Tag: Action Packed

Warhammer 40,000: Warboss by Mike Brooks

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Extended Universe, Science Fiction, Tie-in Novel, Warhammer29 Comments

Warhammer 40,000 - Warboss Cover

Publisher: Black Library (Audiobook – 25 March 2023)

Series: Warhammer 40,000

Length: 8 hours and 48 minutes

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Amazon

Prepare for the ultimate battle for control as several feuding ork bosses fight to become the new leader of the Waaagh! in this amazing and highly entertaining Warhammer 40,000 novel, Warboss by Mike Brooks.

2023 has been a big Warhammer 40,000 fiction year for me as I have been having an absolute blast reading all manner of cool novels from across the franchise (make sure to check out my recently released list about my favourite Warhammer 40,000 novels).  However, while I have read a ton of Warhammer books this year, I have not had the opportunity to read any 2023 Warhammer releases.  Well, I am on my way to rectify that by looking at the recently released Warboss by awesome author Mike Brooks, who also wrote the 2022 novel Huron Blackheart: Master of the Maelstrom.  Brooks did an outstanding job with this fantastic new book, and I had so much damn fun with Warboss and its highly entertaining and hilarious story.

In the far future of the 41st millennium, there are few things are more destructive or unstoppable than an ork warband on a rampage.  One of the most effective bands currently killing its way through the galaxy is that of Warboss Gazrot Goresnappa whose Waaagh! has conquered the once mighty human fortress world of Aranua.  After several decisive and bloody victories, the Waaagh! celebrates in front of the planet’s remaining bastion, the massive Davidia Hive.  All it will take is one final assault to totally defeat the humans on Aranua so Warboss Goresnappa can strip their resources and lead his boyz to bigger and better fights out in the stars.

However, before Goresnappa can achieve his great victory, an unfortunate accident sees him very, very dead under the giant decapitated head of a Gargant war machine.  With their leader squashed, the Waaagh! now has an opening for Warboss, and several ambitious orks from across the no-longer united clans step forward to fight for the job.  However, before the usual brawl for leadership can begin, a prophecy from the clan’s resident weirdboy, Old Morgrub, reveals that the ork gods have something very special in store for the Waaagh! and its next leader.  A mysterious gate lies underneath the human city that could transport the Waaagh! to fights anywhere in the galaxy, and whichever boss finds it first will be the new Warboss.

Forced to obey the words of the gods, the bosses engage in their own elaborate plans to breach the Hive City and claim the gate.  But which boss can triumph over the others?  Will it be the brutal Goff Big Boss Mag Dedfist, the suicidally fast Speedboss of the Evil Sunz, Zagnob Thundaskuzz, the sneaky and cunning leader of the Blood Axes, Da Genrul, or could it even be the leader of the grot uprising, the self-proclaimed prophet of Gork and Mork, Snaggi Littetoof?  All four believe that they are the only ones capable of leading the Waaagh! and they will fight tooth and nail to become Warboss.  But to succeed they’ll need to not only overcome all their rivals but the human defenders of the Hive City and an Aeldari army waiting in the depths to defend their gate.  May the best ork win!

Oh dear, oh dear, what a damn funny book.  Honestly, any Warhammer 40,000 novel that focuses on the orks is bound to be comedy gold, but Warboss is one of the better ones I have had the pleasure of reading.  Author Mike Brooks does a wonderful job of telling a tight and amazingly fun story that perfectly showcases the orks in all their green skinned glory.  I had so much fun with this book and I managed to power through Warboss in very short order.

This proved to be a pretty fast-paced and impressive story, and it’s one that I was able to have a blast listening to as it unfolded.  Primarily focusing on the various ork characters that are part of Waaagh! Goresnappa, Warboss starts off with a sudden game changer for the protagonists as the infamous Warboss Goresnappa is killed off in hilarious fashion thanks to a group of argumentative grots and the falling head of a massive war machine.  This leads several of the remaining ork bosses throwing their hats into the ring to become the Warboss, and all hell follows as a result.  Tasked with finding a hidden Aeldari gate under the human city, each of the ork bosses implements their own plans to get into the city first, whether that be through blowing down the walls, infiltrating from below, or driving around the city at high speeds, hoping for the best.  Brooks breaks the story up around the main three contenders nicely, and you soon get a good idea of their different, but very orkish strategies.  However, the story is made even more enjoyable thanks to some of the alternate perspectives that emerge.  This includes the ambitious grot Snaggi Littletoof who, after accidently killing Warboss Goresnappa, attempts his own grot uprising and tries to find the gate to gain his cause legitimacy.  Several human characters are also shown, often to add some interesting contrast to the orks, and it is fun to see their attempted counterattacks, which often leads to disaster.  This makes for an excellent first two-thirds of the book and Brooks does a great job of showcasing both the protagonists and the ork nation as a whole while also setting up a very entertaining story.

Unsurprisingly, the orks make it into the city and everyone starts arriving at the gate at the same time, often in comedic or unexpected ways.  This leads to a very fast-paced final third as everyone starts fighting everyone else to become Warboss, facing off against humans, Aeldari, and every rival faction of the Waaagh!.  Brooks showcases this final big battle in some excellent ways, and you get really drawn into the crazy carnage that follows thanks to the well-written and exciting action scenes.  The use of multiple perspectives was pretty useful here, and I liked how the author showed the same massive battle again and again, each time from the point of view of another character.  This added more detail to the brawl each time, as well as some amusing alternate opinions of events from some very different characters.  Brooks throws in some excellent twists and turns here and you are never quite certain who is going to come out on top in the battle for supremacy.  The eventual fate of every major character is pretty fantastic and really fits the storylines that have been building up throughout the book.  I personally came away from Warboss extremely satisfied and I loved all the cool developments and totally insane moments that occurred.  Overall, this was a very impressive standalone Warhammer 40,000 narrative and it is very hard not come away loving this story thanks to the awesome humour and all the fantastic, over-the-top interactions that occurred.

All fans of Warhammer fiction know that ork focused novels are some of the funniest novels out there, due to the way that they focus on the over-the-top antics of this beloved faction.  Some good examples of previous Warhammer books that strongly featured orks include Ghazghkull Thraka: Prophet of the Waaagh! by Nate Crowley (one of my favourite books of 2022) and Catachan Devil by Justin Woolley, and I think that Warboss is up there with these fantastic reads.  This outstanding book really dove into the humour as you watched the crude and eternally underestimated orks battle it out amongst each other and the other factions, often coming up with insane and funny solutions to all the deadly problems they encounter.  There honestly wasn’t a single chapter where I wasn’t laughing at some of the crazy stuff that just occurred, and Brooks had a real talent for writing from the ork perspective.  There was some great consistency in the way that the ork characters acted and thought throughout Warboss and every chapter focussed on them saw the characters using similar lingo, slang and descriptions of the other races in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.  As such, you get a great appreciation for the ork mindset and it was great to see the ork perspective on all the book’s over-the-top moments.

One of the things that I felt set Warboss aside from some other Warhammer 40,000 novels featuring orks is that Brooks didn’t fall into the trap of portraying them simply as funny simpletons.  Instead, Brooks shows that the orks are quite smart and complex in their way, it just that their culture, in comparison to humans or Aeldari, has more of a focus on violence and straightforwardness than the other races in the galaxy.  This is backed up by scene after scene of the orks utilising their skills, technology and cunning to win various encounters against seemingly smarter or more organised opponents, and it is always quite fun to see the orks looking down on their opponents for making mistakes that they wouldn’t do.  While this love of extreme violence is mostly played for fun, Brook’s also tries to show the darker side of it, as the orks are pretty damn brutal in how they deal with the humans and Aeldari they encountered.  I loved the great contrast between the ork and human characters that Brooks added into Warboss, as the humans were always so arrogant and condescending towards the orks’ intelligence, even when they were beating them.  This complete lack of understanding by most of the human characters really enhanced the various ork chapters, especially those that showed the orks managing to understand and outthink their human opponents, and I really appreciated this fantastic deeper dive into ork mindset and society.  I did think that Brooks might have made the orks slightly too overpowered in Warboss, as they manage to take on quite a few major enemies with relative ease, but this always added some fun to the story and it was interesting to see the full potential of the orks.

This deep dive into the orks is further cemented thanks to the several outstanding character arcs that Brooks set up throughout Warboss, particularly around the four main characters fighting for control of the Waaagh! in their own way.  The three ork characters Mag Dedfist, Zagnob Thundaskuzz and Genrul Uzbrag (Da Genrul), are in some ways quite similar, in that they have several similar racial tendencies towards violence or leadership.  However, each of them represents a different clan, and so they have different battle tendencies which really helps to highlight the different factions within ork society.  Mag Dedfist is a Goff, and so he relies more on classic violence and explosions to achieve his goals in the most direct ways possible.  Zagnob is an Evil Sun boss who has dedicated himself to the Kult of Speed and believes in riding the fastest vehicle he can find right towards the enemy.  The most entertaining of these is probably Da Genrul, a member of the Blood Axe clan who admire human martial ability and utilise their own take on tactics, discipline and stealth to achieve their goals, often outsmarting the humans they are aping.

I was also a big fan of the character of Snaggi Littletoof, a grot with ideas of grandeur who attempts to start a grot uprising against their cruel ork masters.  The grots (also known as gretchins, essentially goblins from classic fantasy), smaller cousins of the orks who are used as slave labour and cannon fodder, aren’t particularly well featured in most Warhammer 40,000 fiction, so I had fun with a whole character arc around them in Warboss.  Snaggi and his band of rebellious grots (Da GrotWaaagh!), are a very entertaining inclusion, and I liked the revolutionary storyline that Brooks set around them that provided both humour and an interesting look at typical grot life.  It was so much fun to see Snaggi inspiring his followers to go against their nature and rebel, especially as the orks had no idea what they heck they were doing.  Thanks to Brook’s use of Mag, Zagnob, Da Genrul and Snaggi, you get a great understanding of each of their specific faction and the author did a particularly good job of featuring each of them equally.  Indeed, thanks to the appearance of several different ork characters in a supporting role, you get a pretty good idea of nearly every major ork clan, faction and designation, and even those readers completely unfamiliar with orks can come away from this book knowing most of the key things you need to know about them.

These ork and grot protagonists are well backed up by several entertainingly arrogant human characters who honestly make the orks seem reasonable and likeable in comparison.  The best is easily Captain Armenisu Varrow, who is held prisoner by Da Genrul as his pet and tactical advisor.  Varrow goes through so much hell in this book, but is so deliciously haughty while he does so that you really can’t feel sorry for him.  Despite his ironclad belief in his own intelligence, Varrow is outsmarted time and time again, and it is just great to see him cower his way through events while still thinking he is the smart one.  His story arc is very entertaining and I loved how very dark it gets, especially at the end.  The rest of the humans are also great in their own ways, even if they are only featured for a short amount of time, and their ongoing false remarks about the abilities of the orks in the face of the carnage they are laying down always made me chuckle.  An overall great group of characters who help to turn this amazing story into something truly special.

I checked out Warboss on audiobook, which honestly is becoming my go-to format for all things Warhammer.  This proved to be another excellent decision as the Warboss audiobook was a ball of absolute fun that I had a brilliant time listening to.  Coming in with a runtime of under nine hours, this is a pretty easy audiobook to power through quickly and I managed it in a few, hilarious sessions.  The outstanding, comedy laden story really works well in the audiobook format and so many of the great jokes come across that much better when you listen to them.  It definitely helped that they brought in established Warhammer narrator Harry Myers to voice this book as he did a spectacular job here.  I have deeply enjoyed Myers in several recent Warhammer audiobooks, including The Wraithbone Phoenix by Alec Worley (one of my favourite audiobooks of 2022) and Day of Ascension by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and he has another amazing performance in Warboss.  His voice is just perfect for all the alien characters featured within this novel, and the various gruff tones of the orks and high-pitched squeals of the grots are very spot on.  In addition, several of the human characters are shown in all their arrogant finery throughout the audiobook and you really appreciate just how stupid they are through this medium.  Each character is expertly showcased to the reader through Myers’ voice, and I loved every line he read out as a result.  I also deeply enjoyed how well his narration worked to convey all the fantastic jokes loaded throughout the production, including that hilarious bit involving the ork characters failing to know the chapter numbers.  This was a such a great audiobook to listen to and I cannot recommend this format enough for Warboss as you are guaranteed to have an exceptional time listening to it.

Mike Brooks continues to impress me as an outstanding author of Warhammer fiction with his amazing novel Warboss.  A comedy heavy novel that perfectly showcases the always fun orks, Warboss is pure entertainment from start to finish that both established fans of the franchise and new readers can easily enjoy.  Brooks has a clear appreciation for this faction which really shines through in his storytelling, and I loved his great take on everything orkish.  One of the funniest and enjoyable releases of 2023 so far, this is essential reading for all interest in hilarious Warhammer fiction, and I am very glad I checked it out.

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The Tyrant Skies by David Annandale

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Comics/Manga, Extended Universe, Superhero, Tie-in Novel1 Comment

The Tyrant Skies Cover

Publisher: Aconyte Books (Ebook – 2 May 2023)

Series: Marvel Untold

Length: 254 pages

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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Two of Marvel’s greatest villains square off in this highly entertaining tie-in novel from talented author David Annandale, The Tyrant Skies.

