Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Desert Raiders by Lucien Soulban


Vital Stats:

Page Count: 245 (so short!)
Era: 40k (no specified year)
Perspective: Tallarn Desert Raiders
Major Characters: [Inquisitor-text]Battallion Commander Lieutenant Colonel Turk Iban, Colonel Nisri Dakar, Commissar Torrent Rezail, Kamala Noore
Location: Khadar, Barrases System

One Sentence Review: Twilight zone meets Baghdad

A Few Musings: This is the fourth Imperial Guard series - one shot books (although Rebel Winter felt like the first of a trilogy) focusing on different guard regiments. Speaking of where is the Mordian Iron Guard book where the first 100 pages are field drills. This book follows Fifteen Hours, Death World and Rebel Winter. Unfortunately this is the weakest of the lot.

[Inquisitor-text]The basic premise (similar to Fifteen Hours) is that two disparate groups of Tallarn Desert Raiders are marooned on a desert world (convenient enough). After landing and a dust storm, the navy pulls out. Unfortunately the two groups are both a backstabbing lot and only a wily commissar is able to keep them from killing each other. (Wait a minute wasn't this the plot to the first Ciaphas Cain book?!).

Well an overriding and compelling force enters their lives as they fight to survive on the desert planet. Nope it isn't his holiness the Emperor. It is of course the tyranids. The tyranids make fast work of the Tallarns (hence the short page count). There are a few twilight zone moments involving an underground cave. I would spoil the end - but only if it would mean you didn't waste your time with this one.
The book is actually well written. I liked a few of the ideas the author tried out. I also very much liked that each chapter had a day associated with it and the cast of characters at the end of the book. Of course ever since I read Dune 25+ years ago (sheesh), I have been a sucker for glossaries and character lists.

Overall the book fails unfortunately. Despite some well conceived ideas and good writing, the overall plot was not very imaginative and I wasn't intrigued with the Tallarns. I have to recommend that you pass on this one.

Bolters (Out of Five): One
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About This Website/Spoiler Policy

The purpose of this blog is to review Black Library books in the Warhammer 40k setting. Since November 2005 I have read nearly every Black Library novel (and short story) published in the 40k universe. Since Black Library has published many books (good and bad), I have done a lot of reading. The books are compelling and does credit to the incredible setting of Warhammer 40k. This blog is to chronicle my thoughts and my reviews of Warhammer 40k fiction.

My reviews are organized by giving a short synopis. I follow this with a one sentence review. This is kind of a "pitch" to you the reader as to why you would read the book. This is followed by some "musings" of mine of what I liked and disliked about the book. The final "grade" is a number of bolters. This is a general outline of how I felt about the book. Here are some examples,

Five Bolters - Exceptional 40k novel, would be considered great in any genre - Storm of Iron, Sabbat Martyr

Four Bolters - Very good 40k novel, any fan of 40k would enjoy - Ravenor, Horus Rising

Three Bolters - Good 40k novel, occassional Black Library readers should pick it up - The Traitor's Hand, Fifteen Hours

Two Bolters - Average to Below Average 40k novel, die hard Black Library fans will want to read - Rebel Winter, Dead Sky, Black Sun

One Bolter - Poor 40k book, everyone should avoid - Inquisition War, Lord of Night

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