Vaults of Obsidian

Blackstone Fortress #Anthology

by Darius Hinks (Contributor), Nick Kyme (Contributor), Guy Haley (Contributor)

A Blackstone Fortress anthology

Many are the adventurers brave or mad enough to enter the Blackstone Fortress in search of riches, relics and secrets. Ratlings, robots and rogue traders – and more would-be heroes besides – all pursue their own agendas in a collection of action-packed short stories.

READ IT BECAUSE
Venture into the treacherous depths of the Blackstone Fortress in a collection of tales that showcase the many explorers in the alien labyrinth and their greatest – and most dangerous – adventures.

DESCRIPTION
For uncountable ages the Blackstone Fortress has kept its watchful silence. It patiently waits, willing those brave enough to gamble everything exploring its halls. Only the most determined of adventurers will return with riches – the unworthy are never seen again. But to many, the rewards far outweigh the risks. Among the denizens of Precipice, ratlings, robots, and rogue traders all pursue their own agendas, pitting themselves against the myriad forces of darkness that have claimed the fortress as their own. Deadliest of all is Obsidius Mallex, who aims to twist another Talisman of Vaul to Chaos’ unholy cause. Unless this traitor is stopped, the galaxy will burn beneath the wrath of the Ruinous Gods.

CONTENTS
Talisman of Vaul by Darius Hinks
Shapes Pent in Hell by Josh Reynolds
Fates and Fortunes by Thomas Parrott
Past in Flames by J C Sterns
Negavolt by Nicholas Wolf
The Three-Edged Blade by Denny Flowers
Motherlode by Nick Kyme
Purity is a Lie by Guy Haley
The Oath in Darkness by David Annandale
Man of Iron by Guy Haley
The Beast Inside by Darius Hinks
The Last of the Longhorns by Nick Kyme

Genres: 40k, Science Fiction, Anthologies, Fiction

425 pages, Paperback

First published November 16, 2019

About the author

Darius Hinks is an author, writing primarily in the science fiction and fantasy genres. He was born in Birmingham, England, in 1972. He works and lives in Nottinghamshire. Hinks' first novel, Warrior Priest, won the David Gemmel Morningstar award.

Reviews

[Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dear Mr. Hinks and great authors who contributed to this work,

This was so so fun to read! There was action and adventure and incredibly witty dialogue and cool action and everything in the den of scum and villainy that is the setting. The brevity and economy of the stories kept my attention and I loved how things linked. The sentiment of the last story was so sweet. Long live the Blackstone Fortress! More, please, more.

[Noppy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short stories all set in the elusive Blackstone Fortress and the nearby trading post. More about the adventurers than about the place. Told in an order which cannot be determined. Good. Because the fortress cannot be determined. I liked some stories more because I liked some characters more but they all show a unique side.

It grows a bit old when the traitor guards show up again. Every writer takes their time to describe their clothing items before they step out of the shadow. I lost count of how many variations of "They looked like guardsmen but all messed up with their clothing" I read. What could they be? Traitor Guards again? Yes traitor guards again.

[Lenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Talisman of Vaul by Darius Hinks 4/5

Shapes Pent in Hell by Josh Reynolds 5/5

Fates and Fortunes by Thomas Parrott 3/5

Past in Flames by J C Sterns 5/5

Negavolt by Nicholas Wolf 3/5

The Three-Edged Blade by Denny Flowers 4/5

Motherlode by Nick Kyme 1/5

Purity is a Lie by Guy Haley 4/5

The Oath in Darkness by David Annandale 3/5

Man of Iron by Guy Haley 3/5

The Beast Inside by Darius Hinks 4/5

The Last of the Longhorns by Nick Kyme /

[Patrick Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

For being an anthology it was a nice read. I liked the majority of the stories and honestly they were all entertaining in their own right.

[Zare · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting short story collection centered on the infamous Blackstone Fortress, space station built at the very beginning of the age of Eldari, forged by the Eldar's deity Vaul. This is mysterious structure, not inert but constantly shifting, transforming from within, and capturing and integrating whatever is left or lost within at the moment of change - whole armies and fleets from various species, long forgotten mysteries and weapons, treasure beyond imagination. For all means and purposes this space station is very much like vast and ever-changing city-structure from Blame! comics.

What majority finds here though, is death and horrors. Because in depths of Fortress, itself full of weird robotic systems and unstoppable organic life-forms, Chaos worshipers are building the bridge-head, and they are getting ready to capture and control the fortress to deal the deadly blow to Imperium.

