Goonhammer Reviews: Darkness Eternal, a Warhammer 40,000 Anthology

A collection of short stories usually has a theme and Darkness Eternal, the latest short story collection from the Black Library focusing on 40k, takes this very seriously - the Darkness of the Far Future is, after all, grim and eternal. As that theme describes 40k as a whole, this is not a highly focused collection. Really, we’re looking at a unifying theme of “we published these and we haven’t put them in a book yet”. There are probably a couple of hundred shorts out there with no collection or no way of buying them, lots of fiction lost to old White Dwarf issues or seasonal e-short releases, so it makes sense to periodically collate them - out of that process comes Darkness Eternal with a very thin, by no means universal, gloss of "Tyranids" despite the clear Tyranid branding on the cover.

There are - appropriately - 13 stories of grimdarkness in here, some of which fit into longer running series. Most of these are short stories released in 2022-23, which isn’t a problem - Black Library short stories are notoriously difficult to find unless you’re Jay “Lorehunter” Kirkman, so collating good stories told in other ways is no bad thing. There’s a mix of established and newer writers here, but - depending on who you consider to be the “big guns” of the setting - I’d argue that this is a slate of authors who are, often unjustly, much less read than Abnett, Thorpe, McNeil et al. There’s every chance you’ve read some - or all - of them before, but a short story collection is always a good thing, so let’s dive in to what’s on offer.

One Million Years - Nate Crowley

Solar Harvesting is a bright and risky job, but someone’s got to do it, and if it isn’t the Necrons it will be the Kin. A fun Necron/Votan ship battle story taking place in the heart of a star - a very enjoyable concept to layer on top of Nate’s well known skill with the Necrons. There’s a good amount of fighting here, but the best bit is the characterisation of Necrons and their ships, all bombast and egotism hiding abyssal emptiness.

Necron Cryptek Kamoteph The Crooked

This was published back in 2023 as one of the early waves of Votann fiction and works well to introduce the Space Dwarves as decidedly Dwarfy while keeping up the strange, slightly sad, formal weirdness of the Crypteks. You can still buy this one as a singleton and I’d say it’s worth picking up. Nate does Necrons better than anyone else, in my opinion (yes, including the Infinite and the Divine).

Altar of Maws - Peter Fehervari

Tau, humans and….. Something else find themselves adrift on strange and cloying waterways they could swear weren’t on any map. Fehervari serves up eyes, maws, fungus (of course!) and character development in one tight package that drips with sweat and claustrophobia and contains some absolutely stand-out warp madness imagery.

I’m a big fan of the Dark Coil and seeing Altar of Maws, one of my favourite short stories in the coil, in the contents of Darkness Eternal was a pleasant bonus. I’ve read this one before, and it’s a good read of weird fungal growths, madness and the Tau - the only down side is that in its context (especially part of the Dark Coil Damnation, which I heartily recommend, it’s a much better story. Shorn of the rest of the coil, it seems very out of place. Weirder, darker, odder - a story I will always enjoy and the stand out tale of this collection.

The Light of the Emperor - Darius Hinks

Apothecary Biologis. Credit: Charlie Brassley

Apothecary Biologis Vultis makes hard decisions based on experience and scientific knowledge in the face of humanity’s irrationality, and blows some stuff up along the way. Definitely didn’t see this one coming, with Darius Hinks returning to a character from the Leviathan box set and accompanying novel. Apothecary Biologis Vultis is probably the best character from the tie-in book (which we have reviewed!), so more spinoffs make sense for him, but this is a straightforward story that I didn’t particularly enjoy. Marines do marine things, humans watch them do things. It’s a familiar structure. This was also in the Black Library store anniversary book and a 2023 White Dwarf. It reads like White Dwarf fiction, and could potentially have stayed there.

The Devouring Void - Danie Ware

Inquisitorial retinue in “something’s gone wrong” shocker, fighting their way out of the shadow of the warp while tyranids rain from every air vent and the enemy of my enemy might not be a friend. This is a straight up the line shooty last stand story on a besieged ship, and they’re always at least enjoyable.

The common theme, if there is one, of this collection is that bad things happen to bad people, and this is done well here. It is not a horrendous thing to say this isn’t Danie’s best work, because the short stories we’ve had from her are absolutely cracking and this one is merely good. I liked the inevitable way the plot unfolded, the finale telegraphed hard enough that it did, indeed, make it into the title. This one came out in the 2023 Tyranid short stories set, and you can buy it as a single.