As most people familiar with this blog will know, I am a man who loves a good tie-in novel, be it related to Star Wars, Star Trek or Warhammer.  However, one genre of tie-in books that I haven’t had a great deal experience with is those based around comic books, having only read a few in recent years, such as Loki: Where Mischief Lies by Mackenzi Lee and Catwoman: Soulstealer by Sarah J. Mass.  However, that looks set to change as I was recently lucky enough to receive a couple of particularly fun Marvel tie-in novels through Netgalley.  The first of these is The Tyrant Skies by David Annandale, which focuses on the always awesome supervillain, Doctor Doom.  Introduced as part of the Marvel Untold novel sub-series, The Tyrant Skies is the third Doctor Doom novel by Annandale, who previously released The Harrowing of Doom and Reign of the Devourer.  This third novel also has a great story to it as it sees Doom face off against an old rival, the Red Skull.

After defeating the deadly monsters that haunted his realm, Victor Von Doom has established peace within Latveria.  However, this peace is short-lived as a new danger begins to rise in the world, one with an unhealthy obsession with both Latveria and Doom.  The newly formed island nation of Wolkenland has just revealed itself to the world and quickly establishes itself as a playground for the rich and powerful, while also appearing to offer new lives for the world’s dispossessed.  However, Wolkenland hides a dark secret at its heart: it’s true ruler is the insane fascist Red Skull.

Still enraged by his failed invasion of Latveria and his humiliating defeat at the hands of Doom, Red Skull is determined to gain revenge on his enemies by using the influence and power of Wolkenland.  Utilising advanced technology and cosmic power, Red Skull transports Wolkenland to float above Latveria and begins a deadly invasion to capture the country and its advanced technology.

Doom’s only choice is to travel to Wolkenland and confront Red Skull directly, but even the might of Doctor Doom is unable to face the full power his enemy has amassed.  With his country threatened, his body weakened, and the only woman he ever loved held hostage on Wolkenland, Doom will need to use every bit of cunning, intelligence and manipulation in his possession to face down the Red Skull.  But even if he succeeds, the Red Skull has an ace up his sleeve that could destroy Latveria and break the entire world.

This was a pretty solid and deeply enjoyable novel from Annandale that tells a great story while also referencing some interesting elements from classic Marvel comics.  The story in The Tyrant Skies follows on a degree from Annandale’s last two novels and this time sees Doctor Doom and his country facing an insidious invasion from the Red Skull and his new island fortress.  The story advances at a pretty awesome pace, and the early highlights include Doom invading Wolkenland and unleashing his trademark havoc upon his foes.  After the necessary setback for the protagonist, the story evolves into an intriguing phase with a de-powered Doom leading a slave rebellion against Red Skull, while down in Latveria several of the series’ supporting characters fight off the invasion using tools featured in the prior books.  The action and intrigue were pretty non-stop the entire way through, and Annandale keeps the reader hooked to the book with some amazing and elaborate sequences.  I personally loved some of the twists that developed, especially as Annandale brings in a couple of foes that haven’t been seen in comics for a very long time, and it was great to see how Doom faced off against them.  The story does get pretty big and explosive at times, and I liked some of the great underlying examinations of tolerance, fascism and the vices of the mega-rich, all of which were used to great effect to make Doom, the brutal and deadly tyrant, actually seem like the good guy.  The author ends everyone on a pretty compelling note, and I ended up coming away from The Tyrant Skies fairly happy with the cool action-filled and entertaining story that Annandale served up.

As I mentioned before, The Tyrant Skies serves as the third book in an intriguing trilogy from Annandale that dives into Doom’s connection to his country as well as his own dark ambitions and adversaries.  I felt that The Tyrant Skies continued this story thread extremely well, and it was interesting to see how several of the recurring characters and their storylines developed as a result.  However, Annandale also makes The Tyrant Skies quite accessible to new readers as well, and if this your first Marvel novel you can dive into it with very little prior knowledge about the series.  While substantial comic or Fantastic Four knowledge isn’t needed to enjoy this book, Annandale does fill the story with several compelling references to previous comics, some of which were published a very long time ago.  Not only does the origin of Doom and Red Skull’s feud emerge from the pages of these older comics, but there are references to Doom’s dark relationship with Valeria, especially her death in the main comics, as well as other previous adventures.  Annandale also pulls one particularly intriguing feature out of a very old, obscure comic by Jack Kirby, Larry Lieber and Stan Lee, which I had honestly never heard about.  The author’s fun description about this somewhat absurd comic will get a chuckle out of aficionados of classic comics who will appreciate the intriguing references.  Annandale’s love for all things comic related really shines through with his writing, and I loved how he was able to effectively describe and bring to life several scenes that would usually need a full comic spread to appreciate.  I personally thought this was an outstanding and very clever tie-in to the larger Marvel universe and The Tyrant Skies is a great book to check out no matter how connected you are to source material.

Of course, one of the major parts of The Tyrant Skies is Annandale’s excellent portrayal of Victor von Doom, who steals any scene he is in.  Doom is probably one of the best villains (or anti-heroes, depending at how you look at him) in the entire Marvel canon, so anything featuring him is bound to be good (excluding a few Fantastic Four movies).  Annandale’s use of Doom in The Tyrant Skies is pretty spot on, and he shows the protagonist at his full power and intelligence.  I love the sheer arrogance and pride that dominates much of Doom’s character, and every scene shown from Doom’s point of view works to highlight this.  Annandale also looks deep into the powers and abilities of Doom, puling out some interesting elements of his abilities over the years.  Not only do you get to appreciate the technological prowess of Doom, but Annandale also makes sure to fully feature his magical skills, something which the mainstream media usually avoids, and even his old-school abilities to hypnotise people.  However, the best part of Doom is his sheer intelligence as he manages to outsmart anyone he goes up against, even when disadvantaged in other ways.  There are some great scenes when a de-powered and vulnerable Doom manages to secretly organise and inspire a slave revolt and lead his new followers on a deadly rampage against a superior foe.  Watching him succeed in controlling everyone just with his sheer force of personality while tactically outthinking his opponents was pretty damn epic and it really captures just how impressive Doom can be as a character.

Aside from Doom, there are several other great characters featured throughout The Tyrant Skies that add a lot to the story.  This includes the infamous villain of the story, the Red Skull, who serves as a great foil to Doom in this book.  Few villains can make Doom look like a sane, noble and reasonable figure, but the Red Skull is one of them, especially in Annandale’s hands.  The author seeks to make Red Skull as evil and diabolical as possible, causing chaos and initiating world-ending plots for petty reasons and prior defeats.  I loved seeing the rivalry between Doom and Red Skull that formed the basis for much of the novel, and the author did a great job capturing the hatred they both have for the other.  It was interesting to see Red Skull’s methods against Doom in this book, and he proves to be a very dangerous opponent, able to outsmart Doom at several turns, which works to make the novel pretty compelling and fun.  As such, Red Skull is a very impressive villain for this book and it was really something to see these two iconic figures square off once again.

I felt that the rest of the cast, which includes a combination of some over-the-top second-tier villains and several recurring figures from Annandale’s existing novels, were worked into the plot well, and there are some great scenes, especially with the characters of Doctor Elsa Orloff and Captain Kariana Verlak, who have become heroic figures within Latveria during the last two books.  I also deeply appreciated the inclusion of Valeria, Doom’s long-lost love, who is a key part of his origin story.  The powerful reunion the two have in this novel is quite impressive, especially as it is clear that Doom still has feelings for Valeria, despite her reluctance to trust him and his nature.  This was a very interesting inclusion, especially considering how their story spun out in the comics, and I am glad that the author attempted to dive into this older character element of Doom.  Throw in some craven, evil and incompetent members of the uber-wealthy, many of whom are parodies of certain business owners, and The Tyrant Skies proved to be a very rich novel in terms of character, and I liked the wider story elements that emerged thanks to this cool alternate focus.

Overall, The Tyrant Skies is an outstanding and highly entertaining novel that perfectly ties into the larger Marvel universe.  I deeply enjoyed how David Annandale set two of the genre’s best villains against each other in this novel, and I had a ton of fun with the thrilling encounters that emerged.  Featuring a great blend of story development, references to classic comics, and amazing portrayals of Doctor Doom and the Red Skull, The Tyrant Skies has something for all comic book fans, and you are guaranteed to have a fantastic time getting through this amazing novel.

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Throwback Thursday – Warhammer 40,000: The Guns of Tanith by Dan Abnett

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Extended Universe, Science Fiction, Throwback Thursday, Tie-in Novel, Warhammer14 Comments

The Guns of Tanith Cover

Publisher: Black Library (Audiobook – 25 April 2002)

Series: Gaunt’s Ghosts – Book Five

Length: 10 hours and 10 minutes

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Amazon

Welcome back to my Throwback Thursday series, where I republish old reviews, review books I have read before or review older books I have only just had a chance to read.  After having such a great time reviewing the previous Gaunt’s Ghosts novel, Honour Guard, in my last Throwback Thursday, I immediately read the fifth fantastic entry in the series, The Guns of Tanith, which proved to be just as awesome and exciting.

As I mentioned last week, I have been really getting into the works of Dan Abnett over the last year, and I now consider several of his books to be amongst the best Warhammer 40,000 novels I have had the pleasure of reading.  Not only did I deeply enjoy his epic Eisenhorn trilogy (made up of Xenos, Malleus and Hereticus) but I have also been powering through his Gaunt’s Ghosts books.  The Gaunt’s Ghosts books are some of the more iconic novels in the Warhammer 40,000 franchise and are often considered essential reading by fans of the franchise due to the captivating way they capture the gruelling experiences of ordinary human soldiers in this grim, futuristic setting.  The first four novels in the series, First and Only, Ghostmaker, Necropolis and Honour Guard, as well as the prequel novel The Vincula Insurgency, are all excellent and exciting in their own way, and I have had a ton of fun seeing the impressive war narratives set around the men of the Tanith First-and-Only, informally known as Gaunt’s Ghosts.  As I was still in the mood for some awesome action at the end of last week, I just had to keep going with these books and I quickly picked up the fifth entry, The Guns of Tanith.

As the massive Sabbat Worlds Crusade continues to pit the forces of the Imperium of Man against the foul forces of Chaos, the battlelines extend across multiple planets and systems, drawing in millions of soldiers.  The latest phase of the crusade has severely stretched the supply lines of the Imperial assault and the Chaos foes are quick to take advantage, threatening to cut off and surround the main Imperial force.  To stave off disaster, Warmaster Macaroth, needs the Tanith First-and-Only to recapture the vital promethium producing planet of Phantine so the crusade can be resupplied and continue.

Led by the heroic Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt, the Tanith First-and-Only engage in a deadly airborne assault on several of the planet’s domed cities.  Relying on their unique skills of navigation and infiltration, the Ghosts prove to be vital to the operation and soon take the key city of Cirenholm.  However, holding the city proves to be harder than expected.  While preparing for the next assault, the vile murder of a freed Cirenholm civilian places a Ghost on trial and opens up the festering cultural divides within the regiment.

As Gaunt attempts to get to the bottom of the crime and ensure that the innocent are left alive, the Ghosts are given a vital mission to undertake.  A dangerous Chaos warlord has taken command of the final occupied city, Ouranberg, and his lethal command threatens to devastate an attack by the Imperials.  To ensure a successful invasion of this Chaos stronghold, a specialised team of Ghosts is tasked with infiltrating the city and assassinating the enemy leader in advance of the main assault force.  Featuring some of the best the Ghosts have to offer, the assassination squad will be forced to walk through hell to achieve their objective and not everyone will be coming back.

In this fifth entry in this amazing series, Abnett continues to impress with another powerful and captivating character-driven read that takes the Ghosts through a gruelling round of battles, tragedy and growth that proves near impossible to put down.  The Guns of Tanith was a pretty strong entry in the series, expanding on some of the interesting storylines from the first novel while also introducing a new dark scenario for the characters to deal with.

The Guns of Tanith features a fantastic narrative from Abnett that contains his usual blend of high-intensity action, character growth, and intriguing examinations of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, that make all the Gaunt’s Ghosts novels such a treat to read.  Following on from the events of the previous books in the series The Guns of Tanith is told in Abnett’s typical style, with a ton of unique character perspectives, mostly those of the Ghosts, which presents the reader with a rich and vibrant view of the events, as well as the unique, character-driven storylines that emerge.  While this fifth Gaunt’s Ghosts novel can be read as a standalone book, The Guns of Tanith does see several ongoing, character focused storylines come to a head or get even more complicated. As such, readers should really consider checking out the previous novels first so they can get the full emotional weight of the revelations and twists that emerge.

The main narrative of The Guns of Tanith is bookended by major extended battle sequences that see the Ghosts and their allies engage in elaborate fights across two separate cities.  The first of these battles, in Cirenhom, sees all the Ghosts forced to engage in a particularly bloody battle with limited ammunition against a dangerous and determined foe that has set up some elaborate traps.  This extended sequence is both epic and useful as it provides the reader with a ton of intense action to draw them into the novel while Abnett introduces the characters and storylines that this latest novel is focused on.  You also get a good overview to the new setting of Phantine, a polluted planet with a toxic atmosphere that requires multiple forms of airship to traverse.  This unique location adds some great spice to the overall story, especially as it requires the characters to learn some unique aerial skills, while also allowing Abnett to have fun featuring several impressive dogfights.  There are some great moments during this first extended battle sequence, and it sets the rest of the book up nicely.

