Category: Throwback Thursday

Hard Town by Adam Plantinga

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Thriller, Throwback Thursday1 Comment

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (Paperback – 8 April 2025)

Series: Kurt Argento – Book Two

Length: 307 pages

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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Rising thriller author Adam Plantinga follows up his excellent first novel with the intense and highly addictive sequel, Hard Town, and outstanding book I read so damn quickly.

Readers of this blog may remember that at the start of 2025 I had the great pleasure of reading a particularly epic thriller novel, The Ascent.  The debut novel from new author Adam Plantinga, The Ascent was a fantastic novel that followed a former cop, Kurt Argento, who finds himself stuck in the middle of a brutal prison riot, which forces him to fight through several levels of a deadly killers and criminals.  I had an amazing time with The Ascent (it was one of my favourite debuts of 2024), and I have been keen to read more from Plantinga for a while, especially as he intended to write more about his original protagonist.  After highlighting it as a cool upcoming novel early last year, I finally got a chance to read Hard Town and I’m glad I did.

Plot Synopsis:

When a plea for help sends retired Detroit cop Kurt Argento to the small desert town of Fenton, Arizona things immediately don’t appear to be as they seem, and he finds himself unravelling secrets that want to stay hidden and questioning his own moral compass.

After having survived a deadly prison break, ex-Detroit cop Kurt Argento is ready for some quiet. Still working through his grief over the passing of his wife, Argento finds himself house-sitting for a friend with his loyal companion, Hudson, a Chow Chow-Shepard mix. It’s a simple life, picking up odd jobs here and there, but it’s one that Argento is content to live.

Then Kristin Reed shows up with her young son, Ethan, and begs Argento to help find her missing husband… and Argento tells her he’d just be in the way. He’s no investigator, not anymore. He’s a handyman who fixes fences. But he’s not one to ignore his gut feeling when something is wrong. After an attempt to talk with Kristin more in the next town over, just to find her and her son missing as well, Argento starts to notice that Fenton, Arizona is more than meets the eye.

First there’s the large, overly equipped public safety team complete with specialized tactics and sophisticated weaponry. Then there’s the unusual financial boosting of failing small businesses by the U.S. government. And finally, there’s one man with no name who seems to have control over this town in an unprecedented way.

Argento finds himself unravelling not just the truth behind the disappearance of a family, but a conspiracy that’s taken a whole town to cover up. But Fenton, Arizona is going to push him further than he’s ever had to go. And along the way, he may just lose a part of himself as well. Because justice isn’t as black and white as Argento would like to believe.

Hard Town was a great second novel from Plantinga, who follows up his debut with a highly compelling sequel I had an outstanding time with.  Loaded with striking action, an excellent over-the-top story and a gritty protagonist, Hard Town was an amazing novel that is worth checking out.

Plantinga pulls together an excellent plot for Hard Town, which I felt served as an excellent continuation of the protagonist’s personal journey, while also working well as a standalone story with its own distinctive plot.  Reintroducing protagonist Kurt Argento as a battered survivor with some infamy behind him after the events of The Ascent, Hard Town sees him get dragged back into trouble when a desperate woman begs him to investigate the disappearance of her husband from the town of Fenton, Arizona.  Despite his misgivings, Argento eventually agrees to help, only to discover that the woman and her young son have gone missing.  Searching for answers in Fenton, he discovers a surprisingly well-equipped police force of former soldiers, while a mysterious genius is holding court in town.  Plantinga sets up this unusual scene extremely well in the first third of Hard Town, and you soon become quite engrossed in uncovering the full mystery, especially as things are just about to kick off in all the wrong ways.

It’s around this point that the entire tone of Hard Town changes dramatically, and Argento finds himself caught up in a deadly battle for survival.  After an intense extended sequence, you follow Argento as he attempts to uncover the true secrets of Fenton while also searching for his own brand of justice.  This involves an interesting investigation arc, followed up by a dangerous plan to gain allies and resources.  Plantinga perfectly paces out the second half of Hard Town, drawing you into Argento’s plans before hitting you with the big confrontation.  This final part of Hard Town is extremely brutal, with multiple deadly fights and encounters.  Plantinga throws in a couple of good twists here, as well as a lot of over-the-top deaths, and you will find yourself extremely hooked.  Everything wraps up in a satisfying, dark ending, with the protagonist resolving the story at a cost, and thriller fans will come away happy with how Hard Town turned out.  I personally loved this well-planned out and compelling narrative, and I ended up powering through the entirety of Hard Town in only a couple of days.

You can see that Plantinga has improved as an author since his first book, as he has done a good job moving the plot away from the prison setting of the first book into a sprawling adventure throughout Arizona.  Hard Town initially had a bit of a slower pace to it, which I felt helped to build tension and allowed for a stronger, more character-focused read.  The use of an underlying mystery to drive the initial plot and increase tension and interest was a great choice by Plantinga, and it allowed the author to take his time to set up the story.  Once things do kick off, Plantinga does not hold back, bringing in a series of intense confrontations and over-the-top moments to raise the stakes and sate the action fans.  Plantinga makes sure there is a gritty realism to all the action, as Plantinga provides detailed depictions of event, amping up the impact of events.  I also quite enjoyed the multiple realistic depictions of police techniques and procedure, as Plantinga pulls from his own extensive personal knowledge of law enforcement to enhance his story.  All this results in a powerful tone for Hard Town, which intensifies the action and the fantastic focus on the characters.

While there is a lot of carnage in this thriller, Hard Town isn’t all action, as Plantinga adds some nuance to the plot, especially around protagonist Kurt Agento’s motivations and the morality of the antagonists.  Argento, who the author expertly reintroduces in this sequel, continues to develop from the angry figure we were introduced to at the start of The Ascent.  Now somewhat calmer, Argento is forced back into the life of violence when pushed in the most dramatic of ways, although Plantinga continues to portray him as having a little more restraint, while also moralising a little more over his actions and desire for revenge.  The author works in some interesting flaws and personal concerns for the protagonist to deal with.  Despite certain moral quandaries Plantinga includes in the plot, there is not a moment that you aren’t on the side of the protagonist as he seeks justice, especially after a certain scene.  The clever and usually over-the-top ways that Argento attempted to resolve the situations he found himself in also draws the reader to his side, and there were some very memorable moments in this plot as Argento attempted to get justice.

While most of the book’s focus was on Argento as protagonist, Plantinga does include some interesting supporting characters, especially in the book’s antagonists.  These antagonists are a group of mysterious soldiers who have taken over policing in the small town of Fenton as part of a larger mission.  Employed to ruthlessly defend their objective and keep the town in order, these characters do some terrible things and there are some true monsters amongst them.  However, Plantinga includes a couple of conflicted figures in their midst, and their varied morality becomes an interesting plot point, especially when Argento seeks his revenge.  The objective of these soldiers and their government agent handler adds in some interesting moral conflicts to the plot, especially as they try to balance the need for dark actions with the overall objective of the mission they believe in.  I enjoyed how Plantinga balanced these morally grey characters by also including a completely irredeemable character as Hard Town’s main antagonist.  The sinister mastermind behind the whole operation in Fenton, this initially unnamed antagonist was delightfully over-the-top, and Plantinga had fun writing in his sense of superiority and evil nature.  If anything, the author made him too outrageously evil, as this character came across as a parody of an arrogant intellectual, but I still had fun seeing this antagonist in action, especially when confronted by the more serious Argento.  All these characters add a lot to Hard Town’s story, and I felt that Plantinga’s character work was a lot more impactful in this sequel.

Adam Plantinga showcases his improvement as a writer in this excellent second novel, Hard Town.  An amazing and nuanced thriller novel that balances an emotionally charged plot with some outstanding action, Hard Town was a highly addictive read that I found near impossible to put down.  I really had an amazing time with this sequel, and I look forward to reading more from Plantinga going forward, especially as the third book in this series, Dark Country, just came out.

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He Who Fights With Monsters: Adventurer by Travis Deverell (Shirtaloon)

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Australian, Fantasy, Throwback ThursdayLeave a comment

Publisher: Michael Joseph (Trade Paperback – 15 September 2026, originally published 18 May 2021)

Series: He Who Fights With Monsters – Volume Two

Length: 607 pages

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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After falling in love with the first book in Travis Deverell’s He Who Fights With Monsters series, I just had to check out the second volume, Adventurer, which proved to be just as fun, entertaining and addictive as the first entry.

Readers of this blog may remember a couple of months ago I became obsessed with the amazing first volume of the impressive He Who Fights With Monsters LitRPG series.  Written by Australian author Travis Deverell (also known as Shirtaloon), the first volume of the He Who Fights With Monsters series was originally released several years ago but has since been republished in paperback by Penguin.  This series followed an Australian protagonist, Jason Asano, who becomes a deadly fantasy adventurer after being pulled into an alternate version of Earth filled with magic, monsters and all manner of carnage.

The first volume of this series, recently titled Outworlder, served as an excellent introduction to the protagonist, multiple supporting characters, and Deverell’s fantastic fantasy world.  I had a wonderful time with this initial book’s story, which saw Jason learn to become an adventurer as he gets involved with monster slaying, politics, local crime and larger conspiracies.  While a little rough in places, I ended up absolutely powering through this first volume, and I found it to be an extremely fun and impressive piece of LitRPG.  Due to how much pure enjoyment I got from the first He Who Fights With Monsters book, I made sure to grab a copy of the second volume when it was released, and boy was I glad that I did.

Plot Synopsis:

The path from retail middle management to interdimensional wizard adventurer wasn’t easy, but Jason Asano is settling into his new life.

Now, a contest draws young elites to the city of Greenstone, competing for a grand prize. Jason must gather a band of companions if he is to stand a chance against the best the world has to offer.

While the young adventurers are caught up in competition, the city leaders deal with revelations of betrayal as a vast and terrible enemy is revealed. Jason thinks he’s on the sidelines—until it becomes clear he’s already crossed the wrong path. With allies and enemies closing in, one thing is certain: this contest is only the beginning, and the coming conflict will change everything.

Now this was a very cool and relentlessly fun sequel.  This second volume of He Who Fights With Monsters, titled Adventurer, ended up being a particularly addictive read as Deverell loaded it up with a great story, zany humour and clever fantasy LitRPG elements.  I couldn’t stop reading Adventurer at times, and because I powered through all 600+ pages in only a couple of days (which is impressive even for me), I must give this second volume a full five-star rating.

I had an absolute blast getting through Adventurer’s fantastic story, which brings together a range of intriguing plot elements into one brilliant tale of adventure and action.  Once again primarily set in the city of Greenstone, Adventurer’s narrative mostly focuses on protagonist Jason Asano, former Australian retail worker turned interdimensional badass, as he and his friends are still reeling from the death of one of their own at the end of the last book.  Determined to become a better adventurer, Jason focuses on the latest complication in his unusual life, the captured thief Sophie, who, thanks to political intrigue and bad luck, has gained the protection she needs by becoming Jason’s indentured servant (in a mostly non-weird way).  Needing to keep her safe, Jason works to make Sophie an adventurer, and much of the first half of Adventurer sees Jason and his friends training Sophie while also forming a new adventuring party.  At the same time, Deverell works in a compelling side story that sees much of the supporting cast investigating the mysterious interdimensional army that attacked the Greenstone adventurer expedition at the end of Outworlder, revealing a large-scale conspiracy that could destroy the entirety of this magical world.

This first half of Adventurer really drags the reader in, and you are soon quite absorbed in the various ongoing storylines.  The plot around Sophie and her attempts to become an adventurer matches Jason’s training in Outworlder, and it was nice to still get an outsider/trainee perspective on the rules of magic and adventuring.  This training element worked well with the book’s entertaining personal dynamics as Jason forms a team with Sophie and some of their other friends and associates, brought together utilising Jason’s chaotic, yet persuasive manner.  At the same time, Deverell also ensures that there are some storylines going for all the extensive supporting cast, and the separate exploits of several of these characters worked well alongside the main story focused on Jason.  I appreciated how well the author fell back on elements from the first book, even some of the more obscure inclusions, and many of these previous hints are cleverly built into the overlying conspiracy that was a big part of Adventurer’s plot.

While I had a brilliant time with the first part of Adventurer, the second half of the book is where things really kick off and drag the reader in.  Indeed, I read the entirety of this second half of Adventurer in a single day, I was that damn hooked.  Much of this is because the main story follows Jason, his team, and several other major supporting characters as they enter a magical competition for rising adventurers.  Essentially split up throughout a dungeon with many other aspiring adventurers, Jason and his team need to fight through an array of monsters and rivals to participate in the main trial of the competition.  This keeps you extremely hooked, as you are drawn into an extended session of action, exploration and advancement, with some interesting combinations of supporting characters coming together into impromptu groups.  This entire extended sequence was so damn good, and while the winner of the trials isn’t especially surprising, the journey to get there is so much fun and wraps up a lot of key storylines from this second volume.  This proves to be a particularly awesome main plot sequence for this volume, and I loved how it turned out.  I also enjoyed how there was still a little bit of Adventurer left after this dungeon sequence, with the author taking some time to showcase the gains following this major arc, while providing some build-up to the third novel.  While this slightly slows the story down at the end, it ensures that the main cast have all their new abilities ready for the next entry, and this will very much appeal to those readers who enjoy the nuances of the LitRPG genre.  Deverell does make sure to keep some intensity going with a big cliffhanger around a major supporting character, while other threats to Jason and the larger world continue to grow, and by the time you finish Adventurer, you are extremely ready for more He Who Fights With Monsters fun.

