Guerrilla Warfare – The Unseen Library

Publisher: Black Library (Audiobook – 25 January 2025)

Series: Warhammer 40,000

Length: 5 hours and 44 minutes

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Warhammer 40,000 fiction in 2025 starts off strong with the compelling, character-focused novel, Leontus: Lord Solar by Rob Young.

Back in 2023 I had the very great pleasure of reading my first book from Rob Young, Longshot. A cool and intense character-driven Warhammer 40,000 novel that followed a sniper war on a T’au held world, Longshot was a fantastic first book from Young, and it ended up being one of my favourite debuts of 2023. As such, I have been very intrigued to see how Young would continue his Warhammer fiction career, and his next novel, Leontus: Lord Solar, proved to be an excellent new entry to the Warhammer 40,000 canon. Focused on a legendary human leader, Leontus: Lord Solar was an impactful read that I shot through very quickly.

On the world of Fortuna Minor, an Astra Militarum taskforce of soldiers from various Imperial Guard regiments encounters grave disaster. Sent to eliminate an invading ork horde, the Astra Militarum soldiers find themselves overwhelmed on the landing fields of Fortuna Minor and are slaughtered, while their reinforcements are forced to retreat into space thanks to the orks’ fighters and spacecraft. Surrounded, outnumbered and lacking resources, only a few humans manage to escape the massacre, including legendary hero of the Imperium of Man, Arcadian Leontus, Lord Commander of the Segmentum Solar.

One of humanity’s most dedicated defenders and a master tactician, Leontus has no intention of giving up in the face of the ork invasion, even with his armies lost and devastated. Determined to not only survive but complete the objective of reclaiming Fortuna Minor, Leontus rallies a small group of survivors and prisoners liberated from the ork camps to his cause and begins a desperate campaign to fight ensure that the armies of the Imperium can triumph on this latest battlefield.

Effectively welding his scattered force of mismatched and poorly armed soldiers into a coherent army, Leontus soon finds success against the orks, bringing hope to his demoralised troops. But in the face of overwhelming odds, a determined and dangerously intelligent opponent, and his own lack of resources, can even the brilliant Leontus succeed, especially when his own men begin to question his tactics and motivations?

Leontus: Lord Solar was an excellent and fun Warhammer 40,000 novel that allowed Young to bring an iconic figure from the game to life. A compelling and exciting read, Leontus: Lord Solar was a real blast to check out, especially as Young presents an impressive and direct narrative that you quickly sink your teeth into.

This was a very fast-paced and exciting Warhammer 40,000 novel that quickly throws you into the fray and successfully keeps your attention the entire way through. Starting off with fire and blood as the Imperial Guard regiments are devastated by orks as they land, the story sets itself around some of the main supporting characters, particularly Belgutei, an Attilan Rough Rider, and Keori Arnetz, a Catachan medic. Fighting there way out of the killing fields, Belgutei and Arnetz, as well as a handful of other survivors, link up with the titular Leontus, who leads them to safety and initiates a desperate guerrilla campaign against the orks, bringing together scattered troops, rescuing prisoners and ambushing ork convoys.

The resulting narrative is highly compelling and action-packed, as the brilliant yet practical Leontus proves to be a skilled commander, inspiring his disparate and demoralised troops, while also engaging in some risky and intense actions. Young does an excellent job balancing the narrative amongst the three main protagonists, as well as a couple of interesting supporting figures, and I liked how the author tended to focus more on Belgutei and Arnetz, which allowed for an intriguing outsider perspective of Leontus and his actions. There are some powerful character interactions, especially between Leontus and Belgutei, as the two clash over strategy and the fate of the survivors, which adds some dramatic spice to the overall exciting dish. The action scenes flow fast and heavy as the book nears its end, including some dark sacrifices, and everything leads up to a massive and intense final battle, where so many of your favourite characters are in peril. The book ends on a complex note, as Leontus proves his status as a tactician and hero, although the reader is left to decide on his humanity. An outstanding overall Warhammer 40,000 narrative that is guaranteed to quickly hook you and keep your attention to the end.

