# The Gaunt's Ghosts Series by Dan Abnett



## Werthead

*Gaunt's Ghosts 1: First and Only*



> The peaceful, arboreal world of Tanith is commanded to raise a legion of troops to serve in the Imperial Guard, the billions-strong regular army of the Imperium of Man. On the day the Tanith1st is commissioned and depart for deep space, their homeworld is annihilated from orbit. Thus, they are the Tanith First and Last. The Tanith First and Only.
> 
> Many years later, the Tanith 1st has a new name: Gaunt's Ghosts. Under the command of Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt, the Ghosts have become a respected unit, skilled in battle and reliable under fire. But Gaunt, a political officer filling a military role, has made some very dangerous enemies in the High Command of the Sabbat Worlds Crusade. The Ghosts are now part of the attempt to liberate the Sabbat Worlds from the forces of Chaos, but Gaunt discovers corruption and heresy may be taking root in the High Command, and he cannot trust anyone but his men in an effort to find a weapon of unimaginable power on the dark world of Menazoid Epsilon before his enemies do the same.
> 
> Over the past decade, Dan Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts series of military SF novels and several related series have sold more than a million copies for the Black Library, a remarkable feat that has made Abnett one of the UK's biggest-selling SF authors with sales on a par with the likes of Peter F. Hamilton, Iain Banks and Alastair Reynolds. Many of these readers have gone on to become fans of the wider Warhammer 40,000 universe of which Abnett's series is part (although self-contained; the Ghosts books can be read with no pre-existing knowledge of the setting), boosting sales of the related computer games and the miniatures line.
> 
> First and Only is where the story began. For a first novel - although Abnett had previously done successful work in comics - this is a remarkably polished effort, with a superbly-executed structure as the main story thunders forward, interspersed with brief flashback interludes to key moments in the history of Gaunt and his unit. As a slice of military SF, this is top-notch stuff, with Abnett providing a reason for the carnage and using deft but not overdone characterisation to differentiate the various officers and grunts from one another and make the stakes in the battles clear. Military SF is a subgenre where it is remarkably easy to fall into cliche quite easily, but Abnett manages to avoid most of these issues and makes the few uses of standard military tropes - such as the unit's doctor who treats soldiers injured in battle willingly enough but refuses to fight himself - almost a welcome nod to a classic trope rather than anything too corny.
> 
> With a firm grasp of character and a superior ability to convey action (you can almost hear the bullets roaring overhead and feel the apprehension of troops stuck in foxholes), Abnett delivers a great, readable SF novel here and earns his comparisons to an SF Bernard Cornwell.
> 
> First and Only ( **** ) is a fast-paced, SF military thriller. It is not generally available by itself anymore, but is readily available as the first part of the omnibus volume The Founding (together with its two immediate successors, Ghostmaker and Necropolis), available now in the UK and USA. There are currently twelve novels in the Gaunt's Ghosts series with several more planned, along with three spin-off works and several related Warhammer 40,000 game accessories.


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## Rodders

Nice to see someone else read these books and give a favourable review. These are superb and i think Abnett deserves a lot more attention and respect than he gets. Necropolis is my favourite Werhead, i'm looking forward to seeing what you think of this one.


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## Rodders

For those that are into Dan Abnett. 

Interview: Dan Abnett | SciFiNow


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## Werthead

_*Gaunt's Ghosts 2: Ghostmaker*_



> The Liberation Crusade continues its push into the Sabbat Worlds, pushing the forces of Chaos back on every front. The Tanith First-and-Only are deployed to Monthax, a jungle world which reminds the Tanith forces of their lost homeworld. As the battles there degenerate into a long, drawn-out stalemate the troopers known as Gaunt's Ghosts find themselves recalling the battles of the past even as a mysterious presence in the deep jungles decides to use the human forces for their own ends...
> 
> Ghostmaker, the second novel in the Gaunt's Ghosts series, is an interesting book with a slightly odd structure. The first two-thirds or so of the book consist of short stories flashing back to key moments in the histories of individual soldiers within the Tanith First and also the unit as a whole, from Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt downwards in the rank structure. These short stories are varied in nature and tone, but are all pretty good in quality, mixing humour, tragedy and action with some interesting character-development. Several key Ghost characters were developed in the first book but here Abnett is able to portray several more in detail, explaining some interesting backstory moments which illuminate their action in this and the subsequent book. Abnett also makes greater use of the greater Warhammer 40,000 universe (again, no foreknowledge of the setting is required to enjoy this novel), throwing in some appearances by the orks and eldar to spice things up a bit.
> 
> The final third is a more traditional war story as the Tanith First engages the forces of Chaos in earnest on Monthax. It's a solid story with some good writing, but the book's odd structure does mean Abnett struggles a little here and there. In particular, he chooses to have the Imperial Guard join forces with an alien battle group to fend off a greater foe, a trope which various Warhammer 40,000 fiction writers tend to use when needed (rather a lot in the Dawn of War computer games) despite the fact that consorting with any aliens in the WH40K universe is pretty much considered a heresy under any circumstances in the game material. Abnett tries to justify it with the use of a new Inquisitor character trained for this very circumstance, but it's a little bit thin as a piece of story rationale.
> 
> Whilst not as strong as First and Only or its much more engrossing successor, the thunderous Necropolis (which is basically the Battle of Stalingrad of WH40K engagements), Ghostmaker ( ***-and-a-half ) shows ambition with the author trying something new rather than just another adventure for Gaunt and the boys, and for the most part pulls it off. The novel is out of print as a solo title, but is available as part of the first Gaunt's Ghosts omnibus, The Founding, in the UK and USA.


