I Have an Author-Man-Crush

So I think Black Library has a new king and his name is Aaron Dembski-Bowden. I thought he did a excellent job in his first book Cadian Blood which I have already reviewed. I have just finished reading two of his most recent books Helsreach and Soul Hunter.

I fell both books are do a very good job of bringing me what i want in a BL book. A good friggin story and nothing else.

Now I consider myself a big Dan Abnett fanboy, but he seems to be getting into the Tom Clancy habit of having a mission sub-plots in each story. So many that some of them don't seem to have anything to do with the main plot, and so many characters its hard to keep track of everything. This was certainly the case in Abnett's book Titanicus.

Dembski-Bowden's first book had nothing like that. It had just a few characters that you followed and got involved with and made things simple to follow for a simple dude like me.


Soul Hunter is the best example of this. I am very surprised I actually liked this book. It is the story of 1st Claw, 10th Company of the Night Hunters. I usually don't go in for "bad guy" books, but Talos, the main character in the book does a good job of making me give a crap. He's not evil, and in fact he abhors how some of his legion embarased the ruinous powers.


In this book, we see the Night Hunters as a struggling legion. Individual space marines will fight to the death over a piece of wargear from a slain enemy, or ally.


Helsreach is another of the in the Space Marines Battles Novel. I was a little wary reading this one after Rynn's World because I was thinking, "Oh look! Another SM book, and they are fighting... orks... again." But this book is very different from Rynn's World. That book is about Pedro Kantor's struggle to get to New Rynn City to link up with the remnants of his Chapter. Helsreach is the story of Grimaldus, the newly promoted Relcusiarch of the Black Templars. The story of his struggle to feel worthy of his new position.


Helsreach does get a bit Abnett-esque in the amount of characters introduced, but he does a keep it together, and it is no where near Titanicus.


All in all both are excellent book certainly worth reading. I give both books 4 Ibram Gaunt's out of 5.