Publisher: Black Library (Audiobook – 27 March 2026)
Series: Warhammer 40,000
Length: 9 hours and 28 minutes
My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
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The Warhammer 40,000 universe continues to grow with an outstanding debut novel from new author Callum Davis, Chem Dog, a cool and intense read with a great plot behind it.
Readers of this blog will know that I have so much love for the awesome Warhammer 40,000 franchise, which produces so many amazing and unique books each year. Part of the reason this works so well is that the Black Library makes use of an intriguing collection of new and established authors to tell tales of this complex and grim dark universe. This includes a range of first-time authors, many of whom have a compelling Warhammer 40,000 book as their debut novel. I have had a blast reading several of these debuts over the years, and the latest one I want to highlight is the impressive Chem Dog by Callum Davis. The very first full novel from Davis, Chem Dog is a follow up to his previous short story, Those Without Mercy, and tells a gripping story of war, mistrust and unlikely camaraderie amid a brutal campaign.
Upon the vital, war-torn planet of Kruxx, disaster has struck the Imperium of Man. Under attack by ruthless ork invaders, Kruxx’s most heavily defended fortress, the Bastion Ajaxus, has fallen. Overwhelmed by hordes of brutish aliens, the defenders have been brutally cut down, and the bastion reforged into a crude but deadly ork fort. To ensure victory on Kruxx, the remaining Imperial soldiers need to retake the bastion at any cost, but the fate of the war may lay in the hands of the most unlikely of soldiers, the Savlar Chem-Dogs.
The refuse of an infamous prison world, the Savlar Chem-Dogs are a notorious and unreliable penal legion. Killers and thieves given the chance to die on the field of battle, the Chem-Dogs are an unlikely group of defenders for humanity whose only incentive to stay in the fight is the promise of loot taken from the bodies of the fallen.
Few know how imperfect the Chem-Dogs are more than Commissar Bastun Hasp, a relentless rule follower, dedicated to lethally enforcing order with his bolt pistol. However, ordered to join the likely fatal assault on Bastion Ajaxus and recover vital intelligence from its occupied halls, Hasp begins to feel doubt for the first time in his career, especially as his only backup are a squad of Chem-Dogs he previously sentenced to death. Forced to cross over deadly enemy-infested territory and join a bloody siege, can Hasp keep the Chem-Dogs loyal long enough to complete his mission, or will a far more sinister threat claim all their lives?
Chem Dog was an awesome new Warhammer 40,000 entry that quickly grabs your attention and keeps you hooked with its compelling narrative, entertaining characters and great action sequences. A powerful and intense first full novel from new author Callum Davis, Chem Dog was an easy book to fall in love with and is a must read for all Warhammer fans.
Davis crafts together a very entertaining action and adventure narrative for Chem Dog that brings in some interesting character moments and overarching Warhammer intrigue to create a captivating and exciting read. Starting off with an intense extended battle sequence with some short-lived characters that shows the helpless and grimdark nature of the Warhammer 40,000 universe perfectly, the story soon switches to the main protagonist, Commissar Bastun Hasp, as he is given his mission to journey to a besieged former Imperial citadel. Chem Dog quickly expands on some story points introduced in the preceding short story Those Without Mercy, with several characters from this previous entry returning to accompany Hasp to the citadel.
Much of the resulting first half of Chem Dog is an exciting and brutal adventure arc, as Hasp and the Savlars travel across the hostile Kruxx terrain, fighting against deserters and rampaging ork bands. This does an excellent job of setting up the desperate nature of the plot, as well as showcasing the unstable main characters as they attempt to work together. After some great action set pieces and locations, several of which showcase just how expendable members of the main cast truly are, the book evolves into an intrigue-laden siege story, as the protagonists arrived at the Bastion Ajaxus and find themselves drawn into the big assault on the citadel, which quickly goes to hell in one particularly amazing extended sequence.
The second half of Chem Dog soon turns into one continuous and bloody affair, as the protagonists and some contentious allies are forced to fight throughout the enemy fortress in some unique ways. Davis loads in some excellent action scenes here, while overlaying a level of mystery and mistrust over proceedings, especially as nothing goes the way they expect. Things get progressively darker as the story continues, with the last major sequence seeing some very interesting antagonists, including a unique take on the threat of the orks. The big finale of the story is brutal and features some not unexpected betrayals and revelations, as well as some genuinely tragic loss. I rather enjoyed how the story came together, although I will admit I was a little disappointed by the somewhat abrupt ending to the book. I think that Davis could have expanded on a few points and allowed for a more satisfying conclusion, however, it does leave some elements open for a potential sequel, which I would be very interested in checking out.
I felt that Davis did an excellent job writing his first full-length Warhammer novel, structuring his story and telling it in an effective manner. While there were some issues with the ending, for the most part Chem Dog was a particularly powerful read that combined clever character work with some intriguing dives into the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Effectively told from several alternating perspectives, the structure draws the reader into the overarching quest as well as the unashamedly criminal protagonists. Taking some inspirations from The Dirty Dozen (although not as directly as Gav Thorpe’s Last Chancers series), this was a brutal read that covered compelling elements of trust, loyalty and intrigue, especially in the last half. I was quite impressed by how Davis was able to capture the gritty nature of the continuous conflict the protagonists found themselves in, with the exhaustion and anger of the characters on full display. The real highlight of the book has to be the various battle sequences that Davis loaded into the plot, with the protagonists caught up in a ton of intense and well-written action scenes. I had such an easy time envisioning the very realistic and intense fights that emerged, as this is clearly a part of the writing process that Davis really excels at.
