Dead Men Walking Review

[thewickedworm]

Minor spoilers ahead.

Dead Men Walking is an imperial guard novel written by Steve Lyons. I admit that I had not read anything by Mr. Lyons before and was half expecting the novel to be mediocre. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the novel because it was faithful to the spirit of the Death Korps and it did not pull any punches; instead it provided a "realistic" account of the Death Korps' fight against the Necrons.

In a nutshell, the book describes the Death Korps' campaign against the Necrons when they start appearing on a mining planet. The book does not go into the point of view of any Death Korps soldiers. Instead, the Death Korps are viewed through the lense of people around them--ranging from a miner, a commissar, the planetary govener (among others). I think that this was a good idea. Anyone who has read IA's Seige of Vraks (I am fortunate enough to own all three parts) would know that the Death Korps are not going to be very identifiable with the reader. I would even go so far to say that they would probably be more like the Necrons than, say, Cadians. The Death Korps really just see things in black and white and all of their lives (and anyone else's) are expendable as long as it assists in reaching their objectives.

One standout moment for me was reading a native miner go through training by the Death Korps (at this point, I believe that a draft had been instituted). You can start to see the miner losing his identity and humanity; now imagine being brought up in this environment all your life. You start to understand what it is to be Death Korps so that when a Death Korps soldier tries to gives the faintest hint of a smile, it speaks absolute volumes.

Another aspect of this book I enjoyed was its sober tone. While there are many heroic deeds, don't expect anyone to become some type of uber soldier taking out all these necrons. Instead, brace yourselves for some heavy losses and "all-this-work-for-nothing" type actions. The book itself didn't progress the way I thought it was going to, ignoring cliches and twisting in different directions. Still, I thought that the ending was appropriate and satisfying given the tone of the book.

We do not get into the heads of the Necrons, although there is a good amount of Necron units appearring in the novel to wreck havok on the Death Korps. The Necron units are adequately described; the Flayed Ones flay, the Warriers shoot, and the Necron Lord. . . well, let's just say "game over, man". There is also some interesting characteristics of the Necron Lord that has not been described as such in the codex, such as the Necron Lord wearing a headdress and is armored. One wonders if Mr. Lyons was privy to information regarding any new updated looks for the Necrons. We know that a new codex is rumored to come out next year so it's not all inconceivable that Mr. Lyons was given some information regarding the look and theme of the Necrons. Speaking of themes, I found it odd that the Necron Lord initially gave the people of the planet an ultimatum: leave the planet or be killed. This would suggest that the Necrons have more than just the prime directive of harvesting people in mind. The fact that the Necron Lord even issued an ultimatum suggests that there were other factors in play; perhaps the Necrons on the planet were not at full strength yet or maybe the Necron Lord took pity on the planet (hah!).

Anyway, if you are a fan of the Death Korps (and who isn't), or of 40k in general, I recommend this book.

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

Thanks for this review, I was considering buying it since I'm a huge fan of necrons and death korps alike (so a perfect matchup for me!).

[thewickedworm]

Yeah, I am really happy that the book did the Death Korps and Necrons justice. At least they didn't end up teaming up and becoming BFFs *cough* BLOOD ANGELS *cough* I just started trying to build a Death Korps army, although the high cost means I'll be gathering models rather slowly. However, they are some fine looking models. I also have a Necron army as well and will devour anything Necron related.