Enjoy.
The Skull Harvest – As per usual, I enjoy this story, though not as much as I enjoyed the short in Planet Kill, whose name eludes me right now. Can’t really say why that is, possibly something to do with how that one ended…..but The Skull Harvest was clearly yet another staging point towards the inevitable Battle Royale that will be had at the end of the Ultramarines series. What makes it most interesting is what the Newborn will do at the end as there hints that parts of Uriel’s personality may be hard to stomp out of him. But over all, as solid as any story I’ve read by Mr. McNeill on this subject matter and makes me thirsty for more.
Gauntlet Run – Now I can’t deny that I went into this story with some expectation with it being a tie-in to Sons of Dorn…..and I think that expectation may have been a little too high. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy the story, I thought it was ok, but I felt the pacing was all wrong. I felt it was a bit slow, which didn’t feel right in a story about a high speed chase. I didn’t quite feel the rush of race as I read the story so I felt a little flat. However, I liked what happened at the end. It’s not often that sort of thing happens, so it was a nice surprise. So I’m a little hesitant of Sons of Dorn now, but I’ll still buy it anyway to see what the real deal is like.
Renegades – The title confused me somewhat when I started reading the story, making me wonder who the title was referring too. But as things went on, I found myself being a little crest-fallen when what happened happened because; quite simply I wanted them to resist. Which is both good and not quite as good because a) good characters that give you some sort of emotion response through their actions (I’m a character driven gal, always have been, always will be) b) it was a shade unexpected and since I kinda liked the character is was a bit of a knife in the gut. Though I would have liked a little more inner turmoil over the discussions, but that could be a book in itself. Wouldn’t be adverse to more though.
Honour Amongst Fiends – I really enjoyed this one. Nice little covert op story that it was. Plus what I really enjoyed is the neat little glimpse into the fact that Chaos doesn’t make everything all better. I do so love it when the Chaos Gods are actually being quite nasty rather than your basic ‘Crush, kill, destroy’ and they’re wonderfully insidious here that almost made me point and laugh at Scaevolla for being a mug…..except for the fact that he completed his mission which made me hate him when I could have almost felt sorry for him being nothing more than a pawn.
Fires Of War – After Gauntlet Run I was a shade apprehensive with another tie-in, but rather than let one things be the judge of all similar, I ploughed right on in. Now I’ have to admit that I’m one of the people that has wanted to have a Salamanders books for a while now, though I may not have been shouting it from the rooftops, so I intrigued me to see how Mr. Kyme has been commanding them. And I’m impressed. I liked the conflict that Kadai felt over his decision, I liked that Dak’ir was a good guy but most of all I liked the fact that Tsu’gan was a stuck-up git! Nice twist at the end too which made me think of the phrase ‘No one suspects the butterfly’ because I was surprised by what happened. After this, I’m definitely looking forward to Salamander.
The Labyrinth – It took me a few pages to work out exactly who these guys where when I started reading the book, the friendship and camaraderie that the two main characters shaded didn’t make me think of ‘renegades’ until it was mentioned who they were. Which put me in a good mood overall because I like to see Chaos/Renegade Marines not just being mindless, blood thirsty, kill absolutely everyone no matter who they are, butchers. And the concept itself was a great one too, completely unexpected and it made me smile to see such deceit. Could have been more chopping though, but that’s only because we didn’t see what happened. But only a small gripe from my blood-thirsty point of view.
Headhunted – Easily my favourite of the stories. Some ace characters that I really enjoyed reading about….a great mix of clashing personalities and despite everything worked well together. Loved Zeed. There was a time when I thought the mix of personalities would have actually worked in ‘reality’, but then I remembered that this is fiction and Solarion isn’t a Captain so there’s no real disrespected and I stopped the gripe before it started and just enjoyed characters that weren’t all cut from one mould.
The story was great too, pacy and action packed and there were times when I held my breathe that they might have blown the mission, like with the Squig pit (liked that small detail too and felt quite bad for the Squigs getting eaten….until lunch bit back). The only thing that gave me pause was the bit with the mention of the Grey Knights. Although I’d heard that as a spoken rumour, it’s something else to see it written, which I usually take as pretty much being confirmed…but I’m not sure I’ve ever agreed with this rumour, despite the possibilities. Don’t know why I’ve ever agreed with it, but it just doesn’t sit right with me that Chapters have been created from a Grey Knights stock. But that’s just me.
And They Shall Know No Fear – Now I always struggle with Black Templars, no matter who they are, what they’re doing or who writes them, I struggle as I have an instant disliked for them for no reason other than the fact that they’re Black Templars. So I have to admit that it took me a few goes to get started with this story, purely because of my hatred for Black Templars and not other reason than that. However, by the end I found myself being a little less harsh with them over Reinhart’s final decision, which made me feel that despite everything else, maybe there’s some Black Templars who aren’t just arrogant [insert nasty word]. Nice little twist at the very end too and thanks to Mr. Cox, my dislike of Black Templars has eased off a fraction. Kudos to you sir, it’s a hard thing to do.
Nightfall – This surprised me, not by the fact that it was a Night Lords story, but more due to the fact that it wasn’t written by Mr. Dembski- Bowden. After reading Shadow Knight, I found my hopes rekindled for a good novel featuring Night Lords as I really enjoyed the short story he wrote, so I went into Nightfall using Shadow Knight as a measuring stick…..and I’m glad that Mr. Fehervari and Nightfall lived up to the challenge, despite the fact that the Night Lords weren’t really the main character in the story. But I have to admit, I’m very excited at the fact we’re getting a Night Lords book now from what I’ve read from these two guys. The atmosphere in the story was suitably chilly for the subject matter and it was great to have Raptors out and about and griping and sniping against each other, that and the divide between Astartes (30K born) and Space Marines (not 30K born) without descending into the whole ‘woe is me’ aspect of the Night Lords . Plus I’d love to find out what happens next with this one too.
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