading spree with another recent release, the novel-length Grim Repast from Marc Collins. Three very different volumes, united by excellent reads and generally strong storytelling.
Broken City, Various. Released August, 2021. The dystopian hive city of Varangantua continues its slow, inexorable swirl down the drain. Along the way, it has spun out this new collection of seven stories. Bleedout is the story of an ex-military medic who finds a sort of redemption--and a pair of steady hands--when a bleeding ganger lands on her doorstep. The Verdant Sun is verdant with neo-noir atmospher, exploring how a “simple” job for an ex-lawman turns into a nightmare of Chaos. The protagonist of Enforcer is making ends meet at all costs. Old Instincts explores running--but not staying hidden--from your past. Hunt a serial killer Varangantua-style in Rites of Binding, and in No Third Chance we get another dose of noir, as a whole quarter is threatened by shadowy new arrivals. Finally, Extended Family brings a clever twist to a gangster tale. All good, all solid, all enjoyable. Read-again factor: 110%
Santa’s list is way short of people who’ve been nice this year. Pretty much none of them figure in this book.
Sanction & Sin, Various. Released September, 2021. I was spoiled to find a second new Warhammer Crime release after Broken City, so of course I immediately bought it. Immediately. And read it. (Sleep is overrated.) But it was totally worth it. Beyond the themes of bad life choices and a miserable city, all of the stories features strong female protagonists--something often missing in the various Warhammer universes. Up In Arms explores what happens when you’re suddenly expendable, and the limits of revenge. Bracelet of Bones explores more betrayal, this time from a Sanctioner’s viewpoint. Blood Ballot is a strong, heady tale of betrayal, revenge and the limits of family ties. Bitter Harvest is about the deadly consequences of underestimating the help--who may not be what they seem. Unnatural Causes is an exploration of how death can, in fact, enrich those prepared to seize the right opportunity. In Loose Ends an assassin races to cut off deadly competition. The echos of a long-ago purge echo loudly in Confessions of Fire, as a priestess lays down the law. The Siege of Ismyr offers a lesson in what happens when crime’s arm is longer and quicker than the law. And in Service, a bombing sets in motion a bloody housecleaning with a twist. Read again factor: always, anywhere, any time.
Grim Repast, Marc Collins. Released September, 2021. This follows the very difficult existence of Quillon Drask, a lawman who struggles not just with criminals but also his own colleagues and his past, present and no doubt also future. Drask is trying to handle a particularly gory set of serial killings, only to discover that he’s become part of the grass on which various elephants—some quite large—are about to hold a proverbial dance. Oh, and of course: it’s not just routine criminality and deviancy going on here. This case threatens to cut straight to the rotting core of the local elite, revealing fault lines that extend far beyond the walls of the Bastion. How could it be otherwise?
All three of these volumes share a common denominator with much of the Warhammer universe: the sheer precariousness of life. They also reinforce, over and over that even those who’ve physically escaped the crumbling slums find neither safety nor respite. The form of the rot changes as you move out of the slums, but it’s still there. And it’s not necessarily very subtle, either.
So how do ordinary people keep going? In the setting of these books, many simply don’t. They give up morally or literally, and fall into nihilism, addiction, evil or simply a terminal hopelessness. But we’re motivated to root for the exceptions, the isolated few who are neither beaten down nor beyond at least the idea of redemption. That redemption often never comes, of course.
Stay off this menu. Seriously.
And that is a large part of the draw of these stories: whether or not a given character can navigate the twists and turns of fate can be surprisingly compelling. Even in the grim darkness of the 4,100th century, some hope still springs eternal. There are no perfect heroic figures here, at least more than superficially. These are flawed people, usually facing some sort of overwhelming odds, who nonetheless persist in doing what they must.
But mostly the characters in these books are still recognizable as people, and that makes this a little different from some of Black Library’s other work. I can appreciate the glimpses of the Greco-Roman mythology or elements of classic tragedy which shine through the smudged, battle-damaged carapaces of the Horus Heresy’s protagonists. But this is on an intellectual level. I don’t identify with any of the Primarchs, the Emperor, the Space Marines, or—unless I’m folding laundry or stocking the dishwasher—the forces of Chaos. (And those are good things.)
The average Crime story, though, touches much more closely on what ordinary people can recognize as the vagaries of daily life. Terrible office politics? Check. Don’t like your apartment? Check. Feel like you’re the pawn of larger, unaccountable forces? Che…hmm, well, we might want to talk about that one a little bit just to make sure it’s not going too too far. But you get the general idea. The setting is otherworldly, but the concerns and quandaries the inhabitents must deal with are all too familiar.
This is a great tribute to the care taken by either many of the authors or someone at BL itself in selecting and editing material. After all, this is the definition of industrial-strength mass-market publishing. Neo pulp, if you will. Is this literature for the ages? No, not at all. But it’s solid, almost invariably interesting and entertaining reading and in nearly ever case I’d be happy to read it all over again. And that doesn’t come easily.