On the fourth day of Christmas Black Library gave to us…a Shield of Baal short story by Guy Haley. Sitting within the wider Shield of Baal series but also tying in with Haley’s own novel Valedor, Wraithflight sees the eldar of Iyanden come to the aid of an embattled Imperial world against the might of Hive Fleet Leviathan. Spiritseer Iyanna leads a void attack, using the wrathful dead of the craftworld to combat the hive mind’s control over its fleet, but it remains to be seen exactly what the eldar are hoping to achieve with their intervention.
Guy Haley is clearly a busy man, this being his second story in the advent calendar already. A longer story than his first contribution, with a good balance of void action and psychic eldar dreaminess, it nicely demonstrates the casual disregard the eldar have for everything else in the galaxy, and their bitterness at the position they find themselves in. As she leads her ships into battle though, Iyanna has to balance her loathing of humanity against the horror of the Hive Fleet and the future of her own race; seen through eldar eyes the tyranids are, if anything, even more terrifying.
Click here to go to the main Black Library Advent Calendar post and see the other reviews.
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