The Man who Never was

Krieg by Steve Lyons My rating: 5 of 5 stars You know how I love reading stories featuring our favorite shovel boys, right? But the problem with reading a full-length novel named Krieg, despite the solid lore and action, is just how morose it seems to get. Who knew, reading about an irradiated planet full of religion fueled child soldiers who venerate a cult of suicide can be so depressing; go figure. For context, the infamous Death Korps of Krieg are a regimental army hailing from the death world of, you guessed it, Krieg. Hailing from a world where horrendous nuclear fallout had turned the surface into a frozen, dark, irradiated wasteland where nothing can survive, the Kriegsman carried a great burden. Of treason and betrayal against the emperor, by their ancestor some millennia ago. Even after the loyalist factions won, and rejoined the imperium, their subsequent generations were forever scarred and changed due to what they see as this ultimate tr

Down Amongst the Dead Men by Steve Lyons My rating: 4 of 5 stars Despite being amongst some of the emperor's most loyal and formidable guard regiments, most other Imperial guard don't relish fighting on the same battlefield as them. The reason? They're damn depressing man. Which is expected, when your entire planet, history and upbringing centers around sacrificing yourself for the emperor. Where you as an individual have no value, less value, compared to other 'essential' resources like, you know, bullets. After all, bullets take time, resources and expertise to craft. Your average nameless numbered Kriegman are legions strong, ready to buy vats grown, trained, indoctrinated and shipped. So, what if you end up suffering ten times the casualties as your average guard regiment, who themselves are no stranger to grievous battlefield casualties. So, what if your value is so low, you're not even given a name, just a serial code pr

Caves of Ice by Sandy Mitchell My rating: 4 of 5 stars You know that joke, where the punchline is 'I slipped and fell into it'? That's Caiphas Cain when it comes to his accomplishments. The man has the collective compendium of common sense that most Imperials, including Space Marines seem to lack. Plus, has luck of the gods, not the chaos ones, that would be heresy. Another observation which came to mind after being regaled by the second in his series of adventures is that, if you're not the phlegmatic Jurgen or Amberly Vail, the last place you want to be, in the same squad as Cain when he's sent out on a dangerous assignment. This time around, it's two different squads that were either decimated or completely obliterated, while acting as his meat shields. If his previous history is any indication, that is a regular occurrence. But on the other hand, this is 40k, and the Imperial guard, who're sacrificed by the millions, j

Extinction by Aaron Dembski-Bowden My rating: 4 of 5 stars Read this story if you want to see some filthy traitor Astartes being hunted down and mutilated by their other traitorous allies. Serving as a prologue to the main stories of the Black Legion series, Extinction sets the stage of the disparage fragmented bands of the erstwhile Sons of Hours, now a shadow of their former selves. Being hounded and eviscerated on a hundred different chaos realms, like a bunch of mongrels. Setting up their inevitable resurgence as the newly formed Black Legion, under former first captain Abaddon. Seeing as how, Aaron Demski Bowden has a track record of writing traitor legions as engaging characters, (go and read his Night Lords series if you haven't yet), I'm intrigued in looking forwards to how he handles the broken legions of the arch-traitor. View all my reviews

A Sanctuary of Wyrms by Peter Fehervari My rating: 5 of 5 stars You remember the Silent Cartographer mission from Halo: Combat Evolved Game. The whole sense of mystery and horror, as the Master Chief arrives at the dark swamp, and slowly descends into the maw to uncover an ancient evil? That's the sense of atmosphere you get while reading 'A Sanctuary of Wyrms'. The story starts without preamble and ends without a climax. Detailing the internecine period which forms the meat of this all too short, but engaging narrative. A group of tau and human turncoats are researching a mysterious yet overwhelming backwater planet, which is a world of exile for broken and unneeded tools of the greater good. There, they discover a sealed bunker complex, littered with dead bodies of Space marines, of the deathwatch. For those of you who know what this entails, might be able to discern just how soon shit is gonna hit the fan. In the face of a greater evil

Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics by Tim Marshall My rating: 5 of 5 stars //Disclaimer: The below review is colored by several regional biases, and a lot of rants which might piss off at least some people. You’ve been warned// I can’t remember the last time I was in anticipation while reading the geopolitics of the globe. Or the last time I was so animated reading the nail biting saga of the scramble for territorial dominance in the Arctic. Hailing from a subcontinent, whose entire post independence history was shaped due to arbitrary lines drawn on a map by some British dude, naturally this topic was something which resonated with me. The book, as indicated, is quite well written and engaging. Really, it’s no small feat that Mr. Marshall was able to condense the entire centuries long history of entire continents into bite sized chunks and chapters. This does make the content entirel

Red Tithe by Robbie MacNiven My rating: 4 of 5 stars Going into this story after reading about the unique lore of the Carcharodon Astra chapter, I had a lot of expectations. Especially after reading about Tyberos the Red wake, who's a veritable beast, even when compared to your standard space marine. After reading it, those expectations were, may be 70-75% met you could say. The space sharks are a chapter whose founding is shrouded in mystery. A fleet-based chapter, they've been wandering the far fringes of the imperium for the past 10000 years, exiled for reasons unknown. There, they wage a silent never-ending war, against the horrors and threats which hide in the shadows, threatening to consume the Imperium. Based on their age, as well as the parts about them being exiled, my head cannon is that they might be the remnants of the legion belonging to one of the lost primarchs. Whatever the offenses of them or their gene father might be, they were condemned

For the Emperor by Sandy Mitchell My rating: 5 of 5 stars Caiphas Cain, Commissar and hero of the Imperium, is basically the 40k version of Tanya Degurechaff from The Saga of Tanya the Evil, Vol. 1: Deus lo Vult . if you haven't read that book yet, why haven't you? Go and read that right now. A simple descriptor of that story is a middle-aged man reincarnated as a young girl, becomes a conscripted child soldier in an alternate history pre-WWI era Imperial Prussia, with mages acting like aerial weapons. Where she uses her knowledge of real-world military history, as well as her considerable intellect, to commit war crimes which technically are compliant to the Geneva convention. Intrigued? Go read it. Caiphas Cain is much like Tanya, in the sense that, the last thing he wants to do, is to be in the frontlines fighting a war. Or facing down heretics, Xenos or chaos. Unfortunately for him, he happened to be form in the world of 40k, where according to

Death World by Steve Lyons My rating: 4 of 5 stars Imagine a group of soldiers, facing the predator. Now imagine, that every person in that group, is an 80s action movie protagonist, dripping with manliness, swag and regularly give one another, epic handshake like Dutch and Dillon from predator. Now Imagine, instead of a single predator, it's a planet full of predators. Now Imagine, if the entire fracking planet is the predator, and is trying to deal with these pesky creatures on it, like you would deal with mosquitoes irritating your skin. That would give you a near idea as to what you can expect from the novel Death World, by Steve Lyons. If features a mission embarked upon by the legendary members of the Catachan Jungle fighters. As they come across a planet designated as a 'death world'. In case anyone was wondering what that designation meant, it's quite literal and mentioned at the beginning. A little context on these guys. Thes