Just outside the Fortress we have Precipice, Babylon-7 type of space station where humans and alien mingle (including mutants and unsavory Drukhari) all aiming to discover that specific treasure or secret that will help them climb the power ladder.

Stories vary, from Drukhari working with Eldari to find objects from Eldari past, Drukhari hunting their kin, mercenaries working with Rogue Traders investigating the depths of the Fortress, zealot Ecclesiarchy agents seeking the Chaos corruption in the depths of Fortress so it can be purged by fire, ancient Iron Men (UR-205 is magnificent) trying to stay hidden from ever curious Mechanicum forces, and war veterans trying to escape the hell of war that is Warhammer 40k, the last Longhorns, and definitely my favorite characters in this collection - ratlings and brothers Raus and Rein, veteran snipers and for all means and purposes W40K version of Lucky Logan's.

Very interesting story collection, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Weren't it not for high temperature and inability to do anything but sleep on and off during the hot summer :) I would finish the book much earlier. As it was it took me almost 2 weeks, but not because of the stories themselves.

Highly recommended to all fans of W40K.

[Shaun Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

And now I finally have my first Warhammer 40k book under my belt. I recently finished my first Warhammer fantasy title and decided it was long past time to dive into the grim darkness of the future.

I selected this book because it seemed like a decent jumping-in point, as it takes place at a single location (the eponymous Black Fortress) throughout all of its short stories, and doesn't require any real 40k knowledge to enjoy.

And enjoy it I did. A surprising number of characters and plot points are re-used and continued even though different authors tell the tales, and for the most part the whole book reads like one person could have written the entire thing.

There are a lot of stories here, and while I did like all of them, some were more "important" to the overall plot of the book than others. A couple stories are completely self-contained with their plots and characters, while other plot points don't come full circle until the end of the book.

There is a nice variety to the number of main characters, including some humans, some dark elves, and a couple of ratlings who grew on me over the course of their stories. I think my favorite character has to be UR-025, a machine man pretending to be an ordinary robot.

But yeah, this was a great place to start and I very much enjoyed it. I have already purchased several more Warhammer books, both fantasy and 40k, and am eagerly anticipating getting to them.

[Davie Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got really into the Blackstone Fortress game last year during lockdown with my partner and read the first book not long after getting it.

I really love the setting of BF, it lends itself to so many unique tales that can be told in the Warhammer 40K setting that you’d be unlikely to get anywhere else considering it’s around one of the only places in the lore where different factions and species can converse and work together instead of just blowing each other apart on site.

I really hoped that’s what I would get in this collection of short stories but alas, it focuses more on the main cast of characters - mostly alone and not interacting with even the other playable characters of the setting. It’s still very entertaining though and the Rein and Raus stories are the highlight of the book.

Even though the board game has essentially come to a close, I would love a volume 2 with more of the alien species taking dives into the vaults. No more Eldar though. Please.

[Brent Skinner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah, the multi author anthology. I haven't read something like this since my days with the Star Wars extended universe as a kid. Turns out there was a reason I don't usually seek these out, and I am sure the "multi author anthology" part should give you a clue about why

There are some real treasures in here.

Negavolt by Nicholas Wolf is a fun journey down the path of revenge through the eyes of a very parculiar 'protagonist'.

Fates and Fortunes by Thomas Parrott had a unique xenotype that adds some flavour to the setting

There is also a lot of stuff that reads like "I read a character bio and never checked in with the surrounding literature," which definitely screams of needing a more coherent direction

I look forward to journeying back into the Blackstone Fortress again, mostly because I enjoy the setting, but I definitely want something more focused with my next decent.

[Diogo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gostei muito.
Este livro acompanha muito bem o jogo. No jogo exploramos a Blackstone Fortress sempre à procura de tesouros ou de pistas para mais tesouros, é sempre uma aventura, e este livro representa bem isso. Cada viagem à Blackstone Fortress é única, com objectivos variados, e inimigos surpreendentes.
As histórias têm algum conteúdo relacionado com as expansões do Blackstone Fortress o que aumenta a imersão no jogo.
É pena só ter histórias com os heróis do jogo base. Se também tivesse com os heróis do Escalation seria ainda melhor!

[Reid Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

As usual, Black Library brings some great SF, this time delving into the world of the Blackstone Fortress. It's always challenging to pull together a coherent set of short stories, and with just a few exceptions, Vaults of Obsidian does a great job of putting those together. I'm not as knowledgeable about the history and stories of the Blackstone Fortress, but I now plan on diving into this little piece of the WH40k universe with gusto.

