Book two in the Black Library Novella Series 1, Ian St. Martin’s Steel Daemon is a gritty, uncompromising story which pits a traumatised airman and a cynical tank crew against the horrors of the Crimson Slaughter during the 13th Black Crusade. After his Marauder is downed, young Heit Lytviak finds salvation in the shape of the Cadian Leman Russ battle tank Imperial Son, joining as an impromptu and somewhat ill-disciplined gunner under the steely supervision of Lieutenant Knispel. Against the brutality of the Crimson Slaughter, however, the Cadians are cut off from their lines and forced onto the back foot.
While ostensibly told from the perspective of the Imperials, it actually opens with the Crimson Slaughter viewpoint as we’re introduced to the story’s antagonist, Hakaron, whose tenuous grip on sanity doesn’t affect his and his forces’ terrifying lethality. His physicality and power is in stark contrast to the protagonist Heit, who’s entirely out of his depth, having survived by the skin of his teeth and been thrown into an environment he has absolutely no control over. The narrative alternates between the two characters, as Hakaron rampages through the Imperial forces while fighting to retain his sense of self, and Heit struggles to adjust to the Cadian mindset even as they all battle just to stay alive.
It’s a tight, self-contained narrative which keeps things focused so as to cover plenty of ground even in its short 120-ish pages. In Hakaron’s sections the focus is on his battle to retain his identity and sanity, nicely exploring the ongoing struggle faced by the Crimson Slaughter which sets them apart from generic ‘evil’ Chaos Space Marines. From Heit’s perspective we’re thrown into intense tank on tank action, all cramped claustrophobia and the shock of an inexperienced airman unexpectedly coming to terms with being engaged in brutal fighting at much closer quarters than he had ever expected. Amongst the Cadian crew there’s an enjoyable feeling of tight-knit camaraderie, although as an outsider Heit can only look on as the rest of the crew operate smoothly while he fumbles through his role and freaks out under the pressure.
In keeping with St. Martin’s style this is dark and gritty from the get-go, often brutally so, from Hakaron’s creepy ways of placating the voices which plague him to some matter of fact descriptions of the often horrific results of a tank fighting against infantry. It’s very much not a happy story, in the vein of many a classic Black Library tale, so while there are heroics aplenty they err on the darker and more fatalistic side. Look elsewhere for a big picture depiction of the 13th Black Crusade, but as a tight-focus look at the grim realities of life for Imperial forces facing off against Chaos Space Marines, this is a short but powerful story.
Steel Daemon is book 2 in the Black Library Novella Series 1. You can read reviews of the rest of the books in this series by following this link.