Own Worst Enemy - Denny Flowers

Out in the wastes, a new enemy ace stalks the fighters of the Imperial Navy. Pouncing out of nowhere to claim their prizes, there seems to be nothing that can stand up to this flying terror - that is, until the carefully stage managed propaganda appearance of Lucille Von Shard.

Aeronautica Imperialis Lightning., Credit: NotThatHenryC

Quite a clever story (until the very end), with a look into the Imperium as propaganda machine that reminded me of that single, iconic clip of missile guidance in the first Iraq War while raising a lot of questions. How does the Imperium curate its heroes? How does it manufacture them - and is the Black Library itself part of that? The biggest question, though, is does this make me want to read more Lucille Von Shard stories? If that’s the purpose of this collection - which I think it is - I should finish this one thinking “what an interesting character, I’ll read more”, but shorn of the cool flourishes of air combat I was expecting, the answer to the big question is unfortunately no.

Again, this one is of 2023 vintage and you can buy it singly as a short story, but I wouldn’t bother to be honest.

Arcady Pride - Justin D Hill

There are three types of Imperial Guard: The dead, the lucky and the drunk. Minka Lesk and pals get to be the latter two in the aftermath of the great assault on Traitor Rock.

This is a welcome return to Traitor Rock with a follow on Minka Lesk story from Justin D Hill. This is a nice summary of the events of Cadia Stands which could sub in well in a Minka collection that focuses exclusively on the lead character. After not particularly enjoying the Minka omnibus, I was surprised to find myself leaning into reading this. It’s not a challenge, or really much of anything at all - soldiers tell stories you’ve already read while drinking - but it’s a tight short story with no flab, and that’s all to the good.

The first Minka Miniature. Credit: Warhammer Community

This one wasn’t included in the Minka Lesk omnibus, but it makes sense that it wasn’t - a summary of the first book in the series that would have been the last story in the omnibus. You can buy it singly, and it’s worth doing if you want to skip Cadia Stands but still get the story out of the horses mouth.

Nightsider Imperialis - Victoria Hayward

Catachans! Kroot! Mangrove Swamps! Darkness! It’s all there as Major Wulf Khan has to retrieve a lost Imperial asset before it gets eaten.

Kroot Carnivores. Credit: Rockfish

I really enjoyed this one. I like a good Catachan badass, I like the Kroot as enemies, I like anything dealing with the Imperium’s population of abhumans and, most of all, I like well written and evocative landscapes and environments. They’re all here, present and correct, giving us a kind of escort mission meets cannibal predator story where the good of the imperium comes from disobeying orders - which it always does when the Catachan are involved. There’s a craft in a short story that’s variably achieved in most Black Library collections, one of creating a world, stakes, characters and plot all within a page or two and then letting them play out - Hayward pulls it off and I think this is the other great story in Darkness Eternal.

Unlike Own Worst Enemy, Nightsider Imperialis sells the characters well enough that I think it does make you want to pick up Deathworlder to see more of Major Khan and the Night Shrikes. I haven’t, yet, but I’m going to - and looking forward to it too.

A Forbidden Meal - Carrie Harris

If you have a look on the Warhammer website for this collection, you’ll see this receives the shortest possible summary: A kroot shaper tries his best to guide the evolution of his kindred.

Horribly generic plot summary aside, this is a good read, with enough 40k weirdness and a solid look at the Kroot in their mercenary guise. The journey of a Kinband across the Galaxy looking for the best genetic material to eat would make a great book in a mock-nonfiction context, panning out to look at centuries of travel and evolution instead of single fights on various planets. I’d definitely read that, and on the strength of a Forbidden Meal I’d like Carrie Harris to write it.

Kroot Carnivores. Credit: That Gobbo

This came out - and seems to have been largely forgotten immediately - in 2023, which is a shame as it’s pretty good.

Eradicant - R.S Wilt

Scions of the First Eradicant drop in hot to fight their way up a Khornate tower to retrieve a captured planetary governor. Can hot-shot lasguns stack up against Berserkers? Yep!

Tempestus Scions (Photo courtesy of Musterkrux)

Eradicant has a good plot structure that feels like a mid-game level from a shooter, which is fun. It’s solid on the shooting and a bit wobbly on everything else, so it’s a good thing that this is largely about Scions throwing a lot of las downrange. There’s some interesting bits here around the idea of Scions who are a little too rogue to be trusted with non-suicide missions, but there’s also a bit of nounverb verbnouning in it, where enemies are identified as models (kind of like the “the Jackals™ stood by the altar of Khorne™ playset”). I think it’s a solid short story though not too exciting.

This one seems to have been the Black Library tester for R.S Wilt’s debut novel Final Deployment. If you like Guard novels, on the strength of this short story I’d say it’s worth a punt.

