'Eisenhorn' - Dan Abnett (Black Library)

I've read a few books by Dan Abnett, over the past few years, and have enjoyed pretty much all of them (seriously, have a look Here, Here and Here and you'll see what I mean). Even the book that I didn't like quite as much as the others had a lot going for it. The one book I've never picked up though was the 'Eisenhorn' omnibus, the one book that everyone has said I should be reading and were surprised that I hadn't.
The reasons for this tended towards the 'Have you seen the size of it?' I can't lug that around on the tube....' end of the spectrum but there's nothing like not having a job to take that excuse away from a man. I finally decided to pick the book up a couple of weeks ago and check it out; I then kicked myself for not reading it much sooner, it's that good.

I've spent a lot of time here talking up what comes out of the Black Library, all of it for the most part very well written. I've probably even spent time telling you what you need to read first. Well, you can take that list, move everything down one place and put 'Eisenhorn' at the top. Do it right now and thank me later.

Far away from the frontlines of the forty first millennium, the ranks of the Holy Inquisition fight a constant battle to ensure that the human Imperium doesn't fall prey to the threats lurking in its midst. Heretics, aliens and daemons; all are the prey of the Inquisition who hunt them down with the utmost zeal and ruthlessness.
Chief amongst the Inquisitions number is Gregor Eisenhorn, an Inquisitor of unquestioned purity and devoted to his calling. Eisenhorn will stop at nothing to bring the enemies of mankind to justice and this will force him into some very difficult decisons. Will the demands of his calling force him into collaboration with the very forces that he has sworn to destroy? Why does the daemon Cherubael haunt his dreams...?

The 'Eisenhorn' omnibus collects the novels 'Xenos', 'Malleus' and 'Hereticus'; making it a pretty hefty looking book by anyones standards (certainly by mine anyway). At least that's what I thought until I started reading. To say that 'Eisenhorn' is very easy to get into is a real understatement; pages were turning almost without my realising it and other commitments had to be really pressing in order to get me to put the book down. Sorry life but that was just the way it went... :o) All of this is testament to Abnett's ability to assemble a plot that works superbly on a number of levels.

If you have ever wondered what the regular citizens of the Imperium do, while everyone else is off fighting, then 'Eisenhorn' is very much the book for you. Abnett paints a grim yet compelling picture of worlds whose only purpose is to provide men and machines to feed the demands of the Imperial war machine. What of those that are left behind though? Well, that's where the plot gets really interesting; dealing with people who will do whatever it takes to escape the drudgery of their daily lives, even consort with the ruinous powers. Life has got to be pretty bad to force someone into making those choices, Abnett leaves you in no doubt that life in the Imperium really can be that bad.

All of this makes for an intense plot where the stakes are always high and extreme measures are required to resolve constant threats to the galaxy. Put like that, the plot can seem a little repetitive and I'd say that it probably is. When you're in the middle of it all though it's very easy not to notice this as there is so much going on. 'Eisenhorn' is very much a grim 'James Bond in space' with cackling villains up to real evil while our hero tries to stop them. The higher the stakes the greater the spectacle and this makes for set pieces that have to be seen to be believed. I'm talking about the confrontation with the Titan in particular.

'Eisenhorn' isn't just a 'shoot em' up' action piece though. Abnett takes time to show us who Gregor Eisnhorn really is; in particular how most of the bad stuff that happens to him is through bad choices that he can't help but make. I don't want to give too much away but I'm thinking about the Titan again... Eisenhorn is a deeply flawed character (and credit to Abnett for revealing this gradually rather than all at once) but also a man who believes in his vocation and won't flinch from making those tough choices in order to get the job done. Even at the risk of his very soul. Eisenhorn is a character where you will find yourself telling him not to do certain things but you can't help but respect him for the price that he is willing to pay. Having said that, you can’t help but hate him a little bit for the price that he is willing to have certain of his friends pay…

‘I stared at him levelly. I won’t kill a man just to provide a host.’
‘You did on Miquol,’ he hissed softly.
‘What did you just say?’
‘You did on Miquol. Verveuk wasn’t dead. You sacrificed him for the good of us all. Why would you flinch from doing it again?’

Shame on me then for not reading 'Eisenhorn' a whole lot sooner. I'm already well into the 'Ravenor' omnibus though so I won't be making that mistake again. If you haven't read 'Eisenhorn' already then I'd say don't hang around. It's a masterful chunk of dark sci-fi that anyone will get a lot out of.

Ten out of Ten

‘The Imperial Infantryman’s Handbook’ (Black Library) – Quick Thoughts on a Quick Read

You there, soldier! Don't know a las-cutter from a lascannon? Not sure which prayer to the God-Emperor will protect you from enemy artillery fire? Need to know how to survive an explosive decompression on your drop ship, or set up a crossfire ambush in a death world jungle? Better consult the handbook. The Munitorum adepts give us these things for a reason, you know...

Collected for the first time in a single kitbag volume, the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer and the Imperial Munitorum Manual provide a wealth of background on the history, tactics and ethos of the Imperial Guard.

I’ve been racking my brains on this one and I actually find myself really hard pressed to remember a book that has left me feeling more non-plussed than this one. Hang on, there was that book… No, ‘The Imperial Infantryman’s Handbook’ still wins (or loses, depending on how you look at it).

It’s not that the book doesn’t do what it sets out to do, far from it. There is a wealth of information on the Imperial Guard, how it works and how the individual Guardsman should conduct himself within its ranks. There’s also some interesting background history to flesh things out; something I always like to see in a book.
I think the problem lies in that fact that ‘The Imperial Infantryman’s Handbook’ does its job a little too well for the likes of me. It’s really easy to get bogged down in the minutiae of Imperial Guard and Departmento Munitorum; something that I think is purely intentional on the author’s part (given the nature of the setting). This is all well and good if you’re really into the setting (I’m looking at gamers who have an Imperial Guard army for instance) but for someone who just wants a good story to get into, like me, this approach can be incredibly off-putting. ‘The Imperial Infantryman’s Handbook’ is aimed well and truly at the hardcore fanbase and there’s nothing wrong with that, not if you want a book to sell well. An outcome though is that casual fans (me again) and newcomers are going to feel a little alienated and not able to engage with the book. In my case, I ended up not wanting to. You have to admire Black Library for knowing exactly whom they’re selling books to and going for it wholeheartedly. It’s a bit of a shame for the rest of us though. Oh well, it’s not like there isn’t Black Library fiction that I can be reading in the meantime.

I can see ‘The Imperial Infantryman’s Handbook’ being a nice little stocking filler for the aspiring Guardsman or Commissar with a point to prove on the tabletop field of battle. For the likes of me though? Well, I really wasn’t that bothered at all.

‘Ravenor Vs Eisenhorn: Pariah’ – Dan Abnett (Black Library)

If you were about yesterday then you will have seen me going on about how it can kill things, just a little bit, when a tie-in novel makes a big deal about how it’s tying in with a game rather than just concentrating on telling a tale. If you weren’t here yesterday, I’m not going to link to the post in question because that post is right under this one. Go and have a read if you like, I’ll still be here when you get back ;o)
What really bothered me about this approach, in ‘Dark Vengeance’, is that Black Library usually deliberately avoid it in their other books; preferring to actually tell a tale rather than use the book as something else that you should buy with the game. Black Library books usually concentrate on the setting and, for the most part, they do it very well.

It was good then that the other book I’d been reading, at the same time as ‘Dark Vengeance’, was Dan Abnett’s ‘Pariah’. Long term readers here will know that Abnett has serious form for writing top notch novels set in the Warhammer 40K universe. Click Here, Here, Here and Here to see what I mean. I’ve always meant to pick up the ‘Eisenhorn’ books but have been put off by the size of the omnibus edition (not a practical commuter read for me). That, in turn, has led to my never checking out the ‘Ravenor’ omnibus either. ‘Pariah’ though, that’s a different story. At a mere three hundred and seventeen pages long the book sits comfortably in the hand and the blurb suggested something sufficiently ‘stand alone’ that I could get into quickly.

 ‘Pariah’ does make reference to earlier events, something fans should get a lot out of as it continues on from the last two trilogies. However, the adoption of a new point of view character, as the lead, makes this a book that anyone should be able to pick up and get into fairly quickly. It’s the same universe but seen through different eyes and I can see that adding a refreshing twist to familiar surroundings, especially when Abnett gets going with some of the more intricate ‘ins and outs’ of the plot.
But I’m getting ahead of myself a little bit, here’s the blurb…

In the city of Queen Mab, nothing is quite as it seems. Pariah, spy and Inquisitorial agent, Alizebeth Bequin is all of these things and yet none of them. An enigma, even to herself, she is caught between Inquisitors Gregor Eisenhorn and Gideon Ravenor, former allies now enemies who are playing a shadow game against a mysterious and deadly foe. Coveted by the Archenemy, pursued by the Inquisition, Bequin becomes embroiled in a dark plot of which she knows not her role or purpose. Helped by a disparate group of allies, she must unravel the secrets of her life and past if she is to survive a coming battle in which the line between friends and foes is fatally blurred.

