#robert rath

POV: you're just a little hater.

And everyone is doing the things we love them for; the chaos warriors are horrifying, abaddon is depressed, the sisters of battle are faith incarnate, the black templars are assholes, the militarum are endlessly, heroically doomed, indomitable even in defeat. Cawl almost saves the day, and trazyn weaves his way in and out of the narrative, happy as a nerd in a hobby store. Even the Legion of the Damned get a moment in the sun, but - quite rightly - we learn nothing whatsoever about them.

The book displays all the classic elements of the best black library fiction, too - multiple narrative strands, battles seen from both a vast and an intimate perspective, totally over the top fight scenes, and morally repellent characters who somehow become relatable and very fun to read, and most of whom come to a bad end. All this is delivered with just the right tone. The book does not take itself too seriously; there are enough winks to the reader to keep us from forgetting that this is warhammer, it is quite silly, and that we are here to have fun. Yet it manages to give us these reminders while keeping a mostly straight face, allowing us to become immersed in what is an immensely dark story, really doing justice to the grandeur and importance of this moment in the history of the setting we love.

And the book is long - much longer than the usual black library novel, a real sprawling story, lush with detail, unhurried but never stalling, building intensity steadily throughout until its inevitable, devastating finish.

This horrific alien monster has just tackled him to the ground with the intention of killing him and he's like "Stop that. I do not like this >:("