The middle of the book is where the reader gets into the real meat of the story, especially as it lowers the intensity levels down from the action-packed introduction and allows the reader to breathe and absorb all the intriguing story elements to come.  At first, I wasn’t too keen on a quieter middle section to this novel, especially as I thought it would make The Guns of Tanith more of a bridging novel in the series, rather than a book that could stand on its own.  However, Abnett soon proved me wrong as this intriguing central storyline contained a lot of major character moments and intriguing plot lines, while also expertly setting up the final third of the book.  The main storyline explored in the centre involves a murder investigation when one of the Ghosts is accused of killing an innocent civilian.  Abnett does a great job with this murder storyline, especially as it brings in compelling mystery and legal thriller elements to it, while also driving the characters in some excellent directions.  However, the real joy of this part of the book is the focus on the camaraderie and factions within the Ghosts, and the fracturing coherence in places leads to some memorable moments later on.

The final section of the book focuses on the assault of the Phantine city, Ouranberg, and the special Ghosts mission to assassinate the Chaos warlord.  Following several supporting members of the cast, this final third of The Guns of Tanith takes these characters on a particularly dark mission through a Chaos stronghold, and Abnett throttles up the tension and brutality to the maximum, ensuring that the readers are strongly hooked on everything unfolding.  Watching the separated teams attempt to navigate through enemy territory leads to some dark and bloody sequences, and everything comes together in a brutal confrontation where all the characters get a moment to shine.  The invasion in the aftermath of this assault brings the entirety of The Guns of Tanith together in an outstanding way, as several major storylines are expertly and impressively resolved, often in ways that leave the characters even more damaged than when they started.  This is also a particularly shocking death of a major character that is guaranteed to move long-term readers of the series.  Abnett does a masterful job of setting this death up, including by showcasing several misleading near-misses, so you really don’t know who is going to live or die right up to the end.  His eventual choice is one designed to wound his readers, and you will have to come back to see how it impacts the rest of this series.  Overall, this was an extremely solid and impressive Gaunt’s Ghosts narrative, and I deeply enjoyed how Abnett continued and finalised some of the great character storylines from the previous books, while also providing the reader with more action and intrigue than they can handle.

As with most of the Gaunt’s Ghosts books, The Guns of Tanith is an open read to all those unfamiliar with the wider Warhammer 40,000 canon.  Abnett goes out of his way to make his books accessible for new readers, and he always provides enough detail and background so that anyone can catch up and enjoy the subsequent story.  However, for those fans more familiar with the Warhammer universe, there are always a ton of great elements or unique world building details that they will find particularly fascinating.  The new locations in The Guns of Tanith are pretty damn spiffing, and I had a lot of fun with the polluted planet, especially as it requires multiple arial sequences.  This is turn leads to the introduction of the Phantine XX Fighter Corps, who Abnett will go on to feature in his spin-off novel, Double Eagle, and it was fun to see how they get their start here.  For me, though, the best part of the universe expansion was Abnett’s in-depth look at the day-to-day life of the common soldier in the Imperial Guard.  While Abnett has always done a masterful job of capturing the footslogger experience in his novels, I felt that The Guns of Tanith was one of his best attempts to dive into the core of his beloved regiment.  Not only is there are lot of story focus on the various members and factions of the regiment, but Abnett also spent some time trying to explore the downtime and personal lives of the characters, and it was pretty intriguing to see the accompanying civilian baggage train of the regiment, which includes their families and other vital services.  I also personally loved the scenes that examined the problems associated with the Imperial bureaucracy as the Ghosts come up against their greatest enemy: bad paperwork.  Certain mistakes ensure that the Ghosts are left with minimal ammunition as the Departmento Munitorum orders the wrong power packs for their lasguns.  The following extended sequence which saw the regiment unable to fight effectively because their ammunition couldn’t fit their guns was an impressive part of the book and it definitely raised the stakes during the book’s introduction.

As usual, one of the major highlights of The Guns of Tanith is the amazing characters that the story focuses on, as Abnett once again fits a huge number of character-driven storylines into the book.  At this point in the series, Abnett has introduced a pretty substantial cast of characters, many of whom have ongoing storylines, and it is intriguing to see them unfold even further in The Guns of Tanith, especially as Abnett does a great job featuring most of them equally and then combining them into the larger narrative.  Many of the more intriguing character arcs in this book carry over from the previous novels and there are some great conclusions and expansions to them here that helps to improve the already great narrative of The Guns of Tanith.  At the same time, several new characters are introduced here or finally given prominence, and it was interesting to see how they fit into the already established character dynamics that Abnett has been building up.  The cohesiveness of the Ghosts as a regiment ends up becoming a huge fixture of this book as the Tanith-Verghastite divide is explored in greater detail by many of the characters.  It was fascinating to see how Abnett handled these character storylines in The Guns of Tanith, and several of them ended up being some of the best parts of the book.

As with most of the novels in the series, quite a lot of character focus goes towards the main protagonist, Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt, whose experiences as the commander of this unique regiment continue to trouble him in various ways.  In The Guns of Tanith, this takes the form of his apparent unconscious bias towards the Tanith elements of his regiment over the Verghastite recruits, which is showcased by his differing reactions during two court cases.  This results in several intense interactions between Gaunt and members of his team, which helped to showcase the protagonist’s idealism and a certain degree of naiveté when it comes to Imperial politics, both of which will cause him trouble in the future.  This is also an intriguing look at the issues caused by Gaunt holding the dual rank of Colonel and Commissar, which make him simultaneously a command officer and a political officer in charge of discipline.  This is the first time the duality of his roles has caused some major problems for him, and it was interesting to see several characters question him about it.  Watching Gaunt try to balance his various hats while also maintaining the respect of his men and his superiors makes this a rather compelling novel for Gaunt and I will be intrigued to see how this affects the character in the future.

While there is always a lot of focus on Gaunt, many of the other characters have big moments here, and it is always interesting to see which characters Abnett will focus on in each particular novel.  Firstly, this is one of the Gaunt’s Ghosts books where the major characters of Colm Corbec and Elim Rawne do not get a lot of focus, as Abnett sets them aside to make room for others.  Corbec is once again wounded early on in the plot to keeps him out of the action, while Rawne, after getting a good needling into Gaunt, is showcased as the senior commander, but that’s about it.  Instead, a lot of the focus goes towards some of the newer members of the cast, such as Gol Kolea, whose attempts to balance his complex family concerns leads only to tragedy and despair for him and the reader.  Cuu continues to be a menace, while surgeon Ana Curth acts as several character’s consciences throughout the book.  The previously overlooked but surprisingly lucky Bonin finally got some prominence in this novel, and I loved finding out how he survived Necropolis.  The newer characters of Commissar Hark and Captain Ban Daur also proved to be essential parts of the plot, and I am really glad that Abnett continued to utilise them, as they helped Gaunt see the errors of several decisions while simultaneously taking on some of Gaunt’s more unorthodox methods.  Members of the original Ghosts, such as Brin Milo, Larkin, Bragg and Mkoll all had good roles in The Guns of Tanith as well, and their balanced scenes showcased different triumphs and tragedies.  Finally, I was glad that Abnett decided to keep featuring the mysterious preacher, Ayatani Zweil, after his fun introduction in Honour Guard.  Zweil is an always entertaining yet serious figure, and it was great to see him knock some sense into several characters when they needed it.  I’m honestly only scratching the surface here, as a ton of other characters were well featured throughout The Guns of Tanith as Abnett continues to build and bring together his final cast of major characters.  Each of these amazing protagonists had some superb impacts on narrative of this novel, and I cannot wait to see how Abnett continues to develop them in the later books of the series.  I am assuming it is only a matter of time until more of the characters start to die, and I am sure that will break my heart just as much as the big death in The Guns of Tanith did.

Due to my love of the format, I of course listened to The Guns of Tanith on audiobook, which is easily the best way to enjoy any Warhammer book.  I have gone on a lot about the fantastic Gaunt’s Ghosts audiobooks in recent reviews, and The Guns of Tanith has all the same advantages, as one of my favourite audiobook narrators, Toby Longworth, brings the reader right into the heart of the action with his great voice work.  Every scene is masterfully showcased by his narration, and all the characters are brought to life thanks to the great voices he utilises for them.  Longworth really stretched himself when it came to accents in this latest novel, and he features a ton of great new voices, as well as the existing tones from the previous audiobooks, to bring this entire audiobook together.  With the standard runtime of just over 10 hours, The Guns of Tanith audiobook is a real snap to power through, and I honestly finished it off in only a few days.

Unsurprisingly, I absolutely loved the fifth entry in Dan Abnett’s exceptional Gaunt’s Ghosts books, The Guns of Tanith, which proved to be another powerful and enjoyable Warhammer 40,000 novel.  Filled with Abnett’s usual impressive battles, The Guns of Tanith also had a brilliant focus on characters-driven storylines that dominated most of the plot and kept the readers hooked the entire time.  An intense, addictive, and deeply personal Gaunt’s Ghosts books, The Guns of Tanith was pretty damn outstanding and I loved every second of it.

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Quick Review – Warhammer 40,000: Huron Blackheart: Master of the Maelstrom by Mike Brooks

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Extended Universe, Quick Review, Science Fiction, Tie-in Novel, Warhammer11 Comments

Huron Blackheart Cover

Publisher: Black Library (Audiobook – 7 May 2022)

Series: Warhammer 40,000

Length: 6 hours and 23 minutes

My Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

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I am really in love with the Warhammer 40,000 universe at the moment as they are producing some incredible books.  While many feature huge casts or examine vast conflicts, some of the very best Warhammer 40,000 novels provide greater context and insight into the game’s legendary characters.  These major character driven novels often result in some intriguing and powerful reads, and I love the complex stories that they tell.  One of the more interesting ones recently was the epic Huron Blackheart: Master of the Maelstrom by rising Warhammer 40,000 fiction author Mike Brooks.  This was a great and exciting read from last year, which I unfortunately never got the chance to properly review.  However, as I have just started listening to one of Brooks’s more recent novels, Warboss, I thought it would be beneficial to do a quick review of Huron Blackheart.

Plot Synopsis:

Huron Blackheart is the lord of the Red Corsairs, master of the lawless Maelstrom and its piratical denizens – but oathbreakers and renegades can seldom rely on the loyalty of their followers. With the galaxy thrown into turmoil by the return of Roboute Guilliman, the former Tyrant of Badab faces a renewed Imperium and fresh challengers emerging within his own ranks.

Huron must call on every trick he knows to stay in control – and alive. Yet even a warrior as ferocious and opportunistic as the Blood Reaver must be wary, for although there are many bargains he can strike, all power comes at a price…

Brooks has produced a very awesome and enjoyable read with Huron Blackheart which drags you in with its intense and entertaining story.  As the name suggests, the book primarily focuses on one of the more interesting characters from the wider Warhammer 40,000 canon, Huron Blackheart.  Huron Blackheart is a particularly cool character with a well-established background as a former loyal space marine who turned traitor and become a notorious pirate lord, haunting vast swathes of the Imperium.  Rather than diving into the full history of the character, Brooks instead tells a more contemporary narrative that shows the current actions of Huron Blackheart in the aftermath of the return of Roboute Guilliman.

The story sees Huron planning his next great offensive against the hated Imperium when one of his subordinates suddenly becomes a threat when he arrives with a mighty war prize, a legendary Ultramarines battle cruiser and Roboute Guilliman’s personal flagship, which the canny underling had managed to capture.  Now faced with a potential rival, Huron is further blindsided when several of his underlings ensure that a powerful daemonic relic falls out of his hands, further weakening his hold on his minions.  Forced into a corner, Huron soon finds himself caught between his murderous minions and the dark powers that surround him, and he’ll need to make a deadly decision that could change his existence and the remnants of his soul forever.

This is a pretty enjoyable and compelling overall narrative, and it is always quite a lot of fun to see events unfold from a villain’s perspective.  The author did a good job of balancing out some of the elements of the story, and the reader is treated to a great mix of Chaos politics, intense action, and a focus on the always awesome figure of Huron Blackheart.  Brooks makes good use of a multi-character perspective throughout Huron Blackheart, which is mostly effective in telling the fun and enjoyable narrative.  The main one of course is from Huron itself, which gives you some very interesting views into his mind, but several other characters are also well featured, including a captured Tech Priest who is forcibly recruited into Huron’s ranks at the start of the novel.  She provides a great outsider perspective to the entire story, and, when combined with Huron’s own cynical observances, you get a great view of the book’s events, especially all the backstabbing, politicking and carnage that emerges.  Not every character is given this great treatment however, as several of the supporting cast end up being a bit one-dimensional in places, which make their subsequent perspective shots a bit hard to care about.  Still, Brooks’s great use of perspective does capture the novel’s slightly darker and more bloody tone that some of the other Warhammer 40,000 novels out there as Brooks attempts to capture the villainous edge to every character.  I particularly enjoyed several of the scenes that showed the entire elaborate nature of Huron’s corsair organisation, and it was a lot of fun to see all the different factions, as well as several different groups of Chaos Space Marines, working together for piratical purposes.  I did think that the story itself was a little basic in places, especially when it came to its direction, and several of the twists or reveals were well telegraphed.  Still, I was pretty entertained the entire way through Huron Blackheart, and readers are guaranteed a pretty good time with the story.