The bottom line is that I couldn’t put this one down, despite a little overindulgence (on Abnett’s part) in the descriptive passages surrounding the City of Queen Mab. There really is only so much that you need to know about alleyways before you just want to get on with the plot. Queen Mab isn’t a character by the way; it’s the name of the actual city, that one totally threw me for the first few pages…

‘Pariah’ is a story full of twists and turns; something that really kept me hooked. Just when you think you have a handle on proceedings, Abnett will throw you something right out of left field that sends the plot careening in a brand new direction. There are some huge surprises here that I never saw coming. The beautiful thing is that the plot is such a roller coaster ride (you would not believe what happens to Bequin in the space of just a few days) but comes together to make perfect sense by the very end. Not only does it all make sense but Abnett still finds time to round things off with another big question and the introduction of perhaps the most evil sidekick of all. I can’t wait to read ‘Penitent’ now.

Bequin makes for a most suitable character to see the story through. There is something almost Dickensian about this orphan who is left to fend for herself with the aid of several mysterious benefactors (who always seem to turn up at just the right moment…) The introduction of a strange woman living in a derelict manor hit the mark, in that respect, as well. I did have a little moan, earlier, about the amount of time spent describing Queen Mab but there are some deliciously atmospheric moments that really capture the feeling of just how deadly Bequin’s surroundings can be. I’m thinking about the Basilica Saint Orphaeus and what happens underneath.

The plot isn’t just twists and turns although readers expecting that confrontation between Ravenor and Eisenhorn will be disappointed (it’s the first book in a trilogy, give the plot a chance…) There’s plenty of action to make up for it though with more traitor Marines than you can shake a stick at and at least one Marine who might not be a traitor at all (I don’t know).

‘Pariah’ almost has it all, there is certainly very little not to like about this book and I had a great time reading it. You can count on Dan Abnett not to disappoint and I’m really looking forward to ‘Penitent’ when it is released.

Nine and a Half out of Ten

‘Dark Vengeance’ – C. Z. Dunn (Black Library)

Anyone following me on Twitter yesterday (what do you mean, you don’t follow me?) would have seen me itching for a book full of big swords and a dragon or two. I was at the Job Centre and it didn’t go that well (although it does serve me right for waiting in completely the wrong room)…
I couldn’t find anything that I was happy to dip into, for an afternoon, until I realised that I just needed to do a little bit of fine tuning :o) Keep the swords but add Space Marines toting big ol’ guns and blowing chunks out of each other… That’s what I was after, something light but incredibly violent.

That’s not to say that all Black Library books are like that. If you read the blog you’ll already know that I think BL books are, on the whole, very well written with an unfair ‘tie-in fiction’ stigma attached. ‘Dark Vengeance’ does fall foul of that stigma though, being written to tie in (see what I did there) with the release of Games Workshop’s ‘Dark Vengeance’ game. It’s also a hardback book that’s only a hundred and twenty pages long and costs £12. It’s a fun read, great way to wind down after the morning I had, but I’m not sure it was that much fun (especially when the ‘Storm of Magic’ novellas were being sold at a third the price, in paperback). Enough of me moaning about money though, here’s the blurb…

The Dark Angels are among the foremost Space Marines, the First Legion of old. Devastated millennia ago by a dreadful schism, the Dark Angels are constantly on the hunt for the mysterious Fallen, former brothers who have turned from the light of the immortal God-Emperor and embraced the dread powers of Chaos.

Newly ordained Company Master Balthasar of the Dark Angels leads his forces to the world of Bane's Landing, the resting place of the ancient and powerful Hellfire Stone, in pursuit of the Chaos Space Marines of the Crimson Slaughter. Kranon the Relentless, the evil lord of the Crimson Slaughter, seeks to use the stone to summon forth his daemonic masters and usher in an age of darkness. As the Dark Angels race to stop him, the scene is set for a mighty conflict between the loyal Balthasar and the traitor Kranon.

A book that is only a hundred and twenty pages long isn’t really going to be about the plot and perhaps it’s unfair to expect that (I wouldn’t have minded a little bit more though). What we have here is a book that sets its stall out early, with a very simple premise and what the stakes are, and then leaves the characters to throw awesome amounts of firepower at each other. If you’re basing a book solely on what can happen in a tabletop war game then you’re not going to get a lot else. It is certainly entertaining though with lots of pyrotechnics and action lighting up proceedings. Dunn can certainly write a combat scene with the best of them and you can almost feel the punches that these superhuman warriors through at each other.

Having said that, Dunn does make the time to (briefly) introduce us to the main players and let us know what they are all about. There are some interesting hints that I wouldn’t mind seeing expanded upon in future novels (like what can drive a Chapter of Loyalist Marines to turn traitor, evil trickery is the answer…) but time constraints mean that these hints remain just that.

Again though, the blurb talks about ‘discovering the characters behind the models’ and ‘the story behind the scenarios’. Maybe Black Library are just being very honest about what this book is but the rest of their books don’t normally feel this detached from the setting. I know you shouldn’t place too much store in a blurb but, this time round, the blurb kind of killed it for me. If I’m reading about something based on a game, I don’t want to be reminded all the time that it’s a game (and structurally, ‘Dark Vengeance’ very reminds us where it came from). I want to get into the story and I couldn’t quite do that here despite how entertaining Dunn makes it.

‘Dark Vengeance’ is a tough one to call then; thoroughly entertaining but perhaps a little too honest for its own good. I like that in a book though, at least you know what you are getting here.

Seven and a Half out of Ten

'The Emperor's Might' - Compiled by John Blanche (Black Library)

This could end up being one of my shorter reviews (if not the shortest) as 'The Emperor's Might' doesn't actually have a single word reviewable word to its name. Apart from some blurb and an author bio, what we're looking at here is a collction of images from Games Workshop's 'Warhammer 40,000' line; namely Space Marines, space craft and cityscapes. Just pictures then, no words at all...

Now don't get me wrong, 'The Emperor's Might' looks absolutely gorgeous. It is absolutely crammed full of stunning artwork that really captures the feel of the setting. Power armoured post-humans defending humanity against a backdrop of slavering demons and bombed out cities, that pretty much sums up the Warhammer 40K experience really :o) Unless you're a maasive fan though... Well, if you've seen one Space Marine then you've seen them all haven't you? I'm a fan and all the art still managed to blur into one 'uber marine' after a few pages. A little bit of information about each character, or event, would have perhaps made each piece stand out a little bit more (although I’d imagine that the fans this book is aimed at would probably know). If that wasn't possible then maybe some notes from each artist on the process of creating the artwork? Funnily enough, very few of these pieces are signed by the artists who created them (or if they were then it was lost in the detail). Langley’s work stood out for me but only for reasons that I will talk about in a minute; I couldn’t tell you who drew each of the others… The impression I was left with then was that while the artwork was very nice to look at, the same level of care hadn't gone into creating the book itself. Just throw some pictures together, slap a cover on them and let the book take care of itself after that...

It's also worth pointing out that a lot of these images already grace the covers of books, games and so on, that fans will own. If you're after the art, without a book title all over it, then you'll certainly get that here. If you want some nostalgia then there's plenty of that on offer too (I’ve got a soft spot for the original ‘Rogue Trader’ art). If you're after a collection of original artwork though, maybe think twice before picking this one up.

‘The Emperor’s Might’ is a bit of an odd book then. On the surface it looks like it does its job very well, showcasing humanity’s finest doing what they have been genetically engineered to do. The lack of any accompanying text (and the cynical feeling inclusion of artwork from recent publications) gives the book a really hollow feel though. Not the kind of feeling that you would want from a universal setting that promises such great depth…

Six out of Ten

‘Fear to Tread’ – James Swallow (Black Library)

It’s been a good week for reading this week (scroll down for the last two reviews and you’ll see what I mean) so I thought that I’d round things off with a book that I’ve been waiting on for a while; one that I knew I’d enjoy. The sun’s out so it would be a shame to waste in on something that I wasn’t going to enjoy, life’s too short for that sometimes.

It’s no surprise then that I jumped ahead one ‘Horus Heresy’ book to the forthcoming ‘Fear to Tread’ from James Swallow. The ‘Horus Heresy’ series has been a lot of fun to read, apart from a couple of rough moments here and there, and James Swallow hasn’t let me down with his entries. Go on, have a look at my reviews for ‘Nemesis’, ‘Oath of Moment’ and ‘Legion of One’; they’re all worth a look.

It was a real no-brainer then to pick up ‘Fear to Tread’ and get stuck in then. Having finished it though, I’m really in two minds about the whole thing. Here is a book that quickly moves from one end of the scale to the other, never really settling down and giving us something that is consistent from start to finish. I finished it though and that has to say something about the book overall. Fans of the setting will more than likely get a lot out of it.

Blurb copied and pasted because… yes, it was that time of day when I was writing this.

Since the earliest days of the Great Crusade, Sanguinius - angelic Primarch of the IXth Legion - was ever among the closest and most loyal of Horus's brothers. But the Blood Angels have long kept their true nature hidden from the rest of the Imperium, and when the Warmaster hints that the key to their salvation may lie in the ruins of a conquered world, the sons of Sanguinius race to claim it. Now, as the revelation of their betrayal dawns and the traitors' hand is revealed, the Blood Angels must face all the warp-spawned armies of Chaos, as well their own personal daemons, upon the blasted plains of Signus Prime...

This could well be a shorter review than normal and not just because the sun is out. I really got into ‘Fear to Tread’, total immersion in fact. There was a lot to enjoy about this book but, once I came out the other side, I found that there wasn’t actually much to say about it. That’s not so good when you have a book that makes big promises with its cover featuring an all out scrap between a monstrous demon and a winged man with a big sword.

