So, where to start? How about with Games Workshop and those funsters over at The Black Library? Excellent, glad you agree.
Here are details of two, yes two, further releases this month from The Black Library:
Just as Guilliman’s dream of Imperium Secundus seems finally to be realised, the Night Lords launch a full invasion of distant Sotha. Their target? The mysterious Mount Pharos…
With the noble Emperor Sanguinius ruling from Macragge, Imperium Secundus stands as a lone beacon of hope even as the Warmaster’s forces continue to ravage the rest of the galaxy. Roboute Guilliman, still Master of Ultramar, has convinced his brother that Terra has fallen and that the mysterious Mount Pharos on Sotha now holds the key to mankind’s future. But the Night Lords, those cruel and pitiless sons of Konrad Curze, have been watching from the shadows, and make ready to launch their long-planned attack on the Pharos itself…
Written by Guy Haley, Produced by Matthew Renshaw & Narrated by John Banks.
Audiobook running time: 13 hours and 23 minutes.
Pharos is the first full length solo audio book I've done for The Black Library and I'm particularly grateful to producer Matthew Renshaw for asking me to work with him on the book. We had great fun recording and I'm delighted to say that there are further audio books in the pipeline brought to you by the same winning team (!).
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| Rogal Dorn, Primarch of The Imperial Fists |
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| Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of The Ultramarines |
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| Konrad Curze, Primarch of the Night Lords, the Night Haunter |
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| Captain Alexis Polux, 405th Company, Imperial Fists at Pharos |
Roboute Guilliman's new Imperium faces its first test as the Night Lords, scattered after the events of Prince of Crows, attack in force.
And of course, Curze is still around...
A Horus Heresy anthology
The Warmaster’s rebellion spreads to every corner of the galaxy in this Horus Heresy anthology. The galaxy will never know peace again, not in this lifetime or a thousand others...
The Emperor’s vision of mankind ascendant lies in tatters. The Great Crusade is naught but a fading memory. The dream of Unity is no more. But with Horus’s rebellion spreading to every corner of the Imperium and war engulfing new worlds and systems almost daily, there are some who now ask: were the signs there to be seen all along? In these dark times, only one thing is certain – the galaxy will never know peace again, not in this lifetime or a thousand others...
This anthology contains twenty-one stories from the Horus Heresy:
Sermon of Exodus by David Annandale
Howl of the Hearthworld & Lord of the Red Sands by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
Black Oculus by John French
The Laurel of Defiance, A Safe and Shadowed Place & Twisted by Guy Haley
Artefacts, The Phoenician, Imperfect & Chirurgeon by Nick Kyme
The Devine Adoratrice & Wolf Mother by Graham McNeill
Hands of the Emperor & The Harrowing by Rob Sanders
Virtues of the Sons by Andy Smillie
All That Remains & Gunsight by James Swallow
By the Lion's Command by Gav Thorpe
Allegiance & Daemonology by Chris Wraight
A great collection of short stories and I'm thrilled to have narrated a couple of them; The Harrowing by Rob Sanders and All That Remains by James Swallow.
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Additionally this month, is the Fourth Doctor audio drama release from Big Finish, The Labyrinth of Buda Castle. We made this recording some time ago and my CV reminds me that I'm playing a character called Kovatch in it, although both he and I seem to be missing from the published web site cast list. It really is hard to keep an accurate record of what I've done with Big Finish as there are now quite a number of stories for which I'm not credited; mmm...
Anyway, if Kovatch does put in an appearence, I'm playing him! And here are some details:
Aided by a vampire hunter who is searching for Dracula, they look into the nearby Buda caves, currently being used for storage by the military - and find that the soldiers have problems of their own.
Stalked through the tunnels by a monster, and up against an ancient evil, the race is on to escape alive - and foil the dastardly schemes of the maniacal Zoltan Frid.
Tom Baker (The Doctor), Lalla Ward (Romana), Kate Bracken (Celia Soames), Mark Bonnar (Zoltán Frid), Peter Barrett (Guard-Major Priskin), John Dorney (Ensign Kanta),
Anjella Mackintosh (Anita Kereki) John Banks (Kovatch)
Written by: Eddie Robson
Directed by: Nicholas Briggs
Directed by: Nicholas Briggs
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...and finally for this posting, if not for this month, I can at last reveal the title of the first audio book of the seven book epic saga of novels I'm currently recording with producer Neil Gardner for Penguin Random House: Dancer's Lament by Ian C. Esslemont. I know people are already downloading copies of the book, which is being made available simultaneously with the print version. However, as I understand it, the CD version won't be released until the end of May; consequently, the artwork is currently unavailable. The details I've posted here are from the publisher in reference to the printed book:
It was once a land ravaged by war, minor city states, baronies and
principates fight for supremacy, and then the rival cities of Tali and
Quon formed an alliance and so Quon Tali came into being.
However that
was generations ago, that dynasty has collapsed and the regional powers
are now clawing at each others throats once more. But at the heart of
Quon Tali lies the powerful city state of Li Heng which has for
centuries enjoyed relative stability under the guidance of the powerful
sorceress known as the "Protectress".
She is not someone likely to
tolerate the arrival of two particular young men in her domain: one is
determined to prove he is the most skilled assassin of his age; the
other is his quarry - a Dal Hon mage who is proving annoyingly difficult
to kill. The sorceress and her cabal of five mage servants were enough
to repel the Quon Tali Iron Legions, so how could two such
trouble-makers upset her iron-fisted rule?
And now, under a new and
ambitious king, the forces of Itko Kan are marching on Li Heng from the
south. His own assassins, the Nightblades, have been sent ahead into the
city, and rumours abound that he has inhuman, nightmarish forces at his
command.
So as shadows and mistrust swirl and monstrous beasts that
people say appear from nowhere, run rampage through Li Heng's streets,
it seems chaos is come - but in chaos, as a certain young Dal Hon mage
would say, there is opportunity...
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I will of course mention this release again when publication details of the audio version are available. At least now it's no secret as to what the rest of the series is; we're recording all of Ian C. Esslemont's Malazan novels in sequence* and yesterday, we finished the fifth audio book, Orb, Sceptre, Throne, 844 pages in four days - phew! There will be lots more to come about this series, but over the next few weeks, I'll be recording two books for Fantom Films, then off to Games Workshop HQ for another audio drama along with a solo audio anthology, followed by a short break (!), then back in the studio with Niel to record the final two Malazan novels.
In the meantime, thanks for sticking with this fairly 'epic' update and I hope it makes some kind of sense!
In the meantime, thanks for sticking with this fairly 'epic' update and I hope it makes some kind of sense!
...all for now, more just as soon as it becomes available!
*see the Christmas 2015 posting below.