Naturally for a book titled Huron Blackheart, a lot of the story is built around the exploration of who Huron is and what role he fills in the galaxy.  I must admit that this was one of those established Warhammer characters that I wasn’t particularly familiar with, so I was quite keen to see how the author would feature them.  Unsurprisingly, Brooks does a good job of setting Huron up as a particularly intense and ghastly central character for the novel, and you soon get a good idea of his motivations and the rage burning within him.  While Brooks was a little light on Huron’s full character history, readers fully understand his hatred, as well as other intriguing aspects of his character, such as his pragmatism, his deep-seated rage, and an actual understanding of the powers he has bound himself to.  I loved seeing the world through Huron’s eyes in parts of the book, especially as you see all his canny and cynical insights into the motivations of his minions and the key players of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.  Watching Huron attempt to manipulate every situation to his advantage is a ton of fun, and he cuts quite a distinctive figure in this book, even when on the losing end of a potential scheme.  Despite some of the setbacks he suffers in this novel, Huron comes away as a particularly strong and intelligent character, and it was fun to follow a Chaos leader that can control so many naturally treacherous beings.  Brooks also does a good job of tying Huron’s story into the wider current canon of the Warhammer 40,000 universe and it was fascinating to see what role Huron envisions his raiders having in the current wars of the galaxy.  There are some great references to other recent books and events, particularly when it comes the events around the captured Ultramarines ships, and I felt that this entire novel slid in nicely into this wider canon.

I ended up listening to Huron Blackheart on audiobook, which is always my preferred medium for Warhammer stories.  The Huron Blackheart audiobook ended up being a pretty awesome listen, especially with the impressive narration of Andrew Wincott.  Wincott captured every dark and bloody setting perfectly with his narration, and you got a real sense of the scale and menace of every scene, especially those focused on Huron himself.  Wincott made sure to also feature some great voices which really showed the full range of crazed figures that made up the supporting cast.  However, the best voice work was saved for Huron Blackheart himself, as Wincott wanted to inject some intensity into him.  Wincott gives him a deep, loud, and croaky voice, that perfectly captures his inhuman nature and helps readers to envision his mutilated flesh.  As such, the Huron Blackheart audiobook is an outstanding way to the enjoy the story, and with a run time of just under six and a half hours, it is one that you can power through pretty quickly.

Overall, Huron Blackheart: Master of the Maelstrom was a great Warhammer 40,000 book and I am glad that I got the chance to listen to it last year.  Mike Brooks had a lot of fun bringing the intriguing central protagonist to life in this new book, and his subsequent story of treachery and survival was interesting and easy to get through.  This was a particularly solid entry in the Warhammer canon, and all established fans of the franchise will have an excellent time with Huron Blackheart, especially in its audiobook format.

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Throwback Thursday – Warhammer 40,000: Honour Guard by Dan Abnett

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Extended Universe, Science Fiction, Throwback Thursday, Tie-in Novel, Warhammer12 Comments

Warhammer 40,000 - Honour Guard Cover

Publisher: Black Library (Audiobook – July 2001)

Series: Gaunt’s Ghosts – Book Four

Length: 10 hours and 12 minutes

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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Welcome back to my Throwback Thursday series, where I republish old reviews, review books I have read before or review older books I have only just had a chance to read.  For this week’s Throwback Thursday I’m still in a Warhammer 40,000 mood, so I decided to dive even further into Dan Abnett’s classic Gaunt’s Ghosts series with the fourth book, Honour Guard.

Readers of this blog will no doubt have noticed a fair increase in the number of Warhammer 40,000 novels I’ve highlighted this year, as this entire grim expanded universe has quite an addictive quality to it.  Foremost amongst these books have been the compelling works of veteran author Dan Abnett, who has written so many impressive and key parts of the Warhammer canon over the years.  I deeply enjoyed his Eisenhorn trilogy (Xenos, Malleus and Hereticus), all three of which were given pride of place in my recent post listing my favourite Warhammer 40,000 novels.  However, his best-known works are his Gaunt’s Ghosts series of books, which catalogue the adventures of the Tanith First and Only regiment of Imperial Guard, better known as Gaunt’s Ghosts.  I have had a wonderful time with the first three novels, First and Only, Ghostmaker and Necropolis, as well as the prequel novel The Vincula Insurgency, which showcased the bloody lives of the common soldier in this war-torn universe.  I have really gotten attached to this series and when I wanted a quick read, there was nothing I would rather turn to then the next Gaunt’s Ghosts book, Honour Guard.

Throughout the extended, system-spanning Sabbat World crusades, the men of the Tanith First and Only have fought against the dark forces of Chaos in every way imaginable.  Led by their heroic commander, Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt, the Tanith soldiers, known colloquially as Gaunt’s Ghosts, have had many victories, but few failures.  So, when fighting on the holy Shrine World of Hagia, the Ghosts are devastated when they trigger a disastrous enemy trap that destroys a holy city and creates a psyker beacon that will draw a massive Chaos fleet down on their position.

Troubled by his failures to protect one of the most important planets in the Sabbat Worlds and made a scapegoat by his commander, Gaunt is left a broken man.  His one chance to save his career and his regiment is to lead the Tanith and an armoured company as an honour guard to a sacred shrine to recover the holy relics of Saint Sabbat.  If he can recover the relics and evacuate them from the planet before the Chaos fleet arrives, he may be able to keep the Ghosts under his command.

Beginning the arduous pilgrimage, Gaunt and his men soon discover that the road to the shrine isn’t as clear as their intelligence indicated.  A vast enemy army lies in wait for them, and the Ghosts will have to fight every step of the way to secure their objective and make their escape.  However, there are far more mysterious forces at work behind the scenes as Gaunt and some of his men soon find themselves being driven on by religious visions of Saint Sabbat herself.  Is the holy saint talking to them, or is something more sinister manipulating them?

Honour Guard was another epic science fiction military adventure that I powered through in no time at all.  Skilfully continuing the intriguing Gaunt’s Ghost story, Abnett has produced a thoughtful and intense read that throws the protagonists into a captivating action-packed scenario that really showcases the gritty nature of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

Honour Guard has a somewhat typical Gaunt’s Ghosts story to it, and if you’ve read the series before then you know that means great characters, intense fights with big set-piece battles, and a compelling look at the common soldier in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.  This fourth book follows on from the events of Necropolis, and Abnett quickly and ably shows the changes to the regiment that the previous adventures have wrought, especially with all the new Verghastite recruits.  Abnett starts things off with an epic series of battles as the Ghosts attempt to take a Chaos controlled city.  This opening sprawl of fights is not only intense but it expertly introduces the new setting, sets up several key story points, and lets the reader know who the main characters of Honour Guard are going to be.  From there, the characters, especially the main protagonist, Gaunt, face a major setback as the city is destroyed, their allies are killed, and a massive Chaos fleet has been summoned to destroy the holy planet they are on.  There are some great moments in this early bit of the book, especially as Abnett really dives into the impacts of the failure on Gaunt.  It also sets up the intriguing story element that Gaunt is likely to lose his command and the Ghosts will be broken up as a result.

With that set up, Abnett then drives into the meat of the story, with Gaunt leading the Ghosts and an armoured regiment as an honour guard to retrieve the sacred relics of one of the Imperium’s most important saints before the enemy fleet arrives.  Framed as an easy mission to give Gaunt an honourable send off, the mission naturally goes to hell when the Ghosts discover a vast enemy army between them and their goal.  This results in several major battles on the road, and Abnett has a lot of fun combining infantry fighting with tank warfare to make the conflicts even more impressive.  Each battle is extremely fun in its own regard, and fans of action and military combat really won’t be disappointed by Honour Guard as a result.  At the same time, there is a real focus on the characters, as several of the protagonists are going through different personal struggles, especially Gaunt.  Abnett also introduces an intriguing and moving side storyline that sees several long-running Gaunt’s Ghosts characters, who were wounded and left behind, attempt to make their own way to the conflict, guided by religious visions.  Everything leads up to a final battle sequence at the objective as the honour guard are trapped with a massive enemy force coming towards them.  Abnett naturally spends pages detailing all the bloody fighting, which serves as a great backdrop to the main story elements.  While I did think that the big finale of the book was too sudden and coincidental, it did fit into the general theme of faith and miracles that were covered in a lot of the plot.  Overall, this was another great, action-heavy narrative that I was able to sit back and enjoy.

As with all Abnett’s work, Honour Guard is extremely well written, and readers who have enjoyed any of the author’s previous books will be aware of what they are in for with this fantastic novel.  The author features a great blend of action, universe building and character development throughout his novel, and readers are ensured of constant excitement or intense, character-driven moments.  The entire story is told from multiple character perspectives, as the entire cast is well represented.  Not only does this allow the reader to get interesting updates from all the intriguing characters, many of whom have been built up in previous books, but it also ensures that you get a wide view of events featured throughout the novel, including several different perspectives of each battle.  I do think that the book was lacking a good antagonist perspective (or honestly a real antagonist character), and if Abnett would have included that, the entire story would have felt a bit more complete.  Still, the sheer number of perspectives and supporting characters ensures that the reader sees every angle of the action.  That is really great, as the battle scenes are some of the best parts of the book.  Abnett never holds back when it comes to the carnage, and every massive fight, armoured vehicle engagement and or infantry push is covered in high detail.  The author really tries to highlight the brutality and trauma of war, as well as the hell each of the soldier characters goes through, and you ended up riveted to the plot as a result, especially as no side character is safe.  I am glad that Abnett keeps up his outstanding writing throughout the Gaunt’s Ghosts series and I ended up getting really caught up in Honour Guard as a result.

This proved to be another interesting addition to both the Gaunt’s Ghosts series and the wider Warhammer 40,000 universe, and fans of both are going to have a pretty great time with this new novel.  As with most of the books in the series, Honour Guard can be read as a standalone novel, although starting with the earlier books does give the reader more insight into the characters.  Abnett really tries to make each of his novels as accessible as possible, and readers new to the series or Warhammer fiction in general can easily dive in here and have a fun time with all the military action.  However, Abnett also has a lot of fun expanding out the canon in Honour Guard, especially as you get to see more regiments of the Imperial Guard in action against the forces of Chaos.  One of the most intriguing lore aspects of Honour Guard is the examination of key elements of the Sabbat Worlds, which have been the overarching focus of this series.  In particular, there is a focus on the legendary figure of Saint Sabbat, who is a personal hero of many of the characters.  This sends the story down an interesting spiral of faith and devotion in the Imperial Cult, as many have their religious beliefs tested due to the earlier events of the story.  As such, there are some great examinations of the Imperial religion, and it is fascinating to see the potential spiritual ramifications of several events throughout the novel.  I also quite enjoyed the main setting of the planet of Hagia, which is only really featured in this novel.  Abnett sets the entire world up very quickly and you soon find yourself caught up in the fight for this religious planet which is completely dedicated to worship of the Emperor and his saints.  Abnett works several religious elements of the planet into the story extremely well, and it proves to be quite fascinating backdrop for this awesome novel.

One of the best things about Abnett’s writing is his ability to construct multiple complex and intriguing characters who all go through some great development.  This is particularly true in the Gaunt’s Ghosts books, as he has constructed a pretty massive cast of characters throughout the first three books in the series who all come into play in Honour Guard.  I really enjoyed all the amazing characters in this fourth novel, especially as there is a very interesting change of dynamics due to the Verghastite recruits joining at the end of the previous novel, Necropolis.  Not only does that mean that some of the best new characters from the previous book are once again featured here, but it builds some fantastic rivalries between the soldiers as the new Ghosts attempt to gain acceptance from the men of Tanith.  Honour Guard ended up being a fantastic litmus test for Abnett’s expanded cast, especially as it introduces some compelling cultural and gender divides to the regiment, while also ensuring that all the fantastic characters the author utilised in Necropolis don’t go to waste.

Many of these great characters really stood out to me in Honour Guard, but of course most of the focus was once again on the central protagonist of Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt.  This was a pretty significant novel for Gaunt, as readers get to see him at his very lowest point after he suffers a devastating defeat.  This pushes him into a depressive spiral, which is very surprising after how controlled and confident he has been in the previous novels.  Abnett really does a great job of showcasing Gaunt’s lost confidence and internal anger, and watching him overcome it becomes an intense part of the book.  The author really dives down deep into Gaunt’s motivations throughout Honour Guard, and you come away feeling a lot closer to the character as a result.  It isn’t always easy for an author to show their main protagonist dealing with defeat and loss, but Abnett did a wonderful job of it in Honour Guard, and I think it makes Gaunt a much stronger figure as a result.

Aside from Gaunt, a lot of the other characters are really well utilised throughout Honour Guard, with some great side storylines and adventures.  Colonel Corbec’s adventure with long-running Gaunt’s Ghosts characters Dorden, Brin Milo and Bragg, had some excellent moments to it, especially as many of them are still dealing with the loss of loved ones or their planet.  Abnett also makes great use of several notable characters introduced in Necropolis like Gol Kolea, Captain Ban Daur and Ana Curth in Honour Guard.  It was great to see the author spending time developing storylines around them which will continue to build throughout the series, and I enjoyed seeing them attempting to integrate into the Tanith regiment.  Even new characters like Viktor Hark, the regiments new Commissar, the slippery and entertaining killer Cuu, and troubled Trooper Vamberfeld, all added some awesome elements to the overall story.  I liked how Hark proved to be a compelling reflection of Gaunt, while Vamberfeld showcased the traumas war can have on a soldier’s mind, while also placing him right in the middle of key events.  However, some of the best character work in Honour Guard occurred around the always entertaining Major Rawne.  Rawne, who has sworn multiple times to kill Gaunt, bears witness to his commander’s fall from grace after his defeat.  However, rather than revelling in it, Rawne ends up having a big confrontation with Gaunt towards the end of the book to snap some sense in him.  Watching this cynical character be the voice of reason to Gaunt was just brilliant, and the resulting exchange added some fantastic layers to Rawne that I deeply enjoyed.  While I really would have loved some more named antagonists, the characters overall in Honour Guard were pretty exceptional, and I really loved how Abnett worked their unique personal narratives into the wider plot.