It’s not that ‘Fear to Tread’ is a bad book though, far from it. Things are sign posted far too early, in the book, for the climactic scenes to be truly effective but (up to a point) you can’t blame ‘Fear to Tread’ for that. We’re looking at the twenty first book in a series that has already been proven to jump backwards and forwards along its own timeline and certain events here have already been alluded to. Having said that though, Swallow isn’t averse to jumping backwards and forwards himself and this can rob the book of a little surprise as well as a little pace.

Swallow makes up for this though by writing with a power and urgency that effortlessly carries the reader along in its wake. System spanning wars happen and any of these could prove pivotal to the galactic conflict. We’re talking high stakes here and Swallow leaves us in no doubt as to how high they are (even though fans already know how it all turns out). We may know where the story is headed but the Blood Angels don’t and Swallow has us really feeling their tension as they slowly move towards a monstrous confrontation.

Swallows depiction of the Blood Angels Legion, and its Primarch Sanguinius, is also well worth the price of entry. If you didn’t already know that Swallow had written several Blood Angels novels (which he has) you’d be left wondering if he had. The basic ‘Space Marine’ trope is overwritten with a heraldic splendour and barely contained savagery that make the Blood Angels really stand out as an entity in their own right. And when Swallow lets them loose on the fields of battle, wow…You know those moments when you read a passage and think it would really work on the big screen? The last chapters of ‘Fear to Tread’ are full of those.

The big problem I had, with this book though, is that all of this good stuff didn’t seem to contribute much to the plot if anything at all (the plot itself is incredibly simple). It’s basically just a lot of (admittedly well done) scene setting, like Swallow thought ‘it’s not as if fans don’t know the story already, I’ll just dress it up real good and then hit them with a big fight right at the end.’ As an approach to a novel this works but only up to a point; like I said, I really got into ‘Fear to Tread’ but when I’d finished it there was a real hollow feeling about it. There are good bits but the lead up to these didn’t sit well with me.

‘Fear to Tread’ is rich in detail but lacking when it comes to the real meat of the plot; I’m guessing Swallow didn’t have an awful to work with here? I had fun reading it but I don’t think it’s a book that I’ll return to.

Seven and a Half out of Ten

'Wrath of Iron' - Chris Wraight (Black Library)

Ah, 'Space Marine Battles' series; we meet again... Here is a series that has given me many highs but just as many lows (have a click on the 'Black Library' link on the side and you'll see what I mean). The key theme here is that a battle should be part of the overall plot, it shouldn't be the whole plot. What more is there to tell other than that there's a battle, one side wins and the other side loses? Given that the Black Library are all about trying to dispel 'tie-in fiction' myths they've set themselves quite a task here, especially given that the Space Marines haven't lost a battle yet in this series...
What they're after then are good writers who can rise to the fundamental challenges of this series; it's a good job then that they have Chris Wraight on board.

Wraight has already delivered the goods with his Warhammer fiction (see my reviews of 'Sword of Justice' and 'Sword of Vengeance') but what is more telling is that he has also delivered with his 'Space Marine Battles' novel 'Battle of the Fang'. Wraight has risen to the challenge once already, can he do it again? That was the question I had with 'Wrath of Iron' and I'm really pleased to say that Wraight hit the target again. 'Wrath of Iron' isn't perfect but you can't complain with what's on offer here.
Blurb copied and pasted because you would not believe the kind of things that were jumping out of the woodwork and biting me on the rear yesterday...

After months spent in the service of the Chaos god Slaanesh, the ruling classes of the Contqual sub-sector have finally brought true damnation upon their people - innumerable hordes of foul and lascivious daemons swarm from a tear in the fabric of reality to embrace their mortal pawns and drive them on to ever more depraved acts of worship. It falls to the merciless Space Marines of the Iron Hands Chapter to cleanse these worlds of the warp's unholy taint, and it is upon the surface of Shardenus that the fate of a billion lost souls will be decided.

Since I first came across Chris Wraight, his work has done more than enough to make me pick up and finish whatever he writes. It's that simple.
It was no surprise then that I finished 'Wrath of Iron', in a relatively short space of time, but there was plenty to make the experience worthwhile. Wraight not only has high standards but has no trouble in meeting them.

He doesn't make the job easy for himself though... The Iron Hands Space Marines are warriors bent on glorifying their Primarch by replacing their flesh with steel, purging any trace of what little was left of their humanity. All they want to do is fight, not a lot to write about surely?

In a way there isn't, all the Iron Hands are there to do is fight and win, but there are interesting little snippets that hint at a wider (more tragic) picture. I'm talking about the words of the Iron Hands Primarch, that open the book, and the struggle of Sergeant Naim Morvox to accept his destiny as an Iron Hand. I say 'struggle' though... It's not much of a struggle to be honest given the conditioning that he has already received. Bit of a damp squib then? Possibly, there's no doubt how that strand of the book will end... These little hints give the reader a bit more perspective then but they don't do a lot to advance the plot.

It's a good job then that there's a lot more to 'Wrath of Iron' than just the Iron Hands. Wraight takes in everyone, with even a passing involvement in the conflict to give us a war that is truly all encompassing. The fighting itself is as brutal as you would expect with no punches pulled (albeit still a little too linear for my tastes, I’m going to have to accept that this is how the series will be on the whole). You can't pull any punches when describing just what it takes to lay siege to an entire Hive city… It’s a whole load of glorious (yet somehow futile) spectacles, I’m talking Titans going up against daemons, combining to show us warfare on a wide scale and personal scale all at the same time.

This is where Wraight really delivers the goods, as far as I was concerned, showing us what it's like to be a civilian caught in the middle and unable to tell which side is which. Even characters like Khadi, who know which side to fight for, are tested to the absolute limit when they see what waits for them within the Hive. Wraight gets it; you can't do half measures if you want to show just what war is like, you have to give it everything.

Contrasting this is the story of Lord General Nethata. Space Marines can seem very simplistic characters, just there to keep fighting, and the only way you can get across just how different they are is to see what it's like to be a human fighting alongside them. By having Nethata struggle to make sense of the Iron Hands command, Wraight makes it clear just how apart from humanity these warriors really are. This is made especially clear when the reader gets an idea of why the Iron Hands are prepared to sacrifice their comrades in the guard. The Space Marines have a perspective on this millennia old struggle that the rest of the Imperium will never have.

‘Wrath of Iron’ is a simplistic tale at heart, no doubt about it, but it’s covered in a lot of other stuff that will have you forgiving the linear nature of the plot. Wraight shows us just how futile war can be but, at the same time, also shows us why the fight here must never stop until it is won. I’m hoping for Wraight to make a return to the world of Warhammer but, if he keeps writing books like this, I’ll keep reading his stuff anyway.

Nine out of Ten

'Malediction' - C.Z. Dunn (Black Library)

Why is it the audio books come out when I'm trying my hardest to escape from something truly soul destroying...? Ok, maybe not 'soul destroying' but even so, pretty bad. When I was working for TFL you would usually find me listening to an audiobook somewhere in the depths of the Jubilee Line (on the early morning commute). It really was the best way to avoid completely losing it with certain selfish commuters (and we've all met those)...


My current job sees me somewhere in the middle of what looks like possibly several weeks of data input. I'm not knocking people who do this for a living but it's not the most stimulating job in the world is it? It wouldn't be a stretch to say that it's exactly the opposite in fact...

The only way I've been able to get through this job is to have my iPod on pretty much constantly, throughout the day, and yesterday it was the turn of the Black Library's latest audiobook to get a good listening to. I was particularly interested to listen to 'Malediction' as I've only ever really come across C.Z. Dunn as an editor and not as an author in his own right. I wanted to see how his audiobook measured up to previous efforts and I'm pleased to say that not only did it measure up but it sets a pretty good standard for future audiobooks to follow.

Blurb copied and pasted today because, you know, data inputting waits for no man... :o(

On the world of Procel V, veteran Imperial Guard officer Regan Antigone is being honoured for his role in the planet's liberation from the forces of Chaos, some twenty-five years earlier. But when his old comrade, Master Tigrane of the Dark Angels Space Marine Chapter, arrives to join the festivities and asks to hear the glorious tale told once more, Antigone falters. With the details of his account cast under close scrutiny and with the judgement of the Imperium hanging over him, will his noble reputation remain intact?

For seventy five minutes yesterday I was able to escape a rather dull job and look through the eyes of a beleagured Imperial Guardsman onto a battlefield gone mad with the horrors of war in the far future. Then I got to turn the iPod off and return to some measure of normality afterwards; the universe of Warhammer 40K is a great place to visit but not one where you'd want to stay for too long...

'Malediction' is a tale of deception on the battlefield and the cost that one man must pay for living with that knowledge afterwards. Regan Antigone hates the pomp that has grown around his 'heroism' and I started the tale feeling little sympathy for him. Once you get to find out the truth though, you can't help but feel sorry for a man put in an impossible position. Everyone wants to live and terrible oaths will be sworn on a battlefield to gain a few more hours of life. When you bring it down to that level you can't blame Antigone but how will his oath cast him, in the eyes of the Imperium, when that truth comes to light? Long term fans of the game, and the Dark Angels Chapter in particular, will have a lot more fun debating that argument than newcomers to the setting but the twist in the tale is one that everyone will enjoy I think. The ending is brutal, and very abrupt, yet somehow fitting.