Unsurprisingly, considering this is Davis’s first novel, Chem Dog works well as a standalone read, written in way that made it open to a wide range of readers. While elements of the author’s previous short story are referenced by the characters, it is done in a way that lets the reader know what previously happened, so you won’t be lost if you hadn’t read it first. Davis’s style also allows readers with less familiarity with the Warhammer 40,000 universe to come in and read Chem Dog, and it would serve as an interesting entry novel for potential fans, especially for those who enjoy criminal antics and grim, military aesthetics with their science fiction plots.
Chem Dog naturally will appeal more to established fans of the universe, especially those who want to see the notorious Savlar Chem Dogs in action. The author expertly captured the resourcefulness, resentment and looter mentality of these unlikely soldiers, and it was entertaining to see them in action, especially when compared to other traditional Imperial Guard regiments. This excellent portrayal of the Chem Dogs and other human troops, as well as the Commissars commanding them, was a great highlight of the plot, and it more than made up for some certain eccentric portrayals of the orks that Davis slipped in. As such, I felt that Chem Dog was a particularly awesome Warhammer 40,000 novel, which is guaranteed to grab the imagination or a huge range of readers.
On top of the excellent writing, I need to highlight the amazing characters. The most prominent of these is the relentless Commissar Bastun Hasp, who is reluctantly forced to lead these criminal soldiers into battle. Serving as the primary narrator and protagonist for the book, much of the book’s drama is based around Hasp’s inner conflict in leading the Savlars. Initially shown to be implacable in his disdain for Chem Dogs under his command, Hasp’s growing respect for them causes him some major issues, as his harsh commissar mentality and training requires him to see them as unredeemable. This inner conflict is perfectly enhanced by Hasp receiving comparable contempt from other officers and commissars for leading a group of criminals, as well as Hasp’s secret reliance on the battle chems that the Savlars are forced to breath. This great inner conflict results in some powerful moments for Hasp throughout the book, and he proved to be an excellent and compelling central character for the plot.
While Hasp serves as the main protagonist of the story, Davis does ensure that the various other members of the squad are shown in some detail. While a generally expendable group of characters, you do get quite invested in the group of criminal misfits that Hasp leads, and it was fun to see them influence and get influenced by their commissar throughout the course of the plot. While there are a bunch of fun Salvar members in Chem Dog, the main one you follow is the squad leader, Rastus, who serves as a great secondary protagonist and point-of-view character. Rastus’s more straightforward, if criminally minded, narrative worked well alongside Hasp’s conflict-laden thoughts, and it was entertaining to see Rastus act as a bridge between the Commissar and his opportunistic squad. Davis has fun with the rest of this group of killers, although my favourite had to be the extremely loyal ogryn (the universe’s equivalent of an ogre) Grukkur, who serves as a dim-witted enforcer for Hasp. Grukkur was a wonderfully over the top and simple figure, and I felt he rounded out the cast nicely, providing both comic value and insane moments in combat. Throw in some other human solider with uncertain motives and a particularly fanatical extra commissar, and Chem Dog is loaded with some amazing drama and character conflicts, that allows for quite an addictive read.
As is my habit with most Warhammer novels I check out, I ended up getting the audiobook version of Chem Dog, which is easily the best way to enjoy the elaborate and varied tales of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Chem Dog was a particularly good audiobook, as it easily presented its intense action narrative and unique characters, and ensured that listeners could easily power through its nine-and-a-half-hour-long runtime. A big reason that Chem Dog was such an epic listen was thanks to the vocal talents of narrator Richard Reed. One of more versatile narrators who lends their voice to the Warhammer franchise, Reed has previously impressed me on several previous outstanding audiobooks, including The Infinite and the Divine by Robert Rath, Lords of Excess by Rich McCormick (another great debut), Grim Repast by Marc Collins, just to name a few. Reed does another outstanding job here in Chem Dog, with a range of awesome voices and a great overall tone that moves this slick action narrative along at a quick pace. I loved the various over-the-top, yet fitting, voices that Reed came up with for several of the characters, including the stringent commissars, the unruly criminal soldiers and even a booming ogryn voice, that was particularly fun. All this results in an exceptional listen, which allowed me to power through Chem Dog in no time at all, and I cannot recommend this format enough, especially with one of the best Warhammer narrators voicing it.
The future of Warhammer 40,000 fiction continues to look bright, as Callum Davis produced an outstanding read with his debut novel. An exciting and intense novel, loaded with action and compelling characters, Chem Dog was an amazing read that provides some fantastic look at a unique faction in the grim dark universe. A sharp, well-written novel that you can easily get addicted to, Chem Dog was a very impressive debut, and I hope to see more from Davis in the future, especially if he revisits the protagonists from this novel again.
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