I doubt anyone is going to be too surprised that I checked out Honour Guard on audiobook, as that has been my preferred format for all Abnett’s books.  This is mainly because the action, characters, and grim setting are always translated across so effortlessly on the audiobook, and you can really appreciate all the cool detail that Abnett includes as a result.  Coming in a just over 10 hours, the Honour Guard audiobook has a pretty typical length for a Warhammer book, and I was able to quickly power through it.  As usual, I need to highlight the amazing narration of Toby Longworth, who has lent his voice to all of Abnett’s previous books.  Longworth has an outstanding voice that really captures the tone of the story and ensures that the reader can envision every single battle taking place.  His real talent is his ability to dive into every single character Abnett comes up with and give them a fitting voice that captures their personality and emotions.  There is some impressive continuation from the previous Gaunt’s Ghosts audiobooks as Longworth brings back all the voices he previously featured there, which I deeply appreciated.  He also employs an intriguing range of accents, which help to emphasise the different planets of origin for the various characters and regiments featured in the book.  This attention to detail and impressive voice work helps to make Honour Guard, and indeed all the Gaunt’s Ghosts audiobooks really stand out, and I had a wonderful time listening to the book in this format.  Easily the best way to enjoy this fantastic novel.

Honestly, there was no question about me enjoying Honour Guard, considering how much fun I have been having with the previous Gaunt’s Ghosts books.  This fourth entry has a great story and some brilliant writing by Abnett, and readers are in for an exceptional experience of bullets, blood and explosions in some the best military fiction in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.  This was an outstanding read, and I can give no higher compliment than to say that the moment I finished off Honour Guard, I started listening to the next novel in the series, The Guns of Tanith.  I honestly cannot get enough of this incredible Warhammer 40,000 series and it will be very interesting to see what unique storylines Abnett cooks up next.

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City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Fantasy, Five-Star Books35 Comments

City of Last Chances Cover

Publisher: W. F. Howes (Audiobook – 15 December 2022)

Series: Standalone/Book One

Length: 20 hours and 7 minutes

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Amazon

Acclaimed fantasy and science fiction author Adrian Tchaikovsky delivers one of the best fantasy books of 2023 with the intricate and captivating City of Last Chances.

Over the last year I have been really getting into the works of Adrian Tchaikovsky, one of the most inventive and imaginative authors of fantasy and science fiction writing today.  Tchaikovsky is a skilled and prolific author who has been a major figure in genre since 2008.  Best known for his Shadows of the Apt, Children of Time, Echoes of the Fall and The Final Architecture series, as well as a compelling collection of standalone novels and novellas (I personally have my eye on his previous novel, Guns of the Dawn), Tchaikovsky has a great habit of creating elaborate new worlds filled with intriguing characters and scenarios.  I have only read a couple of his books so far, including Tchaikovsky’s first Warhammer 40,000 novel, Day of Ascension, and his outstanding 2022 novella, Ogres, but both were outstanding reads and I loved the epic stories both of them contained.  Because of this, Tchaikovsky’s latest standalone novel, City of Last Chances, has been on my radar for a while.  It was released last year, and I finally managed to get a copy on audiobook a short while ago and dove into it as soon as I could.  However, I was unprepared for just how captivating its story would be.

There has always been a darkness hanging over the ancient city of Ilmar.  Known colloquially as the City of Long Shadows, the City of Bad Decisions, and the City of Last Chances, Ilmar is home to many dangerous magical occurrences, including the mysterious Anchorwood at its centre, which serves as a gateway to other far-off worlds.  However, a far more sinister enemy has arrived at Ilmar, the soldiers of the Palleseen, a powerful empire seeking to bring its ideas of perfection and order to all it conquers, whether they like it or not.

After several years of occupation, Ilmar is at a tipping point.  Its citizens are fed up of the corrupt and brutal soldiers, and everyone in Ilmar, be they rebels, criminals, refugees, idealistic students or factory workers, is looking for an opportunity to strike back and make their lives better.  With these forces straining to be unleashed, all it takes is one spark to set the fire of anarchy.  That spark occurs when a powerful Palleseen official leads an ill-advised expedition into the Anchorwood, searching for additional power.  However, he is unaware that an opportunistic thief has stolen the necessary protective amulet in advance, and the expedition is massacred by the creatures that live within the wood.

As news of this crime spreads throughout the city, chaos begins to rear its head.  Everyone is searching for the valuable amulet that was stolen as it represents the greatest chance of freedom many will see, while the Palleseen soldiers are clamping down on the entire city, determined to find those responsible and make them pay.  In this chaos, a mixture of Ilmar’s citizens, including a desperate priest, a violent murderer, an unlucky thief, a duplicitous lecturer and several of the most lost people in the city, will seek to survive the oncoming storm, only to fan the flames further.  However, none are truly prepared for the full danger about to engulf Ilmar, or the heartbreak that follows with it.

Well damn, now that was a pretty damn epic book.  Tchaikovsky has delivered an exceptionally intriguing and addictive novel in City of Last Chances that got me hooked very early on.  I was honestly blown away with the captivating and unique narrative that City of Last Chances contained, and Tchaikovsky drew me in with every fantastic detail and distinctive character.  This book gets a very easy five-star rating from me as I am still thinking about every detail of this book.

City of Last Chances has an amazing fantasy narrative at its centre, which Tchaikovsky backs up with his impressive and distinctive writing style that results in an extremely entertaining, powerful, and intense read.  City of Last Chances follows a raft of different characters as they attempt to navigate a series of deadly events following a single theft.  Tchaikovsky sets out the story in a very interesting way, and the book initially feels more like a collection of short stories than one cohesive narrative; for most of the first half of the book, each chapter acts as a semi-independent story that introduces the reader to a new character and shows their place in Ilmar.  These new characters are often supporting or named figures from a previous character’s chapter, who have their own unique stories and lives.  These character-driven stories are all quite enjoyable and compelling in their own way, and Tchaikovsky cleverly alters the tone so that some come off as very serious, some are quite dark, and others can be a little more comedic and thought provoking.  Some of my initial favourites include the funny and philosophical first chapter around the priest Yasnic and his relationship with God (which reminded me a lot of Small Gods by Terry Pratchett), Langrice’s scene-setting chapter at the mysterious Anchorage inn, and the chapter that gave a proper and humorous introduction to the grim figure of Blackmane as he finds himself about to be executed by a very cheery hangman.  Not only are these chapters very entertaining in themselves, but they effectively set up a larger narrative within City of Last Chances, while also providing great character moments and more and more glimpses into the many aspects of Ilmar.

As the book continues, the character-driven chapters begin to flow on from the preceding storylines, with the catalytic theft of the Palleseen artefact leading to bigger events down the line.  Each chapter adds its own spin to these events by showing new factions, impacted characters, or horrors within the city, or by introducing a new series of spiralling events that begin to unwind the situation even further.  As the story continues, a main cast begins to develop as more of the chapters focus on certain characters.  This really starts to bring the overarching narrative together, and soon the best parts of each unique character and their arcs begin to mingle with the other fantastic figures.  The story soon develops into a great tale of revolution with some Les Misérables vibes to it, as students, refugees, resistance fighters and factory workers begin to revolt.  The substantial main cast is worked into these events extremely well, and the reader is soon wrapped up in their powerful character arcs as well as the overarching story of Ilmar as everything begins to unfold.  Most of this is captured in a series of great chapters focused on the main cast, although new characters are still introduced right up into the end, with some unique, if brief, storylines skilfully worked into the larger narrative.  The author really pushes everything up a notch as the book comes towards the end, and every danger, unusual occurrence and strange character is unleashed to some degree.  There are some outstanding reveals, big battles, and some deeply personal moments that really help to bring the entire fantastic story together.  I particularly loved how some great story elements that were hinted at earlier in the book are brought to the fore at the end, especially as this includes some outstanding twists (Hellgram’s wife was a fun one for me).  However, the true joy is in the way that every major character gets a resolution to their emotional and complex character arcs, leaving the reader breathless in multiple ways.  I felt that Tchaikovsky wrapped everything up perfectly, and this serves as a brilliant and captivating standalone fantasy narrative.

I cannot compliment the way that Tchaikovsky presented this outstanding story enough, as his distinctive writing style really helped to compliment the epic and complex plot.  I have already mentioned his great use of different character focused chapters above, and I must once again highlight how effectively they were used to tell a cohesive and distinctive narrative with so many entertaining facets.  While it did take me a little while to fully appreciate what Tchaikovsky was trying to achieve with these semi-independent chapters, once you notice how the story is coming together through character-focused sequences, you really grow to appreciate it.  The continued change of character focus ensures that Tchaikovsky keeps the pace of City of Last Chances pretty brisk, and it is easy to quickly move through the story, especially once you get caught up in the tale of Ilmar and its people that the author is developing.  Tchaikovsky also introduces some impactful changes in tone throughout the book, as City of Last Chances runs the gauntlet from being light-hearted to emotionally draining, as the protagonists go through hell and back while also trying to deal with their own personal problems.  The author puts in some pretty intense scenes throughout this powerful story, many of which leave the characters reeling in different ways, and there are also some quite terrifying or shocking sequences as the full horror of this city is revealed in gruesome fashion.  However, these darker scenes are often undercut with some fun and amusing humour that helps to diffuse the tension at some key parts of the plot and which I found to be very refreshing.  This humour is often a little black and cynical in context, which ensures that the reader is left amused, and sometimes laughing, without the story getting too light and drifting away from its harsher content.  I really think that Tchaikovsky found the right balance here, and I rather enjoyed how he mixed everything together.  I had so much fun seeing how Tchaikovsky wove his complex tale into this book and City of Last Chances really emphasises just how talented he is as an author.

One of the key things that made City of Last Chances such a hit for me was the outstanding setting of Ilmar.  Tchaikovsky has always been exceedingly good at effectively building up an inventive and complex new setting for his stories, and this is some of his best work yet.  The author shows Ilmar through the eyes of so many different characters in this book, each of whom adds a new aspect to its history, character, and energy, as the story progresses.  This proves to be quite an effective way to introduce the setting, and the reader soon gets an impressive picture of the entire chaotic glory of this oppressed city.  I love all the aspects of this place, including the magical dimension-hopping wood and the responsibilities surrounding it, the demon powered factories, the oppressed refugee areas, the idealistic student academy and the sinister Reproach, an abandoned part of the city filled with magically cursed wretches dancing to their death.  Each of these complex and compelling elements are explored to their fullest throughout City of Last Chances and I really appreciated how Tchaikovsky built them up and then effectively featured them again later in the story.

The author also explores various parts of the world outside of Ilmar, and it is interesting to see how that impacts on the main story.  I particularly liked the use of the Palleseen as the overarching antagonists of the story and Tchaikovsky paints them as an obsessed group of fanatics trying to bring their ideas of perfection to an unwilling world.  This plays into several of Tchaikovsky usual themes about oppression and revolution, and he sets the Palleseen up as a vindictive group, who are often hamstrung by the practices and bureaucracy they force on their enemy.  The entire focus on the city of Ilmar being unleashed to face the occupiers was an excellent part of the book, and Tchaikovsky built up all the factions and chaotic nature of the city really well.  As such, Ilmar is a brilliant background setting to this great story and I really appreciated how Tchaikovsky set his story into it.

While I loved so many of City of Last Chances elements, for me the most important and powerful part of the book is the characters, as Tchaikovsky introduces the reader to a massive and captivating cast of figures who travel through the story in their own fashion.  Due to the way the story is set out, there are quite a lot of characters in City of Last Chances, with new cast members being added in every chapter, either to support the current point-of-view protagonist or to set them up for their own chapter later.  As such, there is a real focus on quickly and effectively getting to the root of each character in their first chapter, and I think that Tchaikovsky did a great job on this score.  You get to know each of these figures really quickly and you really get drawn into their unique tales and arcs, many of which are perfectly developed over the course of the book.  While the cast is pretty massive, each of these characters is given plenty of time to develop and many prove to be particularly complex and relatable as a result.

While there are so many great characters, several definitely stood out to me, especially as Tchaikovsky kept going back to them.  This includes Yasnic, the last priest of a diminished and petty god who now haunts his one follower.  Yasnic is a fantastic and occasionally comedic character, which reminded me a little of the protagonist of Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods.  While I did think that Yasnic was a bit one-note at the start of the book, he develops as the story continues, and you really appreciate just how complex and damaging his life as a priest has been, thanks to his god’s arbitrary rules, many of which have actual good reasons behind them.  Watching him try to balance his faith and connection to his god against the terrible things being done to him and the city is a key part of the book, and it leads to some emotionally powerful scenes, especially when Yasnic thinks that his god is being taken away from him against his will.

Other great characters include Langrice, the shunned owner of the Anchorage, the inn that borders the Anchorwood, and Blackmane, an Allorwen refugee and former sorcerer, who serves as a criminal pawnbroker.  Both characters are older and wearier figures who are trying to survive the harsh circumstances of their lives the best way they can.  Both are shown to be outcasts to their own people in different ways, and this leads to a compelling relationship between the two, even if they do not actually trust each other.  I also quite liked the character of Maestro Ivarn Ostravar, a lecturer at Ilmar’s Gownhall university, who acts as a great patriot to his students while actually collaborating with the Palleseen.  Ivarn is a particularly arrogant figure who manages to manipulate people’s views of him, and it is really fun to see him thrown into situations outside of his control, especially when his own reputation works against him and forces him to become the figure head of resistance.  His student, Lemya, is also a great part of the book due to her fervent idealism brought on by Ivarn’s teachings.  Off course, her naivety comes back to bite her and the other characters repeatedly, and while her actions are often a little frustrating, it is great to see her slowly realise she is being manipulated and gain some common sense.