I had an amazing time with this second He Who Fights With Monsters book, especially as I felt that Adventurer was a better written novel than Outworlder, with Deverell improving as an author.  The author did a great job building on the best elements of the first book, like the worldbuilding and cool fantasy elements, and there was once again a fantastic blend of adventure, personal growth and underlying intrigue to draw the reader in.  I particularly love the effective way in which the LitRPG elements of the setting are incorporated into the story, and the resulting carnage from the distinctive magical system allowed for some intense scenes, especially in the well-structured and intense extended dungeon sequence, which really was a brilliant highlight of Adventurer. At the same time, most of the rough edges I noted in the first He Who Fights With Monsters novel where gone, allowing for a smoother read, especially as I was also more familiar with the author’s writing style.  I was particularly happy that the weird formatting issues that bugged me in the first book were missing, which was a major relief.

Another thing I appreciated about Adventurer was how well Deverell set it up as a sequel to Outworlder.  While LitRPG sequels tend to just be continuations of the first book without much variation, there was a clear plot delineation between the events of Adventurer and Outworlder, which ensures that it feels like an entirely separate novel.  There is also a great continuation and expansion of many of the story elements, world building and the magical system throughout Adventurer, all of which expands in some compelling and intriguing ways.  Naturally, this does mean that Adventurer is going to be a lot easier to read for those people who already checked out the first He Who Fights With Monsters novel, especially as this sequel starts right after the climactic battle of Outworlder.  However, I did think that Deverell’s writing style in Adventurer would allow new readers to start exploring this series with the second book if they wanted to, especially as there are some recaps about the magical system and character arcs. Still, I would recommend reading Outworlder first, as it will allow you to enjoy the entire He Who Fights With Monsters series a lot more.

As with the first He Who Fights With Monsters book, Adventurer features a huge cast of characters whose adventures form the basis for the plot.  Most of the attention of this book is once again on series protagonist Jason Asano, an Australian retail worker who was dragged to this world of magic and monsters thanks to a summoning ritual gone bad and is now making a new life as an adventurer.  As I mentioned in my review of Outlander, Jason is a complex and unique protagonist who projects an outer layer of silliness and seeming insanity to everyone around him.  However, deep down he is a far more collected and shrewd person who has not only already mastered adventuring but is thriving in this new world thanks to his unrivalled ability to empathise with and manipulate everyone he meets.  His anti-authority streak also comes into play a lot in this novel, and it was fun to see him interact with fantasy beings who usually appreciate a hierarchy (although the amused reactions of several gods to this is quite entertaining).  While I can see how some readers might not enjoy Jason as a character for being too over-the-top or a little preachy with his attitudes, for the most part he is great, and much of the book’s humour comes from his various crazy interactions.  I enjoyed how Deverell provided a bit more of a look at Jason’s past in this novel, including how his feelings of inadequacy towards his brother resulted in his current persona.  There was also some compelling focus on how Jason has finally found his calling and friends in this new world, and it will be interesting to see how future storylines that involve him returning to Earth will play into that.

While most of the book is focused specifically on Jason and his adventures, there are a huge number of additional supporting characters in this novel, including most of the cast of the first book, as well as several interesting new figures.  While in some ways the cast of this novel is too big (I must admit that I sometimes lost track of who was who, especially as they all have normal names rather than memorable fantasy ones), it was fascinating to see the various interactions and specific storylines that emerged around them.  Deverell expertly follows various cast members throughout the book, including Jason’s original companions, members of his new team, various key figures of Greenstone who Jason has interacted with, and even a few antagonists.  The third-person perspective of He Who Fights With Monsters really helped to ensure that Deverell could effectively showcase storylines around these characters without Jason needing to be there.  A good example of this occurred during the major dungeon arc of Adventurer, where most of the cast were across a large space and couldn’t communicate with each other.  This resulted in the various members of Jason’s usual party and other supporting characters being forced to team up with other new adventurers, and it was interesting to see how each character was able to work with people they had never dealt with before.

Supporting cast highlights of this book included Jason’s student/indentured servant Sophie, who fills an important role as the rookie adventurer in this story.  A generally untrusting figure, Sophie finds herself forced to work with Jason, and there was a good focus on her uncertainty about Jason’s motivations.  This allowed for some intriguing interactions alongside the interesting examination of Sophie’s abilities as an adventurer, and I felt that she worked well as a serious foil to the usually silly Jason.  The team that Jason and Sophie help form in this book were also a fun group of supporting characters from the first book, and it was interesting see their teamwork grow throughout the novel.  Jason’s friend and mentor Rufus Remore also gets a compelling arc in this book, as he feels guilty for the death of his team member Farrah at the end of Outworlder, and spends much of the story determined to find the one responsible.  These, and many other character storylines, ensured that a range of different plot points and bits of character growth in this novel, and it was fun following so many figures that had great introductions in the first novel.

The He Who Fights With Monsters series continues to impress me, with this second entry, Adventurer, proving to be a particularly addictive read.  Travis Deverell did an exceptional job with Adventurer, and I had such a brilliant time getting through this novel.  I really am not exaggerating with just how hard I found it to stop reading this outstanding novel, and I got through it so damn quickly.  Due to this, I’ve pretty much committed myself to reading the entire He Who Fights With Monsters series in order as soon as I can (a big commitment considering that the 13th book just came out).  Indeed, I’ve already ordered the third book in the series, titled Hero, and I will probably start reading it the second I get my hands on it next week, which really goes to show just how much I am enjoying Deverell’s amazing novels.

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The Daughter’s War by Christopher Buehlman

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Publisher: Gollancz (Hardcover – 25 June 2024)

Series: Blacktongue series – Book 0 

Length: 389 pages

My Rating: 4.5 out 5 stars

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Prepare for the most brutal of wars with the intense and impressive fantasy prequel from Christopher Buehlman, The Daughter’s War, an intriguing read that dives into the early life of one of the author’s more complex characters.

Most fantasy fans will be aware of author Christopher Buehlman, who has been very popular since 2021 when he released the acclaimed novel The Blacktongue Thief.  An elaborate dark fantasy adventure story set in a series of human nations recovering from a devastating total war against goblins, The Blacktongue Thief was an exceptional read that very much lives up to the hype around it.  I had the pleasure of finally reading The Blacktongue Thief earlier this year, and after finishing it I attempted to find a copy of the 2024 prequel novel, The Daughter’s War.  After a long search through many second-hand bookshops in Australia, I was eventually able to find a wonderful hardcover copy of The Daughter’s War at the tail end of a road trip (thank you Wyrdbooks in Wentworth Falls), and I just got the chance to read it.  A brutal war novel, The Daughter’s War was a great read that provides some additional history around a fantastic character from the first book in the series.

Plot Synopsis:

The goblins have killed all of our horses and most of our men.

They have enslaved our cities, burned our fields, and still they wage war.

Now, our daughters take up arms.

Galva ― Galvicha to her three brothers, two of whom the goblins will kill ― has defied her family’s wishes and joined the army’s untested new unit, the Raven Knights. They march toward a once-beautiful city overrun by the goblin horde, accompanied by scores of giant war corvids. Made with the darkest magics, these fearsome black birds may hold the key to stopping the goblins in their war to make cattle of mankind.

The road to victory is bloody, and goblins are clever and merciless. The Raven Knights can take nothing for granted ― not the bonds of family, nor the wisdom of their leaders, nor their own safety against the dangerous war birds at their side. But some hopes are worth any risk.

Buehlman brings the carnage in this compelling prequel novel.  The Daughter’s War was an interesting and action-packed addition to this cool fantasy series that tells a powerful character-driven narrative, while also cleverly expanding on the lore his unique fantasy universe.  A wonderfully dark and addictive novel, The Daughter’s War was an outstanding read you’ll have a hard time pulling away from.

I very much enjoyed the prequel narrative that Buehlman set for The Daughter’s War, especially as the author sets out a gritty war story rather than the classic adventure narrative in The Blacktongue Thief.  Set several years before the events of The Blacktongue Thief, The Daughter’s War follows young noblewoman Galva dom Braga, the striking character from the first book who was introduced as a scarred war veteran and death worshipper.  However, in this prequel Galva is a more innocent and hopeful figure who has volunteered to fight in the Daughter’s War against the goblins, so called because most of the new soldiers are women after most of the men died in the previous goblin wars.  A member of the experimental Corvid Knights unit, an all-female band of warriors who fight alongside giant, magically mutated ravens, Galva travels to the goblin occupied nation of Gallardia, and fights in some of the most brutal battles of this latest war.

Told in a chronicle format primarily from Galva’s perspective, The Daughter’s War starts off with an effective reintroduction to Galva and starts to showcase the various complexities of her early life that you never saw in The Blacktongue Thief.  This includes familial responsibilities and drama when she is reunited with her three brothers, each of whom is participating in the war in different ways.  Buehlman soon embarks on the full intensity of his war story as Galva and her companions head towards the inevitable battles and tragedy to come.  There is a good pace to this story, as the author expands the setting while slowly introducing both the protagonist and the reader to the horrors of war and the goblin enemies.  After several smaller battles, and the build-up of several additional problems around Galva, you soon get your taste of the first true combat, which also introduces readers to even more complexity for the protagonist as she meets her love interest from The Blacktongue Thief for the first time.

After a more emotionally charged centre to the story, the second half of The Daughter’s War is defined by true brutality, as the protagonist and her comrades encounter the wrath of the goblins.  Buehlman is in his dark fantasy element when it comes to this second half of the book, and he excels at highlight the horrors of the war through Galva’s constantly hardening eyes.  After an escalating series of tragedies, there is a major battle sequence that was a highlight of the book, and which sets the protagonist down a darker path.  This change in characterisation is showcased in the book’s climatic sequence, where Galva asserts herself in all the best ways, and becomes the figure we knew from The Blacktongue Thief.  Throw in some intriguing wrap up which helps to bridge the gap between this book and The Blacktongue Thief, and this ended up being an outstanding prequel narrative, guaranteed to keep you hooked to the end.

I enjoyed how Buehlman utilised a different writing style for The Daughter’s War, which helped it stand out as its own novel.  Rather than utilising the active first-person style of The Blacktongue Thief, this novel is told in a chronicle format, as Galva recounts her memories of the war to an unseen character (the protagonist of the first book).  Primarily told from Galva’s immediate perspective, Buehlman also utilises several in-universe documents and letters, as well as other inclusions and rogue memories to paint a wider picture of events and help to recount the larger war.  This chronicle style highlighted that The Daughter’s War was very much a prequel novel, and the author did an amazing job emulating the feel of a veteran recounting their most personal war story.  This includes working in a sense of regret and sadness from the very first page, as the protagonist/writer lays down hints about the tragedies to come.  This focus on the past ensures that The Daughter’s War works well as a prequel to The Blacktongue Thief, and readers have a choice of either enjoying this book after The Blacktongue Thief to see how the protagonist got the way she did, or by reading it first and then exploring the aftermath of the war with the original book in the series (with some potential spoilers).  I will admit that, thanks to its unique style and narrative structure, The Daughter’s War might not be for every fantasy reader out there, especially those who enjoyed the more straightforward and humour-laden style of The Blacktongue Thief.  However, for those looking for an intense and darker character-focused read with some epic and brutal battle sequences, The Daughter’s War has a lot to offer.

One of my favourite things about the original book in this series was the elaborate and dark fantasy world that Buehlman invented as the background for The Blacktongue Thief’s story.  The various human nations still diminished and feeling the impact of the goblin wars made for a striking and bleak setting, and I loved following the protagonists on the map as they made their way across the continent.  This setting was also a highlight of this prequel, especially as the author uses The Daughter’s War to provide an extended look at new parts of the world, while also showcasing some of the dark history mentioned in The Blacktongue Thief.  Readers follow the sprawling campaign through the invaded kingdom of Gallardia and get to appreciate the dark impacts war has had on it.  Multiple other kingdoms from the larger continent setting of the series are also represented in other ways, primarily from their soldiers fighting in the war, and the author’s portrayals of the different combat styles of these nations was very compelling.  Additional details about the protagonist’s home country of Ispanthia, which was talked about but not seen in The Blacktongue Thief, were also mentioned here, and this context helps to expand on the character’s origins.