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## Werthead

_*Gaunt's Ghosts 3: Necropolis*_



> Supplying the vast armies of the Imperium with their weapons of war are the hive worlds, industrialised planets consisting of huge city-states called hives which churn out the hundreds of thousands of vehicles, millions of weapons and billions of munitions required for the Imperium to wage war on its foes. The individual hives on any one world are very competitive with one another, sometimes even to the point of open conflict.
> 
> On Verghast, the hive-states of Vervunhive and Ferrazoica, vital supply posts for the Sabbat Worlds Liberation Crusade forces, have long been bitter rivals, fighting a brief but bloody conflict called the Trade War ninety years earlier before settling down into an uneasy peace. When the Zoicans launch a surprise assault on Vervunhive, destroying its offensive army in the field and besieging the city, the hive's proud leaders are forced to call for aid from the Crusade fleet. As elements of the Imperial Guard arrive to reinforce the city, it becomes clear that this is more than just a small-scale planetary feud, and the Siege of Vervunhive will become one of the greatest and most legendary battles of the entire Crusade, especially for the Tanith First-and-Only and their commander, Gaunt.
> 
> Necropolis is the third novel in the Gaunt's Ghost sequence and, according to Abnett's introduction to the omnibus edition, is where he 'got it' in terms of what he could do with the Warhammer 40,000 universe and his characters. He's not kidding. The book opens in a rather unusual manner, with the first 50 pages (almost a full sixth of the book) taking place in Vervunhive as the war begins. We meet numerous characters, from city administrators to nobles to industry-workers to gang members, and see how their lives are thrown into tumult by the attack, and how the outnumbered defenders manage to hold off the enemy long enough for a few Imperial Guard regiments to reach them. This gives us a battery of different POV characters, including children, women and civilians (people not well-catered for by the first two books), who give us a very different viewpoint on the setting and world to that of the Guard or Space Marines who are the normal focus for WH40K fiction.
> 
> Needless to say, things kick off big time and Abnett unleashes what can only be called the closest science fiction has ever come to its own version of the Battle of Stalingrad. Vast armoured engagements and ferocious artillery bombardments precede a desperate battle for the city and its millions of inhabitants, with Gaunt and his Ghosts, but also numerous other, new characters, in the thick of the action.
> 
> Necropolis is, hands down, one of the best purely military SF novels I've ever read. Between the moments of carnage Abnett also delivers some solid character development for the likes of Gaunt, Rawne, Milo, Bragg and erstwhile antagonists like Gilbear and the other Bluebloods. The battles are violent and vivid, and those who have studied Stalingrad will find some interesting points of comparison in the desperate battles between men armed with just grenades and mines and heavily-armoured main battle tanks in industrial wastelands, tightly-packed streets and bombed-out commercial buildings. Abnett also makes some interesting points here about the sheer wastefulness of war, particularly in the maudlin ending, which is unusual in a military SF novel. The book manages to be based around an epic and violent battle without glorifying it, which is an impressive balancing act to achieve.
> 
> Necropolis (****½) is a thunderously readable, page-turning and smart military SF novel, available now in the UK and USA as part of the omnibus volume, The Founding.


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## Rodders

Great review Werthead. 

I have to say that this is my favourite Gaunts Ghost book and is definately up there among my favourite books full stop. It reminded me very much of Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising. 

Dan Abnett's definately note afraid to build up a great character that you can really sympathise with and then have him killed in a gruesome way that just makes you stop and say "oh". A great read and i'd recommend this to anyone.


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## Werthead

_*Gaunt's Ghosts 4: Honour Guard*_



> Following the epic Battle of Vervunhive and his impressive achievements during it, Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt's star has risen and he and his unit, the Tanith First and Only, are tasked with a glorious mission, liberating the shrineworld of Haiga, homeworld of the Saint Sabbat in whose name the entire Sabbat Worlds Crusade is being fought. Unfortunately, the final assault on the planet's major city goes awry and Gaunt finds himself disgraced and out of favour once more.
> 
> Gaunt now has only one chance to redeem himself: to travel through enemy-infested countryside and mountains to the Shrinehold of Saint Sabbat and evacuate her relics and remains safely from the planet. For the Ghosts and their allies, the Pardu tank regiment, this will turn out to be one of their most dangerous and desperate missions...
> 
> Honour Guard is the fourth novel in the Gaunt's Ghosts series and the first in its second 'story arc'. The action picks up a few months after Necropolis and sees the Tanith First and Only bolstered by new recruits from the scratch companies who defended Vervunhive so bravely during the battle there. This leads to a minor storyline where the fresh Vervunhive troops find themselves trying to integrate with the older, more established Tanith troops with mixed results. The main focus is on the road trip mission, however, with Abnett deciding to base each novel in this arc around a different kind of military mission (the book following this one, The Guns of Tanith, is an airborne drop, for example) to keep things fresh. Another of Abnett's decisions is to focus on large-scaled armoured action, with massive tank battles the order of the day here, although the Ghosts are still right in the thick of the action.
> 
> What sets the Gaunt's Ghosts books apart from most military SF is the characterisation, with a number of well-drawn central characters and many supporting ones whom Abnett is only able to paint briefly, but still come across as fully-rounded figures. With this fourth book Abnett is also showing increasing proficiency at inverting or dismissing cliches, with Commissar Hark a notable new character whose motivations and goals are not quite as clear-cut as they first appear. Most startling, however, is this book's focus on spirituality. The Warhammer 40,000 setting's religion - which sees the immortal Emperor venerated as a god and his greatest generals and tacticians as saints - is pretty ludicrous, but here Abnett makes it work. For the first time the reasons for the colossal scale of the Sabbat Worlds Crusade become clear, and we get a better appreciation of Gaunt and his own sense of faith.
> 
> Honour Guard (****) is well-written, briskly-paced, well-characterised and brings some new tricks to the Gaunt's Ghosts series, showing that Abnett is not resting on his laurels. The book is perhaps not quite as gripping as Necropolis, but is still a solidly entertaining slice of military SF. The book is available as part of The Saint omnibus, in the UK and USA.


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## Werthead

*Gaunt's Ghosts 5: The Guns of Tanith*



> The Sabbat Worlds Crusade's proud advance into enemy territory has overreached itself and is now under a vicious and determined counter-offensive. Gaunt and his troops are redeployed to the industrial world of Phantine, where the surface has been lost under a seething fog of chemical poison, leaving the remaining cities and vapour mills clinging to the tops of tall mesas and mountains. The survival of the Crusade now depends on Phantine and several other fuelling worlds being liberated to open new supply lines to the fleet.
> 
> The lack of usable surface area on the planet rules out a conventional mechanised assault, leaving only one option to take the vital settlements of Cirenholm and Ouranberg: a massive airborne assault, something the Ghosts have never done before. As they prepare for battle, the murder of a civilian, apparently by a Ghost, unleashes a storm of suspicion and dissent within their ranks which Gaunt must quickly resolve before it damages their morale.
> 
> The Guns of Tanith is where the Gaunt's Ghosts series takes a much darker turn. Whilst we've lost a few minor characters along the way, this is where major, fan-favourite characters start biting the dust and an insidious presence makes itself known amongst their ranks. The Ghosts now have an enemy within and the twists and turns the plot goes through before revealing who it is are impressive. The final few pages of the book are a truly heinous gut-punch of a twist that will leave the reader fuming and shocked.
> 
> However, that is the subplot. The main story is about the two airborne assaults. The first is a full-on, all-out attack whilst the second is an infiltration making use of the Tanith's specialised stealth capabilities (the first time they've actually been used properly). Whilst Abnett makes a good job of differentiating the two battles as much as possible, there remains a feeling of repetitiveness. The secondary guest characters are less memorable this time around as well, with the sole exception of the eccentric Van Voytz, Gaunt's new commanding officer who manages to be an effective general and appreciates the Ghosts' abilities despite being also somewhat bonkers.
> 
> The book's weaknesses are more than made up for by the excellent twist that the new internal threat to the unit presents and also some crowd-pleasing moments in the book's finale (such as one where a character is invited to look under a table).
> 
> The Guns of Tanith (****) is where we start to say goodbye to some of the series' longest-established characters and where events take a darker and more interesting turn. The book is available now as part of The Saint omnibus in the UK and USA.


