Dan Abnett joins the party on day nineteen of Black Library’s 2015 Advent Calendar with Midnight Rotation, a 40k short story that takes place within his Sabbat Worlds setting. Trooper second class Cawkus, of the Fiftieth Urdesh Regular, offers his take on the events he witnessed in the run up to the destruction of a Munitorum facility under his squad’s watch. Being only a trooper second class he might not have the most strategic overview of events, but he knows what he saw.
Whatever the topic, Abnett always manages to eke the maximum amount of character out of his stories, and this is no exception. Cawkus is plain-speaking and coarse, and narrates events in a no-nonsense, seen-it-all manner, telling his story with just a hint of the classic trooper’s opinion of his lot in life, full of sympathy for his fellow troopers and thinly-veiled disdain for his officers. He lends the story an authentic, gritty feel in keeping with much of Abnett’s Imperial Guard work, from the earthy dialogue to the dark humour in a bleak situation. It might not be a Gaunt’s Ghost story, but it’s beautifully representative of Abnett’s characterful, detailed style and a great little snapshot of life as a guardsman.
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