wittdooley
05-19-2010, 09:17 AM
Between working two jobs, trying to find a full-time teaching position for next year, and spending time with my family, I haven't had a ton of time to write recently. I have, however, read quite a bit. I'll have about 4 reviews coming by the end of the week, so enjoy!
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Helsreach: Aaron Dembski-Bowden
The Space Marine Battles series is one that, when Rynn’s World was published, was long overdue. All of the codecies make reference to epic battles fought by the various Astartes chapters, though all we ever saw were small blurbs on them. Rynn’s World was a really solid first in the series, presenting the new series with a great introduction to the new format. While some editing errors blemished an otherwise fine edition, Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s (AD-B) Helsreach continues the series with some marked improvement.
Helsreach tells the story of the Black Templars’ part in the Third War for Armageddon, with the focus laying square on the tale of the ascension of Grimaldus to his present position as Reclusiarch. More specifically, Helsreach is the story of Grimaldus’ and his black knights’ defiant stand in the face of an immeasurable Ork WAAAGH! to defend the Helsreach hive on Armageddon.
As storytelling goes, AD-B is one of my present favorites in the Black Library. He doesn’t disappoint here, weaving a very nice tale of honour and courage that really does service to the Black Templars and sets them apart from the other Imperial Fist successors. Because this story is the story—and I hate to say coming of age story, as Grimaldus is in his 200’s, but it kind of is—of Grimaldus’ rise to Reclusiarch, AD-B makes a decision that, at first, I quaffed at, but as the story continued, really understood the reasoning and loved: the inclusion of 1st person passages from the new-Reclusiarch’s point-of-view.
The inclusion of these ‘inner monologue’ sections do quite a bit to help move the story along. First, it creates a point of interest and insight for the reader as the story progresses. Again, I was hesitant at first; the first person is hard to do, and I expected it to seem contrived—how much important inner monologue can a genetically enhanced Astartes really have? However, AD-B blends it fluidly into the narrative, to the point that when something happens to a Guardsman, you want to know how Grimaldus will respond. Secondly, this inner monologue really helps create Grimaldus as a strong and sympathetic character. We really get to understand his motives and his ethos, in particular in regards to others.
Most poignant is a four or five page scene in which Grimaldus interacts with his Astartes brothers of the Salamanders chapter. The attitude and ethic of the Black Templars is made explicit here; the doctrine of war of the Templars is to go forward and attack, whereas the Salamanders favor preservation and defense. The scene epitomizes the Templars and how Grimaldus’ leads his brothers into war. His interactions with two human characters, the Titan Princeps Zarha and the Imperial Stormtrooper Andrej are also particularly interesting.
While Grimaldus and his retinue are the stars, I found a particularly warm place for the aforementioned Stormtrooper Andrej. Shakespeare often used comedy in the face of tragedy to lighten his audiences’ mood, and while I’m not comparing AD-B to Shakespeare, Andrej provides the same in Helsreach. Simply put, I liked it a lot. ¬¬¬¬¬The characterization of Andrej has made me enthusiastic about Imperial Guard novels. He is all too human, with believable flaws and foibles, and just the right amount of naiveté. I’d read a book about him in a heartbeat.
While the story, as all of AD-B’s seem to, has great characterization, I was left a bit wanting at the conclusion. The finale of the book, while glorious in its own respect—and I won’t go into it more, as I don’t do spoilers!—it seems a bit abrupt. There is a huge siege underway, with massive amounts of armour and a flood of Orks, and it just sort of ends. I understand that AD-B was working with some previous canon, but I expected the conclusion of what proved to be a really compelling read to be a bit more.
It’s interesting that Black Library chose to do two Son’s of Dorn novels to begin the series, but if it was purposeful (and I hope it was) the two books provide a really, really nice contrast to one another, which is a credit to both AD-B and Parker as storytellers. The two books serve to show how divergent two 2nd founding chapters can be from one another, despite their shared heritage. I couldn’t help but notice how starkly different the attitudes towards humans were between the Crimson Fists and the Black Templars. It works really well to differentiate the two, and adds quite a bit to the 40k canon.
With that in mind, I think Helsreach is a really nice addition to the 40k universe. Aaron Dembski-Bowden has again crafted a story that has good pacing, exciting battles, and something that is becoming the defining point of his novels: well-rounded and well-developed characters that provide depth and interest to his stories. With Helsreach, the Space Marine Battles series continues to improve and Aaron Dembski-Bowden is quickly making his mark on the Black Library catalogue.
[8.0/10] Highly Recommended
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Authors Note---
There were a lot of problems with editing in Rynn's World. BL either knew they were there, or listened to its readership, because Helsreach is absent of any editing mistakes. I couldn't find one, and I was paying attention to see if they did make the improvement.