If that wasn't enough for you, 'Malediction' is also an insightful tale of perhaps the most heroic soldiers in the armies of the Imperium, the Imperial Guard. These are just mere men tasked with defending humanity against the xenos hordes armed with nothing but a las-gun and a lot of faith. Dunn does very well to capture the fear that Antigone and his friends feel and the way that they soldier on regardless up until the point where their nerves can take it no longer. Dunn also does very well to show how the allies at a Guardsman's back can be just as terrifying as the enemy in front of them. No matter what Antigone wants to do, the only way he can go is forwards...

Sean Barret's narration is dry and imposing while Rupert Degas and Saul Reichlin combine to fool the listener into thinking that the cast of 'Malediction' is far more than just three people. All in all, one of the better listening experiences from Black Library and one that I think will definitely set the bar for future audiobooks in the range.

Nine and a Half out of Ten

'The Emperor's Gift' - Aaron Dembski-Bowden (Black Library)

Ever since I reviewed 'Cadian Blood' (way back in July 2009, my how the time flies etc...) Aaron Dembski-Bowden has gone from being an author worth checking out to being an author where I will quite happily put down whatever I'm reading to read his latest book. He's that good (seriously) and, as such, is an author whom I will inevitably recommend to anyone who hasn't read a Black Library Warhammer 40K book.
'Cadian Blood' and 'Helsreach' to one side, Dembski-Bowden has pretty much made his name writing about the Space Marine Traitor Legions (the Night Lords in particular) who wage eternal war upon their Loyalist brothers and the Imperium of Mankind. It made for a little bit of a surprise then to see that Dembski-Bowden’s next book would not only be about a Loyalist Chapter but perhaps the most loyal and incorruptible Chapter of them all, the mysterious Grey Knights. That’s one hell of a leap then, from one end of the spectrum right to the other, and I was (of course) very interested to see what the end result would be. Dembski-Bowden is very good at putting a human face on the ‘trans-human’ and I wanted to see how it worked this time round. The outcome…? ‘The Emperor’s Gift’ stands up most of Dembski-Bowden’s work, in terms of quality, but didn’t quite do it for me his time round…

Of all the Space Marine Chapters, the Grey Knights are the Chapter at the very forefront of the fight against Chaos. Since their origin, in the depths of the Horus Heresy, these daemon hunters have taken the fight into the Warp itself to ensure that humanity stands strong in its darkest hour.
The Grey Knights are tasked with the missions that mere Space Marines cannot hope to achieve and their training reflects what they will be expected to deal with on the field of battle. Could any Grey Knight have guessed what would be waiting for them on the fields of Armageddon though? Brother Hyperion will not only face the toughest challenge of his career but will learn a harsh lesson in what it really means to keep the Imperium safe…

At the risk of becoming incredibly boring Aaron Dembski-Bowden has done it again. The man seems literally incapable of writing a book that doesn’t hook me right from the start and ‘The Emperor’s Gift’ is no exception. Like I said though, as good as it was ‘The Emperor’s Gift’ didn’t do it for me in the same way that previous books have…

Why was that? It’s really hard to pin down so bear with me if I end up waffling a bit…
The Grey Knights are held up as the purest of the pure, totally beyond all forms of temptation and corruption. It’s a bit of a shock then to find out they are just as liable, as the rest of us, to fall if they are not very careful. Hyperion is the typical lone wolf who has trouble fitting into a team, liable to strike out on his own (regardless of the rest of his squad) if he thinks he can get the job done). It’s a contrast that didn’t quite sit comfortably with me then. I completely get why Dembski-Bowden went down this path as you need a little humanity in your characters, it would all get horribly boring very quickly otherwise. I couldn’t help but wonder though if the balance went just a little too far the other way though. When it got to the point though where even the upper echelons, of the Grey Knight hierarchy, were jostling for power and indulging in a little politicking… That was the point where I was wondering if these guys had their minds on the job as much as we were meant to believe. Oh well…

That’s not to take anything away from Hyperion’s journey as a Grey Knight though. All the really interesting stuff is missed out (the training and so on) but what’s left over leaves you in no doubt what it means to be a Grey Knight when no-one will ever know the sacrifices you made. I’m talking about the battle for Armageddon in particular, long term fans will know just what I’m talking about but I don’t want to give anything away for those who haven’t read the book yet. Lets just say that Aaron ramps up the battle to a ferocious degree and, just when you think it can’t go any further, introduces a character who will throw all your expectations clean out of the water. When you see tough characters thrown aside like they weren’t even there, you’re left in no doubt that something huge is taking place. I liked the contrast here with what is going on for the ‘ordinary soldiers’ on the front line, war is hell for everyone but for some more literally than others.

Aaron more than makes up for the ‘Grey Knight niggle’ though with his exploration of the darker side of what must be done to maintain the Imperium in the face of constant threats from its foes. We’re not just talking about the constant warfare across thousands of planets. If there’s the risk of one Imperial citizen being corrupted by Chaos, what would you do? Kill that person? Destroy the space craft they’re travelling on? Sterilize the population of an entire planet? Desperate times call for desperate measures but can they truly be justified when there’s the risk of a further wedge being driven between Imperial factions that should be working together? Aaron answers these questions in such a way that actions are justified even if they are shown to be ultimately fruitless. The fight with the Space Wolves Chapter is awesome but is also a sobering reminder of the fate that may await the Imperium if it cannot settle differences within itself…

At the end of ‘The Emperor’s Gift’ the reader is left with a clear picture of just how beleaguered the Imperium is and the massive task that the Grey Knights face every day. I wasn’t a hundred percent convinced by how they were portrayed but I couldn’t help but feel a little respect for them afterwards (I had a lot more respect for the Space Wolves though, it has to be said).
The wait for Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s next book starts… now.

Eight and Three Quarters out of Ten

‘Dead Winter’ – C.L. Werner (Black Library)

I’m never a hundred percent sure what to think about C.L. Werner’s work overall. When he’s on top of his game Werner is a man on fire but for every one of these books there’s another book that makes me go ‘meh…’ I couldn’t get into the ‘Brunner’ books and it even got to the point where I didn’t pick up ‘The Red Duke’ for fear of being disappointed (which isn’t the best reason not to read a book but that’s the way it goes every now and then).
The thing is though… I love the ‘Time of Legends’ books though and am slowly working my way through the lot (very slowly it has to be said…) just to get a feel for the background of the Old World. With the publication of ‘Dead Winter’ then, it was inevitable that I was going to come face to face with Werner once more and this time I wouldn’t be backing away…

On the face of it, the blurb suggested that ‘Dead of Winter’ would have pretty much everything in it that I like about the Warhammer setting but would Werner be up to the task of bundling all that lot together into a good story? As it turned out, yes he was. I can’t wait for the next instalment and I might even have to go back and give ‘The Red Duke’ a go after all.

The Age of Sigmar (read the books, they’re very good as well) is long gone and the Empire he built has been brought to the edge of ruin by the avaricious rule of Boris Goldgather. This grasping Emperor fills his own coffers whilst setting his nobles against each other and bleeding the Empire dry. Civil War is brewing then but a far more insidious threat is looming.
Plague strikes the countryside, wiping out entire villages and setting families against one another, no-one is safe from its grasp. Even this deadly plague though is only a forerunner of an evil even more dangerous. A race long thought to be the stuff of nightmare is stirring in the sewers and caverns underneath the great cities of Man. The rat-like Skaven are finally ready to take to the surface and reclaim what is theirs…

The ‘Time of Legends’ books have long made for some welcome reading in my house with their epic tales of world defining moments in the Old World. They’ve proven to be a worthy retort to the myth of tie-in fiction (how it’s all a bit crap and so on) and now ‘Dead Winter’ joins their ranks in some style. I’ve enjoyed all the books I’ve read here but this is the only time I’ve been really excited about the prospect of a sequel. ‘Dead Winter’ is that good.

Any newcomer to the Old World will quickly realise that it’s all about the warfare; absolutely no-one gets on with each other and all arguments are ultimately resolved in a battle to the death. Werner makes this very clear with wave after wave of skirmishes and full on warfare that all either stir the blood or chill it (more on that in a bit). The beauty here though is that none of this is fighting just for the sake of it. Werner underpins these moments of combat with a story that justifies each and every swing of a sword. It all happens for a reason and that all lends more impact to those pitched battles.

There’s an Emperor who has to be stopped although I did question his motivations a little. Boris does push his moneymaking schemes a little too hard to be truly believable and verges on being a cartoonish pantomime villain as a result. The true villain of the piece, in my opinion, is Kreyssig; head of the secret police and a man whose sights are firmly fixed on gaining power. He’s a real nasty piece of work but also someone you can’t help but follow even if it is just to see if and when he gets his comeuppance.
These two characters together provide some real impetus for the plot and are full of evil machinations that send events down pathways that you should see coming but never do. I couldn’t help but root for the heroes but, not so secretly, I was also rooting for these guys just to see what they would come up with next.

