Denny Flowers’ second Black Library novel Outgunned takes to the skies with a tale of picts, propaganda, underestimated xenos and the aerial might of the Aeronautica Imperialis. On the agri world of Bacchus – famed for its wine production – an infestation of orks has rapidly progressed from a minor irritation to all-out war, and Imperial forces are making slow progress. When Imperial Propagandist Kile Simlex arrives on Bacchus, tasked with recording a motivational pict to inspire confidence and aid recruitment, he finds little as he expected. His intended subject – Flight Commander Lucille von Shard – proves not quite the dashing hero he imagined, while the orks are far from the mindless wretches portrayed in the picts he’s seen. As he wrestles with questions of how to capture his pict and how to craft a suitable narrative, the war for Bacchus becomes increasingly desperate.
While Simlex provides the first-person point of view (assisted by his trio of impressively sturdy seer-skulls), Shard is always at the core of the story, her presence inescapable for Simlex despite the scorn she heaps upon him. She’s every bit the skilled and highly-decorated ace pilot, but she’s also arrogant, reckless and condescending, and her unsavoury attitude only feeds into Simlex’s dilemma of how to balance artistic integrity against the sanitised Imperial truth. The question of what the truth actually is weighs heavy on Simlex, as he tries to reconcile what he thought he knew – of Shard, of the orks, of war and of the Imperium itself – with what he sees all around him in the swamps and skies of Bacchus, and the sinister halls of the planet’s governor. It’s a question that contributes to an intriguing sense of tension between what characters see (or allow themselves to see) and what’s actually happening around them, from Simlex himself to governor Dolos and members of the Aeronautica.
Simlex’s civilian perspective lends a powerful sense of fear and wonder to proceedings that often isn’t there when shown through military eyes, exploring that peculiarly Imperial tendency towards a blinkered dismissal of anything ‘other’ as being inferior, or simply to be hated. He makes for a brilliant viewpoint characters, not least because while in theory he has access to a lot of information about what’s out there in the galaxy, in truth he understands very little about what things are really like (as opposed to Shard, who has few of Simlex’s privileges but a greater grasp of the realities of life). As the war progresses and Simlex struggles with his pict, his observations show the orks for the terrifying enemy that they are and highlight the flaws and foibles of the Imperial forces – not least Bacchus’ feckless nobility, clinging to their old priorities in the midst of disaster – offering a fascinating comparison of the relative strengths of the forces at play.
There’s no question that this is a 40k story in its setting and overall tone, and there are some great moments of airborne action that will please Aeronautica fans, but don’t expect wall to wall dogfights or constant breakneck action. It would be a stretch to call this ‘domestic 40k’, but it’s definitely more measured in pace, and very much revolves around the strained relationship between Simlex and Shard. As Simlex gradually sees through his initial naivety Shard’s character comes into greater focus, and her attitude to life (and odd tendency to talk about herself in the third person) starts to make a little more sense to him. There are also splashes of dark, mildly absurd humour here and there, with hints of Ciaphas Cain in Shard’s bleak, sharp wit and Simlex’s slightly hapless naivety. On top of its close focus on these two characters and a single, relatively small-scale war though, it also does a brilliant job of depicting the Imperium in microcosm – no glory, no heroics, just sacrifice and ignorance and desperation and sheer bloody-mindedness. In short, it’s a breath of fresh air and a welcome new take on a 40k war story.
Thanks SO MUCH to Denny Flowers for sending me a copy of Outgunned in exchange for my honest review.
For more information, check out my interview with Denny Flowers talking about Outgunned.
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