The first book in the Black Library Novella Series 1, Danie Ware’s The Bloodied Rose picks up the story of Sister Superior Augusta after the events of the short story Mercy. Having returned to the Convent Sanctorum of the Order of the Bloody Rose to rest and induct the newest member of the squad, Augusta and her Sisters are unexpectedly ordered back to Lautis, the site of their recent confrontation with the orks. The Sisters sent in to secure Lautis have gone silent, and Augusta’s mission report questioned, so she is tasked with returning and finishing what she started.
It’s a powerful story that’s equal parts bombastic, elite infantry action and sinister, horror-tinged tension, as the Sisters gradually uncover the appalling truth of what happened on Lautis. There’s a nice tight plot, which hits hard and fast to throw the reader into the action before slowing down, reintroducing the main characters, and gradually building up through creepy exploration to an action-packed crescendo. In Ware’s hands the Sisters are absolute badasses, empowered partly by their superior equipment and training but mostly by virtue of a powerful, evocatively depicted sense of unshakeable faith.
Reciting litanies and singing hymns in the face of overwhelming odds, channelling raging anger into righteous combat, they’re really satisfying characters, and it’s clear how much Ware enjoys writing about them. Crucially, they’re still relatable and fallible despite all of their power, especially young Akemi who offers an important element of inexperience and fear, and nicely rounds out the squad in contrast with Augusta’s ironclad presence and the recklessness of Viola (who gets to have fun with the squad’s ‘thrice-blessed’ heavy bolter).
This continues the strong start made with Mercy, but while the short story only really had scope for action and aggression this slightly longer story (it’s a 140-page novella) provides the time and space to explore a little more of the characters themselves and the wider context of their Order. There’s the occasional moment of convenient plotting here and there, and as the action ramps up any subtlety goes out the window, but that’s not really a bad thing in context of this sort of story. Overall it’s tremendously entertaining, and a great example of how satisfying the Sisters of Battle can be when they’re written well.
The Bloodied Rose is book 1 in the Black Library Novella Series 1. You can read reviews of the rest of the books in this series by following this link.
