Reviews

Anathemas by David Annandale

manthespace's review against another edition

dark sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

porge_grewe's review against another edition

4.0

Really solid collection of horror stories, wringing the potential out of the rich worlds of Warhammer AOS and 40,000. The stories represent a broad cross-section of horror genres on various scales, with psychological horror most heavily represented, but plagues ('Hab Fever Lockdown'), military crises ('Vox Daemonicus'), body horror ('Skin Man') and various others all making appearances as well. As with any such collection the quality varies and some stories are prone to the flat endings by which horror short stories are often plagues, but the best stories of the collection are so good that I would recommend this to any horror fan, especially as no knowledge of the worlds presented is actually needed if you don't mind ignoring some names of worlds (after all, most of the people represented in these stories don't know any more about them than you will!).

Particular praise goes to 'Runner' by Alan Bao, 'A Threnody for Kolchev' by Darius Hinks, and especially to Lora Gray, submitting the best story of the collection for the third Warhammer horror collection in a row, with the brutal, heartbreaking, and beautiful 'These Hands, These Wings'.

mladd28's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

arthurbdd's review against another edition

3.0

Another somewhat hit-and-miss collection, with a list of contributors absurdly skewed towards men for this day and age. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/2020/03/29/anathemas-or-apologies/

trackofwords's review against another edition

4.0

A compelling collection of low-key tales highlighting the strange, sinister fringes of the 40k and Age of Sigmar universes. Across fourteen stories from thirteen authors, all but two of which are published here for the first time, it’s an exploration of characters driven by fear and desperation, ordinary people just trying to survive in the midst of terrible, horrifying worlds. These are stories to unsettle, that keep you wondering where they’re going and leave you feeling uncomfortable afterwards.

None of these tales tie in with existing stories or series in the range, so there’s no required reading or sense of needing to know anything before getting started, and while there’s Warhammer texture aplenty to reward long-term fans, there should be very little that readers new to the settings can’t follow – which is surely the point of Warhammer Horror! All told, whether you’re a regular Black Library reader or not there’s a lot to enjoy – if enjoy is the right word, for these sorts of stories – in this anthology.

Read the full review at https://www.trackofwords.com/2020/03/25/anthemas-warhammer-horror-anthology/

katie_konneker's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0