Book Review: The Purging of Kadillus

So I finished this book the other day. I must say, I am really enjoying the Space Marine Battles books. It could be because I am a huge Space Marine Fanboy, or it could be because they are excellent books. I'm betting its a little of both.

This story, like the others, centers around one major engagement for a Space Marine chapter (well the Hunt for Voldorius had two chapters, but I digress). This chapter being the Dark Angels. If I had picked up this book before I had picked up William King's Rangar books, I probably would have been a Dark Angels player, I've always thought they were a cool chapter.
One of the first thing I want to say that I liked about this book is the fact that the Fallen, were only mentioned in passing. I am happy about this because it sometimes seems like the Black Library can do a Dark Angels book if they are dealing with the Fallen. It was nice to see them concentrate on something else.

This book also had a very cool opening. Orks fighting squats, er, demiurg only to be set upon by another warband of orks. There was some pretty hot warboss on warboss action. It didn't hurt that one of them was Ghazghkull mag uruk Thraka. Him and the Bad Moonz warboss decide to work together to smash some humies.

One of the things I liked about this book is that it felt like a bunch of short stories. I'm not sure why I enjoy short stories, but I do enjoy them. The first story is about a Chaplain that is trying to regain control of a Dark Angles chapel from the orks. Very well done. The Chaplain is a bit of a jerk, but you still have admire him for his determination. The second story is about a veteran scout Sergent. This one shows that all Space Marines are not the same. They all don't blindly follow order. Namaan does follow his orders, but he doesn't follow them blindly. The third story is about an Apothecary. I really enjoyed this one because there are not many stories from this point of view. I thought the scenes of battlefield triage were particularly well done, except for one part where he decides to get a dead space marine's progenoid gland by going through the back of his armor. It just seemed a bit odd. I don't understand why that would be easier.

One of the only things that bugged me about the book was how many times the space marines would say a phrase in "high gothic". Another was when they would say finish talking to a battle brother and end the conversation with "You are truly the shield of the Lion." And the other would say, "And you are truly his unsheathed sword," or something. I do believe that space marines talk that way, but it just got old after doing it again and again and again.

After a fun read, I give this book four deep striking Deathwing terminators out of five.