However, to my mind the best character in the book is Ruslav, which is frankly a shock as he initially shown as a simple thug with an obsession for women.  However, Tchaikovsky keeps coming back to him as the story develops and each new situation he finds himself in makes him more complex and likeable.  His first chapter shows how his entire perspective on life is changed when he falls in love with a beautiful painting, which starts a great character arc of self-discovery and confusion for him.  Tchaikovsky keeps developing Ruslav’s story as the book continues and he soon faces more and more challenges, including a mortal injury, a hanging, and forced religion.  The latter is the most damaging to him as he is forced to give up violence, the one thing in life he is good at, to stay alive, which results in quite the existential crisis.  Watching him try to fit all the unusual events occurring to him into his insights as a street thug proves to be entertaining and very relatable, as you understand just how much of a struggle each of his new experiences are for him.  His coarse humour fits into this arc very well, and watching him swear at his new, inadvertent god and all the people of different backgrounds he is forced to deal with, makes for some very fun scenes.  However, not all of Ruslav’s storyline is comedic, as Tchaikovsky loads in continued tragedy for him as well, that really shakes him, and the reader, to their core.  The author seems to both love and hate Ruslav, and the resulting damage and development he goes through result in some of the most emotionally rich parts of City of Last Chances.  I honestly am still surprised that Ruslav turned out to be such a great character, but he and the rest of the cast really make City of Last Chances an epic book, and I am really glad I got the opportunity to dive into their unique lives.

As with many of the larger fantasy books I tend to read, I chose to seek out the City of Last Chances audiobook format, which served as an outstanding way to enjoy this fantastic and elaborate book.  This new Tchaikovsky audiobook is pretty long with a run time of just over 20 hours, and it did take me a little while to get through it, although it was very much worth the time.  I always find that listening to an audiobook helps me to absorb more detail for some books, and this was particularly useful for City of Last Chances as Tchaikovsky has once again loaded his unique setting and captivating story with so many intricate elements.  As such, I was really able to full appreciate the full complexity of the dark city of Ilmar and its many, desperate residents.

I was also extremely impressed with the voice work of narrator David Thorpe, who ensured that the listeners could full enjoy every single aspect of City of Last Chances.  Thorpe, whose narration I have not had the pleasure of before, did a spectacular job here in City of Last Chances and I honestly enjoyed every second he spent telling this story.  Not only has he got a great base voice that tells the main story at a clipped and exciting pace but he also provides a ton of impressive tones for all the characters in this book.  Every one of City of Last Chances’ unique characters is given a particularly fitting voice that captures their personalities and really helps to convey to the reader some of their key points, such as Yasnic’s meekness, Ostravar’s arrogance, or Lemya’s unbridled idealism.  Thorpe also comes up with several great accents that he uses to differentiate some of the different races and nationalities contained within the city, and I felt that this really helped to emphasise the cultural elements contained within the story.  Overall, the City of Last Chances audiobooks is pretty damn spectacular, and I loved how the entire thing came together.  I had so much fun listening to Thorpe’s great take on the characters, and this is easily the best way to enjoy this epic read.

City of Last Chances is a brilliant and wonderful novel by Adrian Tchaikovsky that I cannot start raving about.  I quickly became enthralled the outstanding and compelling narrative that he pulled together throughout City of Last Chances, and his fantastic delivery, intriguing setting, and impressive characters all drew me in.  This is easily one of the best books I have read so far in 2023 and it comes very highly recommended by The Unseen Library.  I cannot wait to see what amazing book Tchaikovsky comes up with next, as if it is any where as good as City of Last Chances, I am going to love it.

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Throwback Thursday – Warhammer 40,000: Necropolis by Dan Abnett

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Extended Universe, Science Fiction, Throwback Thursday, Tie-in Novel, Warhammer17 Comments

Warhammer 40,000 - Necropolis Cover

Publisher: Black Library (Audiobook – January 2001)

Series; Gaunt’s Ghosts – Book Three

Length: 10 hours and 23 minutes

My Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars

Amazon

Welcome back to my Throwback Thursday series, where I republish old reviews, review books I have read before or review older books I have only just had a chance to read.  For my latest Throwback Thursday, I continue to dive into the mud and blood of the 41st century with the awesome Warhammer 40,000 novel, Necropolis by Dan Abnett.

A few weeks ago I published a Top Ten Tuesday that listed my favourite Warhammer 40,000 novels, where I featured several great and impressive authors.  However, out all these authors, the one I seemed to mention the most was the extremely talented Dan Abnett.  Abnett, a veteran contributor to Warhammer lore, is one of the major pillars of the Warhammer 40,000 canon, having written several exceedingly iconic series or novels.  I have really enjoyed some of Abnett’s books including his legendary Eisenhorn trilogy (made up of Xenos, Malleus and Hereticus) which I eagerly absorbed earlier this year.

However, one of Abnett’s most compelling series is his long-running Gaunt’s Ghosts series of books.  This great series follows the tragic and deadly members of the Tanith First and Only, an Imperial Guard regiment let by legendary Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt.  Known informally as Gaunt’s Ghosts, due to their position of the being the only survivors of the destroyed planet of Tanith, the Ghosts fight for vengeance and the hope of winning a new planet.  The Gaunt’s Ghost series follows their adventures during the Sabbat World Crusades, a series of deadly campaigns in a Chaos controlled sector.  I have deeply enjoyed this cool series, mainly because it shows a particularly accurate view of the life of the common soldier in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.  The first two books, First and Only and Ghostmaker, as well as the prequel novel, The Vincula Insurgency, have served as excellent introductions to the characters and their mission, and I have been keen to continue this series.  The third book in the series, Necropolis, features a brilliant new story that throws the Ghosts deep into the absolute hell of war.

On the planet of Verghast, deep in the Sabbat Worlds, the Hive City of Verunhive has long stood as a beacon of productivity and economic success, producing vast quantities of materials for the crusading Imperial armies.  Their dominion on Verghast seems absolute, until a shocking and deadly surprise attack from the neighbouring rival city of Ferrozoica, leaves everyone in shock.  Amassing an army of millions, Ferrozoica launches a continued and brutal attack on Verunhive and its holdings, determined to bring it to its knees, and not even the hastily assembled forces of Verunhive or the fortified walls of the hive seem capable of stopping them.

To maintain the manufacturing capabilities of Verunhive, Warmaster Macaroth dispatches several regiments of Imperial Guard to Verghast to unite the people of Verunhive and help put an end to the invasion Ferrozoica.  Amongst the Imperial reinforcements are the Tanith First and Only, better known as Gaunt’s Ghosts, who are now hardened veterans after years of fighting under Colonel-Commissar Gaunt.  Arriving in Verunhive, the Ghosts discover a desperate hive, fortified by inexperienced soldiers and untested leadership, who are ill-prepared for the horrors of war that are about to be unleashed upon them.

As the Ghosts and their new allies begin a desperate fight for survival, Gaunt soon discovers that the Hive is divided, with political intrigue, ambitious officers, and old rivals, all vying to control the war.  As this division hampers the war effort, an even more dangerous discovery is made: the forces of Ferrozoica aren’t just rebelling, they are under the fell control of Chaos.  Faced with a relentless horde of enemies that won’t stop their attack for anything, can the Tanith and the defenders of Verunhive rally to hold off the enemy are will the Ghosts finally meet their match in the ruins of the corrupt Hive City?

Abnett continues to show why he is one of the very best Warhammer 40,000 authors out there with this exceptional third entry in his Gaunt’s Ghosts series.  Necropolis is a brutal and intense read that features a brilliant group of characters caught up in a desperate and deadly siege.  Action-packed and exceedingly powerful, Necropolis was an incredible addition to the series that I powered through in no time at all.

Necropolis has an outstanding and exceptional story that places the Tanith regiment in the middle of a no-win scenario.  I had heard that Necropolis had one of the best stories out of all the Gaunt’s Ghosts books, and it lives up to all the hype.  One of the reasons for this is that, in contrast to the episodic nature of the first two books, Necropolis has one consistent and continuous story that is completely focused on the battle for Verunhive.  The other major reason for me is that this book is a siege novel, which is something I particularly enjoy, and the subsequent extended war to control Verunhive was pretty damn epic as a result.

The book starts without the Ghosts even present, and instead Abnett takes the time to completely explore the start of the siege, showcasing the setting and introducing many of the new supporting characters and their unique storylines.  This works to set the scene beautifully and you really go into the book fully understanding just how chaotic the ensuing war is going to be.  Gaunt and the Ghosts are introduced a few chapters into Necropolis, and they are swiftly and expertly inserted into the story.  Most of the returning characters are split up around the city and given their own distinctive storylines which often merge with those of the Verunhive citizens introduced in the opening scenes.  At the same time, Gaunt finds himself involved in the political intrigue that is dominating the commanders of the city, which forces him to work with and against rival commanders, commissars and politicians.

The story moves at a pretty swift pace, and soon the reader is gifted with a series of brutal and powerful battles that drag in every major character in the book.  All these battle scenes are pretty intense and deadly, with the protagonists significantly outnumbered by the forces of Chaos.  Abnett really communicates the resulting desperation and fear that many of the characters feel, especially as the enemy starts to make further progress and the losses mount.  These impressive war scenes mesh well with the instances of political intrigue and personal conflicts that several of the characters, particularly Gaunt, are experiencing during the war, and it becomes apparent that ambition, greed and corruption are going to cause just as many problems as the war outside.  I loved the brilliant combination of character driven storylines that emerged, and all of them come together to present a comprehensive and compelling picture of the wider siege before them.

Naturally, things start going to absolute hell in the lead-up to the final act, and Gaunt and his soldiers face a huge variety of threats from both inside and outside of Verunhive.  There are some great scenes of carnage, valour and bitter personal fights during this part of the book as each of the characters attempt to survive in their own way.  Abnett really doesn’t hold back when it comes to the brutal war and readers should really not get attached to any of the characters, as the death toll is pretty significant.  Everything leads up to a final, desperate battle, and I felt that the author handled it extremely well, pitting all the key characters into some outstanding fight sequences.  I did think that the conclusion of one major fight was slightly cliched (as well as significantly underpowering the strength of a bolt pistol), but it was an overall excellent way to end the book.  All the storylines that Abnett opens in Necropolis are closed in a satisfactory way, and many of the characters leave both hopeful and a little forlorn at what they have experienced.  Abnett also leaves behind some hints of future storylines, especially around the personal lives of the Ghosts, and it looks like there is going to be a lot of changes in the next novel of the series.

Featuring a massive multi-perspective cast, Abnett tells a complex and expansive siege narrative that is guaranteed to draw the reader.  As I mentioned before, I love a good siege book, and this probably one of the better ones that I have had the pleasure of reading (I will be adding it to the next version of my Top Ten Tuesday list on the subject).  Abnett really captures the intensity and complexity of the siege of this massive Hive City, and this shines through in every major battle scene he produces.  The reader is effortlessly drawn into every gritty and lethal fight that occurs, and I love how he shows all the perils associated with war, from morale, logistics and even the insanity of the Chaos invaders.  The grim scale of the war and the massive city this book is set in are on full display as well, and you must love seeing the mechanics behind attacking this city, as well as the inherent tragedy such an invasion is having on millions.  Accompanied by an amazing amount of complex, personal stories, and some outstanding, futuristic political intrigue, and you end up with a particularly gripping and well-written tale, and its one I could listen to again and again.

One of the things that I love about Abnett’s books is the way that he so easily and cleverly works the wider Warhammer 40,000 setting into his story.  He does such a good job of including and subtly explaining every bit of relevant lore, technology or faction throughout the book and in such a way that even readers unfamiliar with the franchise can dive in here with Necropolis without any major issues.  This accessibility to new readers is further helped by the way that most of the story focuses on the battles of the common Imperial soldier, and seeing their gritty perspectives and opinions of the book’s events really makes it easier to read.  Necropolis also serves as quite a key entry in the Gaunt’s Ghosts series, and fans who enjoyed the first two books will love to see the Ghosts return to another brutal war.  While Abnett does ensure that Necropolis is accessible to people unfamiliar with the series, readers are better served going back and reading First and Only and Ghostmaker first.  This is mainly because these two books were so heavily focused on character development and introductions, and seeing this characterisation continue in Necropolis makes for a more enjoyable experience.  However, readers can still jump into Necropolis without too many issues, and anyone is guaranteed an epic time if they do.

