Review: Blood Pact

So Dan Abnett and written yet another Gaunt's Ghosts book. This on is called Blood Pact. Now I have to admit, after reading Sabbat Worlds, I was a little worried about this one.

Damn you Dan Abnett (I love you Dan Abnett), just when I think I have gotten over you, you prove that I just can't quit you! I read this book in three days, and for me thats pretty quick. I usually sit down to read for about 30 minutes each night before I go to bed, with some books its difficult to plow through one chapter a night, with Blood Pact, I was worried about the lack of sleep I was getting. This book is excellent.

Now I'll be up front about this book, there were some things I didn't like. This was not a combat oriented book, the Ghosts have been pulled back from the front lines after twelve years of near-constant war. They have been stationed on Balhaut for the past two years, and we come to find out that the Ghosts don't take well to inaction. Throughout the book, many of the characters we have come to know and love make the briefest of cameos throughout the entire story.

That being said, of the characters Abnett does put in the story, he does a good job. In the first chapter of the book, we meet E. F. Montvelt, he oversees things on Pier Thirty-One on a huge orbital platform called Highstation. In twelve pages Abnett does an excellent job telling the story of E. F. Montvelt, how he inherited his job and most of his possessions from his late uncle, and how Balhaut, the scene of one of the greatest victories and greatest tragedies of the Sabbat Worlds Crusade, has changed in the last fifteen years. In twelve pages I felt that I knew E. F. Montvelt, and this guy is beyond a minor character. We never see him after the first chapter, but I was sucked into the book in those twelve pages.

While this book does feel as if it missing the combat of other Ghosts books, where there is action THERE IS ACTION. When a small Blood Pact kill team gets on to Balhaut and assaults a commissariat headquarters (yes, I said that correctly) the action is fast-paced and brutal! I would also like to point out that Dan Abnett is the master of the 40k car chase. Ever since First and Only, Abnett gave us a great Ghosts car chase, and I think that the one in Blood Pact is bester yet!

Although there are some drawbacks to this story, it does feel like a nice change of pace for the Ghosts. I can deal with the lack of action, and more intrigue, but I am a bit sad that we didn't see more Mkoll, and Larkin and Brostin, and the rest.

And just because it wouldn't be a proper Ghosts story without a kick to the junk ala someone we've grown to love is given a death sentence. I hate you Dan Abnett! (I love you Dan Abnett!)

I don't usually give out spoilers from the books I read, but I have to give this one out. Highlight it to see the OMG part of the book!

SPOILER

On Balhaut, a memorial to Ibram Gaunt has been constructed.

/SPOILER

Anywho, I give this book four straight silvers, out of five.