While the focus on the human participants in the war is excellent, Buehlman’s portrayal of the goblin antagonists is particularly awesome.  Already shown as deadly and malicious creatures when nominally at peace in The Blacktongue Thief, the author does not hold back showcasing their true nature in this prequel as you see the goblins at their full war savagery.  The scenes showing them fighting against human soldiers are so damn brutal, and their varying tactics, weapons and counters to traditional warfare add some major impact to the impressive battle sequences.  However, it is the examination of how they treat humans, especially humans they have captured or conquered, that really showcases how terrifying the goblins are, with the goblins essentially considering them to be cattle that they can drug, mutilate, eat and find various uses for (human skin sails and mutated human warriors are a striking inclusion).  This portrayal of the goblin ruthlessness really ups the stakes of The Daughter’s War, and it was very fun to have an antagonist group that is so irredeemably evil.  These outstanding elements of the setting were perfectly utilised in Buehlman’s darker fantasy narrative, and I really appreciated this look at the war that caused all the scars in the original novel.

In addition to cool setting and dark fantasy features, another great highlight of The Daughter’s War was the author’s excellent character work, especially around protagonist Galva dom Braga, who enters the war as a hopeful Corvid Knight, leading two magically enhanced ravens into battle alongside her sister knights.  Buehlman does an excellent job showcasing the young noblewoman in a very different light than when you see her in The Blacktongue Thief, as through her own telling, she was a somewhat naïve and uncertain figure with no experience of war.  Thanks to the horrors of battle, interactions with several supporting characters, and various tragedies involving her three brothers, Galva is slowly turned into the experienced and death-worshipping figure that we encountered in the original novel, and I really appreciated the gradual and understandable transition that the author worked in.  The use of Galva as both the main character and the narrator recounting her most brutal memories allows for some powerful storytelling and she ended up being an excellent centre for this book.  Throw in some outstanding, if somewhat doomed, supporting characters, including comrades, rivals, cheeky talking ravens, an insane wizard, the princess Galva falls in love with, and her three brothers, each of whom has their own complex narrative in this book, and the cast of The Daughter’s War is extremely impressive and adds a lot to the overall story.  I’m extremely glad that Buehlman decided to provide all of Galva’s story in this prequel, and I cannot wait to see what happens with this eventually brooding warrior next.

Christopher Buehlman continues to showcase his skill for dark fantasy fiction in this impressive novel.  The Daughter’s War was an outstanding prequel to Buehlman’s The Blacktongue Thief, and I really appreciated the exploration of the past of his complex setting and one iconic scarred character.  Shocking, intense and filled with inevitable tragedy, The Daughter’s War comes highly recommended, and I am very glad I finally got the chance to read this book.  I cannot wait to see what happens in the upcoming third book in the series, The Thrice-Bound Fool, and I’m hoping to get that very soon.

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The Detective Matthew Reilly

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Australian, Five-Star Books, Murder Mystery, Thriller, Throwback Thursday2 Comments

Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia (Trade Paperback – 21 October 2025)

Series: Sam Speedman – Book One

Length: 383 pages

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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Prepare for one of the most over-the-top and highly impressive thrillers of recent years, with the brilliant and utterly addictive The Detective by Matthew Reilly.

Those who follow my blog will know that I tend to read a lot of Australian fiction, not only because I like to support local authors but because there are some cracking and captivating reads from my talented countryfolk.  Of the current crop of awesome Australian authors out there, few are more well known internationally than Matthew Reilly, a thriller writer with a raft of distinctive novels in his bibliography.  Known for books like his Shane Schofield and Jack West Jr series, as well as some of his outrageous standalone novels, Reilly has been a consistently entertaining author since the 1990s.  Despite this, I’ve only had the chance to read a couple of books from Reilly, including The Secret Runners of New York and Mr Einstein’s Secretary (one of my favourite books and pieces of Australian fiction of 2023), both of which were excellent in their own ways.  As such, I’ve tried to grab some more of his books, including his 2025 release, The Detective.  I only recently got the chance to read The Detective, and boy was I glad that I did.  The first book in Reilly’s new Sam Speedman series, The Detective was a highly addictive read with an exceedingly thrilling narrative behind it.

Plot Synopsis:

For 150 years, women have been going missing.

And all of the investigators who went in search of them – from 1877 to the present day – have disappeared, too.

Now Sam Speedman, a most unique private detective, is on the case.

Brilliant, direct and disarming, Sam is … different. He’s not your average private detective. But then again, this isn’t your average case.

For not even he will be prepared for what he will find.

Set in the darkest corners of the American South, tapping into hot-button issues that simmer beneath the surface of the modern United States, this is Matthew Reilly writing faster and bolder than ever before, bringing you a detective thriller like no other.

Well damn, now that was a crazy ass book!  While I knew I was likely going to enjoy The Detective, I was unprepared for just how over-the-top and entertaining it was going to be.  I honestly read this outstanding novel from Matthew Reilly in less than a day, it was damn addictive, especially when the full insanity of the plot emerged.  Due to just how fun and exciting The Detective was, I have to award this book a full five-stars, a rating it very much deserves.

I had an amazing time getting through The Detective’s narrative, primarily because Reilly came up with a powerful and detailed story that provides some intriguing mystery, heavy thrills and very over-the-top moments.  Reilly starts the narrative off strong, with an exciting introduction to the protagonist and main point-of-view character, Sam Speedman, the unlikely autistic private investigator.  While this opening sequence and early exploration of Reilly’s unique protagonist was great, it was the introduction of The Detective’s main case that personally drew me in, which starts when DNA test reveals that a dead newborn baby in the Louisiana swamp is the child of missing person Speedman has been hired to find.  To raise the stakes and interest, this disappearance is the latest in a long string of missing African American women dating back to the end of the Civil War.  Even more troubling, every previous detective who has investigated the case, including Speedman’s mentor, has either disappeared or turned up dead.

Despite this terrifying background, Speedman investigates and soon finds himself teaming up with an FBI agent also interested in the case.  Reilly does a lot of solid set-up in this first half of the book, and you are presented with some intriguing suspects, great supporting characters, and a real appreciation for the unique case and the way that the protagonist investigates.  The case goes in some interesting directions here, especially as Speedman finds an unlikely collection of clues and suspicions, before a seemingly early end to the investigation.  However, this is just a prelude to the rest of the plot, especially when Speedman quickly identifies a massive coverup surrounding the case.  Despite being offered everything he ever wanted, Speedman is unable to drop his investigation, which results in utter chaos and destruction being thrown at him and everyone he cares for.

While the first half of The Detective was very good and quickly draws you in, it was the brutal and insanely over-the-top second half of the book that makes this a truly memorable read.  Reilly throws everything that he can at his protagonist, as Speedman journeys through the deep south to find answers.  There are some great moments here, with plenty of action and clever investigating, all pulling together into a crazy result.  I don’t want to give too much away, but the hidden secrets behind the case are incredibly insane, while still cleverly fitting into the overarching narrative of The Detective.  Everything leads up to an explosive confrontation which delivers some very cathartic moments, as well as some memorable action sequences.  Reilly also throws in a great, if now depressingly unrealistic, solution to the giant odds the protagonists are facing, and watching their plan come together was really impressive.  An overall outstanding narrative, that you won’t be able to stop reading, even if you wanted to.

I had a lot of fun with Reilly’s style for The Detective, which was very easy to read and really highlighted the book’s fantastic action.  The author makes excellent use of the first-person perspective, which showcased the entertaining viewpoint of the primary perspective character.  Thanks to this, you get a great view of the investigation and the protagonist’s mind as he pulls the unique threads of the mystery together.  The mystery itself is quite well set up, and I appreciated the variety of clues and hints that Reilly introduces early in the book, even if you can’t imagine just where the author is going with them.  I will say that Reilly makes good use of the southern setting for the plot, with race, cultural heritage and other issues all working as motives or underlying factors.  These contemporary issues, as well as some key historical events, are cleverly referenced or alluded to (including quotes from real-life events or people), and while Reilly naturally takes everything several steps further than reality, it still makes you think.  I deeply enjoyed the narrative extremes that Reilly went to, which added a lot of entertainment to this book, and you must imagine that some of the world’s current craziness bled into Reilly’s mind as he wrote it.  I also have to highlight some of the cool diagrams and helpful alternate formatting that was added into the paperback version of The Detective, which helped order key parts of the plot and allowed even more insights into the protagonist’s mind.

I’ve already mentioned the unique protagonist of The Detective, Sam Speedman, a few times, and I want to again make it clear how interesting and fun he proved to be.  Introduced as a questionable investigative protagonist due to his lack of social skills and distinctive way of thinking, Speedman quickly grows on the reader thanks to his insights, down-to-earth view, and determination to do the right thing no matter what.  I liked how Reilly already had Speedman set up as a very competent figure right at the start of the book, and you are soon drawn into his personality, as well as the unlikely connections he already has.  The author also throws in some growth for Speedman in this book, with the protagonist becoming even more comfortable with other people while continuing to stick to his principles no matter the cost.  I really think that Reilly did a good job of providing a nuanced portrayal of an autistic central character, and I liked how Speedman’s eccentricities, such as his preferred restaurant and inherent caution, played into the plot in some natural ways.  Speedman proved to be one of the more memorable crime fiction protagonists in recent years, and I’m very curious to see what other adventures Reilly takes him on in the future.

Aside from Speedman, The Detective features an intriguing array of supporting characters, each of whom add their own spin on the plot.  Reilly has fun showcasing many of these great characters from Speedman’s perspective, and it was interesting to see his take on them.  I personally enjoyed secondary protagonist FBI agent Audrey Mills, who serves as a motivated support to Speedman, as well as a moving love interest once she realises who she is working with.  Other fun characters include Speedman’s eclectic contacts, such as an enterprising assistant, an exceedingly brave fellow investigator, and several Hooters waitresses who are some of the protagonist’s best friends.  Finally, we have the various antagonists of the story, who exist at near supervillain levels thanks to their audacious evil plans.  To avoid spoilers, I won’t say too much about these antagonists, except that they make for a terrifying opposition thanks to their reach and influences.  This fantastic and over-the-top group of characters all fit naturally into Reilly’s ambitious and ultra-entertaining narrative.

Thanks to its outrageous story, complex characters, and non-stop fun and excitement, The Detective proved to be an incredible read, and one that I still cannot stop thinking about.  Matthew Reilly really came up with something special with The Detective, and it was a crazy pleasure to read it.  I am now exceedingly excited for the soon to be released sequel, King’s Ransom, which I already know is going to be exceedingly awesome and crazy.

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He Who Fights With Monsters: Outworlder by Travis Deverell (Shirtaloon)

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Australian, Fantasy, Throwback Thursday4 Comments

Publisher: Michael Joseph (Trade Paperback – 7 July 2026, originally published 23 February 2021)

Series: He Who Fights With Monsters – Volume One

Length: 755 pages

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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Looking for something to scratch your LitRPG itch?  Then dive into the acclaimed world of He Who Fights With Monsters, the first entry in an impressive series from Australian author Travis Deverell.

Fantasy fiction has a lot of interesting subgenres to it, with one of the more distinctive being the popular LitRPG genre, which throws ordinary humans into RPG settings.  This often results in some awesome narratives, where self-aware characters attempt to survive in fantasy worlds where the game system and its components are part of the setting.  While I so far haven’t read a ton of LitRPG books, it is a subgenre that I’m getting a lot more into recently, especially as there are a ton of awesome and often bonkers LitRPG books out there.  It’s thanks to this interest in the wider LitRPG genre that I made sure to pick up a copy of the first volume of Travis Deverell’s He Who Fights With Monsters, a long-running series that is considered a major recent addition to LitRPG fiction.

Travis Deverell is an Australian author who rose to prominence through writing on the Royal Road web novel site.  Also known as Shirtaloon, Deverell’s work on Royal Road formed into the He Who Fights With Monsters series, which has previously been released through independent publishing.  I was lucky enough to receive a review copy of the new trade paperback first volume of He Who Fights With Monsters released by Penguin Random House Australia (through their Michael Joseph imprint), I was quite intrigued by its fun sounding plot.  As such, I eagerly dived into this first book (titled in this release as Outworlder), and swiftly got drawn into this cool new series.

Plot Synopsis:

It’s not an easy career jump, going from retail assistant manager to interdimensional adventurer. Jason doesn’t have much of a choice, though, when he wakes up naked confused in a world of mystery and magic.

It wasn’t prophecy that brought him here. He wasn’t chosen. It was the wrong place, the wrong time and the very, very wrong guy. The wizard who summoned him by accident does not react well.

In short order, Jason will have to fight monsters, face cultists, escape cannibals and find some pants, preferably not in that order.

The good news? He has powers. The bad news? They’re kind of evil.

With no idea where he is or what he’s doing, he’s going to need friends, and fast, because in this world, power isn’t just about magic and monsters.