If this tale of treachery and civil war wasn’t enough for you there is also the Skaven to contend with…

Imagine a ‘Watership Down’ where the rabbits want to wipe out the humans, using biological warfare, but are not averse to using those same methods on each other. A ‘Watership Down’ where even the most harmless rabbit is brimming over with paranoia and psychosis; always ready to get their betrayal in first. That is Werner’s Under Empire, a place where lethal betrayal is an everyday fact of life and where Werner’s ability to weave a tight plot, full of very nasty surprises, really comes to the fore. You know that there’s a back-stabbing just around every corner but there are a million and one ways to die, if you’re a Skaven, so Werner always has a surprise in store. Especially where the Plague Monks are concerned…

I wasn’t too sure about the fact that the Skaven are supposed to be such a big secret though, although it did make for a nice side plot about the one man who discovered their existence. I mean, don’t the Dwarves live underground as well? And aren’t the Dwarves at least on speaking terms with mankind? And didn’t the Dwarves sort out all the sewers for the big cities of humanity (like little bearded plumbers with big axes, the fantasy version of Super Mario…)? Amidst all of this they somehow forgot to mention their ‘rat-man neighbours’ who want to kill everything… I’m not buying it but I’m prepared to let it slide, this time, because the rest of the story worked so well for me.

‘Dead Winter’ looks very much like it could be the start of something a little bit special; a gripping read that promises good things for the future. Required reading for all Warhammer fans and well worth a look if you like fantasy in general.

Nine and a Quarter out of Ten

‘Architect of Fate’ – Edited by Christian Dunn (Black Library)

The Warhammer 40K game is all about pitched battles (what with it being a dark time for humanity and all…) so it makes sense not only that the tie-in fiction will follow the same lines, in general, but that there will be a ‘sub-series’ focussing solely on recounting certain ‘famous’ battles from the setting.
It makes sense, to work along those lines, then but I’d argue that perhaps it hasn’t worked out all that well in terms of the end product. All the best Black Library writers (Dembski-Bowden, Wraight, Abnett and so on) are successful because they know that a story about warfare isn’t just about the act of blowing things up; there’s important stuff like plot and characterisation to take into account as well. The ‘Space Marines Battles’ novels tend to focus on just the combat and as a rule (with some notable exceptions) have felt a little flat because of this. After all, there’s only so much you can do with the recounting of a battle isn’t there?

It made for a bit of a refreshing change then to see that the latest ‘Space Marine Battles’ novel took things in a slightly different direction with the usual ‘one big scrap’ being replaced with four slightly smaller ones written by four different authors, all under the banner of one unifying tale. A very different path to take then and one that I was hoping would end in good things. As it turned out, I loved the concept but I’m not sure how well it worked here…

Of the four powers of Chaos, seeking to bring an end to Mankind, Tzeentch is perhaps the most dangerous with its labyrinthine scheming encompassing the workings of an entire galaxy. Everything happens according to Tzeentch’s grand plan and the more convinced you are that you control your destiny the more likely it is that you are trapped in the coils of plans laid millennia ago… If this wasn’t bad enough, the lesser daemons of Tzeentch are also working to further their own schemes and ‘Architect of Fate’ focuses on one of these, the demon Fateweaver.
Four battles then and one daemon behind the scenes, moving pieces on the board in tune with its own designs. Is the final outcome in any doubt? It might just be…

On their own, the four stories in ‘Architect of Fate’ are eye catching affairs that do not fail to stir the blood. I found it very easy to get into each one and just kept reading at a steady pace; before I knew it the book was over and I was a little bit in awe of the ending. Something didn’t feel right though and it took me a little while to get my head around what had been bugging me…

I guess the bottom line is that if you’re pushing a book on the basis that its four stories are interconnected then you’d best be damn sure that those stories live up to that promise. ‘Architect of Fate’ failed on that score, at least as far as I was concerned.

Sarah Cawkwell’s ‘Accursed Eternity’ and John French’s ‘Fateweaver’ dovetailed very well to be fair with events in ‘Fateweaver’ forcing me to look at ‘Accursed Eternity’ in a whole new light (which I’m sure was the intention). ‘Sanctus’ (Darius Hinks) and ‘Endeavour of Will’ (Ben Counter) though…? I couldn’t see the connection at all to be honest, other than a very brief mention in ‘Fateweaver’ which felt like it was put there just so people could say that there was a link. I’m sorry but I’m after something a lot more concrete than that… What I got then was a book that felt that it was only doing half the job it had promised it would do. The other half of the book felt disconnected from the main plot and I couldn’t help but wonder what the point of the other two stories actually was. Like I said, nice concept but one that was adhered to only half-heartedly.

As a whole then, ‘Architect of Fate’ didn’t work for me but (strangely enough) taking each story on its own individual merits tells an entirely different story. The four stories may not add up to what was promised but they all make for gripping reading on their own. What really sold it for me, in this respect, is that the fact that each author has less room to work with than normally. Because of this, it feels like each author has to work harder at making the story a story rather than just recounting a battle. There’s more to that in each tale here and that can only be a good thing.

Sarah Cawkwell’s ‘Accursed Eternity’ not only gave me a little more insight into how the Inquisition is regarded, in the 40K universe, but was a nice little slice on horror in what I’ve always seen as predominantly a sci-fi setting. For those of you who enjoyed ‘Event Horizon’ (What? ‘Event Horizon’ was a great film…) ‘Accursed Eternity’ offers more of the same with a joint Marine/Inquisition mission onto a haunted star ship with lethal traps for the unwary. Very unsettling at times.

Darius Hinks has built up a bit of a reputation for chucking everything at his work, ending up with novels verging on the manic in their intensity. ‘Sanctus’ is no different with a hell of a lot happening in a very short space, making for a tale that powers along like all four Chaos Gods are snapping at its heels. I’m still not a hundred percent sure what’s happening here but I’m going to give ‘Sanctus’ the benefit of the doubt and say that this was intentional. The questions you are left with at the end were certainly the right kind of questions.

Ben Counter’s ‘Endeavour of Will’ was positively staid in comparison with events playing out a lot more like you would expect in a ‘Space Marines Battles’ novel (a stand up fight between Imperial Fists Marines and their treacherous counterparts the Iron Warriors). Luckily there’s a lot more to ‘Endeavour of Will’ than that though with the notion of sacrifice being thoroughly explored and pushing our protagonist down some unexpected paths. I for one wouldn’t mind seeing Lysander’s story being explored a little further in the future.

John French’s ‘Fateweaver’ rounds things off in some style with the events of ‘Accursed Eternity’ thrown into more clarity amidst a flurry of daemonic incursion (its movements through the bowels of the ship made for gripping reading) and the ultimate heroism of the one Marine who can stand against it.
Maybe things were signposted a little too clearly but the rest of the tale made up for this.

‘Architect of Fate’ is an odd one then. As the sum of its parts, the book fails to deliver but each of those parts makes for great reading. Confusing but entertaining all at the same time…

Eight and a Quarter out of Ten

‘Butcher’s Nails’ – Aaron Dembski-Bowden (Black Library)

Don’t get me wrong, as much as I enjoyed being at home these last few months I was really pleased and actually quite grateful to have the chance to get back into a job. It’s tough to find work right now, really tough, so I wasn’t shy about grabbing the opportunity when it came my way. So yeah, very glad to find work but I’d totally forgotten about what an absolute nightmare commuting in London can be (and I’ve got one of the easier commutes!) I’m sure all the commuters that I come across are lovely people when they leave the house in the morning; they’re just entirely different people by the time they get on the train… It’s a good job then that I’ve got audio books to numb the worst of the pain :o)

Aaron Dembski-Bowden has become one of my favourite Black Library authors and I’ll take almost any chance I get to read his work (I say ‘almost’, still can’t quite afford a Kindle…) The arrival of one of his audio books (and set in the Horus Heresy no less) felt like a real treat, especially with the rain hammering down outside and a dull air of negativity in the train carriage. The story itself was a good one, it was just a bit of a shame about the rest of the whole audio book experience…

Of all the Primarchs, Angron was ever the most bloody and warlike. With the Heresy casting the shadow of warfare over the galaxy Angron is now free to indulge in his brutal conquests, all in the Warmaster’s name. The Primarch and his World Eaters are tasked with a secretive mission alongside the Word Bearers and their Primarch Lorgar; secrecy that is constantly endangered by the World Eaters’ violent excesses. Tensions run high between the two Legions then, especially with what is at stake. Things are about to get a lot worse though as the alien Eldar take an interest in the World Eaters and their Primarch, a warrior destined to become ‘the Blood God’s son’…

If you pick up a work by Aaron Dembski-Bowden you are more or less guaranteed a thoughtful yet gripping affair that does a lot to remove the stigma of ‘bolter porn’ that surrounds Black Library fiction. Dembski-Bowden is not afraid to unload serious amounts of ammunition, over the course of the book, but he’s far more interested in telling a good story and I’m happy with that :o) ‘Butcher’s Nails’ is another good example of this with Dembski-Bowden cramming far more into the run time (seventy five minutes) than most other Black Library authors are capable of.