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## Werthead

*Gaunt's  Ghosts 6: Straight Silver*



> Decades ago the forces of Chaos overran and conquered the Sabbat Worlds,  a star cluster of over one hundred inhabited planets which had been won  for the Imperium six millennia previously by Saint Sabbat, a formidable  general. One of the few worlds not to fall outright was Aexe Cardinal,  too marginal for even the endless legions of the Warp to waste time  attacking. Instead, a local, ambitious nation was reinforced and induced  to attack its neighbours, unleashing a horrendous trench war the likes  of which humanity has not seen in thousands of years.
> 
> With  the Crusade forces now trying to push back a determined Chaos  counter-assault, several detachments of Imperial Guard have been  dispatched to secure Aexe Cardinal and its resources. Gaunt and the  Tanith 1st are sent in to break the stalemate. Unfortunately for Gaunt,  he remains unaware that his unit is harbouring a traitor and murderer...
> 
> The *Gaunt's Ghosts*  series reaches its sixth volume and shows little sign of running out of  speed. Just as we were getting used to the 'rules' of this series,  Abnett decided to shake them up in the last two books by introducing  some bad apples to the Ghosts and killing off one reasonably major  character, as well as varying the war scenes by switching to an airborne  drop in _The Guns of Tanith_ and a running road battle in _Honour Guard_. In _Straight Silver_  he switches to a gruelling trench war reminiscent of WWI with the two  sides happy to lob shells at one another and occasionally try a futile  trench-rush. By invoking images of the Somme and Passchendaele Abnett  does a good job of getting across the horrendous futility of pointless  war, with even the battle-weary Ghosts shocked by the state of the  conflict and determined to help break the deadlock.
> 
> This leads to  a two-pronged storyline, as one detachment of Ghosts scouts a forest  for signs of enemy infiltration and ends up besieged in a farmhouse  whilst another goes on a _Dirty Dozen_-style  trip behind enemy lines to locate and destroy an artillery detachment.  It has to be said that compared to the epic, conflict-ending struggles  the Tanith has been involved with previously, these feel like sideshows,  but this is deliberate. The Tanith aren't always the unit that turns  the tide of a war, and after forty years of conflict such an outcome  would have been particularly unrealistic here. Instead, Abnett focuses  on the characterisation, particularly of the increasingly loathsome Cuu  and his feud with the Ghosts' ace sniper Larkin. Whilst also developing  the newer Varghast troops he also switches the spotlight on some older  Ghosts who have not featured centrally in the past, such as Feygor and  Mkvenner, to good effect.
> 
> The end of the book is a surprise. The  Ghosts are abruptly summoned on a new mission and we are left on a minor  cliffhanger, for the first time in the series. The Ghosts have a new  mission, one potentially that could win them the entire Crusade, on  Herodor...
> 
> _Straight Silver_ (****) is another solidly entertaining instalment in a reliably entertaining series. It is available now in the UK and USA as part of _The Saint_ omnibus


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## Werthead

*Gaunt's Ghosts 7: Sabbat Martyr*



> AD 40,773. The Crusade hangs by a thread. Warmaster Macaroth's main forces are bogged down in a devastating conflict on the fortress world of Morlond, exposing the Khan system on his flank to a decisive Chaos counter-offensive. If successful, this offensive will destroy Macaroth's line of supply and surround him. Gaunt and the Tanith First and Only are hastily redeployed to Herodor, second world of the Khan system, to meet the renewed Chaos thrust. On Herodor Gaunt is confronted by nothing less than a miracle, a turn of fate which could save the Crusade from disaster: the apparent reincarnation of Saint Sabbat herself. But this turn of events is timely and convenient, maybe too convenient...
> 
> In Sabbat Martyr a number of storylines that Abnett set in motion as far back as Honour Guard climax. In that earlier novel we learned a lot more about the religious basis of the Crusade and Gaunt's own spirituality and religious conviction, something that comes full circle here when Gaunt's faith is by turns battered and reinforced. That book also marked the beginning of various sub-plots involving Ghosts such as Larkin, Cuu, Milo, Kolea and Soric which reach their conclusions in this volume, giving the book a more epic and decisive feel than some of the more recent volumes. If Gaunt's Ghosts were a TV series, this would be the big season finale.
> 
> Abnett mostly does a good job of juggling various long-standing plotlines with the book's own internal story, the battle for the city of Civitas Beati. In keeping with the recent trend to give each battle its own distinctive shape and atmosphere, Abnett deliberately makes Civitas Beati a wide-open, near-indefensible position to contrast to the earlier city fighting in Necropolis, which took place in a formidable and near-impregnable fortress-city. Here the fighting is believably chaotic and confused.
> 
> This book is also notable for giving us a deeper look at the inner ranks of the enemy. Whilst previous books have briefly featured the various Chaos warlords, their minions and their reactions to the Ghosts' activities, this is the first one where they have a reasonable amount of page-time, with particular attention focused on the nine assassins and their various battles with members of the Ghosts. Whilst a nice idea, it is a little bit undersold in this book. There's simply way too much going on to properly introduce nine badass assassins, give them all a decent level of description and background and then set them against the Ghosts in various engagements in the 250-odd page count. As such this storyline is unfortunately rushed.
> 
> More satisfying are the resolutions to long-standing storylines. The enemy within the Ghosts is finally flushed out, other characters reach their destinies and we have the biggest and most shocking death in the series to date. This book feels like the end of an era in the series, with the book's ending setting up an apparent new and bloodier phase of the war.
> 
> Sabbat Martyr (****) brings the 'Saint' arc to an enjoyable conclusion and ensures that things will never be the same again for Gaunt and his troops. The book is available now as part of The Saint omnibus in both the UK and USA.


