If you’re anything like me then the most important part of packing for a holiday is the book(s) that you choose to take along with you. We all know that there’s no point in taking a book along that you’ve practically finished; take something else that will keep you going for longer :o) This is pretty much why Nick Kyme’s ‘Salamander’ gets it’s review now instead of about a fortnight ago. I had about fifty pages left to read so made the choice to leave it at home and pick it up when I got back...
As it turned out, I ended up reading a few other books first but there was never any question that I’d be coming back to ‘Salamander’. It’s a great read and I want to find out what happens next...
Times are hard for the Third Company of the Salamanders Space Marine Chapter. Their beloved Captain is dead, at the hands of the forces of Chaos, and resentment simmers at the new appointment. Other rivalries also fester and when prophecy demands a mission to the forsaken planet of Scoria it is a moment when old hurts could either be healed or burst wide open and split everything asunder. The only thing that is certain is that Space Marines will put aside their own differences to fight a common enemy and there will be plenty there for them to fight.
And what lies under the surface of the planet could change everything...
As much as I enjoy reading Warhammer 40,000 novels, I’m always a little wary when the Space Marines take centre stage. Their overwhelming physical strength and fire power can make them a little bit ‘too good to be true’ and it’s always interesting to see how an author balances this out so as to keep the plot interesting and fresh. Any fan of the WH40K universe will know that just about the only thing that can stop a Space Marine is another Space Marine. Nick Kyme takes this idea and adds a little more weight to it by setting Marines against their own Chapter brothers as oppose to traitors...
This approach works an absolute treat. While Marines are good at taking on a Xenos foe they are completely hamstrung at the thought of fighting someone within their own Chapter and this makes for a rising tide of resentment that had me wondering if it could ever be kept in check. A really interesting dynamic arises where Marines are constantly testing their own boundaries and I’m certainly interested to see how this plays out over the rest of the trilogy. (Did I say this is the opening book of a trilogy? I didn’t? Well, it is).
Characterisation is handled very well as Marines fight to complete their mission and also fight in an internal landscape at the same time. Seeds are sown for later books through the conflicts shown in Dak’ir, Iagon and Tsu’Gan and I will be around to see how these develop.
What also sets ‘Salamander’ apart, from other Space Marine books, is that the Salamander Chapter interacts with common humans in a far different way to others; their duty of protection is taken far more literally and this opens up the novel to go down paths that others perhaps wouldn’t. This was an approach that I found very refreshing to see.
The story itself is interesting to follow with a mission that not only doesn’t go according to plan but also has much more going on than anyone would think. While it is relatively self contained, ‘Salamander’ is also very much ‘the first book in a trilogy’ with elements that are obviously there to be examined further down the line. If you’re reading the first book in any series then you’ll be expecting something like this but I was left wondering if some of the hooks on display were all that relevant to the story. Time will tell I guess...
I also wasn’t too keen on the climactic battle in ‘Salamander’; especially when both ‘Blood Pact’ and ‘Cadian Blood’ had shown me how it should be done. The best way to give Space Marines a battle worth fighting is to throw hordes of the enemy at them. Push it too far though and you end up with something that loses its impact and becomes cartoonish; I felt that ‘Salamander’ strayed into this territory once or twice...
Despite this though, ‘Salamander’ is a book that’s well worth picking up (look for it at the beginning of September) and promises a great storyline to come. I’ll let you know how the next one goes...
Eight and a Half out of Ten
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