Review by Ian Braidwood
Cast of Characters:
Dathan, Hycilla, Gavalon the Great, Nimian,
Sathorael, Ragan Balberith, Orloc Melcarth, Ierus Fulba,
Nimian.
You can to a degree judge this book by its
cover. Adrian Smith's painting is an accurate depiction
of Gavalon the Great and some of his entourage, though
Sathorael isn't right.
As you scan the first lines of the narrative
you are drawn into a world of mostly callous, but
sometimes vindictive murder and mutilation, which I found
sickening at times. The world of Warhammer 40,000 is a
gaudy, gruesome world of lustful cruelty and carnage,
which is impossible to exaggerate. It is an adolescent
world where only the extreme will do. Where the contrast
and volume have been jammed wide open. Hyperbole rules!
If however, you were going to use the above
description to dismiss it as entirely worthless, you're
not in for as smooth a ride as you think.
Meet Dathan and Hycilla, brother and sister
who live in a village on the edge of Gulzacandra, on the
planet Sigmatus. Dathan is fatherless and so denied the
chance to learn a trade. Hycilla has shown some talent at
wise dreaming and is being trained in the art. Imagine a
cross between medieval England and an ecological Indian
tribe, where the dirt is clean and there is no disease.
Then along comes the evil Imperium to ruin the whole
thing.
Sounds clichéd right? Too true, but don't
forget Brian's track record with clichés.
There is a moral dilemma, which turns the
plot: not between good and evil - the book is ambivalent
about them - but between order and chaos.
No, I'm not saying this is a fabulous book,
which you should buy. Wild horses couldn't have made me
read it if I hadn't been building this site; but if
you're intrigued, you will find something to engage you.
Just don't expect it to be tasteful.
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