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## Werthead

*Gaunt's  Ghosts 8: Traitor General*



> Gereon, a Chaos-held planet in the Sabbat Worlds that has been under  total enemy occupation for years. The local resistance forces, their  hopes for liberation ebbing, are overjoyed when Ibram Gaunt arrives on  Gereon, but less so when it is revealed that he only has a dozen  troopers with him, and their mission is not liberation, but the  assassination of a traitor...
> 
> Over the course of the *Gaunt's Ghosts*  series, Dan Abnett has toyed with and tested the limits of what he can  do with these books several times, but has generally remained close to  the core line that he must deliver a large-scale war story every time  out. In _Traitor General_, the eighth book in the series and the opening of _The Lost_ story arc (which spans four volumes), he goes for a somewhat different approach.
> 
> Gaunt  and his team are deep undercover and must employ stealth, misdirection  and hiding to achieve what they normally would using force. That  wouldn't be so much of a problem except that the world they are  operating on has been occupied by Chaos for years, with the result that  the entire planet is tainted, a taint that starts seeping into Gaunt and  his team. This causes increasingly odd behaviour as their perceptions  of reality and what is right and wrong begin to change. This also means  that the enemy forces on Gereon have some extremely powerful forces to  call upon that normally would be not be able to manifest, such as the  formidable and extremely weird wirehounds and glyfs, both concepts that  feel like they've dropped out of a China Mieville novel. In short, _Traitor General_ is where Abnett gets his weird freak on and pulls it off well.
> 
> Of course, _Traitor General_  has its requisite amount of action, including a memorable sequence  where the ten Guardsmen (and two Guardswomen) have to face off against  five Chaos Space Marines in a swamp village (very long odds indeed), or a  running battle between rebels and occupation forces in a town. Abnett  also continues his welcome tendency of using each new book to highlight a  hitherto under-developed Ghost and bring some development and focus to  them. In this book it's Brostin, the team's resident  flamethrower-operator and pyromaniac, who gets his turn in the  spotlight, though Gaunt's nemesis Rawne also continues to develop away  from the thinly-veiled antagonist of earlier books into a more rounded  character in his own right.
> 
> We also get a deeper look inside the  Chaos camp as well. For many of the preceding volumes Chaos has been  equated with pure evil and its ranks shown to consist almost solely of  crazed cultists and suicidal warriors, though there have been hints here  and there of other things going on (particularly with the Blood Pact,  the enemy army's elite troops). In this book we get a much better look  at how the Archenemy of Mankind operates and discover some amusing  parallels to the Crusade's own political machinations and in-fighting.  Abnett also starts embracing the more whimsical and surreal nature of *Warhammer 40,000*  humour, something he'd previously steered clear of (presumably for  tonal reasons), and marries it to the more traditional dark humour of  the books very well. I'm hoping Humiliti and his unnecessarily pedantic  transcribing ways return in future books.
> 
> _Traitor General _(****½) sees Abnett doing something new, weirder and more interesting with the *Gaunt's Ghosts*  series and pulling it off admirably, resulting in one of the very best  books in the series so far. The novel is available now as part of _The Lost_ omnibus in the UK and USA.


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## Rodders

I loved this book and would rate it with Necropolis. In fact, this entire story-arc had me gripped for the entire 1000 omnibus.


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## Werthead

*Gaunt's  Ghosts 9: His Last Command*



> The Sabbat Worlds Crusade has moved on to the world of Ancreon Sextus,  where Chaos forces have dug in and fortified the planet's vast, ancient  steppe-cities. Returning from his horrific mission to Gereon,  Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt discovers that his beloved regiment, the  Tanith 1st, has been reassigned to another officer and he is to return  to commissariat duties. However, Gaunt discovers his new task is  especially difficult and thankless, not helped by zealous members of the  Inquisition who believe that Gaunt may have been tainted during his  time on Gereon...
> 
> _His Last Command_ continues the 'Lost' arc of the *Gaunt's Ghosts* series and shows that Abnett is now paying greater attention to continuity than ever before. During the events of _Traitor General _Gaunt  and his team were infiltrated onto a Chaos-held world and had to carry  out a very difficult mission. Whilst that was accomplished, the  hoped-for extraction never took place and Gaunt and his crew were  abandoned on the planet for sixteen months before they could escape  under their own power. The result is a rift sewn deep into the ranks of  the Ghosts, with the Gereon survivors suffering from various  post-traumatic battle stresses, not to mention a form of elitism that  comes from their experience that their fellows haven't also shared in.  This is an obvious, but still very effective, way of shaking up the  Ghosts and severely denting the familial and sentimental feelings that  have been building up over the previous eight books. Returning Gaunt to  commissar duties and giving the regiment to another commander is also a  solid way of introducing fresh conflict to the series, although Abnett  carefully avoids cliche by ensuring the new commander is actually an  effective and reasonable officer.
> 
> The result is a book seething  with tension, as the Ghosts are divided by their differing experiences,  as Gaunt is at odds with the Inquisition and superior officers over  their lack of support during their previous mission, and as the various  units differ on how to tackle the unique geography of the planet's  steppe-cities. These cities are immense mesas divided into  'compartments' by vast walls, with each compartment featuring radically  different terrain and weather to its neighbours. Because the  steppe-cities were apparently raised as religious monuments to the  God-Emperor of Mankind ten thousand years previously, the Crusade can't  simply level them from orbit, meaning they have to be taken the  old-fashioned way.
> 
> The steppe-cities are an interesting creation,  as good a Big Dumb Object concept as anything in a Greg Bear novel,  even if the revelation of their eventual purpose is a little ordinary  (although the Imperial reaction to it is hilariously over-the-top). The  battle scenes are still robustly-handled, but this novel continues the  path from the previous one of focusing more on the internal tribulations  of the Ghosts as a team and as individuals, and this added depth  continues to be very welcome.
> 
> With _His Last Command _(****)  Abnett continues to test and play with the limitations of what can be  done with tie-in fiction in a manner that is both entertaining and  refreshing. The novel lacks the compelling focus and weirdness of _Traitor General_, but is otherwise a fine addition to the series. It is available as part of _The Lost_ omnibus in the UK and USA.


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## Werthead

*Gaunt's  Ghosts 10: The Armour of Contempt*



> The Crusade armies have identified their next target: the Chaos-held  world of Gereon. Ibram Gaunt and a dozen of his best troops spent a year  and a half on Gereon fighting the archenemy, and the Ghosts are in the  vanguard of the liberation effort. Unfortunately, as the battle for  Gereon rages on an apocalyptic scale, Gaunt gradually learns there are  extenuating reasons for this invasion, reasons that are related to his  prior mission to the planet...
> 
> _The Armour of Contempt_ is the tenth *Gaunt's Ghosts*  novel (of the twelve currently available) and the third book in the  'Lost' arc. The novel initially appears to have been written as a  fan-pleasing move: having been through hell and back during the previous  small-scale, stealth mission to Gereon, Gaunt gets to return with  several hundred thousand troops of the Imperial Guard, vast numbers of  tanks and aircraft and several Titans (skyscraper-sized battlemechs with  enough firepower to level a city with a single salvo) to dish out some  much-needed retribution to the occupiers. Of course, that would be far  too obvious and much too boring to make for an interesting book.  Instead, the novel is divided into two mostly-separate narratives which  have different objectives.
> 
> In the first, Dalin Criid undergoes Imperial Guard training. Rescued from Vervunhive as a ten-year-old back in the third novel, _Necropolis_,  Dalin is now eighteen and spoiling to join the ranks of the Ghosts.  Unfortunately, as a trainee he is serving as part of the military  reserve and when the assault on Gereon begins, he finds his reserve  status activated and himself fighting as part of an ad-hoc-assembled  military unit stuffed full of rookies, rather than with the Ghosts. This  gives Abnett a chance to show us what it's like as part of a  full-scale, combined-arms offensive in the *WH40K* universe rather than the standard *Gaunt's Ghosts*  narrative about smaller-scaled conflicts with stealth and infiltration  elements, as well as a chance to dish out more information and  background on Guard training. This narrative unfolds fairly concisely  with a focus on how Dalin handles the ridiculous pressures put on his  shoulders and those of his unit. It's entertaining, but perhaps a little  too straightforward after some of the more intriguing curve-balls  thrown our way in the last few novels.
> 
> In the second narrative,  Gaunt has to reacquaint himself with the Gereon resistance and the  troops he left behind last time around. This storyline is more of a  gut-punch, as Gaunt discovers just how badly he's been used by both his  supposed friends and by his enemies, with the people of Gereon left to  pay the price. This is a pretty grim story which doesn't have much of a  happy ending, especially as it emphasises Gaunt's flaws (an Imperial  commissar _really_ should have  seen the ending coming) instead of his virtues, something that is always  welcome as it would be extremely easy for Abnett to allow Gaunt to  become a flawless hero.
> 
> The two  narratives unfold reasonably well together, although the linking device  is a little bit corny. This book features the death of another prominent  Ghost, but it is foreshadowed so much that it lacks any kind of real  impact, which is a shame given the story points Abnett had set up in  previous novels to support it.​
> Despite this minor weakness, _The Armour of Contempt_  (****) is another strong entry in the series, with an different (but  effective) structure to the rest of the novels. The book is available  now in the UK and USA as part of _The Lost_ omnibus.