‘Butcher’s Nails’ is a tale of dark deeds carried out in the dark spaces between the stars and how such enforced isolation can play on a mind. It’s a story then of the conflict between doing ones duty and the urge to let loose and be true to what you are and this conflict is especially evident within Angon, a Primarch barely able to keep himself under control as it is. What a character to use to examine this conflict! Angron will quite happily jeopardise everything if there is a good fight to be had, full on combat (and cybernetic enhancements) being the only way to soothe a pain wracked mind. Not only does Dembski-Bowden give us a really clear view of what’s going on inside Angron’s head but he also leaves us with no real idea of what Angron will do next, only that it will involve blood and lots of it. This certainly kept me interested in finding out what happened next and I couldn’t help but feel a little sympathy for Angron at the same time. Here is a man forced to combat agonizing pain with a method that will eventually kill him, what’s not to feel sorry about? I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the rest of his Legion though, having to adopt that very same method… And why was the Equerry Kharn able to deal with it better than his Lord…?
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You never really find out what Angron and Lorgar’s mission involves, only that they must be quiet about it, but I think this will be fully covered later along the line in the ‘Horus Heresy’ series. That’s not a big deal here though as there is plenty to keep you occupied in the meantime. The sense of tension between Angron and Lorgar is palpable and I liked the way that this tension slowly began to trickle down to their Legions. The mystery of the Eldar unfolds at a decent pace, culminating in some awesome scenes of warfare both in space and up close. Again, there is no real closure here with events set up to play out at a later date. ‘Butcher’s Nails’ is self contained but is also very much a tale of transition that should sit nicely within the overall series. Just bear that in mind…

A great tale then but one that is marred, ever so slightly, by the actor playing Angron himself (I couldn’t tell who this was). Angron is supposed to be the embodiment of sheer rage and I have to wonder whether this is something that can only really be captured on the page rather than in an audio book. The actor playing Angron didn’t capture this at all, coming across as quite pissed off rather than consumed by rage (sounded like one of my old bosses in fact). This made it really difficult for me to take the character seriously when he spoke, not so good when you’re talking about the main character of the piece. Lorgar was a much more interesting character to follow in this respect.

‘Butcher’s Nails’ is an absorbing tale then, spoilt by an actor who didn’t (couldn’t?) meet the demands of the character whom he was playing. It made for some good listening but felt like a bit of a shame at the same time…

Eight and Half out of Ten

‘Void Stalker’ – Aaron Dembski-Bowden (Black Library)

Finally, here is the review that should have gone up on either Tuesday or Thursday this week. This past week has thrown a bucket full of stuff at my attempts to post some thoughts about ‘Void Stalker’. I didn’t even get the job that I interviewed for yesterday. Oh well… Anyway, back to the matter at hand.
I’ve been waiting for ‘Void Stalker’ to hit the shelves since, oh… the 8th of April last year. That was the date my review for ‘Blood Reaver’ was posted and, once I’d got my head around just how good that novel was, all that was left for me to do was wait for things to be concluded in ‘Void Stalker’. My copy finally arrived a couple of weeks ago and pretty much immediately elbowed its way to the very front of the reading queue (which explains why my review of ‘Caine’s Law’ was a little late in appearing, seems to be the story of my life as far as the blog is concerned). That’s the way it goes, some books demand you read them straight away :o)

One of the things that I hate about reviewing any kind of series is the danger of repeating myself the further a series goes on. I mean, how many times would you want to hear me say that the writer in question is brilliant at exactly the same things he was brilliant at in the last book? Doesn’t exactly make for interesting reading…
Sometimes though, a writer is on top of his game and you’ve got to acknowledge that by saying that he has all the bases covered and came up with something superb as a result. That’s what Aaron Dembski-Bowden has done, yet again, with ‘Void Stalker’…

The final days, of a war played out over the course of thousands of years, are coming for the Night Lord Traitor Marine Talos and his comrades. Longstanding divisions in Talos’ war band could become something far worse but that is such a common occurrence as to be beneath any Night Lord’s notice. What is a far more pressing concern is the relentless pursuit of the Night Lords by the Eldar of Craftworld Ulthwe, alien beings desperate to stop mere prophecy becoming stark reality.
Talos and his comrades eager to take the fight to their enemies though and that means all of them. By the time an Eldar God made flesh faces Talos for the last time entire worlds will have been left burning in his wake…

Before we get going here, I ought to say that I’ve been a huge fan of Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s work since I first got my hands on a copy of ‘Cadian Blood’ a few years ago. You might want to bear that in mind as you read the rest of the review. Having said that though, ‘Void Stalker’ more than deserves all the good stuff that I am about to say about it. We’re talking about a book that I couldn’t stand to be apart from for too long; even though Dembski-Bowden drops a pretty big hint about the ending (right at the beginning) I still had to see how it turned out.

Dembski-Bowden’s big strength as a writer is to consistently give his readers characters that you can get behind without even realising that it’s happening. Even here, even with characters who have spent ten thousand years indulging their basest emotions at the expense of a dying Imperium. ‘Void Stalker’ is full of accounts of vicious deeds that will make your blood run cold but you read them and think, ‘nasty stuff but I can understand why they’re doing it.’

And you do. Dembski-Bowden leaves us in no doubt that, despite their actions, the Night Lords have been betrayed by the Imperium and left directionless by a Primarch who saw nothing but futility. If that wasn’t enough, the Night Lords cannot even trust their own kin with each and every one of them either seeking more power or slowly falling to the whims of the Ruinous Powers. Can you blame them for falling back on the one thing they were good at, lurking in the shadows and striking whenever the opportunity for terror arises. Like I said, you may not like what they do but you can get just why they do it.

‘Void Stalker’ is crammed full of moments like these with Talos’ Night Lords seeking to punish innocent settlers, of the Night Lords’ homeworld, and then using that world as a base to carry out an act of terror against the Imperium that is vast in scope. These moments are extremely well executed to say the least, both in terms of what happens on the page and how the reader is invited to observe what follows. We know something is coming and it’s not going to be pretty. The thing is though, we only know a little more than the people that the Night Lords are about to fall on and attack do. It’s always a really nasty surprise when things finally kick off and it gets nastier as Dembski-Bowden shows us just what a Traitor Legion is capable of when it takes the field. I’m talking about events on the world of Tsagualsa and Xarl’s fight with the Champion of the Genesis Chapter (I don’t know about Xarl but I felt bruised after reading that fight…).

All the while this is happening though, we get to see it through the eyes of a man who is essentially human and trying to deal with a veneer of super humanity. It’s a constant struggle for Talos to use his gene enhanced abilities without them killing him and even when everything works he is essentially lost without a father figure to guide. A great choice to lead a war band brimming over with mistrust and rivalry. You would be forgiven for thinking that the rest of the Night Lords didn’t realise there was a wider war going on as they’re all trying to get one over on each other first. As a result, ‘Void Stalker’ is a novel of contrasts vying with stagnation of the humanity of the far future; the humanity at the heart of darkness and more or less eternal war.

And all of that is before the Eldar arrive.

Dembski-Bowden ties everything else up by those last chapters (although he leaves one massive surprise right until the very end, that one floored me) and what we’re left with is one final chance for the Night Lords to spit in their enemy’s eye before the inevitable end. Being told how things turn out, right at the beginning of the book, may take away some of the surprise but this is more than balanced out by the heroism shown in the face of what is to come. The one thing that Traitor Marines and Loyalists have in common is that they all die well. It’s awe-inspiring stuff and a tremendous way to sign off the trilogy.

‘Void Stalker’ is another example of not only essential Warhammer 40K fiction but also essential reading for those who like their sci-fi dark and horrific in general. If you fall into either of these camps then you really do need to pick this one up.

Ten out of Ten

‘Eye of Vengeance’ – Graham McNeill (Black Library)

‘Eye of Vengeance’ is a short story that will be found in the forthcoming ‘Ultramarines: The Second Omnibus’ as well as being an audio book (also forthcoming, I think) in its own right. Both are appearing at roughly the same time and I do find myself wondering how that’s going to work. Do you pay ten pounds for an audio book that only lasts sixty five minutes or do you get the omnibus which is crammed full of books that have been out for ages and most people already have? I’ve got them, here are my reviews for ‘The Killing Ground’, ‘Courage and Honour’ and ‘The Chapter’s Due’.
This short story is a bit of an odd one to place then. I think it would have been best suited in one of the Space Marine anthologies where there would have been enough variety amongst the other tales to make the repetition of this one a little more forgiveable. Given that the story itself isn’t that much cop either… Well, you can see where I’m going here.

The agricultural world is under attack by Dark Mechanicus priests and their terrifying weapons of destruction. The Ultramarines stand firm against the onslaught but their resistance can only last so long against an enemy that rebuilds itself even as it is destroyed. More subtle measures are called for if the forces of the Dark Mechanicus  are to be thrown back; measures that can only be employed by sergeant Torias Telion and his band of Ultramarine scouts. Their mission will take them deep into enemy territory to halt the supply of fresh armaments at its very source. If they don’t fall foul of the many dangers on the way though then what lies in the Temple Forge could well prove the death of them all.

I was lucky enough to have a chance to experience ‘Eye of Vengeance’ in both of its formats. Unfortunately though, it didn’t really work for me in either…

‘Eye of Vengeance’ sits at the end of ‘Ultramarines: The Second Omnibus’ like a misplaced afterthought. There’s very little connection (that I could see) to the preceding three novels and I really felt this lack, especially as those preceding novels fit together so tightly. You end up wondering why ‘Eye of Vengeance’ is there at all (especially as it’s also an audio book) other than to fill in a few extra pages.
The story itself is set up well but tails off into a series of smug encounters between the Ultramarines and their enemy. There’s no tension to speak of as the scouts either win through or withdraw from more dangerous threats because they have a mission to complete. What waits for them in the Temple Forge does make up for this a little bit but to have Telion take it on single-handedly…? I couldn’t buy that one, especially with the foregone conclusion.

Being exactly the same tale, I had exactly the same issues with ‘Eye of Vengeance’ as an audio book. The production made up for it a little bit, there’s plenty going on in the background that you can immerse yourself in. What I did have trouble getting around though was the actor’s (not sure which one but I’m guessing Rupert Degas) decision to portray Telion as a rather posh sounding RAF captain from a World War Two film. That really didn’t work for me at all, I found myself wanting Telion to stop talking so I wouldn’t have to listen to him.

