Cadian Blood by Aaron Dembski-Bowden

I was looking at the list of novels that the Black Library has released in the last few years and only a completely biased observer would say that there hasn’t been a significant improvement in quality of both the writing and artwork for the Black Library range of novels.

They also seem to be making a concentrated effort right now to widen their circle of authors which I suppose makes sense even if it’s solely from a business perspective. Now it must take a fair amount of guts to start writing for the Black Library as with 25 years of in game background to say some of the fans have a strict eye for detail is an understatement. Woe betide the author who gets a bit of established background or ‘fluff’ as a lot of people refer to it as wrong. Your name will be added to the great book of grudges which is kept well somewhere and your future books will be automatically dismissed as being rubbish without them being read. Okay that’s possibly a bit harsh but you get the idea.

However based on his first novel I don’t see this being the fate of Aaron Dembski-Bowden. Far from it, I would say he’s more likely to join the top pairing of Black Library authors and turn it into a trinity because for a first novel this is a fantastically written, gripping read.

It’s also amazing just how much he managed to cram into the novel. Not only do you have one of the most popular Imperial Guard regiments, the Cadian’s you also have Chaos cultists, Inquisitors, Spaceships, battles between spaceships, the Death guard, the Raven guard and lets not forget a planet full of Nurgle Plague zombies.

All together now Brainnnsssss.......

I see a lot of tabletop games being played based on this novel.

I also loved this novel for included Typhus one of my favourite ‘special characters’ from the Chaos Space Marine army. It won’t be a surprise for any long term readers of Black Library novels to find out that the ‘good guys’ win and the bad guys evil plot is stopped. Does Typhus get mad? Does he attempt to get even by killing everyone of the handful of surviving guardsmen? No he decides to sod off as he has better things to be doing as the herald of Nurgle. Which is possibly the most realistic handling of a special character in a Black Library novel. He’s not going to care about killing a handful of guardsmen as what would be the point? Plenty more where they came from.

Cadian Blood has been one of my most favourite reads from the Black Library in a while and I will certainly be picking up Aaron’s next book. If Black Library continues to improve like this I can’t wait to see the quality of the books they’ll be releasing in a couple of years time. Who knows? They might get so good they could even go ‘mainstream?”

Five out five for Cadian Blood.

The Affinity Bridge by George Mann

Ah ‘Steampunk’ a term that fills me with equal parts interest and bafflement. Despite several people I know raving about the genre I had never read a steampunk novel. Although I did get a copy of the Extraordinary engines anthology from Solaris Books it has remained firmly at the bottom of my reading pile for some time.

However one of my friends highly recommended the new book from George Mann, the Affinity Bridge and I figured it was now or never to give Steampunk a go. Plus I was going away for the weekend and needed a book to read.

I thought it was great! I thought it was a great read and the author did a great job of bringing the fog covered dangerous city of Victorian London to life and the ‘new technology’ of airships, ground trains and clockwork robots seem a natural part of the setting and not just ‘tacked’ onto Victorian London.

However this isn’t to say that the book doesn’t have it flaws. A lot of references to other ‘adventures’ and other characters simply scream “ you’ll find out about this later in the series” where they could have been a lot more subtle. Also in a couple of places the author does tend to waffle to the extent that I found myself skipping over a few pages to get to something interesting. But to be fair the authors writing gets a lot more confident as the book goes on and the ending is as solid as you could wish for.

Still for a first novel I think this was a good effort and there is great potential here for a solid series. I will certainly be getting the next book.

Three out of five.

Thunder from Fenris by Nick Kyme

The Black Library continues its expansion into audio book territory with the release of Thunder from Fenris the fourth audio book in their range.

Some what surprisingly this audio book has no connection with the long running space wolf series, it’s not written by one of the authors involved in the Space Wolves series or even features any of the 'main' Space Wolf characters such as Logan Grimnar or Njal Stormcaller.

