£30..plus £10 special/registered/santas elves delivery, 126 pages, Ben Counter
This is the latest in the
BL site only, limited to a print run of 1,000 copies only, each signed by the author, get them whilst you can, never to be repeated unless we collect them in a few years. The previous one was "Iron Warrior" by Graham McNeill.
Just as that book was set between the events of "Courage and Honour" and "The Chapter's Due", this tale is set between "Hellforged" and the next Soul Drinker story "Phalanx".... which there's all manner of odd rumours about but that's another story and, hopefully, the beginning of a bold new era for Black Library publishing.
Hellforged has been out for quite some time now, perhaps best if you don't read on if you don't want it spoilt....
... at the end of that book the surviving Soul Drinkers were finally captured by the Imperium and we were given further hints of a terrible secret known by their Chaplain as well...
The stories in this book are framed as being excerpts from one of the many books written by/about Daenyathos -- a key figure in the early history of this 3rd Founding chapter-- taken from the Soul Drinkers chaplain.
We're on Terra during the war against Vandire, we're helping the Inquisition on a mission, we see him undergo some of the trials a would be chaplain has to undergo to prove his worthiness -- and that bit is pretty cool really, it's a fine idea that fits with the chapter's background -- and so on.
The stories are all cool enough, the odd really kick ass scene or set piece and nothing overly clunky. There is perhaps the odd place that feels or reads a trifle odd.. but those bits are, largely, explained later, when we get the BIG REVEAL...
Now, I really wanted to
love this book. I liked the Iron Warrior one, but felt that whilst the colour prints and the penciled artwork in it were very nice ( even if that wasn't quite how I pictured Honsou/whomever) the story was a little light so overall it wasn't quite worth the high price. here it's very much the opposite indeed. The story is good, it really does reveal somethings about the chapter that we didn't know and sets up the next arc or book very well. NO problems there. But as for the art this time...well..
..Mark Bedford is a fine artist who is very talented. I cannot for the life of me then work out why all we get in this is rough pencil sketches -- some of which are great to be fair --a fair few of which aren't inked or even finished. That, more than anything, is a big disappointment, I was looking forward to seeing some nice depictions of some of the main characters and instead.. well... we really need a rough sketch of a forearm and a bolt pistol... ?
And this annoys me, I guess the best comparison would be like paying for the super special collectors edition DVD and then finding out all the extra special features are crap. And for the extra money this premium product cost I genuinely don't think it's worth it. I'm a sucker for anything like this, limited edition and in a series that I have really enjoyed thus far and am very interested to see where they're going with the tale, but this is twice now when I don't think the high price tag is merited by the final product -- which is unusual for
BL as well
IMO -- and I would actually have serious doubts about whether or not to purchase the next product in this format -- which is supposed to be a "Time of Legends"/WFB one word on the street says.
Overall.... one for the serious collectors only I'm afraid.
..hmm... the big secret...are you sure you want to know.... well... alright then...
" -KingCracker
