Danie Ware’s second Sisters of Battle novella for Black Library, Wreck and Ruin picks up shortly after The Bloodied Rose and pits Sister Superior Augusta and her squad against a deadly new enemy. Returning home after the events on Lautis, the Sisters find their services commandeered by Inquisitor Istrix, who orders them to join her on the ravaged, abandoned forge world of Lycheate. They are to accompany her on a hunt for the dangerous psyker Scafidis Zale, but amongst the rusting steelworks and its shady denizens Augusta finds her trust in the hardline, secretive Inquisitor tested and her faith challenged anew.
It’s another tight, pacy, tense novella which continues to explore how the Sisters of the Bloody Rose make war, and once again shows off Ware’s fantastic grasp of these characters. While the combat, when it happens, nicely shows off the Sisters’ tactics and sheer brutality, it’s less action-driven than The Bloodied Rose and challenges the Sisters’ faith and discipline more than their martial skills, with the tension coming mostly from Augusta’s internal conflict. She’s in a darker place than before, clearly affected by what happened on Lautis, and this mission has not just interrupted her journey home but come at a time when she needs to find clarity from somewhere…something Inquisitor Istrix doesn’t help with.
Istrix and Augusta make for an interesting pairing, both zealots in their own ways but still with very different worldviews, and in Augusta’s current frame of mind following an Inquisitor’s orders – especially when they really don’t make a lot of sense – pulls her in conflicting directions. Almost everything we see of Istrix is from an outside perspective so her motivations only gradually become clear over the course of a story which is all about tension and release, gradually building as the pace ramps up, Istrix becomes increasingly erratic and Augusta becomes ever more conflicted. She’s not just dealing with her own personal daemons, but also the changed dynamic within her squad after the losses on Lautis, trying to keep a handle on her squad’s discipline even as she’s struggling herself.
It’s a clever continuation of the series and these characters, bringing a different element to the fore without losing the essential sense of fervent faith and utter badassery that Ware captures so well with the Sisters of Battle. Lycheate makes for a great setting for this story, brilliantly atmospheric and populated by the dregs of Imperial society – and not just humans, either – with the sinister presence of Zale looming over proceedings and challenging the Sisters’ minds as much as anything else. Whether you’ve been following Augusta’s adventures through all of Ware’s stories so far, or are picking this up as your first entry point, there’s a lot to enjoy in this depiction of Battle Sisters forced out of their comfort zone and (mostly) holding back their aggression.