Jason will have to deal with politicians, noble houses and crime lords to survive. He’ll need to master his powers, evil or not, hopefully without becoming the worst monster of all.

Now that was a particularly epic and ultra-fun read.  I must admit that I didn’t quite know what to expect from He Who Fights With Monsters, but I honestly loved every second I spent with it.  There was something about this great first volume that quickly drew me in, and I soon got stuck powering through the novel’s wildly entertaining and compelling story.  A remarkably addictive read that serves as an outstanding introduction to the He Who Fights With Monsters series, I am so very glad I got a copy of this book.

The plot behind this first volume of He Who Fights With Monsters was extremely fun and awesome, and I was really impressed with how effectively Deverell dragged me into the action.  Starting off with a classic LitRPG set-up, with protagonist Jason Asano awaking in a strange fantasy land with no idea how he got there.  Equipped with a gaming interface and character abilities, Jason is soon forced to fight off monsters and cannibalistic cultists in a series of escalating misadventures while trying to figure out what is going on.  I quite liked this start to the story, although I felt it didn’t get going until Jason met up with several fellow adventures who, after some mutual saving and unlikely victories, agree to help Jason and teach him about this new world.

From this initial starting point, Deverell soon creates a rich and complex larger narrative and surrounding setting, and the reader gets an excellent crash-course in the magical system, how the world is set up, an explanation for how Jason is there.  With no other option, Jason accompanies his new friends on a journey to a nearby major city, and starts the process to become an adventurer, which includes taking on quests, fighting monsters and finding his own unique magical style.  The author keeps building in more world-building elements in this first half of the book, and you start to get a better idea of Jason’s personality, as well as hints about future threats.  The plot gets particularly interesting once Jason arrives at this volume’s central location of Greenstone, a major city where Jason endeavours to become a professional adventurer and soon gets in embroiled with a whole new range of supporting characters.

While I did quite enjoy the first half of He Who Fights With Monsters, I think the second half was stronger as Deverell didn’t need to explain the key concepts of his world as much and instead was able to unleash Jason and his full personality onto the unsuspecting city.  Jason soon finds himself experiencing multiple challenges and threats as he joins the Adventurer’s Society and becomes a player in local politics.  At the same time, Deverell sets up several intriguing secondary storylines around the other supporting characters, which blend well with the main adventure.  There is some excellent progression in the protagonist’s abilities and insights in this second half of the book, and I found it quite amusing to try and deal with the various threats and influences of the city.  Several of the ongoing storylines set in Greenstone come together in impressive fashion towards the end of the novel, especially as there is an extended series of fights with a dangerous new threat.  The author throws in some last-minute tragedy, as well as some moments that hammer home the underlying issues of corruption and stupidity that Jason was fighting through most of the book.  I felt that this volume ended on an interesting and compelling note, and there are several open storylines left to explore in the next volume of the story.

I rather enjoyed the writing in He Who Fights With Monsters, although it was admittedly rough in places.  It was a little obvious that Deverell was writing for an online audience, which resulted in some interesting style choices, most of which you get used to as the book continues.  For example, I initially questioned the author’s choice of writing this story in the third person, as I felt that a first-person perspective would have been a better choice.  However, the author made this third-person perspective work, as it allowed him to set up several storylines outside of the Jason’s perspective, while also showcasing the supporting character’s view the protagonist.  This book also had a great flow to it, with lots of action, compelling worldbuilding, and some very entertaining sequences.

All this resulted in an excellent blend of excitement, intrigue and humour, which was honestly addictive enough to keep me coming back and power through the over 700 pages within this volume.  This very compelling writing allowed me to overlook a lot of the book’s initial roughness, although I cannot forgive the weird error that resulted in various sentences of the book having noticeably different spacing.  I’m not sure if this was an issue with the Penguin release of He Who Fights With Monsters, or it’s just been carried over from the online edition, but it kept taking me out of the story, especially as the first few times I thought it was a deliberate choice to attempt to show a character talking quickly.  Whatever it was, I hope it’s not in future volumes, as it looks quite amateurish next to the rest of the fantastic formatting and artwork.

On top of the exciting story, I felt that a major highlight of He Who Fights With Monsters was the compelling worldbuilding.  The author clearly put a lot of thought into this compelling new fantasy world, which serves as a mirror to ours, filled with monsters, adventurers and magic.  Many of these elements were quite clever in concept and utilisation, as Deverell did an outstanding job introducing all these ideas to the reader.  He Who Fights With Monsters’ magical system, which involves adventurers absorbing various essences and slowly unlocking abilities associated with them, was particularly clever and helped to standout.  This cool system allowed for the author to introduce to some interesting power combinations, especially for the protagonist, and you quickly get the hang of its peculiarities and enjoy all the possibilities around it.

I also was very impressed with how the author worked the LitRPG aspect of the book into the narrative, introducing a credible reason why the protagonist had a game interface into his head, and ensuring that his ability to accept quests, loot corpses and more, seemed quite natural in the context of the story.  This great use of the LitRPG concept, as well as making the setting a real world with real people rather than a video game, ensured that there were some real stakes to the story, and helped to turn it into a particularly captivating adventure.

Another very interesting part of the He Who Fights With Monsters are the characters, especially the protagonist Jason Asano, who I had heard in advance was a bit of a divisive figure for readers.  I initially didn’t see any issues with Jason, who at first seemed to be a typical fish-out-of-water fantasy protagonist whose lack of knowledge about what is going on allowed readers to learn about the world and magic system at the same pace.  Even after the initial parts of the book, Jason seemed liked an entertaining main character, with a quirky sense of humour and insights into the fantasy world born from gamer experience.

However, once you get to the part of the story set in Greenstone, I began to understand why some readers didn’t like him, as Deverell starts to showcase his ability to read people and manipulate them.  Despite being framed as a good guy, there is a certain arrogance behind how he interacts with a lot of characters, including being quite dismissive of well-established aspects of the new world he finds himself in.  Jason also came across as kind of conceited when it came to dealing with the inherent inequalities of the fantasy world.  While in a lot of cases this was justified, especially when dealing with incompetent or corrupt adventurers and nobles, it honestly came across as a little preachy at times.  Still, this slightly annoying character trait wasn’t enough to reduce my enjoyment of He Who Fights With Monsters, and I quite enjoyed seeing Jason develop as an adventurer.  While there is a certain amount of plot armour in how quickly he advances, I felt that Deverell hit the right mark in Jason’s development in this first book and ensured that it filled the bounds of a typical progressive fantasy book.  I especially liked the character build that Deverall gifted Jason, turning him into a shadowy affliction specialist with various evil-themed powers.  Watching Jason attempt to balance his pleasant nature with the scary abilities he needs to work with was a key part of the character’s arc in this first volume, and I think it was a compelling and memorable bit of character development.  I’m very curious to see Jason evolves as the series continues, and must highlight how fun it is to have an Australian character in a big fantasy series.

I do quickly want to mention the larger cast of this first He Who Fights With Monsters book, as Deverell introduces a large group of supporting characters throughout the novel.  While most of these characters are very overshadowed by Jason and his antics, there are still some entertaining or complex figures here, whose own personal storylines work into the large plot of the novel.  I quite enjoyed seeing some of their relevant storylines, and it also ensured the reader got several outsider perspectives of Jason and his actions, which helped to highlight just how weird the protagonist seems to the inhabitants of this new fantasy world.  Many of these characters were quite likeable, and I rather got attached to Jason’s initial party in this world, Rufus, Farrah and Gary (the three of whom get a short story at the end of this volume).  While there is no major named antagonist in this first book, Deverell introduces some fun secondary villains who serve as a good initial opponent for Jason alongside the multitude of monsters he faces, especially as he is forced to deal with politics, intrigue and criminal networks.  All these characters, and more, added a lot to the larger story, and the resulting interactions produced some great moments.

With a highly entertaining blend of action, complex world building and a certain chaotic energy, the first volume of Travis Deverell’s He Who Fights With Monsters proved to be an exceptional hit that I couldn’t stop thinking about.  Featuring an outstanding LitRPG adventure set around a compelling protagonist, He Who Fights With Monsters was really something special, and I really couldn’t stop reading it at times.  I’m definitely planning to keep reading this series now that I’ve powered through the first volume, and I cannot wait to see what crazy antics and moments happen in the rest of the series.

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Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Comedy/Satire, Extended Universe, Fantasy, Five-Star Books, Murder Mystery, Throwback ThursdayLeave a comment

Publisher: Gollancz/Penguin Random (Audiobook – 6 June 1996)

Series: Discworld – Book 19/City Watch – Book Three

Length: 12 hours and 20 minutes

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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Even after many, many re-reads, the awesome fantasy satire novel Feet of Clay remains one of my favourite Discworld novels by the late, great Terry Pratchett, with its intricate crime fiction narrative, compelling characters, and even a cool new audiobook version.

I’ve done a lot of Discworld re-reading recently as I have been checking out several of the best books in the series on their new audiobook formats, which featured cool new narrators.  This new format has proven particularly awesome for books like Mort, Pyramids, Moving Pictures and Small Gods, as well as for entries in my favourite Discworld subseries, the City Watch books.

While I have a lot of love for all the books in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, my absolute favourites come from the City Watch subseries.  Following the unlikely members of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, a rag-tag team of guards who go from losers to an effective police force, the City Watch books features an exceptional combination of fantasy and crime fiction elements, wrapped up in Pratchett’s usual satirical humour.  The first two books in this series, Guards! Guards! and Men at Arms are quite exceptional, and it was a very easy decision to also check out the epic third novel in the series, Feet of Clay.

After several unlikely but successful investigations, things are looking up for the Ankh-Morpork City Watch.  No longer a home for the dregs of society, the City Watch is now a respected crime-fighting unit.  Led by Commander Sam Vimes, the Watch’s enthusiastic, if unusual, members are determined to bring some law and order to the city of Ankh-Morpork, whether it wants it or not.

However, even with their new resources and members, the Watch find themselves troubled by a series of brutal murders occurring throughout the city.  All the victims were bludgeoned to death, but there is no evidence of anyone alive, or undead, having been at the crime scene.  At the same time, the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork has been poisoned by unknown methods and is only barely clinging to life.  If the Patrician dies, sanity in the city will be the next to fall.

To solve both cases, Vimes and his watchmen will need to investigate an overlooked underclass in the city, the golems, whose ancient secrets and desires may lie at the heart of the killings.  But with desperate conspiracies, unlikely noble heirs and a new deranged king coming to light, can the City Watch uncover the figures pulling the strings in the darkness of Ankh-Morpork before it’s too late?

Wow, how is this book still so damn good?  Feet of Clay was another outstanding read from Terry Pratchett, who once again deeply impresses with his exceptional writing, unmatched humour, and deeply relatable characters.  This third City Watch book is probably some of Pratchett’s very best work, and it gets an extremely easy five-star rating from me.

I absolutely love the great narrative that Pratchett came up with for Feet of Clay, which I personally thinks has one of the author’s best crime fiction narratives behind it, as the complex characters humorously manoeuvre around the gritty streets of Ankh-Morpork.  This book features a fun start that perfectly sets the scene for several of the key characters, including protagonist Sam Vimes’s daily routine of assassins and high society.  You are also quickly thrust into the Watch’s new case involving two elderly academics bludgeoned to death.  These initial investigations, as well as some other great sequences, set the scene for much of the rest of the book, with the narrative becoming even more hectic when Vimes discovers that the Patrician has been poisoned by unknown conspirators.

Afte the initial set-up, the rest of the story flows by extremely fast, with several character-driven storylines that flow together perfectly.  The primary focus is on the two seemingly separate investigations into the murders and the poisonings, with Captain Carrot and Vimes taking control of each case.  Both these major storylines go in some very interesting directions, with Vimes desperately trying to work out how the poisonings happened, while Carrot and Angua begin investigating the city’s golems, one of whom seems responsible for the murders.  At the same time, Pratchett also provides some fantastic character-based storylines around several of the supporting Watch characters. This includes the unusual proclivities of the Watch’s new dwarf officer Corporal Cheery Littlebottom, Corporal Nobby Nobbs’s unbelievable reveal as a potential noble, one golem’s journey towards self-determination, and Angua’s continued feelings of alienation at being a werewolf.

All these storylines cross over perfectly in the final third of Feet of Clay, as the protagonists finally put together the subtle clues for the main two cases.  While the reveal about who or what is behind the murders is fantastic in its own way, I must highlight the extremely well-hidden poisoning method that Pratchett devised for this plot, which is just so damn devious and cleverly set-up by the author.  This leads to an excellent, action-focused collection of sequences that eventually pull together into an intense confrontation.