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## Werthead

*Gaunt's  Ghosts 11: Only in Death*



> The war in the Sabbat Worlds wages on. The Ghosts have been deployed to  Jago with orders to hold the remote mountain fortress of Hinzerhaus  against a possible enemy flanking maneuver. Arriving at the massive  redoubt, the Ghosts find a vast house hiding ancient secrets and  inhabited by some old friends. As the forces of Chaos mount an assault  on Hinzerhaus, the Ghosts discover that a far greater threat than the  exterior enemy may lurk in the bowels of the fortress.
> 
> _Only in Death_ brings the 'Lost' arc of the *Gaunt's Ghosts* series to a conclusion, and the series almost up to date (one further novel, _Blood Pact_,  beginning the 'Victory' arc, has since been published). Abnett's policy  in the last few books in the series has been to shake up the format and  introduce some weirder and more oddball elements, and this continues in  _Only in Death_. In short, this  book overlays a horror narrative over the more familiar scenes of  military action, employing both supernatural and psychological elements  to really get under the characters' skins.
> 
> At the same time  Abnett continues his policy of using each book to flesh out characters,  bringing new Junior Commissar Ludd and Commissar Hark under the  spotlight and dropping Gaunt into the background. The novel's  supernatural overtones also allow for some clever moments for character  exploration and growth (Larkin hallucinating about the long-dead Bragg  and Cuu battling over his soul features some nice call-backs to previous  books and explores more of Larkin's post-Gereon personality).
> 
> Of  course, the action is not neglected, but this time around it's a lot  more brutal. Previous novels have seen the Ghosts achieve their  objectives with minimal-to-acceptable losses, but _Only in Death_  is nasty, wiping out entire platoons without breaking stride. The end  of the novel is ambiguous, with the Ghosts surviving (probably not too  devastating a spoiler) but badly broken and bloodied. How they recover  from this devastating battle remains to be seen, and will hopefully be  explored further in the succeeding 'Victory' arc.
> 
> Unfortunately,  the book does suffer a little from cheesiness (this series, being  military SF set in an ongoing franchise, does occasionally bump into the  cheese but generally does a good job of steering around it) as two  Ghosts go off on a badass solo mission where they eliminate vast swathes  of the enemy single-handed. Abnett sells it as well as he can, but it's  somewhat corny, especially when you realise he has retreated from the  tantalising possibility of doing something truly shocking in the series.
> 
> That said, the novel's ending repairs some of the damage as we get a well-foreshadowed explanation for the weirdness (well, _some_ of it, anyway) and a scene which is genuinely powerful, bringing the novel, the arc and the _Lost _omnibus to a fine conclusion.
> 
> _Only in Death_  (****) is a dark, bloody, weird and satisfying entry to the series,  despite the tonally dubious 'two soldiers against the world' subplot in  its latter part. The novel is available now as part of _The Lost_ omnibus in the UK and USA.


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## Rodders

I found the end (the final, bitter end) to be very sad. The imperium is a cruel place indeed.

Overall, you've got to be pretty impressed that an author has written 11 books of a single story arc and i don't think that any have been below four stars. That's a major thing IMO.


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## Werthead

*Gaunt's Ghosts 12: Blood Pact*



> Two years have passed since the ferocious battle for Hinzerhaus Fortress on Jago. The Tanith First and Only won a famous victory, but only at a horrendous cost in lives. Battered and bleeding, the Tanith First finally won a respite, being rotated back to sector HQ on Balhaut for a well-earned rest after ten years on the front lines.
> 
> However, two years of inaction has led to problems with discipline, training and morale. In the midst of these problems, Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt is summoned to a clandestine meeting. An agent of the archenemy has been taken prisoner and wants to give up valuable intelligence...but the Blood Pact have been sent to silence him by any means necessary.
> 
> Blood Pact is the twelfth novel in the Gaunt's Ghosts series and marks the beginning of the fourth distinct story arc in the series, "The Victory". The opening of the book feels like Dan Abnett is taking a deep breath after the mayhem of the previous novels, which featured some of the bloodiest and most frenzied battles in the series to date, but it's not too long before the action kicks in again. Blood Pact is a short novel taking place over one single night and morning of carnage as the Blood Pact - the Ghosts' sworn rivals - arrive to carry out a suicide assassination task, succeed in splitting up the Ghosts and also take advantage of internal divisions as the Ghosts find themselves still under suspicion from the Inquisition about their mission to the Chaos-tainted world of Gereon years earlier.
> 
> As usual with a Gaunt's Ghosts novel, the pace is blistering, the action is superbly-handled and the characterisation shines. Gaunt's return to the world where he lost his former command but gained a new one adds new shades to his character. Background Ghosts nicely come to the fore, such as Maggs, whilst we touch base with a few key Ghosts who've been lower in profile in the preceding books. However, Blood Pact does feel like a lesser entry in the series. Perhaps it's due to the increasing frequency between novels (Blood Pact was released in 2009 and one more book, Salvation's Reach, in 2011 with nothing since), but Blood Pact feels a little like too much set-up at a moment in the series when it feels like it should be perhaps more decisively moving towards a conclusion. This can be seen in the fact that while a few key characters get a lot of time in the sun, numerous other Ghosts (including many who played key roles in the preceding few books) suddenly drop into the background. If Gaunt's Ghosts was a TV series (and we can but hope), this is the relatively low-key opening to a new season which is reacquainting you with all the characters before the big storylines kick in.
> 
> On that basis, Blood Pact (***½) does a good job of setting up its immediate sequel, Salvation Reach, and tells a rollicking good action story. Not one of the best books in the series, but still an effortlessly enjoyable slice of military SF from the best author in the subgenre. If you want to read the book, Blood Pact is currently only available as an ebook from the Black Library direct. However, the entire series is being rolled out in new editions, so it should be back in paperback in a few months.