Although to be fair the last audio book about Blood Angels also had no connection with the long running Blood Angels series either so maybe this is a conscious decision on their part or it’s simply the fact that they couldn’t come up with a decent storyline that would nicely tie in with the series. Instead Thunder from Fenris focuses on a unit of Thunderwolf cavalry. If you’re a Warhammer 40,000 player and have never heard of them, don’t worry. You obviously haven’t picked up a copy of the latest codex.

The Thunderwolf cavalry are basically Space Wolves riding wolves called Thunder Wolves. The Thunder Wolves aren't just aren't any wolves they are huge, nasty creatures as they would have to be able to carry eight four tall power armoured space marines. ( I guess horses couldn't cut it :-)

I did like Nick Kymes very tongue in cheek reference to the fact that they have only just been added to the Space Wolf Codex by describing them as mythical and rarely seen.

The action begins as when searching a planet for any remaining traces of the Chaos powers the Thunderwolfs have to deal with one of their number falling prey to the curse of the 'wulfen', mutating to become wolf then Man. Believing that it will be possible to save him if he is returned to their home quickly enough they discover that the Chaos power Nurgle, the god of Decay still has a presence on the world has no intention of giving this world up without a fight, as one of its most potent plagues is released planet wide. Fast acting and deadly it strikes down everyone from the population through to its army.

However those affected do not stay dead and what does this mean for our heroes? Well I'll give you a clue

Brainsssss!!!!

Zombies, yes sir lots and lots of zombies. Which does seem to be a bit of a theme at Black Library at the moment with Thunder from Fenris and Cadian Blood both featuring the ‘good guys’ facing off against hordes of zombies.

So can the Thunderwolfs save their comrade and the planet? Well I’ll leave you to find that one out as I wouldn’t want to spoil it for you.

I have to admit I wasn't sure about this audio book at first, especially when the Space wolf with the stereotypical 'arnie' voice first appears. As when I heard him for the first time it set me off having a complete fit of the giggles, luckily I wasn’t driving at the time. But from this shaky beginning the story does improve massively as it goes and has the best ending of any of the BL audio books published to date, even if it is also one of the saddest.

All in all I would have to say that this is a solid effort from Nick Kyme considering this is his First audio book and if he keeps writing like this it will certainly push him up my list of authors to read ( or listen to in this case).

Five out of five from the gabbling Geek.

Blood Pact by Dan Abnett

If you have been involved or ever been involved in the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop wargame by Games Workshop for any significant period of time you are likely to have heard of two things when it comes to the novels. Dan Abnett and Gaunt's Ghosts.

The Gaunt's Ghosts series is one of the Black Librarys flagship series and follows a unit of Imperial Guard ( mankinds bulk fighting force of the 41st millenium) the Tanith 1st and Only so called as their planet was wiped out shortly after their founding. They will be no more Tanith regiments, all the Tanith can do is go on and fight in the hope that one day they will gain a new planet of their own which they can setttle. They are nicknamed Gaunt's ghosts after their leader Commisar Gaunt.

Blood pact is the start of the fourth arc in the series and begins sometime after the event's of the previous novel. The Ghosts have been pulled out of the frontline of the war and are slowly going stir crazy with nothing to do but train. Discipline is starting to break down and everyone hopes for a return to the front.

However they don't have to return to the front to see action as a high ranking prisoner will only speak to Gaunt and the information he holds could win the war for the Imperials. Assuming Gaunt can keep him alive long enough!

Blood Pact is a very fast paced novel which benefits from a tight focus. The Ghosts series did seem to be running out of steam but Blood Pact has revitalised the series nicely and set a high bar for the rest of the arc to follow.

Four stars out of Five

Flood by Stephen Baxter

I've always found Stephen Baxter books a bit puzzling. Some I'm found very easy to read, others a bit baffling. However I'd heard good things about Flood so I approached it with the highist of hopes.

Quite simply it's a awesome read. If ever converted into a film it would be fantastic but I have a feeling that it won't be. To say it's dark is a understatement. There are no quick fixes in this book, no last minute heroics to save the day.