Pratchett wraps this up perfectly, with some amazing final reveals about who was ultimately pulling all the strings.  While the mastermind of the conspiracy isn’t too surprising (especially if you listen to one of the audiobook versions), the way that Vimes works out their identity is so much fun thanks to some ironically hidden clues, and I love the big reveal scene between Vimes and the main antagonist.  Pratchett also wraps up the remaining storylines perfectly, providing some great final touches to each of the characters’ respective arcs, and ensuring that the readers come away extremely satisfied.  I honestly cannot emphasise enough just how addictive and clever this narrative was, and every single aspect of this plot was perfectly set up and utilised by Pratchett as he wove his fantasy, crime fiction magic.

I’ve always felt that Feet of Clay was one of Pratchett’s best-written novels, as he manages to expertly balance a range of competing storylines inside this highly entertaining, hybrid novel.  As with all his City Watch books, the way that Pratchett manages to blend fantasy and crime fiction elements with his usual brilliant humour is just incredible, and I love how well this mixture of elements works to tell an effective narrative.  I must particularly commend the great mystery in Feet of Clay, which is just so damn intricate with all its clues and mixture of compelling character storylines.  Feet of Clay easily has some of Pratchett’s best mystery writing in its plot, and there is an outstanding amount of complexity built into both cases, with the truly elaborate poisoning arc being a particular highlight.  The sheer amount of cleverly crafted and often humorous clues that the author scatters throughout the book is so damn awesome, and it is so much fun to pull them all together.

The book’s outstanding crime fiction elements are perfectly enhanced by the background fantasy elements of the setting, with the protagonists forced to investigate the crimes in the context of a chaotic city populated with different species.  Compared to previous books, the investigation in Feet of Clay is much more like a modern police procedural, with classic forensic concepts enhanced with fantasy elements like scent tracking done by a werewolf and crime scene photos drawn by imps.  The protagonists also need to deal with various fantasy creatures, such as golems, vampires, dwarfs and a very angry gnome, and understanding their motivations becomes a key part of the plot.  Pratchett also uses these fantasy elements to address and lightly satirise contemporary social trends.  For example, one dwarf’s attempt to find herself leads to a complex, nuanced and thought-provoking discussion on gender identity, which can still be readily applied to modern discourses on transgendered rights and modern gender norms.  Another storyline focusing on golems gaining free will is also highly relevant, especially when you consider artificial intelligence.  Throw in the general chaos and disorder of the city, which results in additional fun conflicts and incidents (Vimes’s one-sided battle against the Assassins Guild is particularly amusing), as well as a focus on the changes that have occurred to Ankh-Morpork thanks to the actions of the Patrician and the Watch, and you really have to appreciate just how fell the inherent fantasy elements of Feet of Clay enhances the plot.

While both the mystery and fantasy elements of Feet of Clay are very compelling, what really turns this into a five-star read is the clever humour that Pratchett adds to his books.  There are various layers to the humour in this novel, although much of it lies in classic fantasy or murder mystery scenarios going in particularly absurd directions, or being artfully dissected by self-aware protagonists who find the situation and its real-world historical precedent very absurd.  There are also the brilliant footnotes that seek to enhance the story and showcase just how ridiculous the Discworld is by providing additional details about the universe and the people within it.  Finally, you have humour driven by the outrageous characters scattered throughout the plot, with ultra-sarcastic figures rubbing shoulders with entertaining parodies of terrible people.  The more direct humour drawn from the storylines of several of these characters, such as Corporal Nobbs’s foray into the upper class, and Sergeant Colon unfortunate agricultural experiences, blends well with the rest of the complex novel, and ensures that there are entertaining moments, no matter where in Feet in Clay you are.

This great combination of humour, fantasy elements and a crime fiction narrative helps to make Feet of Clay one of the more appealing novels in all the Discworld series, and so many different readers will end up getting a lot out of it.  As such, Feet of Clay works incredibly well as a standalone novel, with new readers easily able to enjoy this book without any prior knowledge of the Discworld or previous City Watch books, especially as Pratchett covers any relevant history or characters quite effectively.  However, I do feel that to get the best experience with Feet of Clay, readers would benefit from checking out Guards! Guards! and Men at Arms first.  The continuing storylines, history of the city and character arcs all come into play extremely well in Feet of Clay and you get a much more complete experience viewing all City Watch novels in order.

As with all of Pratchett’s novels, one of the real joys of Feet of Clay is the complex and comedic characters the author weaved such incredible, entertaining, and often extremely heartwarming tales around.  Featuring a great combination of the well-established cast of the previous City Watch books, as well as a couple of awesome new figures, Pratchett did an exceptional job diving into the cast of his novel and the resulting depth to their characters was so damn impressive.

At the centre of Feet of Clay lies main character Commander Samuel Vimes, the recently ennobled and married commander of the City Watch.  Transformed from a drunken and hated figure to the leader of a respected police organisation, Vimes has been forced to up his game, especially as he now finds himself being targeted by the elites of the city which he does with some comedic vigour.  Feet of Clay is probably the book where Pratchett twists the focus of the City Watch fully towards Vimes.  The definite centre of the plot, Pratchett really dives into Vimes’s obsessive nature, his simmering anger at the upper classes, and his determination to bring justice to everyone equally.  Vimes dogged, yet cynical, approach to investigation and crime solving comes face to face with a particularly dastardly plot in Feet of Clay, and there are some wonderful sequences as he tries to puzzle out the poisoning.  Pratchett also provides some extra detail about Vimes’ poor upbringing and the history of his family, which really showcases his motivations to a great degree.  All this allows for a much more complicated figure then we saw in previous books, and it was an interesting change of pace for this central character that Pratchett would expand on in later books.

In addition to Vimes, there are some interesting focuses on Captain Carrot and Constable Angua, who led the investigation into the murders in the city, and Pratchett wraps some compelling elements around them.  Carrot remains the charismatic and skilled leader of men for much of the story, with a continued focus on his love for the city and ability to charm anyone he encounters.  However, Pratchett does attempt to break his seemingly perfect facade in this novel by having him struggle to come to terms with Cheery Littlebottom’s identity issues.  The author also continues to shift away from Carrot as a perspective character, instead allowing his many appearances to be mainly told from the view of other, more cynical members of the cast.  This gives his actions and motivations a little more mystery and allows the reader to wonder just how perfect he really is.  For Feet of Clay, most of this narration was done by Angua, the Watch’s werewolf officer and Carrot’s love interest.  Angua proves to be a very practical and sarcastic personality foil to the upbeat Carrot, which helps to humanise both to a degree.  Pratchett also adds in a compelling underlying storyline of Angua struggling with how others perceive her as a werewolf, and her certainty that her relationship with Carrot can’t last.

While Carrot and Angua represent the more serious side of the Watch, Pratchett continues to have fun by focusing on the always amusing and comedic duo of Sergeant Fred Colon and Corporal Nobby Nobbs.  Their narrative in Feet of Clay is particularly good, especially for Nobby, who finds himself elevated to nobility status when it is discovered he is the long-lost descendant of the Earl of Ankh.  Suddenly forced to hobnob with other nobs, Nobby has some fantastic reactions and interactions, especially going from despair at being a penniless noble, to trying to fit in with the city’s elite.  While this seems like a mostly comedic storyline to undercut the tension of Feet of Clay’s serious crimes it fits into the main narrative in some clever ways, although Nobby’s reaction when he finds this out is so damn funny and perfectly reflects his own mentality and his knowledge of Vimes’ reactions.

Sergeant Colon, on the other hand, is somewhat less used in Feet of Clay, although Pratchett has fun satirising the ‘policeman three days away from retirement’ trope through him.  Keen to get out of the Watch because his wife wants him to buy a farm (another subtle and fun joke from Pratchett), Colon inevitably runs into insane trouble in the second half of the book, and it was fun to see the craziness of the other storylines literally stampede over him.  I have loved these two characters since their first appearance in Guards! Guards! and this is one of their funniest books (although their next appearance in Jingo is also peak comedy).

While these recurring characters are awesome, special mention needs to go to the new members of the Watch that Pratchett introduces in Feet of Clay, who have major impacts on the plot.  The most significant of this is the new dwarf forensic officer, Corporal Cheery Littlebottom (a very traditional dwarf name).  Cheery serves as a compelling outsider figure, with Pratchett moving her across both investigations.  However, it’s her characterisation as a female dwarf who wants to acknowledge her gender rather than act like a male dwarf, as is tradition, that really sets Cheery up as a standout character.  Naturally working in aspects of identity and overcoming established mindsets are a big part of Cheery’s character, and it was wonderful to see her gain confidence and skill as a Watch officer.  Pratchett did such an excellent job of handling these complex cultural elements through Cheery, and it’s amazing how significant Cheery’s actions are in the larger Discworld narrative, as well as how relevant they are today.

Other characters I need to mention as I finally wrap up this section include the mysterious golem Dorfl.  A voiceless and dutiful figure that is part of the city’s exploited golem underclass, Dorfl has a compelling connection to the murders in Feet of Clay and serves as an unlikely witness and suspect.  Pratchett writes a particularly compelling motivation around Dorfl’s actions in this novel, which cleverly ties into discussion about self-determination and artificial intelligence.  I also had a lot of fun with Dorfl’s later scenes, especially as he becomes the city’s most unexpected and dramatic revolutionary.  Other highlights for me include Lord Vetinari, who takes his role as a poison victim with his usual special interest.  Throw in an ancient vampire with a love of terrible puns, an extremely angry gnome, and other compelling characters dragged into the narrative’s web, and the cast of Feet of Clay was one of Pratchett’s strongest, especially with all the emotional impact they add to the plot.

As with all the other Discworld novels I have reviewed, I have enjoyed Feet of Clay on various formats over the years, but my favourite is once again its audiobook version.  The various audiobook releases are always the absolute best ways to enjoy a Discworld novel, and the fantastic humour, compelling characters and entertaining locations that Pratchett comes up with, always come across in impressive fashion when read out.  This is especially true for Feet of Clay, which, like many of the series, has had several different audiobook versions over the years.  This includes the classic version released back in 1997, featuring narration by one of my favourite audiobook narrators, the legendary Nigel Planer.  I have raved about Planer in several previous reviews, including for Guards! Guards! and Men at Arms, and few narrators can capture Pratchett’s style and comedic charm with their voices like Planer did.  His work narrating Feet of Clay was particularly impressive, especially with his portrayal of all the cool characters, including an over-the-top vampire, the new dwarf member of the watch, and more.  The Planer narration of this novel is probably the definitive Feet of Clay audiobook, and I have been in love with this version since I was a child.

I also need to highlight the new audiobook released a couple of years ago.  Featuring the very impressive cast of Jon Culshaw, Peter Serafinowicz and Bill Nighy, this more recent Feet of Clay release was also very exceptional, building off the great work these three narrators did with their Guards! Guards! and Men at Arms audiobooks.  Coming in with a runtime of 12 hours and 20 minutes, this Feet of Clay audiobook is a bit longer than the Planer release (which had a runtime of 9 hours and 38 minutes), although listeners are still in for an exceptional time.  Much of this is down to British radio and television personality Jon Culshaw, who once again made this audiobook his own with his take on the story and his characters.  His gritty and entertaining voices for the cast are very fitting, and like Planer, he excels at showcasing their complicated personalities, as well as the overall humour of the book.  I am once again very impressed with just how excellent Culshaw was for the City Watch books, and he is my favourite narrator from these new Discworld audiobooks.

As with all books in this new collection of Discworld audiobook’s, Culshaw’s main narration was perfectly backed up by recuring voices of Bill Nighy and Peter Serafinowicz.  These performances were once again perfect, and I especially loved Nighy’s excellent work with the vital, comedic footnotes. Serafinowicz’s role in Feet of Clay is also very fun, as he brings the fan-favourite character of Death to life.  While Death only has a few scenes in Feet of Clay, Serafinowicz makes the most of his appearances, and hearing the actor’s deep Death voice suddenly appear amongst the general narration really increases the impact of the character.  Both Bill Nighy and Peter Serafinowicz’s inclusions were extremely fun, and I felt that they were combined with Culshaw’s main narration in a very impressive way.  These three brilliant British talents ensured that the new version of Feet of Clay was particularly impressive and while my heart will always belong to the original audiobook with Nigel Planer, this new multi-cast audiobook will likely inspire a new generation of Discworld fans.

With an incredible and winning combination of charm, mystery and comedic brilliance, Feet of Clay was another exceptional and classic read in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld.  Providing an ultra-addictive story that also perfectly adds in some great new characters, Feet of Clay is one of the very best Discworld books, and one of my personal favourites.  An exceptional read I will recommend until the day I die!

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The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Fantasy, Five-Star Books, Throwback Thursday2 Comments

Publisher: Gollancz (Trade Paperback – 16 March 2021)

Series: Blacktongue series – Book One

Length: 416 pages

My Rating: 5 out 5 stars

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Prepare for brutal action and adventure in the highly acclaimed fantasy novel, The Blacktongue Thief, a modern classic from a fast-rising author of fantasy fiction.

