‘The Founding’ – Dan Abnett (Black Library)

Big thick books are the absolute bane of my life at the moment. On the one hand a thick book should mean that there’s potentially more goodness inside, waiting for me to get stuck in. On the other hand though, there isn’t enough room on the tube to even think about opening a chunky book let alone actually doing it for real. If you’ve written a thick and chunky book this is more than likely the reason why it hasn’t made it off my reading pile yet, sorry about that...
Not for much longer though! One of my ‘unofficial New Year’s Resolutions’ was to try and get through more of these books, if only to make the back bedroom look a little tidier. There were many candidates for the first book to be picked up but, in the end, I settled for Dan Abnett’s Warhammer 40K omnibus ‘The Founding’.

If my reading pile is anything to go by, Dan Abnett must loom over the Black Library like a colossus having written extensively in both the Warhammer and Warhammer 40K settings. I can be notoriously bad at starting a series at the beginning and so it was that I came to ‘The Founding’ via ‘Blood Pact’ and the ‘Sabbat Worlds’ anthology. There was enough in these two books for me to know that going back to the beginning of the series would be worthwhile at the very least. ‘The Founding’ contains the novels ‘First and Only’, ‘Ghostmaker’ and Necropolis’ as well as the short story ‘In Remembrance’; I was going to break it down into a review for each of the three books but eventually decided to look at the three books in terms of the single omnibus that they are collected in as well as a brief look at the three individually...

The worlds of the Sabbat systems have slaved under the rule of their heretical overlords for too long! A crusade force of Imperial Guard (numbering in the millions) and Space Marines has been tasked with reclaiming these worlds for the Imperium in an offensive that will carry on for some years.
Amongst this vast organisation of men and machinery are the ‘Tanith First and Only’, a newly raised regiment that saw their world destroyed around them, by the forces of Chaos, while they were boarding the troop ships for deep space. These men would rather have died fighting for Tanith and resent their commanding officer, Commissar Ibram Gaunt, for not allowing them to do this. Gaunt must mould these recalcitrant men into a force capable of winning worlds for the Imperium but, while he does this, he must also negotiate the infighting that arises from the politics between rival Imperial Guard regiments. If Gaunt can succeed at both of these tasks then his tiny regiment might just be ready to take on the massed ranks of cultists, heretics and Traitor Marines that stand between the crusade and liberation of the Sabbat worlds...

‘The Founding’ is an eminently readable book that I think any fan of military sci-fi will get a lot out of (as well as established 40K gamers). It has pretty much everything you’re after with a wide ranging interstellar war packed full of men and machinery, a well defined military hierarchy and plenty of well drawn settings to take the fight to. Most important though are the regular troops themselves and Abnett not only gives his readers a good look at the main players but he also leaves you in no doubt as to what it means to be an Imperial Guard in the forty first millennium. When a military organisation numbers it troops in the countless millions then the rank and file can be thrown into the most extreme missions regardless of the cost in human life. Abnett illustrates this clearly by lending his characters real humanity and then dropping tonnes of munitions on their heads to see what they do next. There is some real stirring stuff here, more than enough in fact to make me want to fill in the massive gap that lies between these first three books and ‘Blood Pact’. The way in which the three stories link together so well also makes the prospect of future reading a pleasure rather than a chore.

Looking at the three books individually though tells a slightly different story as certain of these books, although holding true to the positive aspects that contribute to the overall anthology, does suffer from its own individual flaws.

 ‘First and Only’ serves as a fine introduction to not only the regiment but also to the Sabbat Worlds Crusade as a whole (thanks to those handy explanatory historical pieces at the beginning of each section). What I had trouble with though, given the wider context of the 40K universe and the religious zeal of its human citizens, was the extent of the rivalry that existed between regiments (or more specifically, the Tanith First & Only and everyone else). Would Guard Colonels really run the risk of ruining a military campaign in order to settle petty scores? The answer is a resounding ‘yes’ but it didn’t ring quite right with me. On the plus side though, the ‘espionage/counter espionage sub-plot’ was fun to follow with an ending that really makes you think about the ethics and morals of the Imperium; some people will do anything to win the war...

‘Ghostmaker’ was an odd one in that the narrative approach intrigued me at the same time as it came across as diverting the main plot unnecessarily. I loved the flashbacks as they give you real insight into key players in the regiment (I’m looking at Larkin in particular here, I loved the story of his encounter with the angel; Rawne’s fight with the Ork is worth a look as well). At the same time though, this approach meant that you don’t really get to see a lot of the main plot (foiling a Chaos plot on the planet Monthax) itself which is relegated to the final chapters of the book. There is an attempt to tie it in with one of the flashbacks but this felt like ‘too little, too late’ to me.

‘Necropolis’ though... This makes up for the shortcomings of the first two books with an epic slice of warfare taking in two hives (gigantic country spanning cities) that have been thrown into war with each other through the corrupting influence of Chaos. Abnett gets the balance spot on here and displays a fine ability to switch from the cut and thrust of large scale engagements to the smaller (yet just as deadly) confrontations between skirmishers. In between the warfare outside the hive (and inside it too) Abnett not only gives us a captivating picture of how the war affects ordinary citizens but also throws up some absorbing side plots as a result.
‘Necropolis’ is a gorgeous read and quite possibly the book that ensured I will read the rest of the series.

‘The Founding’ isn’t without its faults but offers enough potential to show why this series is held in such high regard by its fans. I’ll be reading more to see if the series lives up to these standards.

Eight and a Quarter out of Ten