Starting in 2016 the book follows four main characters who were being held hostage in Spain as they are released into a world where the water levels have started to rise and won't stop.

Civilisation starts to rapidly break down as whole populations bolt for higher ground, whilst governments turn inwards struggling to cope and a few wealthy people try make their own plans for survial.

By the end of the novel Humanity seems doomed as all of the land disappears under the raging water ( think water world without the bad acting), a few rafts and aging naval vessels sheltering what's left of mankind.

However a series of projects referred to as the 'Arks' do give hope for the future. Ark One is a starship heading out into the galaxy, Ark three was a massive liner that met a unfortunate end and Ark two? Well that is a question that the last surving main character asks in what must be one of the most blatent attempts at setting up a sequel I've ever seen short of actually using the words " To be continued".

The strength of this novel lies in it's characters. They are 'normal' for one of a better term, people who could well be your next door neighbours. You see the unfolding disaster through their eyes and that's what draws you in as you start to imagine what it would be like for you. Could you survive and would you even want to?

Flood gets five out five from the Gabbling Geek

Final Impact: World World 2.3 by John Birmingham

As the final book in the Axis of Time trilogy begins events are coming to a rapid head.

It’s now 1944, two years after the events of Designated Targets. In Europe D-day has started a month early, the airborne invasion begins not with Men parachuting into france but rather crossing the channel in Huey helicopters, supported by Cobra gunships and preceded by napalm bombardments by jet fighters that have replaced propeller driven aircraft as the allies main fighters.

In the pacific the Allies have retaken Hawaii but their 21st century supplies of weapons have been depleted. Most ships have been refitted with the first of a new generation of weapons. Hopelessly dated by the UN standards advanced beyond belief by 1940s standards.

The super carrier USS Hilary Clinton returns to Sea refitted and at the core of a new taskforce including new destroyers and aircraft.

With the captured French stealth cruiser sunk with all hands nothing appears to stand in the way of the allies winning the war.

But Stalin has other ideas.

Choosing to re enter the War his forces quickly over run the Germans with jet fighters and their own versions of the AK-47. With suspicions mounting it is proven too late that Stalin has custody of the last of the missing UN Warships and the technological windfall it represents.

The Russians have the A-bomb and deploy it on a German held city as a display of their new military might.

Suddenly the future of the free world hangs in the balance.

Final Impact is a good finale to the Axis of time trilogy even if the eventual ending is somewhat open ended ( I don’t believe that the 21st century military would be allowed to resign from the armed forces and go into civilian life so easily) and what I think is a blatant attempt at setting up another series in the same universe.

Five out of five

Splinter by Adam Roberts

According to the spiel on the Solaris website Splinter is a thought-provoking science fiction novel about faith, disaster and alien intelligence by one of the new masters of the genre.

When Hector discovers his father has channelled the family fortune into a bizarre cult who await the imminent destruction of the Earth, he is wracked by feelings of betrayal and doubt. Things change, however, the night an asteroid plummets from space and shatters the planet, leaving Hector and the remnants of the human race struggling for survival on a splinter of the earth.

Now the High ‘concept’ part of this novel is that it is spilt into three sections and each section is used in a different tense. The first section is written in the past tense, the 2nd in the present tense and the third section is written in the future tense. I had high hopes for this novel when I sat down to read it as lots of people had described it as 'high concept' but I ran into a problem.

I didn’t get it.

I found the switch between tenses very confusing and I’m not the only one. After a quick search of the net I found that based on most peoples opinions this is a ‘marmite book’. In the sense of you’ll love it or you’ll hate it, or to put it another way you’ll either get it or you won’t. There does not seem to be a middle ground with this book.

Despite this the central idea behind the story is a strong one and if you can get past the tense changes and ‘get it’ you’ll probably find it a good read.

I’ll give it two out of five but that’s only because I didn’t get it.