Several years ago, I made note of an intriguing upcoming fantasy novel that had caught my attention, The Blacktongue Thief.  Written by Christopher Buehlman, an established fantasy and horror writer who I wasn’t familiar with, The Blacktongue Thief had an awesome and intriguing plot behind it, and I was determined to read it when it came out in 2021.  Unfortunately, due to time constraints I never got the chance to read it when it first came out.  However, for the next several years all I heard from fellow fantasy fans was just how good The Blacktongue Thief and its prequel The Daughter’s War was.  Despite this constant praise, which felt a little judgemental towards me, I kept failing to read The Blacktongue Thief, although I was lucky enough to find a good secondhand copy of it last year.  With the sequel to The Blacktongue Thief announced for late 2026, I finally decided to take the plunge with this book earlier this year, and boy was I happy, if unsurprised, with how much fun I had with it.

Plot Synopsis:

Kinch Na Shannack owes the Takers Guild a small fortune for his education as a thief, which includes (but is not limited to) lock-picking, knife-fighting, wall-scaling, fall-breaking, lie-weaving, trap-making, plus a few small magics. His debt has driven him to lie in wait by the old forest road, planning to rob the next traveler that crosses his path.

But today, Kinch Na Shannack has picked the wrong mark.

Galva is a knight, a survivor of the brutal goblin wars, and handmaiden of the goddess of death. She is searching for her queen, missing since a distant northern city fell to giants.

Unsuccessful in his robbery and lucky to escape with his life, Kinch now finds his fate entangled with Galva’s. Common enemies and uncommon dangers force thief and knight on an epic journey where goblins hunger for human flesh, krakens hunt in dark waters, and honor is a luxury few can afford.

Whelp, it turns out that I made a big mistake not reading The Blacktongue Thief sooner.  Featuring a powerful and dark take on the classic fantasy quest, The Blacktongue Thief was a compelling character-driven journey into an elaborate and war-riven fantasy world that effortlessly grabs your attention and refuses to let go.  An utterly addictive read from Buehlman that gets a full five-star rating from me.

Buehlman hits the ground running hard with The Blacktongue Thief, quickly introducing you to witty and likeable rogue, Kinch Na Shannack, the book’s protagonist and point-of-view character, as he engages in a little light banditry in the forest.  However, things quickly get out of hand for the protagonist as he fails to rob travelling knight and goblin wars veteran Galva in dramatic fashion.  However, there is far more to Galva than expected, as Kinch finds himself tasked by his employers, the powerful Takers Guild of thieves to follow Galva on her quest to the remote, giant-ravished nation of Oustrim, where she seeks to find her lost friend and queen.  Manoeuvring his way into Galva’s travel plans, Kinch soon becomes attached to his new friend, while the Takers Guild continue to control his actions.  I liked how effectively Buehlman set up his narrative in the early pages of The Blacktongue Thief, as there is a lot of early hints and starting storylines that play out as the novel continues.  The author also lays out some interesting details about the larger fantasy world, including much of its recent troubles and wars, which effectively draws you in alongside the compelling central narrative.

After this intriguing start, Buehlman gets into the story proper, as The Blacktongue Thief takes on many characteristics of a classic fantasy adventure story, with the protagonists travelling from one end of the continent to another.  Picking up some interesting new companions, as well as hints of some of the shadowy motivations around the various players of the plot, Buehlman starts loading in the action, with several entertaining and bloody sequences.  I personally loved the extended run with the protagonists travelling on a piratical whaling ship that takes up much of the centre of The Blacktongue Thief, especially as Buehlman litters this part of the book with feuds, monster fighting, multiple skirmishes and other nautical misadventures.  There are some great moments here, and the author shows the reader what type of book The Blacktongue Thief is with plenty of brutal deaths and sudden changes of fortune.  While much of this part of the book is focused on adventure and modern carnage, Buehlman also makes sure to continue providing intriguing dives into additional details of the setting, as well as some compelling character histories, much of which comes into play as the book continues.

After several dark encounters, tragedies and compelling dangers, the book enters its final third, which proves to be particularly compelling.  Set in the giant-stalked ruins of Oustrim, this final part of The Blacktongue Thief is particularly intense, and you are constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop amongst the dangerous exploration, encounters and sudden sharp conflict.  Buehlman cleverly drops some big revelations as you get towards the end of the book, with developments that change your entire perspective of events.  It also leads to a final series of deadly confrontations, which proves to be quite shocking in places, even after the book’s various prior tragedies.  Buehlman keeps you guessing about what will happen next right to the very end, especially with a final mind-blowing twist about a supporting character.  I loved the intriguing note that Buehlman leaves The Blacktongue Thief on, especially as it sets up its potential sequel which will no-doubt expand on several loose ends from this cool book.  All this is quite addictive, and I honestly got so hooked on all the crazy adventures that the author loaded into this novel.

I really enjoyed how The Blacktongue Thief came together, especially as Buehlman provides a dark take on the classic quest narrative.  Bringing the reader into a beat-up fantasy world, The Blacktongue Thief has a very readable and edgy style that effectively draws you in from the start.  It really doesn’t take you long to get stuck into the book thanks to the great combination of entertaining humour, distinctive worldbuilding and intense action, all of which blends in an excellent and intense manner.  Much of this humour is driven from the amusing antics of The Blacktongue Thief’s protagonist, and the combination of other unique personalities adds a lot to the overall adventure aspect of the plot.  The intrigue, mistrust and hidden motivations increase the tension of the plot nicely, with old mistakes and dark histories perfectly inserted into the main plot by Buehlman.  I deeply enjoyed the multiple awesome action set-pieces that the author throws into The Blacktongue Thief, with so many intense moments of well-choreographed and described combat weaved into the plot.  There is an amazing amount of brutality thrown into the book, which the darker nature of the universe and the desperate plot extremely well, and I was glad that Buehlman didn’t hold back any punches.  I also really enjoyed how there were no slow or quiet moments in The Blacktongue Thief, with the reader constantly moving forward, much like the protagonists.

For me one of the big highlights that put The Blacktongue Thief on another level was the complex and grim fantasy world the story takes place in.  While there are many classic fantasy elements within this book, Buehlman sets it apart with some very intriguing details.  In particular, the book is set in the aftermath of a brutal war between the various human nations and an invading army of goblins.  As such, there is a battered feel to the setting, with the remaining humans wary and militant, and distrust and change in the air.  I loved how well Buehlman captured the desperation and despair of the inhabitants of the realm, as they attempt to survive in the post-war period, and it adds an even darker edge to the already brutal proceedings.  The clever inclusion of several consequences of the war, such as the loss of all the horses in the world thanks to a goblin-wrought disease, and the necessity of woman to be called up to fight in the last war, further enhances the uniqueness of The Blacktongue Thief, and it was really cool how it impacted the current journey and the protagonist’s pasts.  I also quite enjoyed how Buehlman set up multiple unique fantasy realms and kingdoms within the larger world, which the protagonists are forced to move across to reach their goals.  The differing politics, cultures and allegiances that they experienced, as well as the realistic length of the journey across the large continent, ensured that the protagonist’s journey felt like a proper epic quest, and I really enjoyed following the journey on the map provided at the front of the book.  Tracing the protagonist’s journey across the lands helped to enhance the enormity of the plot, and it also hinted at a ton of fun new realms that the protagonists will likely visit in the other entries in this series.  Buehlman’s excellent world building in The Blacktongue Thief really was quite impressive, and it was a big factor in my eventual five-star rating.

The final thing I want to talk about with The Blacktongue Thief are the excellent and memorable characters Buehlman sets his plot around.  The author ends up introducing a fun central cast that engage in the main quest, each of whom have their own demons and interesting quirks.  The primary character is Kinch Na Shannack, a low-level thief who is indebted to the Takers Guild after they trained him and taught him some basic magic.  The narrator and central perspective protagonist, Kinch entertains as the willey tricksters of the group, using his brains and talents for deceit and thievery to survive rather than brute force.  Much of The Blacktongue Thief’s humour comes from Kinch’s funny jokes, cutting observations and somewhat unreliable narration, which blended surprisingly well with the darker setting of the book.  While mostly always comedic, Kinch does have a serious side to him, especially when it comes to his many secrets and hidden motivations.  Buehlman writes a great plot around Kinch finding his true purpose, as his loyalties to the group and his growing courage is forced up against the control of the Takers Guild and the general craziness of the world he encounters.  An overall amazing main character who was the perfect depiction of the rebellious yet faithful rogue.

The other major character I really need to highlight is the striking Galva, a deadly female knight whose quest the plot is set around.  A scarred and dangerous veteran of the goblin wars, Galva is a no-nonsense figure in the book, dedicated to her mission, as well as her worship of the setting’s death goddess.  Buehlman ensures that Galva is set up as pretty badass character from the very start of the book, and you really get drawn to her honourable personality in this dishonourable world.  While mostly serious and unforgiving, there is a certain lighter side to Galva at times, which makes even more likeable, and she ended up being the perfect foil and straight woman to Kinch, with the two having some great interactions.  There is also a certain amount of battle-born trauma to Galva, much of which looks set to be explored in the prequel novel, The Daughter’s War, which added some extra complexity to her appearance.  Galva truly was a great character, and I loved her use as the serious and militant heart of the larger cast.

While Kinch and Galva get most of the focus in The Blacktongue Thief, there are some other entertaining characters who add a lot to the plot.  This includes the young witch, Norrigal, who serves as an interesting interest to Kinch, and whose overarching story had some clever and twisty moments to.  I also must mention Malk Na Brannyck, a countryman of Kinch who adds a lot of drama to the plot due to his history with the protagonist.  Another war veteran, Malk worked well as a minor antagonist who eventually morphs into a reluctant ally, and his various caustic interactions with Kinch added to the larger dysfunction of the protagonists.  Special mention also needs to go to the stray cat, Bully Boy, who tags along with the group against all the odds, and whose appearance definitely isn’t sinister or mysterious.  Throw in a range of rogues, thieves, killers and other dangerous figures that the protagonists encounter, and the cast of The Blacktongue Thief is stacked.  All these characters, and more, have some great storylines attached to them, and I really enjoyed the entertaining and often dark interactions that occurred, especially as it added to the general chaos of the plot.

After finally reading this epic novel, I can confirm that The Blacktongue Thief lives up the hype surrounding it.  Christopher Buehlman introduced a wonderfully dark fantasy world in this book and then moulded a powerful adventure story around it.  Loaded with intense action, great characters and a captivating story, The Blacktongue Thief was utter fun from the very beginning, and I had so much fun getting through it.  I am so glad I finally got the chance to read this novel, and I am hoping to read The Daughter’s War next, especially with the next book in series, The Thrice-Bound Fool, set for release later this year.

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Warhammer 40,000: The Greater Good by Sandy Mitchell

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Extended Universe, Science Fiction, Throwback Thursday, Tie-in Novel, WarhammerLeave a comment

Publisher: Black Library (Audiobook – 1 January 2013)

Series: Ciaphas Cain – Book Nine

Length: 9 hours and 50 minutes

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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Continue to follow the legendary and complex Commissar Ciaphas Cain into death and danger, with another amazing book in Sandy Mitchell’s awesome Warhammer 40,000 series, The Greater Good.

After recently reviewing the eighth book in Sandy Mitchell’s iconic Ciaphas Cain series, The Last Ditch, I just had to continue following the fun adventures of the Imperium’s most charismatic yet cowardly commissar, Ciaphas Cain.  As such, the moment I finished The Last Ditch, I immediately read the ninth book in the series, The Greater Good, which had a very interesting scenario behind it that builds on several previous storylines from the series.

Commissar Ciaphas Cain, legendary hero of the Imperium of Man and self-declared fraud, is once again thrust into mortal danger when he is assigned to bolster the defences of the human planet of Quadravidia, against the high-tech attacks of the Tau.  Amid the expected brutal fighting against the advanced aliens, Cain is surprised when the Tau not only recognise him amongst the fighting but also single him out to request an unexpected ceasefire right on the cusp of a Tau victory.

Expecting the worst from this unlikely turn of events, Cain is unsurprised when the Tau reveal that an even greater threat is moving towards the sector, a hive fleet of Tyranids.  With neither side capable of fighting both each other and the ravenous Tyranids, the Imperium and the Tau agree to an uneasy truce, with both sides agreeing to coordinate their offensive against the incoming hive fleet.

Accompanied by a Tau ambassador, Cain, his trusty aid Jurgen, and the Imperial fleet journey to the vital Forge World of Fecundia, a potential target for the incoming Tyranids.  Using Fecundia as a base of operations, the Imperium are hopeful the Tyrands will focus their attack on the Tau controlled planets.  However, the chances of Cain remaining out of the fight are always slim, and the commissar soon discovers the existence of a secret facility hidden on the planet, one guaranteed to draw the Tyranids to Fecundia.