Abnett is always particularly skilled when it comes to characters, and Necropolis is no different as it features an amazing and large cast.  This not only includes the recurring characters from the previous Gaunt’s Ghosts books, but also a series of new characters originating in Verunhive.  Abnett does a wonderful job of introducing all these new characters while also simultaneously re-establishing all the previous protagonists and their particular character arcs.  The reader ends up following a huge range of character storylines in Necropolis as a result, and it was fascinating to see all the different protagonists, both Ghost and Verunhive local, and their experiences in the war.  However, I do think that Abnett might have gone a little overboard when it came to characters in Necropolis, as it became hard to follow so many distinctive personalities at times.  I also found that some of the best characters from the first two books, such as Colm Corbec and Major Rawne, were a bit underutilised as a result.  However, you still get a lot of Gaunt, and his excellent chapters perfectly capture the insanity behind the war as Abnett once again showcases him as the noble hero, although even he is not prepared for some of the complex figures waiting for him.  I loved the contrast between Gaunt and his rival, Commissar Kowle, who is a lot more self-serving, and it was great to see more hostile interactions between Gaunt and the Royal Volpone commander General Sturm.  This ended up being a great book for characters, and I look forward to seeing how some of the supporting cast introduced in Necropolis will go in future books, especially after so many join the Ghosts at the end of the book.

As with pretty much everything else from Abnett that I have enjoyed, I chose to grab Necropolis on audiobook, which was exceptional.  Generally, all the Warhammer 40,000 novels are pretty amazing in their own way, but I have had a great time with the ones written by Abnett.  I find the format fits his epic and powerful narratives extremely well, and the intense action, world building and characters, are all highlighted perfectly in the audiobooks.  One of the main reasons for this is due to the impressive work of narrator Toby Longworth, who lends his voice to all of Abnett’s main works.  Longworth is such a great narrator and I love how he brings the intense story to life, revelling in every action, shot and bit of carnage that Abnett imagines.  His main skill is his ability to come up with a huge range of fitting and memorable voices for every major cast member, and his take on each of Abnett’s characters is always spot on.  All the characters who appeared in the previous Gaunt’s Ghosts books return with the same voices that Longworth utilised then, and I loved both the consistency with the prior audiobooks and the unique way he gets into each of the recurring characters.  The accent that he gifts all the native members of the Tanith First and Only is amazing, and it is really cool how he uses it to acknowledge their rugged history.  Longworth’s talent for accents is pushed to the limit in Necropolis, as the plot features characters from several different planets.  However, he succeeds in giving unique accents for all the different off-worlders, which included a pretty accurate Australian-esque accent, which gets my approval.  This voice work, as well as the way the format generally enhances the cool story, ensures that the Necropolis audiobook is a fantastic way to enjoy this awesome book.  With a run time of just under 10 and a half hours, listeners can easily power through this book in a few days, especially once they get caught up in the addictive narrative.

My love of the classic Gaunt’s Ghosts series keeps getting stronger and stronger as the third book, Necropolis was a particularly epic Warhammer 40,000 read.  The legendary Dan Abnett provides readers with a powerful and captivating siege story that makes full use of its dark setting and comprehensive cast of characters.  An exceptional read from start to finish, Necropolis comes highly recommended, and I cannot wait to see what happens in the next Gaunt’s Ghosts book.

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Quick Review – Ogres by Adrian Tchaikovsky

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Short Stories15 Comments

Ogres Cover

Publisher: Penguin Audio (Audiobook – 15 March 2022)

Series: Standalone (Novella)

Length: 4 hours and 58 minutes

My Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars

Amazon     Book Depository

Fear, revolution, and the ultimate nature of humanity all lie in store for readers when they check out the impressive novella Ogres by highly regarded science fiction and fantasy author, Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Adrian Tchaikovsky is an acclaimed author whose highly regarded works often receive much applause for their unique stories filled with overarching themes, messages, and appreciation for both the fantasy and science fiction genres.  I have been meaning to read several of his more intriguing novels and series for a while, but my first direct experience with Tchaikovsky occurred last year when I was lucky enough to listen to a version of his debut Warhammer 40,000 novel, Day of Ascension.  Focusing on an insidious Genestealer Cult who have infiltrated a corrupt city and started a deadly revolution, Day of Ascension was an incredible read, and it was one of the best Warhammer 40,000 novels I have read.  This left me pretty enthralled with Tchaikovsky’s style and ability to quickly and effectively craft elaborate new worlds and peoples and I decided to read some more of his work this year.  I had intended to read his latest novel, City of Last Chances, next, but at the last minute I changed my mind and instead decided to quickly listen to his 2022 novella, Ogres.  Ogres was a very intriguing sounding novella that everyone was talking about last year, and I figured it was time to see what all the fuss was about.

Plot Synopsis:

Ogres are bigger than you.
Ogres are stronger than you.
Ogres rule the world.

It’s always idyllic in the village until the landlord comes to call.

Because the landlord is an Ogre. And Ogres rule the world, with their size and strength and appetites. It’s always been that way. It’s the natural order of the world. And they only eat people sometimes.

But when the headman’s son, Torquell, dares lift his hand against the landlord’s son, he sets himself on a path to learn the terrible truth about the Ogres, and about the dark sciences that ensured their rule.

Well damn, now that was a very impressive read.  Ogres was an excellent and captivating read and Tchaikovsky does an incredible job setting up a particularly unique and imaginative scenario and running with it to create a fantastic and highly addictive read.

I really loved the powerful and elaborate story that Tchaikovsky featured in Ogres, and what made it even more impressive was how much he managed to fit into this shorter novella format.  The story has a slightly slow start to it that sets up the world ruled by Ogres and introduces the reader to the protagonist, Torquell.  After a terrible incident forces Torquell to seek revenge, he goes on the run, only to find out more about the Ogres and the humans they enslave around the world than he ever expected.  This story goes into some very interesting places, blending several genres together and simultaneously providing some compelling commentary on the world of Ogres, and ours at the same time.  There are some great reveals at the centre of the story, especially as Torquell learns more and more about how the Ogres came to rule, and the revelations he uncovers drive him forward into revolution.  This entire last quarter of Ogres, when Torquell brings the fight to his foes, is pretty brilliant, and I loved seeing how he orchestrates his battle.  Everything leads up to a fantastic conclusion, which honestly left me pretty damn shocked and impressed beyond all belief.  Tchaikovsky brings a ton of great story elements together in the conclusion as you see everyone’s narrative come full circle in a big way.  However, the real joy is a particularly excellent and impactful twist that completely changes everything you thought you knew about Ogres and really upends the entire narrative.  I deeply loved how Tchaikovsky switches things up at the end, and this twist proves to be the perfect way to end this exceptional and intense novella.

I really must commend Tchaikovsky’s brilliant writing style in Ogres, as there are so many damn layers to how he brings this story together.  However, I must first highlight how well the author inserts such a complex story into such a short number of pages.  The full story is so well paced out, and he manages to fit in so much worldbuilding and detail, which really shouldn’t be possible.  However, it is, and he does, and I loved every damn second of it.  This story has a little something for everybody as it stretches between science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, and political commentary.  Tchaikovsky fits in several intriguing messages about freedom, rights, modern society and more throughout this story, all of which ends up fitting the narrative frame of Ogres extremely well.  One of the more distinctive things about how Ogres is told is the use of a mysterious narrator who utilises a second person perspective to tell the story.  This was a unique way to bring Ogre’s narrative to life, and it really made this story stand out in several ways.  I must admit that at first, I wasn’t the biggest fan of this narration style at first, but as Ogres continues, I did get used to it, and I found that it worked to tell the complex story and give it a more classic, heroic edge.  However, you don’t realise just how clever this choice of narration style is until the very end of the book when the twist comes into play.  It turns out that there is a very specific reason why the story is told in this way, and I deeply enjoyed how this epic turn adds so much to everything you have just read.  Throw in some very well established and polished character journeys, especially around the protagonist, that sees them grow as a person (literally and figuratively), and you come away with a very deep appreciate for Tchaikovsky’s rare ability to tell a story.

While the story and the impressive writing are pretty damn epic, one of the main things that I loved about Ogres was the sheer inventiveness of the world that the story is set in.  Tchaikovsky has come up with another elaborate and fantastic scenario for his latest work, presenting a world in which Ogres rule over humans with their size and technology, and the corresponding world is such a joy to behold.  The initial view of the world shows the Ogres as domineering landlords ruling over multiple villages, acting very much like country lords romping around their estates, treating all the humans like edible serfs.  This was a great concept to behold, and it gets even better when the protagonist travels further afield.  He soon sees a world completely dominated by the Ogres, with humans crammed into factory towns, like classic London factories, other humans forced in a Napoleonic-esque war for the Ogres’ amusement, and a weird mixture of technology and society elements from across history are present throughout the world.  I loved how Tchaikovsky blended a race of Ogres with settings reminiscent of iconic periods of British history, and it gives the book such a distinctive flair.  However, the world gets even more complicated when you learn the full scope of who and what the Ogres are, which provides the book more of a science fiction edge at that point.  Tchaikovsky does a beautiful job of effectively introducing every single wonderful facet of his complex world to the reader, and you quickly understand everything about it in a very short amount of time.  The story balances wonderfully through this world and Tchaikovsky of course takes the time to add in a few societal messages, and I particularly enjoyed how well this setting skirted the genre boundary and made Ogres a compelling mix of historical, fantasy and science fiction features.

I ended up quickly listening to Ogres on audiobook, which was a great way to dive into this compelling book.  Coming in at just under five hours in length, Ogres was a very short listen, but it still has plenty of time to get you hooked and introduced to the entire unique world.  Narrator Emma Newman does a great job of dragging listeners in with her quick narration, and I liked her take on several of the characters, especially as when she makes the Ogres seem particularly brutal and cruel.  Her voice also works for the second person narration I mentioned before and I quite enjoyed the fantastic edge she gave to this overlying narration, especially towards the end.  As such, I would strongly recommend the audiobook format to anyone interested in checking out Ogres, and it proved to be a brilliant way to enjoy this shorter story.

I think it is fairly easy to say that I loved this awesome novella and I am really glad that I listened to it.  Ogres is such a clever concept and Adrian Tchaikovsky came up with a brilliant and powerful story that really keeps you engaged the entire way through.  The entire novella is extraordinary from start to finish and you will be utterly enthralled the entire way through.  I had such a great time with Ogres and I look forward to seeing what other elaborate stories that Tchaikovsky has created.

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3 Days to Live by James Patterson

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Short Stories, Thriller1 Comment

3 Days to Live Cover

Publisher: Century (Trade Paperback – 31 January 2023)

Series: Standalone

Length: 372 pages

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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Those in the mood for a quick and very fun series of thriller stories should check out the intriguing new book from the legendary James Patterson, 3 Days to Live, featuring three great short stories co-written by some impressive talents.

I have been really getting into James Patterson’s books over the last couple of years, and there is a reason that he is always leading the thriller field.  At this point, I have mostly read books that Patterson has co-written with several other authors, including the fun Doc Savage sequel The Perfect Assassin (co-written by Brian Sitts), the impressive mystery loaded with family drama 2 Sisters Detective Agency (co-written by Candice Fox), the compelling thriller Lost (co-written by James O. Born) and the addictive and freaky Death of the Black Widow (co-written by J. D. Barker and one of my favourite books of 2022).  As such, I am always keen to read more from Patterson and when I received a copy of 3 Days to Live, I quickly dove into it knowing I would have a great time with it.

3 Days to Live is a captivating book that contains three separate short stories, including the titular story 3 Days to Live, as well as Women and Children First and The Housekeepers.  Patterson wrote each of these short stories with a separate co-author, and the talented Duane Swierczynski, Bill Schweigart and Julie Margaret Moulin each add their own flair to these great stories.  I haven’t read anything from these three authors before, so 3 Days to Live proved to be an excellent and fun introduction.  All three stories are roughly the same length, and they each have their own elaborate and intelligent narratives told utilising Patterson’s fast-paced style.  There is a very fun collection of different storylines with each of these entries, and I loved the sheer variety of scenarios these great authors came up with.

The first of these short stories is 3 Days to Live, which was co-written by Patterson and Swierczynski.  This is a very exciting and clever spy thriller that serves as an excellent and distinctive introduction to the entire collection.  The story is told from the perspective of Samantha Bell, a young, recently retired CIA agent, who has just eloped with her new husband, Kevin Drexel.  Honeymooning in Berlin, tragedy strikes when Kevin is lethally poisoned at the hotel alongside a Russian Oligarch and his daughter.  Samantha manages to survive the attack but is also dosed with the poison, which will end up killing her in less than three days.  Weakened, dazed, and heartbroken, Samantha sets out to find out who killed her and her husband and is forced to contend with both the CIA and the Russians, before discovering the terrible truth behind her own murder.

This was a very impressive and enjoyable story that I particularly enjoyed getting through.  Patterson and Swierczynski came up with a great story that perfectly utilises its fun storyline about a poisoned individual trying to find their killer before they die, which was reminiscent of films like D.O.A, Crank, and Kate.  The authors set the scene for 3 Days to Live’s story extremely well and you are soon deeply engrossed with Samantha’s story as she utilises all her knowledge and skill as a CIA agent to find out who killed her and why.  The story goes in some very fun directions, and you really connect with Samantha as she balances her grief over her husband’s death with her need for vengeance and control of the situation.  The authors do a good job of showcasing the character’s slowly declining physical health, and the weakness and loss of control she feels becomes an outstanding part of the plot, especially as you begin to worry that she won’t be able to achieve her goals.  There are some fun twists and swerves throughout this short story, and while the identity of the poisoner is a little obvious, the full motivations and set-up for it works perfectly.  I was extremely engrossed by this captivating story and I managed to power through all 110 pages in very, very short order.  Readers interested in checking this book out are in for a lot of fun with this first impressive entry and it honestly was my favourite story in the entire book.