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## BAYLOR

It's some of the best military science fiction ive ever read


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## Werthead

*Gaunt's Ghosts 13: Salvation's Reach*



> The Tanith First and Only, the Ghosts, have been newly-reinforced by fresh troops from Belladon and Verghast and are preparing for their most audacious operation yet. Using intelligence gained at great cost from a Chaos prisoner, the Imperium has located Salvation Reach, a top-secret research facility for the Sons of Sek, their most tenacious foe in the Sabbat Worlds Crusade. The Ghosts and several powerful allies having to mount a spaceborne assault on the facility, a single surgical strike which may decide the fate of the entire Crusade.
> 
> Salvation's Reach is the thirteenth novel in the Gaunt's Ghosts series (and the second in the "Victory" arc) and marks a new phase in the massive conflict known as the Sabbat Worlds Crusade. The Ghosts aren't taking on an enemy head-on, but are instead manufacturing division in the enemy's ranks, trying to turn the Blood Pact and the Sons of Sek against one another so the Crusade can take advantage of the division and secure victory. It's a difficult, ugly mission and one that most Imperium forces wouldn't be able to handle, but for the clandestine Ghosts it's a task more suited to their talents.
> 
> The previous book in the series, Blood Pact, was good but atypical for the series, focusing more on a much smaller-scale conflict. Salvation's Reach is a return to mass engagements, but in a different context, with the Ghosts have to take part in hostile boarding action on a space habitat hidden deep inside an asteroid. Along the way they have to take part in an absolutely massive space battle (which will have Battlefleet Gothic fans cheering), deal with a shapeshifting Chaos assassin and negotiate - delicately - with the three Space Marines assigned to help them with the mission.
> 
> The action side of things is, as usual, well-handled with the requisite fighting, brave last stands and tactical discussions all being quite good. However, the heart and soul of the series has been Abnett's handling of the characters, from Ibram Gaunt all the way down to the lowliest, greenest new recruit in the Ghosts' ranks. The character arcs are uniformly handled superbly, with several slow-burning story arcs extending across the series coming to startling climaxes in this book (with several callbacks to Necropolis, still arguably the best book in the series and certainly so far the most important). Several beloved characters bite the dust, but more impressive is the way character relationships are developed. The best scene in the book is where a stoic and merciless Space Marine solves one trooper's long-standing medical problem in one swift action and restores his life and military career (previously thought over) to him, without ever breaking character or the tone of the series.
> 
> On the negative side of things, there's a few cliches I could have done without (such as hitherto unknown family members showing up unexpectedly), but otherwise Salvation's Reach (****½) is a gripping, excellently-executed science fantasy war novel with a brilliant line in characterisation. It is available now (alongside Blood Pact) in The Victory: Part 1 omnibus (UK, USA).


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## Rodders

Nice review Werthead. I’ll be sure to add this to my wish list.


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## Werthead

*Gaunt's Ghosts 14: The Warmaster*



> The Tanith First have completed a near-impossible strike mission to the remote enemy outpost of Salvation's Reach. As well as stealing a vast amount of intelligence material from the enemy, their attack has triggered an internal conflict within the Chaos armies between Sek and Gaur, allowing the Crusade to reach new levels of success. But a warp mistranslation on the way home throws the First into a dire new battle, as Gaunt and his team have to face a desperate Sek in battle on the forge world of Urdesh, and face a renewed threat from within the Crusade's own leadership.
> 
> The Warmaster is the fourteenth novel in the Gaunt's Ghosts series and the penultimate volume in the "Victory" arc. It was also released after an unprecedented five-year publishing gap in the series, the result of internal realignments within the Black Library and Games Workshop.
> 
> As a result, the book takes a little while to rev up to speed, with a somewhat disjointed narrative that attempts a lot of ideas - the Ghosts being shipwrecked in deep space, visited by Chaos horrors and suddenly in the thick of urban warfare and political intrigue on Urdesh - before the story comes together.
> 
> When it does, the results are impressive. We are fourteen books into this series now and we've never even met the guy in charge of the entire operation, and in fact (as Abnett's Sabbat Worlds Crusade companion book makes clear) the Ghosts have been operating on the fringes of the main war effort. Their actions have occasionally been decisive and even affected the main course of the war here and there, but only to a small degree. That revelation gives a real sense of scale to the war - in which tens of thousands of Imperial starships are carrying hundreds of millions of Imperial Guard troops, millions of support vehicles, thousands of Space Marines and hundreds, if not thousands, of skyscraper-sized Titans into battle across dozens of star systems simultaneously - which is remarkable. The Warmaster does a good job of pivoting the action, so suddenly the Ghosts and Gaunt are right in the middle of the key decisions being made for the entire war effort.
> 
> Abnett's key gifts are characterisation - finding ways of differentiating the two dozen or so characters of import within the Ghosts, plus various recurring side-characters - and action. He makes you care about the characters and their stakes. Like Bernard Cornwell before him (as tired as the "Sharpe/Uhtred in Space" comparisons are, they remain somewhat apt), he paints these soldiers as individuals with their own strengths, weaknesses and quirks, and makes you care about what happens to them (even the cowards and malcontents). That continues through The Warmaster, with an astonishing array of subplots being furthered in a remarkably constrained page count.
> 
> The Warmaster (****) does a good job of bringing together plot threads from the previous books in the series and making it feel like the war has reached a decisive turning point. The temptation to carry on this series forever must be strong, but in this book it does feel like the end of the Crusade is starting to lurch into view. On the minus side, aside from the slightly choppy opening, the ending to the book does feel a bit perfunctory for a Gaunt's Ghosts novel, although the reasons for this become clearer in the following book (Anarch), which is less of a successor and more of a direct continuation of this novel. No five-year wait this time for the next part of the story, fortunately. The book is available now in the UK and USA.


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## Rodders

Nice review, Werthead. Another one for the to be read pile.


