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Thursday, June 24, 2010

Book Review: Soul Hunter by Aaron Dembski-Bowden


I find most Black Library books to be middle of the road, with some terrible exceptions and some great exceptions.  Soul Hunter, by Aaron Dembski-Brown, is one of my absolute favorites.  The book follows Talos, former Night Lords Apothecary, in his adventures in the 10th Company of the shattered Night Lords Legion.  While it's not without flaws, it is an exciting and adventure filled book that will grip you from beginning to end. 

The story of Talos stretches from the death of Night Haunter to the modern day Black Crusades, and features a great cast both mortal and Astartes.  Talos shares his Primarch's gift for seeing the future, and seeks to guide his Company correctly through his battles.  Talos has to battle both external enemies such as the Imperium, but also enemies within his own "faction", who seek to turn him to the Dark Gods.  Throughout the book, there are great battle scenes, including the best Titan battle I've ever read, and the characters are well developed as well.  These aren't cookie cutter Night Lord villains.  Instead, we see a range of characters as the Legion slowly falls away from its heritage and edges closer to true damnation.

The book isn't without its flaws, but they're mostly editorial.   In one paragraph, a Crimson Fist Marine becomes an Imperial Fist marine, and there are a couple more little errors like that I noticed.  Nothing major bothered me.

Normally, I only suggest these kinds of books to those who already have an interest in the subject matter.  However, Soul Hunter is a fantastic book (and a great successor to the earlier Night Lords novel, Lord of the Night), and I'd suggest it to anyone who would like a Black Library book in general, or even a good science fiction read.  I'll give it five out of five stars. 

2 comments:

  1. It was pretty decent, almost made me want to start a small Night Lords warband.

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  2. I agree B. Excellent story and reasonably well written. I'm not too fond of Chaos Marines but I like the Night Lords I think. At least Talos seems to me to be a reluctant traitor, and therefore a bit tragic. An essential ingredient for a Hero in my opinion. I'd love to read "Lord of the Night" but had never heard of it until now. Great review bro!

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