Post by Manius on Sept 5, 2008 13:08:40 GMT
Blood Ravens: The Dawn of War Omnibus by C. S. Goto
Well, I didn’t really have that high hopes for this series. I mean, after all it’s based on a video game rather than the usual historically built up backgrounds usually associated with a Warhammer 40k novel.
Then I started reading.
Goto has a huge grasp of the English language and uses it to perfection, the writing style is far more lyrical and therefore better than any writer in the 40k catalogue I have read before in my opinion.
Whilst the writing is very lyrical it drags you on ever faster to the climax of each chapter and book. Characters are very well padded and believable with back stories not covered directly in the books but hinted about and gradually you uncover more layers to each of the main protagonists. The descriptive passages are exceptional and the first book had me wincing internally in its descriptions of how chaos operates! The balance of what is known about the 40k universe and the creatures that inhabit it and blanks filled in by Goto are well balanced, for example, whilst the Space Marines are depicted as being “super-human” they retain a vulnerability inherent in their humanity both physically and emotionally which make the stories more believable as well. In particular I was happy to see accurate descriptions of the medical procedures a neophyte goes through to attain Marine status, accurate as in as I remember them even from the Rogue Trader days of 40k!
Such things are rarely touched on in any detail in other novels I’ve read and their inclusion, again, gives the reader something that makes the background seem all the more realistic.
Another exceptional piece of story telling is the transfer from the end of book two Ascension and the start of book three Tempest…its just SO clever that it took me 3 pages to realise what Goto had done and hats off to him.
So, in the end the series of books attain a level far higher than the pedigree they have. Sure The Dawn of War PC games are good PC games but lets face it we’re snobs when it comes to “cross over’s” and I was clearly suffering from this when I started reading the series, gladly I found out I was dearly wrong.
Well, I didn’t really have that high hopes for this series. I mean, after all it’s based on a video game rather than the usual historically built up backgrounds usually associated with a Warhammer 40k novel.
Then I started reading.
Goto has a huge grasp of the English language and uses it to perfection, the writing style is far more lyrical and therefore better than any writer in the 40k catalogue I have read before in my opinion.
Whilst the writing is very lyrical it drags you on ever faster to the climax of each chapter and book. Characters are very well padded and believable with back stories not covered directly in the books but hinted about and gradually you uncover more layers to each of the main protagonists. The descriptive passages are exceptional and the first book had me wincing internally in its descriptions of how chaos operates! The balance of what is known about the 40k universe and the creatures that inhabit it and blanks filled in by Goto are well balanced, for example, whilst the Space Marines are depicted as being “super-human” they retain a vulnerability inherent in their humanity both physically and emotionally which make the stories more believable as well. In particular I was happy to see accurate descriptions of the medical procedures a neophyte goes through to attain Marine status, accurate as in as I remember them even from the Rogue Trader days of 40k!
Such things are rarely touched on in any detail in other novels I’ve read and their inclusion, again, gives the reader something that makes the background seem all the more realistic.
Another exceptional piece of story telling is the transfer from the end of book two Ascension and the start of book three Tempest…its just SO clever that it took me 3 pages to realise what Goto had done and hats off to him.
So, in the end the series of books attain a level far higher than the pedigree they have. Sure The Dawn of War PC games are good PC games but lets face it we’re snobs when it comes to “cross over’s” and I was clearly suffering from this when I started reading the series, gladly I found out I was dearly wrong.