Young once again shows his impressive ability when it comes to writing Warhammer 40,000 fiction, and I loved the short, brutal and captivating way Leontus: Lord Solar was presented. While I was initially worried that it would be too similar to the Ciaphas Cain book, Death or Glory, which also featured a human hero marooned on an ork-held world, Young ensured that Leontus: Lord Solar stood out on its own feet. The quick-fire narrative, intense and tactical action sequences, and cool scenario ensured this was a distinctive read, and one guaranteed to keep your attention the entire way through. Primarily a character-focused story around the iconic in-game figure of Arcadian Leontus, Lord Commander of the Segmentum Solar, Young does an excellent job of highlighting the protagonist and showcasing him in a compelling way. The author chose to primarily show Leontus through the eyes of his supporting characters, which allowed for a more nuanced take on the titular protagonist, while the occasional scene shown from Leontus’ perspective hinted at plans the character is hiding from his soldiers. Throw in some excellent supporting characters and a memorable, if somewhat underutilised antagonist (who was simultaneously awesome and freaky), and this proved to be an amazing novel with some excellent character-driven strife and complexity at its core.

As with Young’s previous book, Longshot, Leontus: Lord Solar is an outstanding piece of Warhammer 40,000 fiction, and one that would serve as a good introduction to the wider universe for new readers. The quickfire storytelling, classic action between humans and orks, and lack of excessive lore makes Leontus: Lord Solar a very accessible read, especially as Young doesn’t excessively dive into the history of his main protagonist. Established readers of Warhammer fiction will naturally get a little more out of this book, especially as it was very cool to see the titular character in action in all his tactical glory, and I felt that Young did an exceptional job capturing and presenting this figure. In addition, the book also features some intriguing unit makeups as Leontus bands together an irregular force of surviving Cadians, Catachans, Kreig troopers and Attilan Rough Riders. The interactions between the groups and Leontus was pretty fun, and I liked the mixtures of styles of battle strategies. Of them, I felt that the Attilan Rough Riders were shown off the best, and their explosive cavalry charges were awesome to read and reminded me of Warhammer Fantasy fiction at times. All of this and more ensured that Leontus: Lord Solar was a very cool Warhammer 40,000 novel, and it is one I would recommend to all fans of the franchise.

As I tend to with most Warhammer novels I enjoy, I decided to check out Leontus: Lord Solar on audiobook, which was another fantastic experience. As I have stated innumerable times, Warhammer fiction really lends itself to the audiobook format, and having talented narrators read out the over-the-top stories allows for all the best bits of the universe and its grim dark themes to come to life. This was particularly true for Leontus: Lord Solar, whose compelling character focused storylines and intense action sequences proved to be a lot of fun to listen to. Coming in with a relatively short runtime under six hours long, dedicated listeners can really fly through Leontus: Lord Solar, and I enjoyed how quick the pace turned out to be. I also really appreciated the choice in narrator as David Seddon is a skilled voice actor who really impressed me in previous Warhammer 40,000 audiobooks Dredge Runners and Kasrkin. Seddon did an excellent job with Leontus: Lord Solar, as not only did he move the story along at a fantastic and enjoyable pace, but he also provided some excellent voices for the various characters. His take on the titular Leontus was extremely good, and you get a real sense of the character’s nobility, as well as his determination to win, through the performance. The rest of the human characters also came across extremely well, and Seddon expertly gifts them accents that cleverly corresponded to their regiment and their real-world military influence. This great voice work really enhanced the already exciting narrative, and I found myself getting really engrossed in this audiobook version as a result.

With this fantastic second book, Leontus: Lord Solar, Rob Young has nicely set himself up as a rising author of Warhammer fiction, especially as he brings a compelling figure from the game to life. Featuring some awesome action, compelling characters, and an entertaining narrative, Leontus: Lord Solar was an outstanding Warhammer 40,000 novel to start the year with, and I look forward to seeing what amazing adventures Young brings to the franchise in the future.