Caught between an invading fleet of ravening aliens, and the troubled politics of Fecundia, Cain must rally the defenders for another deadly battle.  However, the secrets lurking within the hidden facility look set to doom them all, and Cain must discover just how far the rot goes in Fecundia, before the entire world is devoured.

The Greater Good was another excellent and highly entertaining Warhammer 40,000 novel from Sandy Mitchell that combines excellent and action-packed storytelling, with a fantastic and humorous protagonist.  Featuring an outstanding story, The Greater Good was a ton of fun from start to finish, and it served as an amazing continuation of one of the best Warhammer 40,000 series out there.

I quite enjoyed the plot of The Greater Good, although it did go in some different directions to what I was expecting.  From the cover and the official plot synopsis, I assumed this novel was going to feature humans and Tau fighting side by side on the initial planet the book is set, after temporarily setting aside their differences.  Instead, the plot is primarily set on a secondary planet of Fecundia, with the only Tau being a controversial ambassador providing some interesting alternative insights.  While this was still a fun and exciting narrative, it did run the risk of being a bit too similar to some of the previous Ciaphas Cain novels that focused on Tyranid invasions.

I felt that Mitchell compensated well for this change in direction, by drawing together an interesting read about infiltration, isolated battles and the Imperium’s research in the Tyranids as they attempt to find ways to defeat them.  Revisiting key story elements from the previous two Ciaphas Cain novels, the protagonist soon finds himself trapped amid a series of controversial and dangerous experiments that begin to attract the Tyranid hive fleet.  After a series of exciting set pieces, including a great extended sequence with the protagonist trapped in an alien filled desert, you reach the final third of the book which primarily takes place in the secret research centre.  Unsurprisingly, things go wrong, and Cain and Jurgen are forced into a seemingly hopeless situation as they fight enemies on all sides.  There were some good twists here, especially around potential betrayals, and while the culprit is easy to predict, there is an excellent amount of uncertainty and red herrings to keep you guessing.  The entire story comes together in an awesome way, filled with Mitchell’s usual excellent fight sequences and humour, and this proved to be a compelling and satisfying addition to the larger series.

Long-term fans of this Warhammer 40,000 series will know that Mitchell has a set format for the Ciaphas Cain books that blends clever character-driven humour with the usual grim action and lore of the universe.  This was also the case for The Greater Good, which features the usual chronicle style told from the protagonist’s perspective, bolstered by funny external commentary from a fictional editor, who also adds in some entertaining in-universe texts for some additional context.  While this style and certain narrative elements are very familiar, especially if you read a few of these books in a row, The Greater Good was still an awesome novel, and Mitchell did make it stand out by adding in some intrigue with Tyranid infiltrators, as well as some curious looks at diplomacy between the Imperium and the Tau.  I quite enjoyed seeing the conflicts that emerged between the various factions of this impromptu alliance, especially as Cain and the Imperial Guard had more issues with their Adeptus Mechanicus and Space Marine allies than the Tau.  Add to that Mitchell’s usually impressive humour and wonderful action set pieces, and The Greater Good was an overall outstanding novel that I quickly powered through.

While most of the Ciaphas Cain books work well as standalone reads that are very accessible to new readers, The Greater Good stood out as it had more of a connection to the previous entries in the series.  There were a lot of heavy references to the events of For the Emperor, The Emperor’s Finest and The Last Ditch, with key plot elements and some returning characters coming into the play during The Greater Good’s narrative.  As someone who enjoyed all the previous books, it was nice to see the consequences and aftermath of these prior adventures be utilised in this entry’s plot, and I think that long-term fans will really appreciate it.  These references also helped to dispel some of the usual issues this series has with reusing descriptions and thoughts from the previous books.  While much of the plot is geared towards established fans, new readers can still easily follow The Greater Good’s plot without too much issue, as Mitchell does an excellent job of recapping these previous adventures.  As such, The Greater Good proves to be an amazing overall entry in the Ciaphas Cain series, especially as it remains accessible and enjoyable to readers of varying experiences.

As always, I must give a shoutout to the outstanding cast of this novel, especially as there is an interesting array of unique characters contained within.  This includes a great mix of familiar and new characters, with much of the action focused on the titular Commissar Ciaphas Cain, who remains the usual complex rogue we’re so familiar with.  It is always fun to see Cain struggle with his imposter syndrome and supposed cowardice, and Mitchell ensures that the protagonist is the main source of the book’s humour thanks to his self-centred narration and hilarious insights into the usual grimdark universe.  Cain’s aide Jurgen remains an excellent source of additional entertainment, while Inquisitor Amberly Vail is once again perfect as the overarching editor of the story, providing her sarcastic insights and corrections to Cain’s actions and conclusions.  Throw in a captivating combination of new or minor characters, including a frustrated general, a calculating Tau ambassador, some returning Space Marines and a cunning Tech Priest with her own agenda, and the cast of The Greater Good is exceptional and drives the story into some fascinating places.

After hyping up the audiobook versions of all the previous Ciaphas Cain entries, I doubt anyone will be too surprised that I decided to check out The Greater Good on this format.  All Warhammer 40,000 novels are damn awesome on audiobook, and The Greater Good is a particularly epic example of this.  Coming in with a runtime just short of 10 hours, The Greater Good audiobook is an amazing listen that is easy to get addicted to, especially as the excellent use of several outstanding narrators really helps to enhance and highlight Mitchell’s unique writing style.

The Greater Good audiobook features an impressive six separate narrators, all of whom will be quite well known by Warhammer audiobook enthusiasts.  As with the rest of the series, most of the work is done by returning narrators Stephen Perring and Penelope Rawlins, both of whom have a key role in this production.  Perring serves as the entertaining and flippant voice of Cain as he recounts this adventure in his own words, while Rawlins is the voice of Inquisitor Vail as she provides her editorial notes throughout the plot and introduces other intermissions.  These two have long proven themselves to be perfect main narrators for the Ciaphas Cain books, and they fulfilled their roles in The Greater Good extremely well, full grasping the complexity of their respective characters.  The other four narrators for this audiobook, Matthew Hunt, Andrew James Spooner, John Banks and Tara Rawson, have minor but entertaining roles in this audiobook, providing voices for the various in-universe history texts and other books/messages that appear at various parts of the book, which allows for some additional comedy.  This mixed narration comes together extremely well throughout the entirety of The Greater Good, resulting in a particularly epic listen.  As such, I would once again recommend that potential readers of this Ciaphas Cain novel check out the audiobook version, as there is frankly no better way to enjoy The Greater Good.

With yet another clever, exciting and hilarious take on the epic Warhammer 40,000 universe, the ninth Ciaphas Cain novel, The Greater Good, was an outstanding addition to the series that I had a wonderful time listening to.  Utilising his tried and tested writing style, Sandy Mitchell produces another compelling and entertaining read that proves to be highly addictive and a lot of fun to get through.  I really enjoyed this excellent entry in the Ciaphas Cain series, and I am hoping to finish off this series by the end of the year.

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Warhammer 40,000: The Last Ditch by Sandy Mitchell

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Extended Universe, Science Fiction, Throwback Thursday, Tie-in Novel, Warhammer1 Comment

Publisher: Black Library (Audiobook – 1 February 2012)

Series: Ciaphas Cain – Book Eight

Length: 9 hours and 29 minutes

My Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars

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The mighty hero of the Imperium returns for another rip-roaring and highly entertaining Warhammer 40,000 adventure, with The Last Ditch by Sandy Mitchell, a wonderful Ciaphas Cain novel that proves exceptionally hard to put down.

I have been in a real Warhammer 40,000 mood lately, so I decided to continue my exploration of the franchise by diving back into one of its best and most hilarious series with another Ciaphas Cain novel by Sandy Mitchell.  The Ciaphas Cain series are particularly awesome Warhammer 40,000 novels that follow the adventures of the legendary human hero Commissar Ciaphas Cain as he faces down the many horrors the grimdark Warhammer universe has to offer.  However, what sets the series apart from other series in the franchise is the fantastic tongue-in-cheek way in which the supposed hero of the series sees himself as a substantial coward concerned more with his own survival, and whose heroic exploits are down more to luck and chance.  This results in a fantastic collection of books, each one of which throws the protagonist into danger despite his best efforts, often resulting in a series of hilarious and over-the-top adventures.  I have had an outstanding team reading the previous entries in the series, including For the Emperor, Caves of Ice, The Traitor’s Hand, Death or Glory, Duty Calls, Cain’s Last Stand and The Emperor’s Finest, and I have been eager to read the eighth novel in the series, The Last Ditch for some time.

Commissar Ciaphas Cain, famed hero of the Imperium of Man, is at the height of his legendary career, fighting back the many enemies of humanity despite his best attempts to stay out of battle.  However, despite his reputation usually landing him in the most challenging of conflicts, Cain’s next mission seems to be relatively straightforward.  Once again accompanied by the Valhallan 597th regiment of Imperial Guard, Cain is tasked with eradicating a simple ork infestation on the frozen planet of Nusquam Fundumentibus.  However, not even Cain’s most pessimistic musings of the future can prepare him for the horrors to come.

Travelling aboard a disreputable freighter, Cain and his soldiers are forced to make a deadly crashlanding on Nusquam Fundumentibus, right into the middle of an ork horde.  Engaged in a desperate fight for their lives against the greenskins, the Imperial Guard are blind to other threats hiding on the planet, threats that are far more insidious than a group of rampaging orks.

As the conflict continues and several isolated communities on the planet start to go dark, Cain soon becomes aware that something apart from the orks are stalking the citizens of Nusquam Fundumentibus.  Something ancient and malevolent lies hidden beneath the ice of the planet, and the new war has finally woken them up.  Outnumbered and outmatched, the Imperial Guard need to pull a desperate and no doubt suicidal plan to survive.  Luckily, they have a bonified hero to lead the charge, even if he’d rather be anywhere else in the galaxy.

The always outstanding Ciaphas Cain series continues in impressive form, as Sandy Mitchell adds further depth to some of the more entertaining and gripping novels in the Warhammer 40,000 franchise.  Combining intense action with the protagonist’s unique insights into the grimdark Warhammer universe, The Last Ditch was a brilliant addition to the series that I couldn’t get enough of.

Mitchell once again came up with an outstanding narrative for The Last Ditch that grabs your attention early on and keeps you hooked to the very end.  I must admit that I was a little apprehensive about reading The Last Ditch, as it looked like Mitchell was going to rehash the similar ice-world story found in Caves of Ice.  However, this book has a very different narrative, while still maintaining all the familiar story elements that make this series to dependable to read.  Starting off on a different footing with a fun transport arc that ends in deadly tears, The Last Ditch has an explosive first third (literally), which provided a lot of initial drama and risk.

The Last Ditch’s story quickly dives into even more awesome action, as the protagonist is reluctantly forced into action against the orks, while other dangerous threats lurk beneath the surface.  I liked how Mitchell did a good job building up tension in advance of the reveal about the true antagonists of the novel, with the reader knowing that something worse was coming thanks to Cain’s prescient narration from the future, and the author used this time to expand on his new setting.  The eventual sequence revealing this enemy had a great horror vibe to it as Cain explored tight quarters underground, and it led naturally into an extended campaign.  The rest of the book is a good mixture of connected action scenes, as Cain and the other characters slowly work out just how desperate the situation is and attempt to take steps to address it.  This works well as an overarching narrative, and you really appreciate the scope of the situation and the protagonist’s continued accidental heroics as he tries to run away.

All this perfectly leads up to a final big sequence, where the desperate protagonists are forced into a particularly brutal fight with little hope of survival.  Unsurprisingly, this requires Cain to engage in another suicide mission, which leads to some of the best action scenes in the entire book.  This entire last section of The Last Ditch is a particularly awesome thrill ride which I powered through so very quickly to see how everything came to an end.  Readers come away very satisfied from The Last Ditch, which honestly was one of the stronger books in this cool series, and I really enjoyed how Mitchell continues to entertain with his amazing and entertaining Warhammer 40,000 premise.

Mitchell maintains pretty much the same writing style for The Last Ditch he has previously utilised in the other Ciaphas Cain books, which allows for a very impressive light read.  It is told primarily in a chronicle/journal format written by an older Cain, which recounts the events of this adventure through the narrow focus of the protagonist’s unreliable memory.  This allows for a fun and self-centred take on events that examines Cain’s reluctant action while also loading up the story with some entertaining humour that provides a great satirical look at the usually grimdark Warhammer 40,000 universe.  This main narrative of action, adventure and supposedly cowardly behaviour is cleverly interspersed with a range of entertaining footnotes, commentary and in-universe texts that have been provided by the account’s patient, if sarcastic, editor, Inquisitor Amberly Vail.  This combination of narrative elements not only cleverly provides readers with and informative and light-hearted look at events taking place outside of Cain’s selfish storytelling, but it also pumps up both the humour and the stakes of the plot, especially as you become aware of the planet-wide impacts of the central adventure.

