Hello and welcome to the first in a new series of articles that I’m tentatively calling Short and Sweet, in which I’m going to write up a few quick, informal thoughts and observations about some of the SFF books that I’ve recently read, but which I’m not planning on reviewing more thoroughly. I’ve basically pinched this idea from a friend (check out Fabienne’s ‘Review Roundup’ posts on Libri Draconis), and I’m hoping it will work for me too as a way of still talking about books for which I don’t have the time or headspace to write full, in-depth reviews. The plan is for this to be an irregular series rather than committing to a specific frequency, so to begin with at least I’ll try to write one of these posts maybe once a month, or perhaps a bit less than that, depending on what I read.
For this first instalment I’ve looked back at six books that I read in August and September of 2022 including a trio of Black Library novels, a pair of Terry Pratchett books, and the fourth in Jodi Taylor’s fun Chronicles of St. Mary’s series. For future articles I’ll probably try to keep things to maybe three or four books, but we’ll see how things go.
Warhawk by Chris Wraight
In advance of Echoes of Eternity coming out I decided I’d revisit book six in Black Library’s Siege of Terra series, and listen to it in audio this time. I first read Warhawk back in January (purely for fun, with no plan to review it), and I think I perhaps wasn’t quite in the right frame of mind to properly appreciate its merits. I enjoyed the culmination of the White Scars vs. Death Guard arc, the breathless action scenes and the continuation of all the (largely) interesting side quests, but I finished it feeling a little underwhelmed. Revisiting this now though, and listening to the incomparable Jonathan Keeble bring to life the (presumably) final acts of the White Scars in the heresy…I was taken aback with how good it all was, and how much better than I remembered from my first reading!
Saturnine still remains the high point of the Siege series for me, but Warhawk comes closest of all the other books (up to this point) to matching it, in terms of the genuinely epic nature of some of the scenes and the emotional heft that it carries. There’s a particular scene with Ilya and the Khan, just quietly talking in her quarters, that hit me incredibly hard, in a way that few BL authors other than Wraight have ever managed to do. It doesn’t have the grinding, unrelenting intensity of Mortis, which I found a bit hard going, but instead it moves the story on nicely while ticking off one of the coolest moments in the Siege, and delivering strong character beats alongside the badass action. If I’m honest the very ending isn’t quite what I wish it was – I might annoy some White Scars fans here but I think the Khan should have died to really make this book hit home – but beyond that I absolutely loved this book. Just in time for…
Echoes of Eternity by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
It feels like this was a really long time coming, the penultimate (and much-hyped) book in the Siege of Terra bringing events right up to the climactic finale and doing it in style…albeit somewhat unconventionally. Eschewing swathes of minor characters and plot strands in favour of lesser-spotted characters from previous Dembski-Bowden novels, a close focus on a particular set of events (i.e. the battle for the Eternity Gate), and deliberately adding depth and backstory to the Blood Angels, this is very much an AD-B book, and one that heavily focuses on Sanguinius and Angron, and their Legion sons. It’s not just a book about those two legions, but it definitely rewards their fans, and anyone wanting more of Zephon, Lotara Sarrin, Arkhan Land, Amit, and Kargos Bloodspitter.
It’s absolutely not what I thought it was going to be…but in hindsight also exactly what I’d expect from Aaron. The change of pace and focus compared to previous novels felt a bit jarring at first, and likewise the total absence of the Perpetuals, Keeler and Loken, Katsuhiro and basically all of the other side characters, but once I wrapped my head around what the book was doing I grew to absolutely love it. The close focus is definitely a change from the rest of the series, but it really does work. Easily comparable to Warhawk in quality, and second only (for me personally) to Saturnine, this is a genuinely brilliant Horus Heresy novel, and it perfectly sets the stage for the multi-part The End and the Death.
Helbrecht: Knight of the Throne by Marc Collins
I picked this up as a rare (for me) Limited Edition hardback, as I’m a fan of Marc’s writing and I’m keen to support him (also it’s a lovely edition, and WAY nicer than the regular HB). I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but it turned out to be both a typically action-heavy Space Marines story and an interesting study of a character I wasn’t that familiar with. I guess that’s about right for one of these ‘Character Series’ 40k novels, and while I don’t think the balance of action and character quite worked for me personally, I suspect this will end up being a pretty popular book with a lot of Black Library readers.