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Tiger Chair Cover

Publisher: Amazon Original Stories (ebook – 1 June 2024)

Series: Standalone

Length: 50 pages

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Amazon

I was recently lucky enough to receive a copy of the new short story from acclaimed author Max Brooks, Tiger Chair, which instantly grabbed my attention. Brooks is an author I have a lot of love for, especially as his two main novels are huge favourites of mine. This includes his most iconic work, World War Z, which I had an exceptional time listening to a few years ago due to its complex story and the impressive array of celebrity narrators associated with the audiobook version of it. Brooks followed this up a couple of years ago with the compelling horror read, Devolution, that saw an isolated community attacked by sasquatches in an outstanding and exciting read. Devolution ended up being one of my favourite books of 2020 and ensured that I would check out anything else that came my way from Brooks. As such, I made sure to read through Tiger Chair as soon as a got it, as I was intrigued by the content.

Plot Synopsis:

When China invades America, guerrilla warfare explodes on the streets of Los Angeles in this provocative short story about the future of war from Max Brooks, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of World War Z.

China thought it would be a quick war, an easy war. But now, years later, as the insurgency on the streets of Los Angeles escalates but the propaganda never changes, a Chinese officer can’t keep silent any longer. Torn between loyalty to his country and loyalty to his troops, he writes a brutally honest—and possibly suicidal—letter home to unmask the truth.

Brooks combines his signature meticulous research with unforgettable characters in this landmark work of speculative fiction.

This was a very interesting read from Brooks that I was able to power through in a short amount of time. Set in the future, Tiger Chair is written as a secret letter from a Chinese officer involved in a fictional invasion of the United States to a friend back home. In this letter, the officer describes the various hardships of the invasion, including the escalating insurgency in Los Angeles, who are pushing his soldiers to the limit with their intense attacks and low-tech strategies. However, his priority in writing this potentially treasonous letter is to highlight his despair at the ineffective and inflexible strategies of his side, which care more for propaganda than the lives of their soldiers and the civilians, and his desire to see the war come to an end.

I felt this was a rather interesting choice of story for Brooks to write, and it reminded me of the cynical memories of a professional soldier during the zombie wars of World War Z. Brooks paints a grim and gritty story of survival and duty in the Tiger Chair, and you can easily feel the frustration and fear of the protagonist as he attempts to highlight his feelings about how the war is being run and the various lies he and his soldiers have been fed by their superiors. The author really captures the way that the protagonist is caught between loyalty to his country and his anger at how events have unfolded, especially as he is powerless to impart any effective change to the situation.

I was quite impressed by the various scenarios that Brooks imagined for this future war in Tiger Chair, and his vision for how events might unfold in this scenario, as well as the technology that would be utilised for it, is very fascinating. While I am sure that there will be some criticism of Brooks trying to imagine the feelings of Chinese soldiers in a war they might not even undertake, I felt that the Tiger Chair was more of a general warning about the futilities of war, and the frustrations of the lower ranks at the mistakes of their politically motivated superiors. Indeed, many of the issues the protagonist raises could be applied to many other historical or current wars, and there are several allusions to them in the plot.

Brooks does also attempt to get into the Chinese mindset, which I honestly think he did a good job of considering he had less than 50 pages in which to do so. There is an interesting examination of the national identity and how their history and culture would influence them into going to war, and the various opinions people within the country would have about these battles. Brooks also includes some commentary of recent well-known events and controversies involving China, which is more geared towards central criticism than specific critiques of the Chinese. For example, while he mentions the way in which China influences American media and movies for their own purposes, the protagonist’s resulting criticism are more directed towards the media companies that allowed them to happen as they sacrificed their principles for money. These and other observations an about current society are quite interesting and make for quite a compelling story.

Overall, I felt that Tiger Chair was a compelling and intense short story from Brooks that brings together some intriguing ideas and predictions. While I probably would have avoided Tiger Chair if it weren’t Brooks writing it, mainly because I prefer full-length novels to short stories, I’m glad I checked this out, and it ended up being a fascinating and powerful read.

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