Like I said, I think the problems with Rynn's World were the product of a new series and a new series editor getting their feet wet, coupled with a new format for the book.
Kudos to the Black Library.
__________________________________________________ _____________________________________
Helsreach: Aaron Dembski-Bowden
The Space Marine Battles series is one that, when Rynn’s World was published, was long overdue. All of the codecies make reference to epic battles fought by the various Astartes chapters, though all we ever saw were small blurbs on them. Rynn’s World was a really solid first in the series, presenting the new series with a great introduction to the new format. While some editing errors blemished an otherwise fine edition, Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s (AD-B) Helsreach continues the series with some marked improvement.
Helsreach tells the story of the Black Templars’ part in the Third War for Armageddon, with the focus laying square on the tale of the ascension of Grimaldus to his present position as Reclusiarch. More specifically, Helsreach is the story of Grimaldus’ and his black knights’ defiant stand in the face of an immeasurable Ork WAAAGH! to defend the Helsreach hive on Armageddon.
As storytelling goes, AD-B is one of my present favorites in the Black Library. He doesn’t disappoint here, weaving a very nice tale of honour and courage that really does service to the Black Templars and sets them apart from the other Imperial Fist successors. Because this story is the story—and I hate to say coming of age story, as Grimaldus is in his 200’s, but it kind of is—of Grimaldus’ rise to Reclusiarch, AD-B makes a decision that, at first, I quaffed at, but as the story continued, really understood the reasoning and loved: the inclusion of 1st person passages from the new-Reclusiarch’s point-of-view.
The inclusion of these ‘inner monologue’ sections do quite a bit to help move the story along. First, it creates a point of interest and insight for the reader as the story progresses. Again, I was hesitant at first; the first person is hard to do, and I expected it to seem contrived—how much important inner monologue can a genetically enhanced Astartes really have? However, AD-B blends it fluidly into the narrative, to the point that when something happens to a Guardsman, you want to know how Grimaldus will respond. Secondly, this inner monologue really helps create Grimaldus as a strong and sympathetic character. We really get to understand his motives and his ethos, in particular in regards to others.
Most poignant is a four or five page scene in which Grimaldus interacts with his Astartes brothers of the Salamanders chapter. The attitude and ethic of the Black Templars is made explicit here; the doctrine of war of the Templars is to go forward and attack, whereas the Salamanders favor preservation and defense. The scene epitomizes the Templars and how Grimaldus’ leads his brothers into war. His interactions with two human characters, the Titan Princeps Zarha and the Imperial Stormtrooper Andrej are also particularly interesting.
While Grimaldus and his retinue are the stars, I found a particularly warm place for the aforementioned Stormtrooper Andrej. Shakespeare often used comedy in the face of tragedy to lighten his audiences’ mood, and while I’m not comparing AD-B to Shakespeare, Andrej provides the same in Helsreach. Simply put, I liked it a lot. ¬¬¬¬¬The characterization of Andrej has made me enthusiastic about Imperial Guard novels. He is all too human, with believable flaws and foibles, and just the right amount of naiveté. I’d read a book about him in a heartbeat.
While the story, as all of AD-B’s seem to, has great characterization, I was left a bit wanting at the conclusion. The finale of the book, while glorious in its own respect—and I won’t go into it more, as I don’t do spoilers!—it seems a bit abrupt. There is a huge siege underway, with massive amounts of armour and a flood of Orks, and it just sort of ends. I understand that AD-B was working with some previous canon, but I expected the conclusion of what proved to be a really compelling read to be a bit more.
It’s interesting that Black Library chose to do two Son’s of Dorn novels to begin the series, but if it was purposeful (and I hope it was) the two books provide a really, really nice contrast to one another, which is a credit to both AD-B and Parker as storytellers. The two books serve to show how divergent two 2nd founding chapters can be from one another, despite their shared heritage. I couldn’t help but notice how starkly different the attitudes towards humans were between the Crimson Fists and the Black Templars. It works really well to differentiate the two, and adds quite a bit to the 40k canon.
With that in mind, I think Helsreach is a really nice addition to the 40k universe. Aaron Dembski-Bowden has again crafted a story that has good pacing, exciting battles, and something that is becoming the defining point of his novels: well-rounded and well-developed characters that provide depth and interest to his stories. With Helsreach, the Space Marine Battles series continues to improve and Aaron Dembski-Bowden is quickly making his mark on the Black Library catalogue.
[8.0/10] Highly Recommended
__________________________________________________ _____________________________________
Authors Note---
There were a lot of problems with editing in Rynn's World. BL either knew they were there, or listened to its readership, because Helsreach is absent of any editing mistakes. I couldn't find one, and I was paying attention to see if they did make the improvement.
Like I said, I think the problems with Rynn's World were the product of a new series and a new series editor getting their feet wet, coupled with a new format for the book.
Kudos to the Black Library.