[Paul Sparks · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great anthology about the Blackstone fortress and its denizens and dangers, if you haven’t read Darius Hinks Blackstone books (why not!) then this is good introduction to what grim dark deeds go on there and will whet your appetite for more

[Peter Lawerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vaults of Obsidian is a collection of tales about a Blackstone Fortress and the nearby located space station called Precipice. Normally the Imperium of Man would immediately invest a massive amount of resources and send large expedition teams to recover priceless xenos archeotech each time a Blackstone Fortress is discovered but because the Imperium is now heavily constrained by the many crisis it has to face the Blackstone Fortress is now left to the many rogues and fortune seekers who all have their own peculiar reasons to explore it.

The stories do a good job of alternating between a diverse cast of characters from Drukhari to the Man of Iron UR-025 and the Kroot Grekh. The latter two are my favourite recuring characters of Vaults of Obsidian. It is very interesting to read how a Man of Iron has managed to survive for thousands of years and also kind of funny how he tries to fool humans that he isn’t actually an “Abominable Intelligence” but a manually controlled robot by some unheard and unseen Magos. With the Kroot Grekh we get to see how the Kroot have a strong moral code despite their overall brutal and savage traits. Another noteworthy mention are the Ratlings Rein and Raus, while the humour in their stories are hit-or-miss they do provide some necessary light-hearted variations between all the other very dark stories.

There are also unfortunately some negatives that bring this whole package of tales down. As other people have stated in their reviews: the overreliance of Chaos cultists and traitor guardsmen as a plot device. They keep showing up way too much. It would have been better to use some other kind of xenos threat inherit to the Blackstone Fortress. Which brings me to my second gripe: for a series of tales about a Blackstone Fortress it is kind of a lightweight on the lore side of things. It doesn’t bring anything really new to the table when it comes to big revelations and the setting of an “ancient foreboding space ruin” is kind of underutilized.

[Finnegan Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very excited to buy the board game. UR-025 was such an interesting character from the dark age of humanity and I would love an entire novel centered around him. Excited to read Darius Hinks black stone fortress books next!

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting short stories about a mysterious space station. I enjoyed the recurring characters, gives it a sense of unity other collections from Warhammer lack. My favorite was The Last of the Longhorns.

[Julian Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great insight into the machinations of the Blackstone Fortress and its denizens. Well worth a read.

[Gregory · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short stories, loosely related by several common characters. Some bright spots, but inconsistent. Would have preferred another novel by Darius Hinks.

[Dylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun book, and a good palate cleanser after the emotional roller-coaster of diving into the Expanse novellas earlier this month.

This collection of short stories (previously released individually as e-books via Black Library) was a bit uneven though. Some of the stories were fantastic, some of them seemed to have very little to do with the Blackstone Fortress (more of a backdrop for a character narrative, which is fine... but gosh there was a lot of Dark Eldar shenanigans in this book), and others openly contradicted some of the tales that had been told before of the principle characters from the boardgame.

Additionally, as much as i loved Darius Hinks' full length novel "Blackstone Fortress", his story in this collection didn't grab me the same way. Janus Draik felt like a completely different personality, and the parallels with pulp era adventure stories of big game hunters and their "savage" guide/companion, left me a little cold. The story itself was written well enough, but it didn't appeal to my personal tastes.

Overall though, it was a lovely read and reignited my motivation to not only work on the miniatures from my copy of the game, but also sparked a renewed interest in Warhammer as a property... which has been languishing in the last six months.

Also, i'm not sure if it's just me... but i compulsively read any dialog from Raus and Rein, the ratling twin brothers, in the voices of Duncan Rhodes and Chris Peach from the Warhammer Community team, and of youtube fame. If you're familiar with those two, you can probably guess which was which. The Raus and Rein stories were by far the best, but any time I got to read about UR-025 (a Man of Iron from the dark age of technology, who poses as a simple automaton... but clearly isn't) was also a delight.

"Imperium in our Blood,
Imperium in our Bones,
Long live the Longhorns!"
(Last of the Longhorns by Nick Kyme)

[Richard Wade · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting anthology of short stories ,that introduces those of us not playing GW's Blackstone Fortress to the principle characters and concepts of the game ,there's a fair bit of action and violence ,but this seems more of a dungeon romp than an exploration of Warhammer 40k's grimdark. That's no bad thing ,it's one of the franchises developing strengths that it's branching out from the overabundance of Space Marine Bolter porn that was its staple to include different settings and styles.There's a lot to enjoy here, David Annandale's The Oath in Darkness sheds light on Kroot thinking and culture while those stories featuring Ratling twins Raus and Rein bring some much needed Broad Humour to the setting .