As an exploration of what drives High Marshal Helbrecht ever onwards (faith, duty, anger and more all battling out for his focus) and sets the Black Templars apart, I thought it was good, but there wasn’t really enough room for it to really dig beneath the surface. I’d have liked to have seen this as a full-length novel, to be honest. The setting though – a ruined Imperial world trapped in an unending cycle of penance and poverty – was brilliant, and about as 40k as you can get, and between that and the punchy, entertaining action scenes (plus a cool scene with Helbrecht and Guilliman) there’s still plenty to enjoy, especially for dedicated Black Templars fans.
A Trail Through Time by Jodi Taylor
This is book four in Taylor’s excellent Chronicles of St. Mary’s series, and the third that I’ve devoured in audio, narrated by the brilliant Zara Ramm. If you’re not familiar, these books loosely fit into what I call the ‘time-travelling librarian’ genre of largely light, fun, real world/fantasy crossover stories featuring plucky protagonists, slightly daft plots and much derring do – except in this case we’re talking time-travelling historians. This one picks up immediately after the conclusion of book 3, and throws Max right into the action as she and Chief Farrell find themselves running (through time) for their lives from the brutal Time Police. I can’t say too much for risk of spoilers, but it’s a bit more breathless and frantic than the books that went before, and if it doesn’t quite have the emotional gut-punch of the previous book it’s still totally gripping and, despite everything, a lot of fun.
I Shall Wear Midnight and The Shepherd’s Crown by Terry Pratchett
In case you’re not a Discworld fan, these are the fourth and fifth novels in the Tiffany Aching arc (Discworld can be read in release order if you want, but really it’s more like several intertwined character arcs all set within the broader series), with The Shepherd’s Crown also being the 41st and final book in the Discworld as a whole (sob). I recently wrote about my experience of reading The Shepherd’s Crown, and I reviewed I Shall Wear Midnight back in 2015, but I thought I’d talk a bit about both of them here too given that Discworld is my all-time favourite series. I’m unquestionably heartbroken (still) that there will never be any more books in this series, but I’m glad I’ve finally taken the plunge and read this last book.
I knew The Shepherd’s Crown was going to be an important book for me, so I wanted to make sure I got as much as possible out of it. When approaching a later book in a series I find it’s almost always worth rereading at least the previous book (as I always forget what’s happened before) – I didn’t have enough time to reread all four previous Tiffany Aching novels so I settled on revisiting I Shall Wear Midnight, and I’m so glad that I did. It really is a delightful story, and I almost want to say that it’s my favourite of all the Tiffany books. Re-familiarising myself with it certainly meant that I went into the next one with a really clear picture of what had gone before, but also the experience of rereading I Shall Wear Midnight was made that bit more powerful by knowing that I was going to carry straight on and finally read The Shepherd’s Crown.
As for the final book itself…well, in some respects it was exactly as emotionally draining as I expected, with some early chapters (no spoilers, but…wow) really surprising me and setting me off straight away. At the same time though, it was easier to read than I thought, and despite the tears I simply couldn’t put it down. Yes, it’s quite clearly ‘unfinished’ by Pratchett’s standards, but the key story beats are all there, and I don’t really think it matters that the prose isn’t quite as polished as usual. In a way I quite liked getting to read something unpolished, as it offered a glimpse into Pratchett’s process, but more than that I’m just happy that we did get this final book. At points it felt like Pratchett knew this would be his last book, or at least one of his last, and the emotional weight of the story is certainly up there with anything else he wrote. I’d give almost anything for one more…but as a swansong I think this is pretty damn good.
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So that’s my first Short and Sweet article done. I’d love to know what you think: whether this sort of thing is of interest, if there’s anything else you’d like to see in here, if you think a different approach to these mini-reviews would work better, and so on. Let me know in the comments below!
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