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## Werthead

*Gaunt's Ghosts 15: Anarch*



> Ibram Gaunt is now the First Lord Executor of the Sabbat Worlds Crusade, the adjunct of Warmaster Macaroth. His unit, the Tanith First and Only, is now among the elite forces defending the forge world of Urdesh from the invading Chaos troops under the command of Anarch Anakwanar Sek. Urdesh has become the crucible for the entire war, with both Macaroth and Sek in-theatre and determined that only one will walk away. But the battle for Urdesh marks another flashpoint, the awakening of a threat that has been growing within Gaunt's own ranks for decades...
> 
> I imagine the pitch meeting for Anarch went a bit like this:
> 
> "You know the Red Wedding from Game of Thrones?"
> "Indeed."
> "How about that, but..." *leans forwards* "...as an entire novel?"
> "Ooh."
> 
> Anarch is a book that takes absolutely no prisoners, preferring to slice them into a thousand pieces of screaming blade death instead. The fifteenth Gaunt's Ghosts novel and the concluding book in the "Victory" arc takes a whole host of character arcs, subplots and storylines that have been percolating across the entire series (a long time; the first novel, First and Only, was published twenty years ago) and sets about tying them off with utterly ruthless, remorseless efficiency.
> 
> The story unfolds on several fronts. In the first, one of the First's most veteran soldiers, Mkoll, has been taken prisoner by the Archenemy and subjected to interrogation. This storyline follows Mkoll as he endures the trials of captivity and tries to find a method of escape. In another, enemy troops who infiltrated the capital of Urdesh in the previous novel, The Warmaster (to which this is less of a successor and more of a direct continuation) set about attacking Imperial forces whilst a special, elite unit tries to steal back the vital artefacts seized in Salvation's Reach. Different companies of the First have to blunt both attacks, which is where we get a lot of "classic" Ghosts action: last-ditch plans with little chance of success, heroic holding actions, brave last stands, improvised defences etc. This is all stirring stuff, although the body count is higher than some may be expecting.
> 
> Where the book goes cheerfully nuts is in the supposedly impregnable Imperial compound itself, when Abnett reveals a hitherto unknown talent for full-on, Event Horizon levels of body and existential horror. Not only is the battle in the undercroft of the palace utterly horrific and surprisingly visceral, but it's also ruthless on a scale we've not seen before in this series. Gaunt's Ghosts has occasionally played into the long-running military series cliche of killing off barely-named recruits and background soldiers whilst major players live to see another, lucrative day, with the occasional major death to keep things fresh. Anarch cheerfully says to hell with that and starts scything down major, long-running characters with at times almost wild abandon.
> 
> Killing characters for the sake of it can be rather pointless, but here Abnett gives almost each death meaning and resonance, concluding storylines stretching back as far as the first novel but particularly from the third, Necropolis (to the point where a re-read of Necropolis, or at least reading through a detailed plot summary, may be advisable to refresh the memory). Not only do some old favourites bite the bullet in this book, but some other characters, long missing on side-adventures, reappear and rejoin the team in this novel, which at least helps balance things out. Still, things will never be the same again for the Ghosts after this book, always a relief in a long-running series where the temptation to not shake things up and keep playing it safe must be strong.
> 
> Anarch (****½) is one of the finest novels in the entire Gaunt's Ghosts series, being atmospheric, foreboding, horrific and fantastically-written, as well as featuring Abnett's signature excellent action set-pieces and strong characterisation. It brings the entire series to a climax but not a conclusion; the Crusade is not yet victorious and more battles lie ahead. Abnett is busy helping finish off the Horus Heresy mega-series and then his own Bequin trilogy, so it may be a few years before we rejoin the Ghosts, but Anarch leaves the series on a fine - if bittersweet - note. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.


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## Werthead

*The Sabbat Worlds Crusade by Dan Abnett*



> On the 266th day of the 755th year of the 41st millennium, the Imperium of Man launched a full-scale invasion of the Sabbat Worlds: one hundred and sixty star systems with a combined a population of 17 trillion souls. Over the preceding two centuries, the region had fallen prey to the depredations of Chaos cultists and other followers of the Ruinous Powers. Over the course of the next thirty-seven years, the Sabbat Worlds Crusade would cost billions of lives but deliver trillions from the grip of the archenemy, through a combination of bold strategic ingenuity and desperate fighting on the ground, in the air and in space. A small but important role would be played by one company of the Imperial Guard in particular: the Tanith 1st, popularly known as "Gaunt's Ghosts." This is the story of the war on a grand scale.
> 
> For the past twenty years, Dan Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts series has been one of the most popular (and almost certainly the best) military SF series in the world. Its mix of effective characterisation and impressive military action has been highly compelling, effectively replicating the appeal of Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe novels but in the future, and in the Cthulhu-meets-Aliens milieu of the Warhammer 40,000 space fantasy setting. The Sabbat Worlds Crusade is the sub-setting for these books, effectively a corner of the wider 40K setting which Abnett has made his own, depicting a vast war on a mind-boggling scale.
> 
> Despite the detail and attention poured into that war, it has remained firmly in the background. Abnett has instead correctly focused on the events and characters up-front in the novels, making them compelling reads with the background material interesting but not essential to enjoying each book in turn. Over the years the background has gotten fleshed out, via two short story anthologies and a previous companion book published when the series was barely half its current length. This book is a reprinting of the previous companion volume but on a much grander scale, with all-new material on the latter half of the war bringing the story up to date as of the fifteen book in the series (Anarch).
> 
> The first thing to note is that this book is a thing of beauty. It is hefty, published on high-quality paper and features a colossal amount of high-quality artwork from the talented art department at Games Workshop. Some of the artwork is reprinted from previous book covers, but a lot of it is new, most notably a handsome (if somewhat stylised) fold-out map of the entire Sabbat Worlds region. The book also features a ribbon book mark and the pages are edged in gold, making it a handsome volume for your shelf without completely destroying your wallet.
> 
> The text is mostly a linear account of the war, opening with the causes of the conflict and the deep-seated historical background before focusing on the politicking of Warmaster Slaydo to get the war approved and underway. The opening stages of the war to the decisive battle at Balhaut are recounted in detail, before Slaydo's death and the rise of the far more mercurial and temperamental Warmaster Macaroth to replace him, which coincides with the rise of Ibram Gaunt and the Tanith First and Only, as recounted in the novels. The book then continues to outline the course of the war, through events readers of the main novel series will be familiar with and other battles that have never been mentioned in the books.
> 
> Something I was very impressed by is that Abnett doesn't fall into the common companion volume trap of making the book a redundant retelling of the events of the books. This is the very thing that Raymond E. Feist did in his Riftwar companion book, Midkemia: The Chronicles of Pug, neglecting previously unknown lore in favour of telling the reader a story they'd already read and making the entire project redundant. You've already read the novels, you don't need to read a summary of them again. Abnett instead focuses on other theatres of conflict and other battles, mentioning the Ghosts only in passing when their activities have a discernible impact on the overall course of the war, which is surprisingly limited. That's not to say the Ghosts are ignored though. Sidebars and chapters on weapons, vehicles and kit feature the Ghosts prominently, many of whom get their first official artistic depictions in this volume.
> 
> The writing is pretty solid, although your investment in it will depend on your enjoyment of detailed military accounts of completely fictional campaigns. There clearly isn't much character work going on here, Abnett relying on the reader's familiarity with the novels and a few sidebars fleshing out commanding figures in the campaign. There is some interesting stuff for future books though, with one account of a major aerial dogfight feeling like setup for Interceptor City (the much-delayed sequel to Double Eagle, Abnett's Battle of Britain-aping dogfight novel), and the final chapter setting up the next and final phase of the Crusade, the battles that will no doubt feature in the final arc of the Gaunt's Ghosts series, although that's still a few years off.
> 
> Amongst companion books, The Sabbat Worlds Crusade (****½) is very decent. It gives the reader lots of new information and puts the events they are familiar with in a new context. It provides setup for future books and features a lot of fantastic artwork. The production value of the book is exceptional and it certainly makes for a very impressive gift for a fan of the novels. Negatives are pretty minor: you're not going to get much out of this if you haven't read the novels (natch) and some may bemoan the lack of a further level of detail (like full orders of battle, although these can be found in the entries on the crusade in the various 40K wikis) or summaries of the novels (again, these can be found online). Some may also question the wisdom of publishing this volume now rather than when the series is fully complete, especially since only four to six novels appear to remain in Abnett's plan for the series.
> 
> The book is available now from the Black Library.