Convocation - Tammy Nichols

Imperial Breacher teams are activated when ships are in trouble. Heading out from their secure perimeter, they’re about to find a lot more than they bargained for when the rot runs much, much deeper than anyone had expected.

There’s not a lot more fun to me than being on a ship, with genestealers, and some kind of over-excited or over committed Imperials about to be eaten. With a great, ready made premise, the short story works well and manages to do everything it needs to do. It’s a little odd that the entire ship could go dark apparently for months with one breacher team just hanging out, but meh, it’s 40k, plot holes abound. Everything here is very pleasingly functional - a setup, twist and payoff in short order and while it feels a little bit like it was written at the Navy Breacher team kit, it all works well. You know how it’s going to go down pretty much from the first word, and it does, which is nice.

Tammy Nichols is one hell of a painter (@tears of envy on insta), and a good writer. Hopefully there’ll be more coming.

Stealing Orpheon - Richard Ford

I have to use the summary the Black Library used for this one: a former ganger returns to her home planet and engages old contacts to carry out a daring heist. I’m using it because I found this story very forgettable, unfortunately.

I just did not get on with this one at all. I’m not 100% on what 40k is - is anyone? - but this didn’t feel like it. It’s a generic cyberpunky heist - something tried time and time again in the short story format, but one that rarely works without some serious investment in building up the stakes. It’s bloody hard to pull off (but possible!) a heist story without feeling like there are consequences to failure, and this feels like a floaty story as a result.

Lessons of Rorphax - Callum Davis

The 5th Company of the Tome Keepers, devastated by war is reequipped with Primaris Marines, and, as new leadership adjusts to new organs, the long cherished rules may need rewriting.

Tome Keepers Space Marines. Credit: Rich Nutter

I like a reflective marine story, anything where the hideous paragons of the rotting imperium are forced to look within, to learn and grow, and I liked the development of the Tome Keepers as a chapter that you get here. It’s not a complicated story, but a good one. It reminded me of Helsreach in a positive way. This was White Dwarf fiction - Issue 482 - in the very extensive series of “Established smaller chapter receives influx of Primaris and deals with it in a certain way” that seems to accompany most WD foci on minor chapters, but is a worthy addition to the collection nonetheless. I’d read a full book of it.

Devilhunter - Nicholas Wolf

The Tau send their best and most dangerous into the jungle to root out the Tyranid threat, but when things inevitably go wrong, the journey becomes darker and more perilous than planned.

Tau stories with a twist seem to be doing well at the moment, and this one certainly stands up to peers. The bright future of the Tau coming into contact with the grimdarkness of the galaxy is always worth exploring, the contrast throwing interesting shades onto both. Plotting and character work here is good and the story is enjoyable with a suitably dark end and good action. It’s another one off the 2023 Tyranids eshorts week, which would have made a great deal of sense as a wholly uniting theme for the whole collection. Nicholas Wolf has only written a couple of short stories for the Black Library, but I think makes a good argument here for a full novel.

Darkness Not So Eternal

On balance this is a good collection. It’s a nice one, it has good stories in it and you’d probably happily read it on a train/plane journey or on holiday and then, mostly, forget about it. That’s fine, there’s a good market share there and sometimes it’s perfect to dip into a fire and forget short story collection. So, on balance, ok. Pick it up if you like 40k short stories.

With all this in mind though, I’m wondering what the purpose of this collection is. It’s a largely good set of stories by a wide range of authors, some of which have been published before - and are readily available. In its way, it provides a little intro to some longer running series, perhaps gets you reading some authors you otherwise haven’t encountered. It’s by no means unusual in 40k short story collections to have a unifying theme of “stories about 40k” which is absolutely fair enough, but it doesn’t always lead to an incredibly satisfying book, regardless of the quality of the stories within. I like a thread you can pick at, even if the thread is “everyone fights xenos”, and the absence of one here means that this collection is exactly the sum of its parts.

As a taster platter of some of the Black Library’s most recent series - Minka Lesk, Lucille Von Shard, Wulf Khan and the Dark Coil - it has a function, but I do wonder who would be picking this up if they weren’t already fans of these series. This leaves the collection a bit purposeless unless you really must read 3-4 of the stories, at which point it represents good value compared to buying them individually. I'm not sure you really must, though - this is a collection of some stories of the Imperium fighting, like many, many, many others - a collection of good stories, along with two that I think are great, but that’s about it. There are outstanding, must-purchase, must-read-if-you're-a-big-Black-Library-fan short story collections out there, but this isn’t one of them.

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Tags: tyranids | Review | black library | Novel