Ahriman: Gates of Ruin

Black Library Advent Calendar 2014 #15

by John French

Ahriman, sorcerer lord of the Thousand Sons, seeks the fabled Gates of Ruin, reportedly a safe way out of the Eye of Terror, far from the eyes of the Imperium. But when he finds the Gates of Ruin, he discovers that he has been drawn into a deadly trap. As daemons attack, Ahriman and his followers must draw on all their power and skill if they are to survive.

Read it because
Misunderstood seeker of knowledge or diabolical Lord of Chaos? A bit of both maybe.Fans of the Ahriman series won't want to miss this latest instalment, as the Sorcerer finds himself snared in a fiendish trap as he and his followers seek to escape the Eye of Terror.

Genres: 40k, Science Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories

31 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 15, 2014

About the author

John French is a writer and freelance game designer from Nottingham, England. His novels include the Ahriman series from Black Library, and The Lord of Nightmares trilogy for Fantasy Flight. The rest of his work can be seen scattered through a number of other books, including the New York Times bestselling anthology Age of Darkness. When he is not thinking of ways that dark and corrupting beings could destroy reality and space, John enjoys talking about why it would be a good idea... that and drinking good wine.

Reviews

[Tarl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gates of Ruin was a nice blend of action and character building for French's story of Ahriman.

Choosing to use a protagonist other than Ahriman was a good choice with this short story as it allowed an outside view of the sorcerer's motives and how he manipulates people without knowing. That fact that this story continues with a plot element from Dead Oracle was also a nice touch, keeping the stories themselves linked.

The action is handled well, more so when it comes to the daemons. French captures their essence amazingly well, and it is a pleasure to read. My only issue with the story is that the ending is very deus ex machina in its solution, even though it does allow us to see Ahriman's manipulation of the protagonist.

Worth reading, more so if you have read Dead Oracle or the Ahriman series.

[Fiona · Rating 5 out of 5]

A surprisingly powerful short story. Ctesias reveals a critical moment from Ahriman's campaign, within which the narrator plays an extremely important role - almost dooming all of them in the act of fulfilling his duty.

All of French's shorts that I've seen so far have a proper arc and ending, but this one has something more. However, I think what makes it stand out so much is that Ctesias surprised us and himself, first with his error, then with his strength. And last but not least with his virtues.

A worthwhile read in any case, and a personal favorite to me.

[Chris Torno · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing read.

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[David Strašák · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very well done and epic short story.
My favourite read of all the Ctesias short stories in the Ahriman omnibus.

[Narek Ohanyan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The final story from Ctesias' point of view. I liked it.

[Michael Dodd · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the fifteenth day of Christmas, Black Library gave to us…an Ahriman short story by John French. Overlapping slightly with Sorcerer, and following on from a couple of the other shorts in the series, Ahriman : Gates of Ruin sees Ctesias looking back from a point far in the future and recalling the part he played in leading Ahriman and his followers out of the Eye of Terror. Ctesias’ knowledge of daemons is put to good use as he seeks the location of the Gates of Ruin, but can a daemon ever really be trusted?

Read the rest of the review at http://trackofwords.wordpress.com/201...

[Tyler Hunter · Rating 5 out of 5]

thought it was fun had a bad ass sorcerer vs fight.