As with all the books in the series, The Last Ditch does work well as a standalone novel that readers can enjoy without any previous knowledge of the other Ciaphas Cain books, or indeed the wider Warhammer 40,000 universe.  While this novel is set in the middle of Cain’s personal chronology and makes mentions of several previous adventures, readers should have no trouble following along, with the point of these references made clear quickly through the writing and context.  Established fans of the series will also have a lot of fun with this book, especially as Mitchell continues Cain’s adventures with the Valhallan 597th, and there are a lot of entertaining familiar beats with this newer entry.  Like many of the previous books, The Last Ditch does have some repetition issues, with Mitchell reusing a lot of basic story ideas and phrases in Cain and Vail’s descriptions that returning readers will notice.  However, I felt that this entry was distinctive enough, especially with a more horror vibe to it, that any readers can come in and easily enjoy it.  This allows The Last Ditch to remain an awesome addition to the overall series, and it’s one I personally had an outstanding time getting through.

I also must once again highlight some of the great character work in this novel, especially when it comes to the main character of Commissar Ciaphas Cain.  A complex figure and self-professed coward, Cain spends most of the book trying to come up with ways to avoid combat and survive the inevitable danger his reputation and own bad lack force him to participate in.  With a very cynical and self-deprecating writing style, Mitchell always tries to emulate classic, comedic and craven military figures like Flashman or Blackadder with his depictions of Cain.  However, despite the protagonist’s best efforts to showcase himself as a dishonourable coward, his resultant heroic actions and Inquisitor Vail’s notes help to show the reader that his is somewhat lying to both us and himself, as he continues to be an inspirational figure.  This allows for quite a complex and relatively light-hearted read, as you are constantly wondering just how honest the protagonist is being with his observations and descriptions of his actions.  This all blends well with Cain’s witty and sarcastic humour, which lightly lampoons the usually serious Warhammer 40,000 universe and ensures that you are constantly entertained as you follow Commissar Cain into danger once again.

The rest of the cast of this novel are also a ton of fun, especially as many fan favourite characters from the previous novels are well utilised here.  This includes Cain’s faithful aide, Jurgen, who continues to toe the line between gormless soldier and ultra-effective sidekick, and is a very entertaining inclusion in any of these books.  Inquisitor Amberly Vail once again has a big impact, despite her actual appearance in the novel being quite negligible, and her no-nonsense overarching commentary allows for quite an amusing read.  The returning members of the Valhallan 597th regiment were a welcome inclusion, and it is always cool to see the close relationship that Cain has with these soldiers after so many adventures.  Throw in a young gung-ho commissar that Cain is forced to school, and a planetary governor trying to stay in control of her planet amongst the chaos of war, and the cast of The Last Ditch was pretty exceptional and continues Mitchell’s habit of showcasing entertaining and complex supporting characters.

I have long extolled the impressive virtues of the audiobook format when it comes to Warhammer 40,000 fiction, as it is just so much fun having the over-the-top stories read out loud.  Some of the very best Warhammer books in this format are the Ciaphas Cain audiobooks, due to their elaborate casts and the fantastic way their narrators capture the unique style of the series.  This is particularly true for The Last Ditch, which was another absolute joy to listen to, as its amazing narrators perfectly captured both the humour and complex action.  Coming in with a decent run time of nine and a half hours, listeners can absolutely fly through The Last Ditch audiobook, which once again features all the awesome elements that the rest of the series had.  This includes the use of several different narrators, with the incredible vocal talents of Stephen Perring, Penelope Rawlins, Emma Gregory, Toby Longworth and Andrew James Spooner, all adding a lot to the impact of this fun and fantastic story.

Perring is particularly awesome as he voices the main plot of The Last Ditch from the perspective of Cain.  Voicing the protagonist’s conflicted memories of the events, Perring perfectly captures the complex personality of the main character, while also providing a fun take on the action and adventure occurring around the protagonist.  Perring has a great range of different voices for this part of the book, with each of the characters getting a very fitting tone that showcases their separate personalities, including many recurring voices the narrator used in previous audiobooks in the series.  Perring is once again supported by Penelope Rawlins, who voices the character of Inquisitor Amberley Vail as she edits Cain’s memoirs.  Rawlins really dives into the sarcastic character of Inquisitor Vail in these supporting parts of the book, providing a calm, indulgently humorous voice that fits the fun feel of the series.  Rawlins’s interruptions and inclusions as Vail complement Perring’s narration extremely well, adding some great  humour to the plot without ruining the flow of the main story.  These two narrators work together extremely well to bring out much of the book’s humour, and I love how they both have kept coming back to this series to ensure some excellent continuity.

While Perring and Rawlins do the main narration, the additional narrators each have a fun supporting role in proceedings.  Emma Gregory probably gets the most use of the three as she once again voices the memoirs of an ambitious officer in Cain’s regiment, retelling events in a particularly bombastic way.  Gregory deliberately over-acts her part of the audiobook to show off the brash personality of the memoir’s author, and you have to love the pomp and self-importance that Gregory adds to her voice work in these scenes.  The other two, Longworth and Spooner, both of whom are well-established narrators of Warhammer fiction in their own right, have a lot of fun with more minor supporting roles in The Last Ditch, and their cool, if short, inclusions added some fun variety to the experience.  The overall result was another excellent listen that really enhances the fun and impact of the story and the larger franchise.  I honestly think that the Ciaphas Cain series has some of the best audiobooks, and The Last Ditch perfectly showcased how well these books come across in this fun format.

With all the fun action, humour and great focus on a fantastically flawed protagonist fans have come to know and love, Sandy Mitchell continues his exceptional Ciaphas Cain Warhammer 40,000 series with The Last Ditch.  A wonderful and deeply entertaining read, The Last Ditch was a joy to read from start to finish and I had such a brilliant time with it.  Indeed, I enjoyed The Last Ditch so much that I immediately dove into the next book in the series, The Greater Good, the second I finished it.

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Warhammer 40,000: Crossfire by Matthew Farrer

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Extended Universe, Science Fiction, Thriller, Throwback Thursday, Tie-in Novel, Warhammer2 Comments

Publisher: Black Library (Paperback – 1 January 2003)

Series: Warhammer 40,000: Shira Calpurnia – Book One

Length: 320 pages

My Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

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I finally got around to reading the awesome Warhammer 40,000 novel, Crossfire.  A classic entry in the Warhammer 40,000 canon with a cool crime fiction twist, Crossfire was a great novel that serves as an excellent first entry in Farrer’s Shira Calpurnia trilogy.

In the grim future of the 41st millennium, order and control of the massive Imperium of Man is maintained through the strictest interpretation of Imperial law, with no room for variation or leniency.  The ultimate arbitrators of this law are the dedicated members of the Adeptus Arbites, elite law bringers, trained to weed out corruption, dissent and disloyalty wherever they are deployed.

Shira Calpurnia Lucina, recently promoted arbitor senioris of the Adeptus Arbites, has been assigned to the bustling dockyards of the Hydraphur system.  A glistening gem of Imperial rule dedicated to providing material to the navy, Hydraphur is a seemingly unlikely place for dissention.  But this elite planet harbours dark secrets which come to the surface after a deadly assassination attempt is made in public against Calpurnia amid the distraction and celebration of a major religious festival.

Attempting to uncover who would want her killed after only just arriving on world, Calpurnia begins her relentless investigation.  However, this is no simple case, and soon Calpurnia finds herself forced to navigate the many plots and schemes of the Hydraphur elite.  With more attacks striking close to her and the fate of the whole planet seemingly in the balance, Calpurnia must uncover all Hydraphur’s secrets before the assassins stalking her finally succeed.

Crossfire was an excellent and compelling Warhammer 40,000 novel from Farrer that proved very fun to get through.  Featuring a fantastic plot that is one of the earlier examples of a crime fiction narrative melding with the iconic Warhammer 40,000 universe, Crossfire was a great read and one that is worth checking out.

I liked the captivating story that Farrer came up with for Crossfire, which quickly gets the reader’s attention with a powerful introduction to the protagonist, as she quickly finds herself under fire from a lethal assassin.  Serving as a good start to the main investigation arc, the plot follows the protagonist as she attempts to uncover the identity of the assassin, while also learning more about the planet of Hydraphur.  While a very lore-heavy story, Farrer keeps the plot going quickly and effectively, especially as there are soon more apparent attacks against the protagonist, each of which give her more clues to follow to try and find the mastermind of the plot against her.  At the same time the protagonist gets bogged down in dealing with various other interested parties on Hydraphur, including the planet’s local elites, agents of the Imperial church, the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Inquisition, each of whom have their own interests in finding out who is trying to kill Calpurnia.

While Farrer keeps up a good pace for Crossfire as the plot continues, I do think that he might have overloaded the narrative with details about Hydraphur’s society, as well as the various plots that infest it.  While these serve as good red herring motives for the protagonist to follow, it did overcomplicate the plot at times, which slowed things down even amid some great action sequences.  Despite this, the overall narrative for Crossfire was quite strong, and you get hooked into the continued investigation, especially as the author kept raising the stakes of the case.  After some exciting scenes, everything leads up to the big final confrontation, as the protagonist fully unwinds all the conflicting conspiracies they’ve been forced to encounter.  The conclusion was a sufficiently intense and over-the-top fight, which you need in Warhammer 40,000 fiction, and I liked the clever way the protagonist was able to turn the tables on the antagonist, even if the set-up for it was a little heavy handed.  An overall excellent Warhammer 40,000 plot that nicely tells its own story, while also introducing the character for the larger trilogy.

I’ve previously had a lot of fun with previous Warhammer 40,000 novels that utilise strong crime fiction elements in their story telling, such as Bloodlines by Chris Wraight and Grim Repast by Marc Collins, as there are some outstanding crime narratives in this grimdark universe. Crossfire is an interesting early example of this utilisation of crime fiction in Warhammer 40,000 fiction, and I felt that Farrer did a pretty good job of building a compelling investigation around this fantastic setting.  The resulting story is a layered and intense read that sees the protagonist slowly unwind the case amid various battle sequences and other dark distractions.  The relevant clues, hints and misleading details are well scattered throughout the plot, and I felt there was a good amount of foreshadowing to some of the key plot reveals.  While some story elements and conspiracies came a little out of nowhere, for the most part this was a concise and ordered novel, well told through the perspective of the protagonist.  Farrer excelled at fitting a ton of interesting and heavy lore elements in the plot, and I particularly appreciated how well he utilised his setting throughout the story.  The various plots and schemes of planet’s noble families and prominent organisations, as well as the elaborate religious festival the novel is set around (ceremonial details of which are cleverly included at the start of each chapter), are expertly worked into the larger plot, and it was fascinating to see how they impacted the story and drove the investigation.

One of the more entertaining elements of Crossfire I enjoyed was the narrative’s compelling characters.  The focus is primarily around series protagonist Shira Calpurnia Lucina, the arbitor senioris through whose eyes we see the story unfold.  Calpurnia serves as an interesting central figure, especially as she provides an outsider perspective to the complex setting.  While Farrer writes Calpurnia as a somewhat bullish and highly determined figure that is initially hard to appreciate, I felt that this was an intentional choice by the author, which reflects the typical attitudes of the Arbites in the general Warhammer 40,000 setting.  Forcing her to deal with the more subtle techniques needed for the politically delicate Hydraphur brought in some interesting conflict for Calpurnia, as well as producing some interesting character growth.  Despite this, the outsider status of Calpurnia continues to be a compelling plot feature throughout Crossfire, which Farrer utilised extremely well with his writing.  The rest of the cast, while less prominent, adds some complexity to the plot, and I enjoyed the compelling array of fellow Arbites members, the gentry of Hydraphur, and other prominent figures in the planet’s hierarchy.  I particularly enjoyed the motivations of the book’s eventual antagonist, which had a great hint of madness behind it, and this was an overall excellent group of characters.

While I really enjoyed Crossfire’s compelling story, I must admit that this wasn’t the easiest Warhammer 40,000 novel to read.  The plot details of Crossfire are very dense, and it takes a lot of effort to absorb and follow the story.  I felt this was especially noticeable in the small-print paperback version I had, and you really had to focus to take everything in.  As a result, this one probably wouldn’t be a recommended starting point for a new Warhammer reader.  Farrer utilises a lot of intricate details about the Warhammer 40,000 universe that even people casually familiar with the franchise are going to struggle to follow at times.  While most new readers can probably follow along well enough through context, I would suggest it’s best enjoyed by veteran fans who will probably have a lot more fun with it.

Overall, Crossfire by Matthew Farrer was an awesome Warhammer 40,000 novel, and one that I was glad I finally got the opportunity to read.  A compelling crime fiction novel that makes great use of Farrer’s complex setting, Crossfire proved to be an exciting and interesting read.  While not the easiest novel to get through at times, Crossfire proved to be an excellent piece of Warhammer fiction and I’m hoping to get through the rest of the Shira Calpurnia trilogy soon.

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