Book two in Chris Wraight’s Vaults of Terra series featuring Inquisitor Crowl and Interrogator Spinoza, The Hollow Mountain picks up pretty much straight away after the end of The Carrion Throne. Though disaster was averted on the throneworld, Crowl believes that the powerful people behind the conspiracy to bring a xenos creature to Terra are still at large and need to be brought to justice for their crimes. Despite Spinoza’s misgivings, they continue to investigate – albeit in secret, fully aware of the dangers involved in doing so – even while Terra seethes in a worrying atmosphere of unusual friction and unease.
There’s an interesting immediacy to this carrying on so quickly after The Carrion Throne, with a familiar feel to the story but at the same time a clear sense of the job not being done, the stakes still being incredibly high and a deeper mystery to be explored. If you’ve followed the developing Warhammer 40,000 narrative then you’ll know roughly what’s happening in the background at this point, but obviously none of the characters in this story do, and Wraight explores the effects on all of them of the tension on Terra continuing to ratchet tighter post-Sanguinala. Likewise the tone of the story grows noticeably darker as Crowl, Spinoza and Revus (who gets considerably more page time) face increasing risks and each find both their endurance and their unique strengths sorely tested.
Playing upon the theme of change that this moment in 40k history represents, it’s a story about a shift for Crowl in his relationships with Spinoza, Revus and his other companions, and even with his role and his place on Terra. The narrative is split between the three main characters, with Revus’ viewpoint offering an interesting middle ground between Crowl and Spinoza, and as the story progresses and the characters (not to mention the reader – in places it’s quite tough, emotionally) are challenged they’re forced to face some uncomfortable truths about themselves and each other. There’s a recurring theme of stopping and taking stock as a moment of crisis prompts characters to see the world around them in a new light – given that the world is Terra, it makes for fascinating reading.
As with The Carrion Throne, Terra itself is a powerful presence upon this story, offering a clear metaphor for the Imperium as a whole – vast, bafflingly complex and locked into ever-degrading patterns and rhythms yet still somehow thriving. It makes for an appropriately brooding and oppressive setting as Wraight explores more of its varied locations, this time concentrating more on focused, low-key infiltrations of larger institutions than trawling the slums. There’s a gradually-increasing sense of pace as the plot develops, building up momentum as the darkness rises, and while this relies even less than last time on large-scale action scenes, when the bullets start flying there’s a real intensity to events. Overall it’s a gripping, character-led story which feels like a natural extension of the series, providing a satisfying and suitably dramatic tale in its own right while clearly setting things up for the next instalment which promises to be very interesting indeed.
Check out reviews for other instalments in the Vaults of Terra series.
Click this link to buy The Hollow Mountain (or this one for the audiobook).