Friday, May 30, 2025

Review of Garro: Knight of Grey by James Swallow

Note: If you are looking ahead in the Siege of Terra series, finding reviews of potential books to read, strongly consider reading Garro: Knight of Grey before Mortis. It is listed after Mortis due to publishing date, but exists prior in the internal chronology of the series.

In my lurking around Warhammer forums and Horus Heresy discussion, it seems Garro, the Death-Guard-warrior-turned-warning-beacon in The Flight of the Eisenstein, has clout among some readers. People seem to like him. He doesn't stand tall in my reading of 30k, however. He has been more of a flat, hardboiled stereotype not to mention incidental character—one who happened to be in the right place at the right time—rather than a character with proper agency worth developing in the series. Take this review of Garro: Knight in Grey (2022) with that in mind.

Thursday, May 22, 2025

Review of The Bonehunters by Steven Erikson

The first five novels of the Malazan Book of the Fallen saw three major conflicts explode and collapse. Seven Cities, Genabackis and Letheras (at least Western Letheras) all had continent-wide wars ravage them. The Bonehunters (2006), sixth novel in the series, picks up the pieces and looks at what's next.

The Bonehunters starts where things left off from two settings. First is House of Chains and the Seven Cities continent. Adjunct Tavore, having killed her sister/the Whirlwind, looks to take down the last threat to the Malazan empire that the continent offers: Leoman of the Flails and his army in the city of Y'ghatan. Second setting is Midnight Tides and Letheras. The Tiste Edur have spilled out beyond the continent and are looking for a person who can kill their own god-ruler once and for all. Whether they like it or not, Icarium and Karsa Orlong's story threads wind that direction. And behind it all, Empress Laseen works her own strategies to ensure the imperial machine grows and grows.

Cardboard Corner: Citizen Sleeper: Spindlejack [print-n-play]

Citizen Sleeper: Spindlejack is a quick pen-n-paper game that burns through a couple satisfying hours solo-style. Fun escalates as the player figures out better and better ways to scoot their airbike from A to B—literally. (And C, too.)

In Citizen Sleeper, players take on the role of a cyberpunk delivery boy (a spindlejack) trying to earn a buck and get some street cred by delivering packages to various points of a space hub. To make deliveries on time, spindlejacks must navigate busy intersections of haulers without getting crushed or overheating. Thankfully they've got a couple tricks up their sleeve—drifts, grinds, and skitches—in getting goods where they need to be. Do that on time and get some cryo cash to feed yourself and upgrade your airbike. Fail and lose reputation.

Sunday, May 18, 2025

Review of Echoes of Eternity Aaron Dembski-Bowden

Mortis by John French, sixth book in the Siege of Terra, laid low the defenses of the Emperor's Palace. Horus' legions are now on the brink—demon-crazed, ready to run rampant. One gate stands in their way, and with Angron and Magnus pushing with all their might, it seems just a matter of time til it falls. With Rogal Dorn organizing the Palace's defenses from a central location, there are only two primarchs to hold back the tide: Sanguinius and Vulkan. Echoes of Eternity (2022), seventh book in the Siege of Terra, tests their might.

Echoes of Eternity is the most powerful book in the Siege of Terra yet. The two most recent books, Mortis and Saturnine, have seen the fighting build and climactic events bigger than anything yet—at least in terms of character deaths. But these small compared to Echoes of Eternity. It takes the upward slope of the Siege of Terra story and converts it into a parabola. Things escalate.

Monday, May 12, 2025

Review of Past Master by R.A. Lafferty

Christian apologetics and science fiction make for interesting bedfellows. One a be-all end-all explanation of how things came to be, the other a fantastical potential for things to come, they would seem to be at odds. And yet there have been books which make it work, notably Walter M. Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz and James Blish's A Case of Conscience. Can R.A. Lafferty's Past Master (1968), a book which likewise features extra-terrestrial Christian shenanigans, join the list?

An exercise in utopianism, Past Master is set on Golden Astrolobe, an Earth colony famed for its high quality of life. But the story begins in the middle of a firefight planet-side. Robots attack a trio of men who have been tasked with finding the next leader for the colony. The three agree that special measures are required to solve the situation, and so they head into history and pluck Sir Thomas More out of time and space to bring him to Astrolobe. The trio hope his wisdom writing Utopia will be able to resolve their conflict. Can it?

Thursday, May 8, 2025

Review of Warhawk by Chris Wraight

And the Siege continues. Warhawk by Chris Wraight (2021) takes the conflict to the next level. In Mortis, traitor forces pushed hard on the walls of the Emperor's Palace and breached the Lion's Spaceport. Honoring an oath, Jaghatai Khan rallies the White Scars for a counter-strike; the port's role is critical to Loyalist plans for stopping Horus. But Horus has other plans.

Warhawk follows a handful of sub-plots. Primary is Khan honoring his promise—or at least trying. The second is a secret Loyalist plan to refurbish a destroyed space platform and use it as a battle station. In a third, Mortarion and the Death Guard close the open threads of The Buried Dagger—coming to terms with their bodily changes due to Chaos. Further plot points still, Imperial Fist Sigismund gets a new sword that seems to have power of its own, in turn becoming a focal point for Traitor forces. And lastly, we have Olli shenanigans; the Perpetuals' mission draws closer to ending, and in doing so he finds deeper questions than originally thought.

Monday, May 5, 2025

Review of Mortis by John French

Titandeath, 53rd book in the Horus Heresy, was the BIG titan one. It's the one which properly put the massive war engines on the field of battle and turned them loose. Mortis (2021), fifth book in the Siege of Terra, turns what's left—horned or unhorned—toward the Emperor's Palace.

Mortis takes Horus' siege on Terra to the next level in bombastic fashion. World Eaters, Death Guard, Word Bearers, and Chaos continue their assault on the walls, and now, titans are unleashed from deep storage in the Emperor's palace to battle the Chaos titans Horus drops from space. The fields start to run slick, not only with blood, but also oil, prometheum, and all other manner of chemicals leaking from the damaged and destroyed siege engines. The war antes up.