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## Overread

I love lore books and I've been tempted by the Sabbat Crusades book even though so far the only bit of the Gaunts Ghosts I've read is the short story in Inferno (original) that started them off all those years ago.


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## BAYLOR

Overread said:


> I love lore books and I've been tempted by the Sabbat Crusades book even though so far the only bit of the Gaunts Ghosts I've read is the short story in Inferno (original) that started them off all those years ago.



The first Warhammer  stories I read was the Eisenhorn Trilogy which a friend  kept recommending to me . So one day,  I  picked up the Eisenhorn  Trilogy of books with low expectations. I couldn't put it down , I quickly blames right through it.  Dan Abnett is one hell of a good writer !  I went on to read Ravenor which was equally good . Then I read the first Omnibus of Guants Ghost and I was hooked on this series too.   Overhead , my advice  is to get into this series , you won't regret it all.  Gaunt's Ghost is great military science  fiction.


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## Rodders

☝☝☝☝☝☝

What he said. Abnett’s writing is brilliant and he’s not adverse to killing off your favourite characters.

BTW. Nice review Werthead.


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## Vince W

BAYLOR said:


> The first Warhammer  stories I read was the Eisenhorn Trilogy which a friend  kept recommending to me . So one day,  I  picked up the Eisenhorn  Trilogy of books with low expectations. I couldn't put it down , I quickly blames right through it.  Dan Abnett is one hell of a good writer !  I went on to read Ravenor which was equally good . Then I read the first Omnibus of Guants Ghost and I was hooked on this series too.   Overhead , my advice  is to get into this series , you won't regret it all.  Gaunt's Ghost is great military science  fiction.


The first W40K books I read were by the lamentable Gav Thorpe. I almost gave up on them but decided to give Eisenhorn a try and was very impressed. As an Ultramarines player I tend to stick with books focusing on Adeptus Astartes of varying chapters but I keep meaning to give Gaunt's Ghosts a try. Maybe if I'm lucky enough to get some vouchers this year I'll pick one or two up.


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## Werthead

*Double Eagle by Dan Abnett*



> The liberation of the Sabbat Worlds is in full swing. The overextended Crusade invasion front is now under flank attacks, with the world of Enothis proving a pivotal flashpoint. With the war raging over a vast continent, the battles hinge on the forces of the Aeronautica Imperialis, the atmospheric fighter and bomber wings flown by the Imperial Navy and the Imperial Guard. The Phantine XX, fresh from their victory on their homeworld, are deployed to Enothis to help mount a last stand against the Archenemy.
> 
> Double Eagle is a spinoff from Dan Abnett's signature Gaunt's Ghosts series of science fantasy military adventures, in particular the fifth novel in the series, The Guns of Tanith. Fortunately, references to the events of that novel are slight and familiarity with that book, the Gaunt's Ghosts series in general or even the wider Warhammer 40,000 universe is not required to enjoy this novel.
> 
> Double Eagle is, basically, the Battle of Britain But With Lasers. Previous Warhammer 40,000 books largely focused on the ground war involving the human Imperial Guard and the genetically-engineered, superhuman Space Marines, with occasional nods to the armoured divisions and the space fleets, but this is the first book to really delve deep into the air force. Influences from World War II movies and books about the air war over Europe and the Pacific are clear, although (as is often the case with WH40K) there are sacrifices to realism in pursuit of the rule of cool. Despite being set an unfathomable 39,000 years in the future, the aircraft in use by both sides are far slower than, say an F-15 Strike Eagle and they seem to have less fuel than a Hurricane (given how curtailed dogfights are before someone has to bug out).
> 
> Once you accept that - and you have to if you want any hope of enjoying the many excellent stories in this setting - then you can kick back and enjoy the book. This is Dan Abnett doing what he does best: assembling a collection of flawed, relatable characters, putting them through the grinder of war and telling a great-action-packed page-turner in the process. Double Eagle starts a bit slower than many of his books - the result of a need to introduce a dozen or so major new characters (and reintroduce a couple of characters from The Guns of Tanith, which most readers may have forgotten about) rather than being able to pick up with a well-established cast from an ongoing series - but soon kicks into gear as we witness the air war for Enothis unfolding in its full glory.
> 
> In fact, I wondered if Abnett had made a bit of a mistake by having such a large cast and the need for each main character to have their own story arc, given the need to also depict the war in its full scope and explain the intricacies of air combat, all in a very tight page count. However, Abnett, as usual, delivers with aplomb. The widely-scattered characters and storylines converge satisfyingly at the end of the book for a major battle and most of the storylines are wrapped up quite satisfyingly
> 
> Double Eagle (****) won't be winning awards for originality, but it is Abnett delivering another perfectly-executed barrel roll of action, strong characters and addictive writing. In fact, Double Eagle scores more highly than much of his work because, being so independent of other series, it works very well as a stand-alone novel that can be used to sample his writing style and skill. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.
> 
> A sequel, Interceptor City, has been promised for fifteen years but is still a fair bit down on Abnett's schedule (as he is currently working on the Horus Heresy's concluding arc and on his third Inquisitor trilogy). However, Double Eagle does not end on a cliffhanger and can be enjoyed on its own merits.


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## BAYLOR

Vince W said:


> The first W40K books I read were by the lamentable Gav Thorpe. I almost gave up on them but decided to give Eisenhorn a try and was very impressed. As an Ultramarines player I tend to stick with books focusing on Adeptus Astartes of varying chapters but I keep meaning to give Gaunt's Ghosts a try. Maybe if I'm lucky enough to get some vouchers this year I'll pick one or two up.



Gaunts  Ghostsis among the best military science fction ive ever read.


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## Rodders

Werthead said:


> *Gaunt's Ghosts 12: Blood Pact*


I finished this today and wow, what a thrill ride. I felt the premise was similar to Traitor General, but just on the opposite side. Still, a hugely enjoyable book which reminded me just how great Dan's writing is. I think I might go back and reread the series.


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## Rodders

I've finished Salvations Reach, The Warmaster and am now onto Anarch. 

Some of the passages that Dan writes are just so exciting, I can feel my heart beating in my chest. Really great stuff.


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## BAYLOR

Rodders said:


> I've finished Salvations Reach, The Warmaster and am now onto Anarch.
> 
> Some of the passages that Dan writes are just so exciting, I can feel my heart beating in my chest. Really great stuff.



I woulds to see this on the big screen.


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## Rodders

As a result of reading the newer books in the series, i thought i'd have a re-read and i am not disappointed. Necropolis is still the stand out book, so far, but i remembered finding the books in "the Saint" omnibus a little slow when i first read them. On second reading, I thought the first half of Sabbat Martr was a little slow, but it picked up. I have very much enjoyed reading them all so far. 

Currently onto the Lost Omnibus starting with Traitor General. I remember these books to be an absolute thrill ride.

Werthead, it looks like Dan is taking a breather from the main story, but i have just received a copy of The Vincula Insurgency (A Gaunts Ghosts Dossier). I look forward to your review of it.


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