Overall then, a disappointing experience on both fronts. If I had to recommend one format over the other I’d… Oh, I don’t know. There’s not a lot to recommend either really although I can see the audio book doing better as it’s not saddled with three other books that people already have.

‘Eye of Vengeance’ The Short Story: 6/10
‘Eye of Vengeance’ The Audio Book: 7/10

‘Legion of the Damned’ – Rob Sanders (Black Library)

The ‘Space Marine Battle’ series has been a bit hit and miss as far as I’m concerned. Hang on, a ‘bit hit and miss’? More like ‘more than a bit hit and miss’ actually as the quality see saws wildly between superb and, erm… its polar opposite. For every ‘Helsreach’ there’s a ‘the Purging of Kadillus’. For every ‘The Gildar Rift’ there’s a ‘Hunt for Voldorius’. And so on…
I keep going back though, as much for those hidden gems waiting to be found as for a morbid sense of curiosity that wonders which direction the series will swing in next.
Add Rob Sanders to the mix and my curiosity was piqued yet further. I’ve read two of Sanders’ books so far and I’m still sat firmly on the fence about his work. It’s not that Sanders can’t write, he’s very good but prone to sometimes forgetting the story and going overboard on the background. You can’t ‘not read him’ though as you are potentially missing out on some great stuff if you ignore his books.
Which side of the fence did ‘Legion of the Damned’ fall on then? Lets just say that I’m looking forward to reading Sanders’ novella in the forthcoming ‘Primarchs’ collection.

Heralded by a blood red comet, the Cholercaust has come to the cemetery world of Certus Minor… An unstoppable horde of cultists, daemonkin and World Eaters Traitor Marines seeking to burn a path to ancient Terra itself. Only one company of loyalist Excoriators Space Marines stand in their path, not nearly enough to halt such a tide of blood. Or is it?
Inquistorial forces arrive on Certus Minor to find one Excoriator left alive amidst a veritable sea of traitorous corpses. Just what happened on Certus Minor to have victory spring from inevitable and crushing defeat? Sometimes, only sometimes, prayers are answered in the strangest of ways…

Like I said, I’ve had trouble with Sanders’ books in the past and this time was no different in that respect. This time though, Sanders rose above those issues to deliver a novel that proved to be only a hairs breadth away from being a compelling read. I could put it down; to do other stuff, but doing that was very difficult. I’ll have more along these lines please!

The issue I’ve always had with the ‘Space Marine Battles’ book is that a lot of them take the easy way out and just make the battle the focal point of the entire plot. In fact there isn’t a plot, just one big battle where the outcome is predetermined because of who is involved. The good guys either win or make it so that the Traitors cannot win themselves. It kind of takes the fun out of the read for me…

Thank goodness for Rob Sanders then who turns the whole thing upside down and presents us with a question out of that seemingly foregone conclusion of a victory. Yes, there was a victory but how could there have been? What the hell really happened? It's a great hook to snare the reader on, I was certainly interested to read more and find out what happened.

This was where the journey started to get a little choppy though. Sanders likes to delve into the murky background of Warhammer 40k and give his readers a full on encompassing view of these times of war. The only problem is that the story gets shoved to one side and you’re left with a whole load of detail. That’s what happens here with the ‘Feast of Blades’, a great piece of action but one that becomes mired in the politics of the competing Chapters a little too much to hold up properly for the length of time that it takes to recount. There were some awesome bone crushing moments of raw combat but I couldn’t help but feel that I wanted to hurry along and get to the main event.

It was a good job then that the main event ended up proving to be more than worth the wait.

Sanders clearly knows that a battle isn’t just about weapons being fired, it’s also very much about the people forced to pull the trigger in the heat of the moment. What are they feeling? Do they even want to be there?
These questions are answered in the contrast between Marines bred for war and un-enhanced humans forced to defend their homes and livelihoods. There’s a full range of emotions and motivations on display here and Sanders balances these nicely with the constant bark of bolter fire to give us an in-depth look at the conflict.

What’s interesting though is that this contrast is very much evident in the lead character of Zachariah Kersh himself. Kersh is a Marine who glories in warfare but would much rather be doing it elsewhere. Duty has called him and his men to Certus Minor though and Kersh will see that duty fulfilled despite the grumbling from within his company. Kersh questions himself (and his very sanity) at every turn and this keeps his character fresh, there are lots of questions to be answered in the heat of battle.

This battle is depicted very clearly without becoming too ‘technical’ and like a White Dwarf battle report. You know just what’s at stake from the sheer energy and focus that people put into just staying alive. What you do know though is the outcome and Sanders faces a tough task springing something that we already know onto us. He does it but it’s a very close thing, the answers are with us the whole time but you won’t see them until everything fits together and the picture is complete. Yet another plot device that holds the attention superbly.

‘Legion of the Damned’ suffers from a choppy start but recovers to become something really close to a stand out moment in the ‘Space Marine Battles’ series so far. I’ll happily keep reading these books if I can have more moments like these.

Eight and a Half out of Ten

‘Labyrinth of Sorrows’ – George Mann (Black Library)

There haven’t really been any audio books featured here recently and this is very much to do with the smallest member of the household becoming fascinated with the way that the CD tray slides out of the computer. After repeated button pushing, the CD tray still works but I can’t put anything onto my iPod now… Thanks a lot little miss…
The problem rectified itself when I realised that I still had my old personal CD player on a shelf somewhere. I feel like I’ve suddenly gone back to the nineties but that’s not such a bad thing sometimes ;o) At least I now get to catch up on some of the audio books that I’ve been missing out on.
Audio books like ‘Labyrinth of Sorrows’ for example. Regular blog followers here will no doubt already know that George Mann’s work is as likely to infuriate me as it will enthral me (no links this time, it’s all on the blog if you want to look). That’s not going to stop me giving his work a go though and ‘Labyrinth of Sorrows’ was next on the list.

I suspect that the faults I found with ‘Labyrinth of Sorrows’ are because of its format, as much as anything else, but it still made for an entertaining seventy five minutes listening.

On the mortuary world of Kasharat, a drama is playing out (far from the front lines) that could well determine the fate of an entire Sector of contested space. While Imperial and Chaos forces clash, a small force of Marines from the Brazen Minotaurs Chapter infiltrate a temple complex on a mission to retrieve something of vital importance to their Chapter. Traitor Marines of the Death Guard stand between them and their prize. The Brazen Minotaurs and Death Guard are not the only Marines in the complex however. The secretive Raven Guard lurk in the shadows waiting to strike… but why?

It pretty much goes without saying that you can only fit so much story into an audio book that’s only seventy five minutes long. That’s fair enough but I couldn’t help wondering whether this happened here to the cost of the story itself…

‘Labyrinth of Sorrows’ has to be one of the most linear stories I’ve ever come across, more than likely because there wasn’t much room for anything else. Or was there? I’ve listened to a lot of stuff from the Black Library that has done so much more in the time allotted. Does the fault lie with George Mann then? Maybe… An interesting premise is set up but the way it all unfolds is just that little bit too straightforward to really hold the interest. There are no real surprises (and the sense of urgency decreases because of this) and it ends in just the way you would expect. Without giving too much away, a little ‘friendly fire’ incident right at the end could have turned everything on its head and left us thinking for a long time afterwards.

So what kept me listening then?

Like I said, the set up was intriguing and you never find out what the Brazen Minotaurs are after until the very end. That in itself was enough to keep things ticking over.
What really kept me going here was the fact that, in my opinion, ‘Labyrinth of Sorrows’ is one of the better produced audio books from this range. Nothing springs to mind (ok, ‘Throne of Lies’) as being quite so atmospheric as ‘Labyrinth of Sorrows’ and it is a very easy audio book to get sucked into because of this. I particularly liked the change of background music whenever the focus switched onto the Raven Guard.

The narration and acting were top notch as well with Sean Barrett’s world weary narration giving us a real feel for the setting while Saul Reichlin and Rupert Degas give us a clear and distinctive line between the two sets of Marines. The Black Library look like they’re building up a great cast for these audio books and I’m looking forward to hearing more from these guys in the future. It’s almost enough to make me forget about Toby Longworth…

‘Labyrinth of Sorrows’ is a case then of a slightly weak story being more than buoyed up by superior production and acting. That was what really gripped me in the end and I had a great time listening as a result.

Eight out of Ten

‘Phalanx’ – Ben Counter (Black Library)

Was it only a month and a bit ago that I had a little rant about mediocre cover art and Ben Counter’s ‘Phalanx’? Yes, yes it was.