The second story is the great read Women and Children First, which was co-written by Bill Schweigart.  This intriguing second story follows security specialist and former elite soldier Chase Weldon, who has been hired by a massive corporation to test their systems and find any potential breaches.  However, during Chase’s initial investigations a series of deadly cyber security breaches occur, and it becomes clear that someone is targeting the company and its eccentric CEO.  Initially an observer, Chase is dragged into the chaos when the saboteurs contact him and coerce him to convince his employers to pay a substantial ransom.  But when Chase attempts to push back, the saboteurs place him in a terrible situation, one where killing his wife and kids seems to be the only option.

This was another awesome and electrifying story that serves as a wonderful and compelling second entry in 3 Days to Kill.  Moving from spy thriller to corporate espionage is a fun change of pace, and I liked the unique and clever story that emerges.  Patterson and Schweigart do a great job drawing the reader in, especially after an entertaining introduction to the protagonist that also serves to highlight the tactics of the baddie.  The stakes steadily rise as the book continues and watching the protagonist get desperate enough to consider killing his family really added to tension of the plot.  The subsequent interactions with the arrogant tech CEO make for some great scenes, and while I was able to see most of the story’s big twists coming, it was still a ton of fun getting through it, especially with all the action that unfolds around them.  There are some fantastic family dynamics worked into the plot, and while the family are portrayed as way too overwhelmingly talented, you still get caught up in their gripping adventure.  The authors end up telling a very concise and entertaining story through the course of 121 pages, and I was hooked enough to read the entire thing in one sitting.  Women and Children First also serves as a great follow up to 3 Days to Live, and readers following on straight away from the first action-packed story will find another excellent read that keeps the blood pumping while telling its own distinctive and enjoyable story.

The third and final story in 3 Days to Live is the powerful and intense thriller, The Housekeepers, which was co-written by Julie Margaret Moulin.  Following several distinctive characters, The Housekeepers sees Russian housekeepers Sophie and Masha on the run from the Russian mob who intend to kill Sophie’s son Nikolai.  Desperate for a place to hide, they secrete themselves in the pool house of Masha’s boss, Dr Elizabeth Parks.  However, Dr Parks is going through her own issues, including family drama and police concerns around a gang violently targeting her clients to steal their prescription medication.  When circumstances drive them together, the doctor and the housekeepers need to work together to survive all their deadly problems.

This was another compelling story and probably the most moving and powerful of the bunch.  Rather than the fast-paced action of the first two stories, The Housekeepers is more character driven, and Patterson and Moulin do a wonderful job of efficiently setting up the major problems impacting all the distinctive protagonists.  Each of these issues, including Russian gangsters, problematic teenagers, intruders, family tensions, and even a pack of coyotes, come crashing down around them and it results in some complex and dramatic interactions.  The authors really lay down an excellent and intelligent narrative in The Housekeepers and I loved how dark it got, especially with those great twists at the end.  All the complex characters have their own dark issues, and it was really impressive how Patterson and Moulin where able to effectively set them out and resolve them during the course of this short story.  I came away from The Housekeepers deeply satisfied, if slightly saddened, and this proved to be an awesome and moving finale to this volume.

This was an overall excellent and captivating collection of short stories from Patterson and his co-writers, and I am really glad I got the chance to read them.  All three fast-paced stories really draw the reader in with their well-established and thought-out narratives and unique scenarios, and the authors played them out perfectly.  Each story really stood on its own feet while also adding to the entire volume.  I personally enjoyed the differences in tone and focus that each story contained, and I think that 3 Days to Live serves as a good example of Patterson’s style and ability to work with different authors.  I would strongly recommend 3 Days to Live to established Patterson readers or thriller fans who are interested in seeing what sort of ideas Patterson and his cohorts are working with these days.  I can’t wait to read more Patterson books in the future.

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Throwback Thursday – Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team by Gav Thorpe

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Extended Universe, Science Fiction, Throwback Thursday, Tie-in Novel, Warhammer8 Comments

Kill Team Cover

Publisher: Black Library (Paperback – 1 November 2001)

Series: Last Chancers – Book Two

Length: 277 pages

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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Welcome back to my Throwback Thursday series, where I republish old reviews, review books I have read before or review older books I have only just had a chance to read.  In my latest Throwback Thursday, I review the second epic entry in Gav Thorpe’s ultra-fun Last Chancers series with Kill Team.

I have been going through a real Warhammer phase in the last few months, especially as I have been lucky enough to find some awesome older paperbacks in second hand shops.  I was particularly happy to find a copy of was the first two books in Gav Thorpe’s Last Chancers series.  Following a rotating team of convict Imperial Guardsmen as they engage in suicide missions for their freedom, the Last Chancers books are essentially The Dirty Dozen in space, and I love the awesome and brutal stories that emerge.  The first book, 13th Legion, was one of the very best Warhammer 40,000 novels I have had the pleasure of reading, and I have been trying to fit the sequel, Kill Team, into my reading schedule for a while.  I finally got a chance last weekend, and boy was it worth making the time for as the second Last Chancers novel had another outstanding and action-packed story to it.

In the far future, the armies of the Imperium contain multitudes of scum and villains, all of whom are considered useful in the service of the Emperor.  However, after blowing his last chance at redemption after completing an impossible suicide mission, Lieutenant Kage has been cast aside, locked inside an Imperial detention centre away from the one thing he is good at, fighting the Emperor’s enemies.  When his former commander, the mysterious and ruthless Colonel Schaeffer, returns with another deadly assignment, Kage is swift to accept and become useful again, even if he no longer has a chance at freedom.

The Colonel has been tasked with leading a small, disposable team to assassinate a prominent Tau commander and he needs a new version of the 13th Penal Legion, the infamous Last Chancers, to pull the mission off.  Placed in command, Kage must recruit a ragtag group of the worst killers, deserters, and malcontents that the Imperial Guard have cast out.  Forcing them into a harsh training regime to bring them together into an effective squad, Kage soon finds himself leading a new squad of Last Chancers, many of whom are as desperate for freedom and the fight as he is.

However, their mission is another lethal suicide mission.  Working with an immoral Imperial Inquisitor, the team is covertly inserted into Tau space and must infiltrate the political and military circles surrounding their target.  But not everything is as it seems and soon the squad must content with treachery, personal enmity, and the superior technology of the Tau.  Can these new Last Chancers succeed when so many before them have perished, or will the only redemption they find be in death?

Thorpe continues to give me all the Warhammer 40,000 fun I can ever need with this amazing and intense read.  Serving as an outstanding sequel to 13th Legion, Kill Team proved to be a fun and compelling novel, loaded with action, adventure and some intriguing characters.

Readers are in for another intense and brutal story with Kill Team, as Thorpe once again utilises The Dirty Dozen format to successfully set the scene.  However, rather than having a massive regiment get whittled down until the toughest survivors are left, this time the protagonist and main narrator, Lieutenant Kage, is forced to choose his own team of criminals to lead on the Colonel’s new suicide mission.  I really enjoyed the starting scenes of Kill Team, especially as you see Kage go from cell to cell choosing the best individuals for his team, before engaging in an extended and deadly training montage, which mirrored the hell he went through in the first book.  As Kage is dealing with that, and his own substantial personal issues, the main mission of the book is set up as the Last Chancers are sent into Tau space to assassinate an ambitious, warmongering commander.  Initially infiltrating in as diplomats and mercenaries, the team travel to several Tau planets before beginning their attack.  The final third of the book is primarily focused on this deadly mission as the team find themselves in the middle of a bloody battle against the very worst the Tau can throw at them.  The subsequent fight is pretty intense and brutal, and the readers are treated to some great scenes of warfare in various unique scenarios.  The ending is well set up, with betrayals, fun reveals and some brilliant character focused moments as the team finally come together to succeed.  I do think that Thorpe might have gone one twist too many at the end, but the overall story was extremely satisfying, and I deeply enjoyed how the entire thing came together.

I had a lot of fun with this second Last Chancer’s novel, and I am really glad that The Dirty Dozen plot basis didn’t wear thin in the second entry.  Thorpe did a great job of following on from the story elements he introduced in 13th Legion, especially when it comes to the two main characters, who have a fantastic new dynamic in Kill Team.  Like the first book, Kill Team is very fast-paced, and I had a ton of fun at the start when the new characters are recruited, as well as all the awesomeness of the extended battle sequence at the end.  However, unlike the episodic storytelling Thorpe utilised in 13th Legion, Kill Team has a more straightforward plot line, which worked well to set it apart from the previous entry.  You really get dragged into the struggles of the new Last Chancers, as well as the eternally battered Kage, who serves as the book’s primary narrator.  While there are a lot of references to the first book, Kill Team can easily be read as a standalone read and it isn’t necessary to get through 13th Legion first.  However, I deeply enjoyed seeing the continued development of the protagonist and fans of the first book will probably get a lot more out of Kill Team as a result.  Unsurprisingly, a lot of the book’s focus is on the action and combat, and Thorpe really doesn’t disappoint when it comes to that.  The author does a wonderful job capturing every single firefight, brawl, and pitched battle that occurs within Kill Team, and you can see and feel every single shot, punch and stab that is thrown as a result.  The presence of a few too many characters guaranteed to survive did occasionally lessen the impact of some dramatic fight scenes, however, you still get caught up in the violence and I deeply enjoyed how well Thorpe supported his narrative with his great writing.

Kill Team also serves as an intriguing entry in the wider Warhammer 40,000 canon, especially as it is one of the stories that follows a common soldier as he experiences the alien perils of the wider galaxy.  Just like with 13th Legion, readers don’t need a lot of background knowledge of the wider Warhammer 40,000 universe to enjoy Kill Team, and the Last Chancers books are actually a pretty good introductory series for those unfamiliar with the franchise.  I loved some of the fun references and factions contained within Kill Team, not only because you get to see more of the dark side of the Imperial Guard, but you also get quite an in-depth look at the Tau.  The Tau are one of the more interesting factions in the Warhammer canon, and frankly there aren’t enough books focusing on them.  I had a lot of fun seeing them in Kill Team, mainly because you got to see the inexperienced human characters encountering them for the first time.  Their reactions at the Tau culture, politics, and weaponry, makes for a great part of the book’s middle plot, and it was really fun to see them comparing their own lives in the Imperium to what the Tau have (that scene when they’re exploring the Tau ship’s bathroom was just great).  While Thorpe did nerf the Tau when it comes to their battle prowess, as the Last Chancers mow down waves of Fire Warriors, you get a great idea of their military capability throughout Kill Team and I loved seeing the Battlesuits in action.  There are a lot of great elements that Warhammer fans will get a kick out of in Kill Team and I really enjoyed some of the stuff Thorpe added in.

For me, the real highlight of Kill Team was the exceptional character work, especially when it came to Lieutenant Kage.  Kage is a natural survivor who has gone through a lot in his life, especially since joining the Last Chancers.  The Kage we met in 13th Legion was a gritty survivor, just looking for his freedom at any cost.  However, after the success and trauma of his mission and his subsequent failure to stay out of trouble, Kage has come back a little broken and a little bit more unhinged, especially as he is now racked with guilt over the fate of his original Last Chancers.  After a lengthy, violent prison sentence, Kage is once again under the heel of Colonel Schaeffer in Kill Team.  Kage actually ends up becoming more like Schaeffer in this book, especially when he chooses, trains and controls his own team of rogues, and the realisation that he will be responsible for their deaths weighs very heavily on him.  This guilt, and his own mental trauma, plays a big part in how Kage interacts with many people in Kill Team, and there is something very wrong with Kage throughout this book.  Despite this, he is still the ruthless survivor that he was in 13th Legion, and, if anything, Thorpe possibly made him a little too unkillable and deadly for this sequel (he’s not really a common soldier anymore).  The best scenes involving Kage are still the ones when he faces off against Schaeffer, and the have some great interactions throughout the book, especially as Kage blames Schaeffer for everything that happened to him.  Kage honestly hates and fears the Colonel more than anyone else, and yet he still follows him, even though his own chance of freedom has already been spent.  This results in some brilliant encounters between the unhinged Kage and the taciturn Schaeffer, and I cannot wait to see how their relationship evolves in the other Last Chancers books.

Aside from Kage and Schaeffer, there is a good collection of supporting characters featured throughout Kill Team.  Most of the prominent ones are the new members of the Last Chancers who Kage recruits for the mission.  Thorpe features a great introduction for all these new characters at the start of Kill Team and you soon get drawn into their unique storylines.  Each brings something new to the book, even if it is only briefly, as you know well in advance that most, if not all, of these character are going to die.  I liked the more specialist focused characters featured in Kill Team, as it was an intriguing departure from the more generalised grunts in 13th Legion, although this did slightly pigeonhole these characters in certain ways.  Still, all the new Last Chancers characters formed an excellent base for the story, and it was fascinating to see how they interacted with Kage, who see him in the same way that Kage viewed Schaeffer in the first book.  Other awesome characters featured within Kill Team includes a wily Inquisitor, some alien diplomats and a mysterious passenger waiting in the wings.  All these, and more, add so much to the plot, and I had a great job seeing how they, and their seemingly inevitable deaths, played into this awesome book.

Overall, Kill Team was exactly the sort of fun read that I thought it would be, as Gav Thorpe did a wonderful job in this second Last Chancers book.  Loaded with action and highly damaged characters, Kill Team was another fantastic and electrifying romp through the chaotic and deadly Warhammer 40,000 universe with a crew of convicted soldiers.  Sharp, brutal, and highly addictive, I powered through Kill Team very quickly and had an awesome time doing so.  Hopefully I will be able to lay my hands on the next Last Chancers novels at some point in the future and I cannot wait to see what carnage they get up to next.

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