Post by Manius on Apr 30, 2009 12:35:20 GMT
Traitor General
His last Command
The Armour of Contempt
Lost series - Dan Abnett
Books 8 – 10 in the total First and Only series of books. Part of the “Lost” series.
On a side note prior to reading this, I believe “Only in Death” to be book 11 in the main series and the 4th in the Lost series but this isn’t clear to me.
These series of books are somewhat of a welcome breeze of freshness from the overall series about the First and Only regiment. The violence is just as gritty and realistic but the settings and cast of characters have clearly developed. This is helped by the claustrophobic setting of “Traitor General” in that the list of characters is strictly limited and Dan Abnett has allowed himself much more time to develop each one at a more intimate level..which is good for us, the readers.
Not only this but we learn more of the wider scope of the 40k universe by having surprising characters, new ones, developed along side one surprising addition of a character we’ve met in previous books.
“His Last Command” starts off downbeat but quickly picks up the pace and we find ourselves caught in a large combat scenario more like we’re used too. The finish is decidedly upbeat however for the characters we’ve grown to love over the years.
“The Armour of Contempt” again takes a change of pace, and adds new characters to enable the story to switch between frenetic and very realistic mass combat and the slower pacing we found in “Traitor General”. One new character in particular was a very welcome addition and was deliberately written to mislead you to their identity…exceptional fun and brings a grin to your face when you finally discover their identity I can tell you.
Dan Abnett continues to produce top quality literature in this setting, how he does this in such a prolific manner (as well as kicking out novels based on such a wide range of subjects as Dr. Who and more pure fantasy) I find perplexing. He obviously works exceptionally hard but gladly his material isn’t laboured in any way.
His last Command
The Armour of Contempt
Lost series - Dan Abnett
Books 8 – 10 in the total First and Only series of books. Part of the “Lost” series.
On a side note prior to reading this, I believe “Only in Death” to be book 11 in the main series and the 4th in the Lost series but this isn’t clear to me.
These series of books are somewhat of a welcome breeze of freshness from the overall series about the First and Only regiment. The violence is just as gritty and realistic but the settings and cast of characters have clearly developed. This is helped by the claustrophobic setting of “Traitor General” in that the list of characters is strictly limited and Dan Abnett has allowed himself much more time to develop each one at a more intimate level..which is good for us, the readers.
Not only this but we learn more of the wider scope of the 40k universe by having surprising characters, new ones, developed along side one surprising addition of a character we’ve met in previous books.
“His Last Command” starts off downbeat but quickly picks up the pace and we find ourselves caught in a large combat scenario more like we’re used too. The finish is decidedly upbeat however for the characters we’ve grown to love over the years.
“The Armour of Contempt” again takes a change of pace, and adds new characters to enable the story to switch between frenetic and very realistic mass combat and the slower pacing we found in “Traitor General”. One new character in particular was a very welcome addition and was deliberately written to mislead you to their identity…exceptional fun and brings a grin to your face when you finally discover their identity I can tell you.
Dan Abnett continues to produce top quality literature in this setting, how he does this in such a prolific manner (as well as kicking out novels based on such a wide range of subjects as Dr. Who and more pure fantasy) I find perplexing. He obviously works exceptionally hard but gladly his material isn’t laboured in any way.