For the record I still stand by everything I said about the cover in that post, a cover seemingly designed purely to make me shrug my shoulders and grunt ‘meh’. I was always going to read the book though, I’ve heard great things about Ben Counter’s ‘Soul Drinkers’ series and I particularly enjoyed his ‘Horus Heresy’ novel ‘Galaxy in Flames’ (which I read way back in the day, before this blog was even a hint of a twinkle in my eye). I wasn’t a hundred percent sure about ‘Battle for the Abyss’ though (notable flaws but a fun read nonetheless) so my anticipation was perhaps a little tempered somewhat…
Not enough to stop me though! The last few weeks have been rough, what with one thing and another, so I was after a little something that would let me escape all that for a little while. Something like ‘Phalanx’? As it turned out, yes; ‘Phalanx’ did the trick very well indeed. Not a perfect book by any means but a great deal of fun that made me think a little bit at the same time…

‘Phalanx’, the great star fort of the Imperial Fists (Great? More like very dull… ok I’ll stop all that now) is the venue for a solemn and sorrowful event attended by Space Marines from many other Chapters as well as Inquisitors, Sisters of Battle and agents of the Adeptus Mechanicus. What is left of the once noble Soul Drinkers Chapter stands trial for crimes of heresy against the very Imperium that birthed them. The sentence for their crimes is death and their guilt is beyond any doubt but other forces are gathering that would use the Soul Drinkers for their own purposes. Can redemption finally be found in one last great battle or will the ‘Phalanx’ birth an evil that will swamp the galaxy…?

‘Phalanx’ is the last book in the ‘Soul Drinkers’ sequence and, as luck would have it, the first book in the sequence that I have picked up. That in itself isn’t such a huge deal though. With five preceding books in the series it’s obviously advisable to go and read those first but if you do end reading ‘Phalanx’ before the others then don’t worry too much. What you have here is a relatively self contained story, that actually stands very well on its own, with references to prior events that tie things together without becoming ‘info-dumps’. I’d love to read the previous books in the series but suspect that I probably won’t have the time for a long time to come. ‘Phalanx’ being set out as it is then is a real boon for the likes of me.

‘Phalanx’ is a novel that tackles more than one theme as it moves along. We have the more or less obligatory ‘gene-enhanced superhumans pounding seven shades of… out of their enemies’ which makes for some stirring moments as plots become clear and violence erupts. There were moments that had my eyes glued to the page, just to see how a particular battle ended, but there were also moments that made me think ‘hang on a minute…’
The fight between Space Marines Reinez and N’Kalo (to determine whether the Soul Drinkers would have N’Kalo speak in their defence) dragged on far too long to be really effective as far as I was concerned. After a couple of pages I’d had enough and also felt that the final judgement was a bit of a foregone conclusion really (it could have ended things a lot earlier).
I also found myself wondering about the exact size and dimensions of the ‘Phalanx’ itself, not a great thing to be wondering when you really should be well into the book. Counter doesn’t make an awful lot of the size of the star fort and so it became a little jarring when I took in the full size of the host that wanted to take it towards the end. How big is this thing that it could fit a… well, that would be telling but I really wanted to be in the midst of the book itself and not wondering about things like that.

The real meat of ‘Phalanx’ though is in another theme entirely and that had me not only wanting to see how events played out but also investing a lot more in the much-maligned Soul Drinkers Chapter as a result.
The Imperium of Man is a cruel and bloody regime where thousands die, on a daily basis, just to ensure it continues. There is a good argument for the necessity of this regime but readers (well, me anyway) can’t help but feel a little sympathy for those who seek to either change things or bring the system down entirely. People like the warriors of the Soul Drinkers Chapter...

These warriors have been touched by the taint of Chaos but haven’t given themselves over to it… yet. The Soul Drinkers seek to make the Imperium a better place by going against everything that it stands for, a structure so rigid that any deviance is punishable by death. You can’t help but admire the resolve of characters like Sarpedon to stand up for their beliefs in the face of execution. Counter’s masterstroke though is to place this steely resolve in direct contrast to a wider plot that has been playing out in secret. Can Sarpedon and his men still hold true to their beliefs when doing so could see their galaxy become a very different place indeed? The answer makes for some compelling reading and at just the point where it really matters.

‘Phalanx’ is a novel of two halves then and I found myself wondering if these parts really fitted together as well as Counter perhaps wanted. On the whole, the mixture of combat and contemplation didn’t quite gel for me…  The journey into the twisted psyche of the Soul Drinkers is worth hanging around for though and I can imagine a lot of people following the books will be pleased at how it all comes to a close. I certainly was and this is the only book in the series that I’ve read. Maybe I’ll go back and catch up on the others…

Eight and a Quarter out of Ten

‘Know No Fear’ – Dan Abnett (Black Library)

Another year, another book in the ‘Horus Heresy’ series. Another one of many in fact, I think there are a few more due to be released over the next few months… There have been rumblings about the length of the series, that it’s far too long already and with no sight of an ending just yet. I can see where people are coming from with this as emptying your wallet for a never ending series is never good… I think that this approach is damaging to the structure of the series as a whole but I’m getting ahead of myself here; more on that later on in this review.
On the other hand though, so long as each novel delivers then do we really have anything to complain about? There has been one significant dip in quality, over the course of the series, but that’s been the only one as far as I can see. On the whole, the ‘Horus Heresy’ series has done an admirable job of showing the reader one of the most turbulent times of the human Imperium. So long as the quality is consistent then, maybe we should all just enjoy the series while it lasts?

This is a particularly easy thing to do when the next ‘Horus Heresy’ book to step up to the plate not only covers one of the key points in the Civil War but is written by one of the Black Library’s most popular authors. Dan Abnett literally cannot put a foot wrong, as far as writing ‘Warhammer 40K’ fiction goes, and I was looking forward to more of the same with ‘Know No Fear’. I got more of the same, ‘Know No Fear’ is a brilliant read.

The Heresy has erupted into full blown warfare spanning entire star systems but there are still regions of the Imperium that don’t yet know what is going on. The Ultramar system is about to find out in the worst way possible…
Primarch Roboute Guilliman is ordered to launch an offensive against Orks mustering in the nearby Veridian system. His Ultramarines will work with their brothers in the Word Bearer’s Legion not only to cleanse the Ork threat but also to repair a relationship damaged (almost beyond repair) over forty years previously. At least that’s what Guilliman thinks…
The Word Bearer Legion follows a different master now and he has ordered them to attack the Ultramarines when they least expect it, completely decimating their home planet of Calth. What will follow is all out war not only on Calth but across the whole Ultramar system, fought between super enhanced warriors looking to settle the bitterest of rivalries. Calth will burn but who will be left standing when the flames finally die down…?

I’ve been reading the ‘Horus Heresy’ books for a few years now but I’m still very much finding my way through the wider background of this setting. I heard that the battle for Calth was a very big deal and was looking forward to reading about what sounded like a pivotal event in the war, especially as Dan Abnett was the guy writing it.
The bottom line is that ‘Know No Fear’ is a superb read that should cater nicely for long time fans while being self contained enough for newcomers to be able to pick it up and dive straight in.

One thing about it though that bugged me in terms of the series as a whole… Because the setting is so vast, and the war is taking its time in spreading, it feels like the series takes two steps forwards and then has to take at least four steps back to cover an event that has happened earlier in the timeline. I get why this has to happen but I’m looking forward to the day when everything catches up with itself and we can all move forward together in a straight line. I mention it here because the rest of the series had moved past the battle for Calth (at least as far as I can see) and now we’re having to go back to make sure that it gets a mention.

There’s no doubt though that Abnett’s coverage of the event ensures that the battle of Calth is worth that mention. Not that it wasn’t worth it anyway, it was, but Abnett does what he does best and makes ‘Know No Fear’ almost essential reading.

Dan Abnett proves once again that he has an eye for what draws the reader into a battle sequence on paper and keeps them reading through. He has a keen eye for the big ‘showcase’ events, stuff that makes you almost feel like you’re watching things happen instead of reading about them. We’re talking about star cruisers crashing into orbital platforms (and everything else), planetary defence grids firing on the sun and battle ships crashing onto the surface of Calth itself. If that wasn’t enough, you have a Primarch so awesomely strong that he is able to punch a man’s head clean off his shoulders! That last example is particularly spectacular but the book is full of moments like these. Abnett not only knows what military sci-fi is all about but is more than able to present it on the page in all its explosive glory.

‘Know No Fear’ isn’t just about the spectacle though. Abnett also gives us a close up into just what the battle for Calth means for the people suddenly caught up in the middle of it. What the reader gets as a result is an event that is fully formed instead of a random collection of (admittedly) really cool space battles.
The rank and file, of the combatants, get their time but Abnett’s focus here falls on the Marines of the Ultramarines Legion and how they react to this sudden betrayal. For warriors genetically altered to be perfect killers, the Ultramarines are stymied by the one thing they never saw coming; betrayal by their brother Legionnaires. Abnett really lays it on the line how deeply this betrayal cuts with characters dying in their droves as they are unable to handle the enormity of what has just happened. Things are really on a knife edge here and even though I had a rough idea of how it had to end the real joy was in seeing how Abnett gets the reader to that ending.

The plot itself is framed beautifully by a clock counting down to the betrayal and then counting on from it, displaying not only how long the battle takes (adding emphasis to each event) but also showing how the battle impacts on the future…

‘While Word Bearers still live, in the madness of the Maelstrom or in the depths of the warp, the mark of Calth will continue to run.
It is running now.’

This stylistic approach worked for the most part. I was left wondering if it gave certain characters enough time to shine. Oll’s story line looks like it’s meant to conclude in future books but for all the build up that Telemechrus gets… you don’t see an awful lot of him. I couldn’t help but wonder if this was deliberate, if it was then it didn’t work for me I'm afraid. It felt like a bit of an anti-climax instead (although I could be missing something here...)

Small complaints though when set against a book as good as this. Dan Abnett sets himself high standards and maintains them with every book he writes, ‘Know No Fear’ is no exception.

Nine and a Half out of Ten