Its fortresses and armies have held back the hordes of Chaos for centuries, but that grim defiance is about to reach its end. As Abaddon’s Thirteenth Black Crusade batters Cadia’s defences and the armies of the Imperium flock to reinforce this crucial world, a terrible ritual long in the making comes to fruition, and the delicate balance of this brutal war shifts… From the darkness, a hero rises to lead the beleaguered defenders, Lord Castellan Ursarkar Creed, but even with the armoured might of the Astra Militarum and the strength of the Adeptus Astartes at his side, it may not be enough to avert disaster and prevent the fall of Cadia. While Creed lives, there is hope. While there is breath in the body of a single defender, Cadia Stands… but for how much longer?

    Her halo blazes like a star upon the smog wreathed, blood-soaked battlefields of the 41st millennium; its holy light leading the faithful to victory time and time again. As heretics and daemons tear at her flesh, she calls down fires of retribution from on high to smite the wicked and unrighteous. If she is to fall in battle, none should mourn as she is Celestine, the Living Saint, and death is her duty. Though it comes at a great cost. For each time she is slain, Saint Celestine finds herself trapped in a terrible realm of suffering and torment. There her faith in the God-Emperor will be put to the test so she may prove herself worthy of life once more.

    But when an ancient relic of the Chapter is misappropriated, the Soul Drinkers face a terrible dilemma - betray the Imperium, or lose their honour? Their final choice, and its consequences, form the theme of this classic trilogy of SF stories set in the nightmare world of the 41st millennium.

    Some swim closer to the light, drawn by the beacon that is the Astronomican, while others stalk the Void, predators in the dark. The Carcharodons have hunted for millennia, but now they are drawn into a new blackness… the Dark City of the drukhari itself. Commorragh.For a thousand years, Chaplain Tangata Manu has searched for a relic lost under his watch – an ancient thing, once charged into the keeping of the Forgotten One himself. But at the brink of seeing his hunt fulfilled and the relic returned, it is stolen from under him. Now, if Tangata would see his honour restored, he must lead his hunt against some of the vilest predators the galaxy has ever seen, before they can turn the artefact to their own purposes…

    After being thrown off his ship in a bloody coup, a spaceship captain must fight his way back to power and take back his command!

    On the Imperial Hive World of Ikara IX, Chaplain Kastor and Apothecary Polixis, brothers in blood as well as in battle, stand firm against the endless Greenskin horde. But a threat is looming. An invasion like no other assaults the broken city of Shebat, as the crazed warlord Urgork arrives to lay waste to the Imperial forces and capture a Primaris Marines for his own twisted ends. As Kastor and Polixis find themselves separated by the disaster that unfolds, the brothers must turn the tide of war to win the battles that rage within their very natures, as well as those upon the battlefield.

    A man of steel and fire, Macharius is the only one with the will to lead the massed armies of the Imperium to victory. As the crusade rolls onwards, it reaches the world of Karsk. In the city of Irongrad, the Imperial forces face the crusade’s end, unless Macharius and his army can defeat the dreaded Angel of Fire.

    While they are renowned for their 10,000 year history of glorious battle and honourable deeds, these secretive Space Marines seek to hide the dark flaws at the core of their being from the rest of the Imperium.

    Vainglorious, boastful and irreverent, the Jackal Wolf has ever stood apart from his battle-brothers, passed from pack to pack by embittered Wolf Lords, renowned and reviled in equal measure. But as a new enemy invades the icy reaches of Fenris at the height of the Helwinter, Lukas finds himself facing a foe who might rival even his legendary cunning – the dark eldar corsair, Duke Sliscus. In the battle between wolf and serpent, who will emerge triumphant, and who will stain the snow red?

    Each is obsessed with their own speciality, and their rivalry spans millennia. Yet together, they may hold the secret to saving the necron race…READ IT BECAUSEExplore a story told across the millennia that delves deep into a pair of fascinating necron characters, their relationship and their plans for the galaxy.THE STORYBefore the being called the Emperor revealed Himself, before the rise of the aeldari, before the necrontyr traded their flesh for immortal metal, the world was born in violence.Even when they inhabited bodies of flesh, Trazyn the Infinite and Orikan the Diviner were polar opposites. Trazyn, a collector of historical oddities, presides over a gallery full of the most dangerous artefacts – and people – of the galactic past. Orikan, a chronomancer without peer, draws zodiacs that predict and manipulate the future. But when an artefact emerges that may hold the key to the necrons’ next evolution, these two obsessives enter a multi-millennia game of cat and mouse that ends civilisations, reshapes timelines, and changes both forever. As riddles unwind and ancient secrets are revealed, the question remains: will their feud save the necron race or destroy it?

    When a troupe of these deadly warrior-performers discovers a dead Craftworld festering in the webway, they are determined to find the one responsible and exact punishment. Using the ancient craft of their Shadowseer, the trail of destruction leads the troupe to the Sable Marches, a fringe realm of the dark eldar. With several possible suspects of this heinous crime, the Harlequins decide to draw out the guilty one by staging the Masque of Vyle for the archons, a performance that will expose the truth and lead, fatally, to the perpetrator.The Masque of Vyle is archaic ritual performance, used to lure out the guilty to face the fickle justice of the harlequins. Amongst the Dark Eldar however, there are plenty of guilty souls. This tale gives a fascinating insight into both the splinter realms of Commorragh, and the enigmatic rituals of the Laughing Gods followers.

    GotoThe Prisoner by Graham McNeillThe Invitation by Dan AbnettA Balance of Faith by Darren-Jon AshmoreGate of Souls by Mike LeeFate's Masters, Destiny's ServantsTears of Blood by C.S. Goto

    Into this maelstrom come the Raven Guard 4th Company, the warzone perfectly suited to their lightning-strike methods of combat. Led by Veteran Sergeant Grayvus, their mission is simple - to rescue the planet's last survivors. But in the midst of this nightmare, they receive new orders to locate and destroy a power station. The station is built upon a fault line, and the resulting quake would swallow thousands of tyranids and turn the war in the Imperium's favour. Grayvus and his company must fight their way through genestealers, acid spore mines and a deadly biomorph if they are to succeed and reclaim Idos for the Imperium.

    Here are a dozen action stories from this dark and brooding universe.Contents"Salvation" by Jonathan Green"Into the Maelstrom" by Chris Pramas"Emperor's Grace" by Alex Hammond"The Raven's Claw" by Jonathan Curran"Children of the Emperor" by Barrington J. Bayley"The Black Pearl" by Chris Pramas""Acceptable Losses" by Gav Thorpe"Tenebrae" by Mark Brendan"Ancient Lances" by Alex Hammond"Hell in a Bottle" by Simon Jowett"Unthinking Justice" by Andras Millward"In the Belly of the Beast" by William King

    With stories from some of the The Black Library's favourite authors as well as some hot new talent this anthology will appeal to all Warhammer 40,000 fans.