Showing results by narrator "Gareth Armstrong" in All Categories

Wallis Simpson, the twice-divorced American woman for whom Edward VIII abdicated in 1936, ended her life as the prisoner of her lawyer who would not allow anyone - friend, foe or journalist - to visit her in her Paris flat. Rose Tremain takes this true story and transforms it into an imaginative and ironic fiction. Her thesis is that Wallis, gaga and bed-ridden, has forgotten the king who gave up an empire for love of her. The other stories in this magnificent collection range over a variety of themes, equally original and unexpected.

A shuttle returns to the Solar System bearing the sole survivor of a traitor attack - however, delirious and so close to death, his tale remains untold. Ison of the Knights Errant, formerly a Librarian of his Legion, delves into the mind of the warrior, and the truth of it will chill him to the core....

As Calth burns, the Battle Titans of the Fire Masters legion take to the streets of the city of Ithraca, ready to massacre the fleeing civilian population in the name of their new, dark masters. But the remaining loyalist engines of the Legio Praesagius - the True Messengers - still stand ready to defend the Imperium, even in the face of almost certain death. With the nearby Ultramarines forces scattered and lost, the people of Ithraca must fend for themselves as gigantic war machines unleash apocalyptic weaponry across the ravaged skyline....

A train is racing toward five men, tied to the track. Unless the train is stopped, it will inevitably kill all five men. If a fat man is pushed onto the line, although he will die, his body will stop the train, saving five lives. Would you kill the fat man? As David Edmonds shows, answering the question is far more complex, and important, than it first appears. In fact, how we answer it tells us a great deal about right and wrong.

As Lord Commander Primus, Eidolon leads the Emperor's Children in the absence of his primarch - who even knows where the daemon prince Fulgrim resides now? But a challenge from within the Legion forces Eidolon to confront one of his rivals, the ambitious Archorian, a capable officer and tactician who would see the Legion returned to glory. Dissent is unacceptable. It is time for the Kakophoni to be set against their erstwhile brethren.

Departing from the Sanctus Reach after their ill-fated battle with the daemon Ku'gath Plaguefather, the Grey Knights encounter their nemesis again as they enter the warp. As the battle becomes one between Gared and Ku'gath himself, it falls to the Librarian to save his brothers...and his soul.

After a gruelling journey, the warriors of the Hallowed Knights and Astral Templars have found their quarry in the Sea of Bones. During the hunt, Mannfred the vampire lord has raised a mighty undead host to protect the realmgate he has claimed. While Ramus of the Hallowed Knights seeks the vampire's head and Vandalus of the Astral Templars wants to reclaim the realmgate, both must fight as one and alongside their orruk allies if they are to triumph.

After being reforged, Lord-Relictor Ramus of the Hallowed Knights is sent by Sigmar to capture the betrayer, Mannfred von Carstein. The quest brings Ramus to the Carthic Oldwoods of Ghur, where he comes to the aid of the Astral Templars against a massive ogor horde. Victorious, but at great cost, Ramus discovers Mannfred is finally close at hand. Only with the help of the Astral Templars will the Lord-Relictor catch his quarry, but there are deadlier things in the woods than ogors, a fact the Stormcast Eternals soon discover.

A fugitive stalks the shadows of the Petitioner's City. Though his fellow Outcast Dead are no more, the lone wolf Severian still intends to escape from Terra by any means possible - but the enigmatic hunter Yasu Nagasena is in pursuit. As news of the massacre on Isstvan V continues to spread and Severian's trail doubles back to the place where it all began, both he and Nagasena must face some uncomfortable truths - and an even more uncertain future.

Cajoled into auditioning for a local play by the formidable Mrs Dalrymple, Bert Hook finds that amateur dramatics are not quite as he imagined. He meets a rather surprising cast of characters: moody Michael Carey, a talented actor with a big future ahead of him; shoplifter Becky Clegg, who claims she has put her disreputable past behind her; and Jack Dawes, with a history of violent crime.

For more than 200 years, the armies of the Emperor of Mankind fought to reconquer the galaxy - led by the superhuman primarchs, the Space Marine Legions brought countless worlds back under the rule of ancient Terra. Now Horus, once honoured Warmaster and favoured son of the Emperor, has been corrupted by the whispered promises of Chaos. At his command the Imperium is torn apart by a terrible and bloody civil war, the likes of which the galaxy has never seen....

The Pharos stands as a beacon of light in the darkness, a whisper of hope in the silent void, a bastion of defiance in the face of treachery. Without it there could be no Imperium Secundus - why, then, do the masters of Ultramar know so little about its operation, or the dangers it could present? Young Oberdeii and Tebecai, Scouts of the 199th Company, descend into the depths beneath Mount Pharos in search of the truth...though it may haunt them for all time.

It is August 1616. The whaling ship Heartsease has ventured high into the Arctic, and the crew must return home before the ice closes in. All, that is, save Thomas Cave. He makes a wager that he will remain there alone until next season, though no man has yet been known to have survived a winter this far north. So he is left with provisions, shelter, and a journal - should he not live to tell the tale.

Paris, 2037. Alexandre Lamarque of the French external security service is hunting for eco-terrorists. Experience has taught him there is no one he can trust. Experience has taught him there is no one he can trust—not his secretive lover Mariam, not even his old mentor, Professor Fayard, the man at the center of the web. He is ready to give up. But he can’t. In search of the truth, Alex must follow the trail through an ominous spiral of events.

At last, the great search for the Nine Gates is over as Tarsus and the Hallowed Knights reach the lair of the Great Necromancer himself, Nagash. Here, in the dark hollows of one of the underworlds of Shyish, the Stormcast Eternals will meet their fate. As they stand in the shadow of death, they must trust that their vampiric guide, Mannfred von Carstein, has not played them false.

For more than 200 years, the armies of the Emperor of Mankind fought to reconquer the galaxy - led by the superhuman primarchs, the Space Marine Legions brought countless worlds back under the rule of ancient Terra. Now Horus, once honoured Warmaster and favoured son of the Emperor, has been corrupted by the whispered promises of Chaos. At his command the Imperium is torn apart by a terrible and bloody civil war, the likes of which the galaxy has never seen....

A squad of Raven Guard Scouts on their first mission encounter the horror of the twisted flesh-shapers of the eldar, the sinister haemonculus covens. As they fight for their lives against the deadly aliens, Brother Jevel begins to realise that his destiny is more complicated than he ever imagined.

Welsh surgeon Daffyd Woodruff's life is blown apart by the arrival of unexpected news. In the remote town of Moose Creek where he lived and worked fifteen years before, he's told he fathered twins. Dafydd knows it cannot be true - but DNA tests don't lie. From nowhere the past has a stranglehold on Daffyd, threatening to unravel everything he's built up - his marriage, his career.

The Thousand Sons - a Legion whose destiny was irrevocably altered at Prospero, and yet who now seem to dance only to fate's tune. Ahzek Ahriman and Magnus the Red cast their psychic sight over the galaxy, seeking any clue as to what the future might hold and where their true allegiance should ultimately be placed.

In a lush meadow, bounded by dense forest and a sparkling river, the flags of several tents flutter in the breeze, rich with the promise of halcyon days. Yet all is not as tranquil as it may seem: The balance of power wrought between the occupants of The Great Field, as it is properly known, is a delicate one, and relationships are stretched to breaking point when a new, large and disciplined group offers to share its surplus of milk pudding.