In case the title doesn’t give it away, Mike Brooks’ Warhammer 40,000 short story Where Dere’s da Warp Dere’s a Way is a rare story told from an ork perspective…and it’s just as much fun as it sounds. Ufthak Blackhawk joins his Bad Moon mates, under the command of Badgit Snazzhammer, in a gleeful boarding action against a ship crewed by humie mekboyz. The boyz happily get stuck into the fight in typically boisterous fashion, but when things don’t all go their way Ufthak is forced to think quickly in order to prove his status in the mob.
There’s very little ork-focused Black Library fiction, but here Brooks demonstrates not just that it’s possible to tell a great 40k story from the greenskin perspective, but that he’s well and truly got the required knack of balancing slapstick humour with appalling amounts of off-hand violence. Accept that 40k is fundamentally not as dark to the orks – who love nothing more than a good fight – as it is to humans, and there’s a tremendous enjoyment to be found in following Ufthak as he grumbles about humies not fighting right (they run away!), employs powerful ork logic (you’ll see) to inform his decision-making, and generally has fun doing plenty of krumpin’. Sure, it’s (wonderfully) silly…but it also just really, really works.
Where Dere’s da Warp Dere’s a Way is available either as a standalone e-short or in the Inferno! Volume 4 anthology.
Click this link to buy Where Dere’s da Warp Dere’s a Way.
