Few publishers put out short stories like Black Library. Buying a limited edition? It comes with a new bonus piece of fiction. New copy of white Dwarf? Sure, here’s a short story. Celebrating a new release? Boom, more short fiction. But most of these releases originally see publication in hard-to-obtain special editions or as eBook exclusives. For those peasants and luddites among s who prefer the venerable physical copy, we have to wait for these stories to be bundled together. Happily, it’s rarely a long wait. this year alone I’ve already tackled Paragon of Faith and Other Stories, and Blood of the Imperium. Today I’m following in the anthology tradition and bundling together three recent releases.

Darkness Eternal is the first Warhammer 40,000 anthology I’ve listened to as an audiobook. the first thing to know is that it has multiple narrators. This is great for two reasons. Firstly, it keeps stories set in a larger series in the hands of a familiar voice. I adore the Minka Lesk series, and it wouldn’t be the same with Colleen Prendergast as the narrator. Secondly, it keeps the anthology varied, which is exactly what they should be. the aforementioned Minka Lesk short, ‘Arcady Pride’ is a sombre little piece set in the aftermath of the phenomenal Traitor Rock. The core of it will be familiar to anyone who has read Justin D Hill’s Cadia Stands, but it helps to re-centre the fall of the planet around Lesk herself. A great little character piece. the other standout is, much to nobody’s surprise, Victoria Hayward’s ‘Nightsider Imperialis.’ As well as being a strong prelude to Deathworlder, it’s a vicious look at the Catachan command structure that features a chilling guest role for some delightfully ghoulish Kroot. As an aside, I am delighted that the Kroot have been getting the attention they serve in recent releases.

No Peace Among Stars is very much a mixed bag. the opener ‘Death’s Toll; by Jon Flindall is an unflinching look at the lengths the Imperium will go to in order to stamp out heresy, while other stories in the collection left me utterly cold. One noteworthy element to the book is the authors involved. Some are first timers, while others are fairly big names in genre fiction like Stark Holborn and Richard Swan. It’s interesting not only because Warhammer is clearly appealing to some real heavy-hitters in the genre, but also because the bigger names don’t take first billing. Everyone is mixed in together and given and equal chance to shine.

Finally, we have Death and Duty which is labelled as part of the recent Astra Militarum series that has brought us excellent standalone novels in the form of Deathworlder, Rob Young’s Longshot, and others. It is unquestionably the strongest of the three releases covered here, but it does come with a caveat. the reason for that strength is that it’s largely a selection of the best stories from other anthologies over the past few years. There’s a big crossover with Galaxy of Horrors, including the excellent ‘The Sum of It’s Parts’ by Rhuairidh Jones and Steve Lyons’ ‘The Relentless Dead.’ At the same time, Shauna Lawless’ ‘The Last Psyker appears both here and in No Peace Among Stars. It’s a good story, but having it release in two anthologies on the same day seems like a scheduling error. However, one story that appears to be original to this collection is Sam Ryan’s ‘Finest Hour.’ It’s a phenomenal piece of military SF, and I for one will be watching Ryan’s future with great interest.

All of these anthologies are worth reading. But if I had one piece of advice for the prospective reader, it would be to space them out a bit more than I did.