Fire caste {40K} review
Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 7:46 pm
Edit: Put this in the wrong forum, stupid...
Disclaimer: All opinions are my opinions and should be taken with a grain of salt.
Firstly if "Fifteen Hours" is the Great War in space "Fire Caste" is Vietnam. To which madness, losing/finding oneself in the "Jungle" and possible redemption play important tones in the story. Suffice if you were expecting straightforward stormbolter action you will be disappointed. Same if you were expecting a Tau centric novel, while important to the plot they are secondary. Lastly if you were more accustomed to light hearted fare, such as Commissar Cain, Hero of the Imperium, novels, like I am you’ll be disappointed. The book pretty much thrives on Grim Dark but then considering the whole Vietnam thing that isn’t surprising.
The plot itself concerns a "blacklisted" Regimental officer fighting his own demons and his troops who are dispatched to a backwater mote of a world the Imperium is well on its fifth decade in fighting over. A world were the commanders are mad and the orders are brutal, even by the IOM's standards, and betrayed by it the regiment decides to go into the jungle. To fight the enemy their way without hindrance of Command. And after them follows a frayed and breaking Commissar.
And this, I think, is the chief problem of the book. Our viewpoint character, such as we have one, is introduced at the tail end of an otherwise unconnected prologue, itself from the viewpoint of someone who won't reappear till near the end, and then forgotten about, save for intermediate journal entries, for a third of the story as we are introduced to a slew of new characters, most of whom die, and then spends another third meandering into the plot for reasons which are at best contrived if not nebulous. In a nutshell the guy who's pulling the strings for the whole thing wants the main character, a Commissar, to execute someone.
In a similar vein I found the writer’s use of loads and loads of characters and their frequent deaths to “thin the herd” made it hard to really fix on and relate to the Confederates. Just when it seemed one was becoming a view point character you could follow he’d end up dead, more than once “off screen” while you were following another viewpoint. I understand it hammers home the cruelty of war but I had trouble “caring”.
Another, perhaps bigger, issue I had was the wasted potential. The "Sea Spider" alone was skin crawlingly fantastic and could have fueled a story alongside his fanatical priest/enforcer. Then there was the pious Imperial slowly converting to worship of Khorne, that could have been an interesting process to focus on and keep with the madness theme, and the Arkhan Confederates themselves whom came across as an interesting "faction". Think space Confederates mixed with some New England touches, they love their Founders for instance, and touches of steampunk. Fleshed out more and centered around the civil war in their backstory, specifically the Chaos taint, I think they’d been a fun addition to Germanic Kreigers and Soviet Valhallans
Which is not to say the novel was bad. The action scenes were quite nice with the Tau's diverse army keeping everything fresh and exciting. One moment the Guard is dealing with arrow shooting savages, the next their under drone attack. And during it all the Kroot, Tau, or Vespid are displayed properly "alien like" and frightening. Balance was a little off at times, such as when a sentinel killed a Hammerhead, through it helped to maintain the "tension".
Overall, despite my bellyaching, I'd still rate the story three stars out of five. It was a decent read, at times page turning, with brutal but fun battle scenes. Certainly better than "Fifteen Hours" in my opinion, the story had a point and concludes it in a dramatic, serviceable if not quite satisfying manner.
Disclaimer: All opinions are my opinions and should be taken with a grain of salt.
Firstly if "Fifteen Hours" is the Great War in space "Fire Caste" is Vietnam. To which madness, losing/finding oneself in the "Jungle" and possible redemption play important tones in the story. Suffice if you were expecting straightforward stormbolter action you will be disappointed. Same if you were expecting a Tau centric novel, while important to the plot they are secondary. Lastly if you were more accustomed to light hearted fare, such as Commissar Cain, Hero of the Imperium, novels, like I am you’ll be disappointed. The book pretty much thrives on Grim Dark but then considering the whole Vietnam thing that isn’t surprising.
The plot itself concerns a "blacklisted" Regimental officer fighting his own demons and his troops who are dispatched to a backwater mote of a world the Imperium is well on its fifth decade in fighting over. A world were the commanders are mad and the orders are brutal, even by the IOM's standards, and betrayed by it the regiment decides to go into the jungle. To fight the enemy their way without hindrance of Command. And after them follows a frayed and breaking Commissar.
And this, I think, is the chief problem of the book. Our viewpoint character, such as we have one, is introduced at the tail end of an otherwise unconnected prologue, itself from the viewpoint of someone who won't reappear till near the end, and then forgotten about, save for intermediate journal entries, for a third of the story as we are introduced to a slew of new characters, most of whom die, and then spends another third meandering into the plot for reasons which are at best contrived if not nebulous. In a nutshell the guy who's pulling the strings for the whole thing wants the main character, a Commissar, to execute someone.
In a similar vein I found the writer’s use of loads and loads of characters and their frequent deaths to “thin the herd” made it hard to really fix on and relate to the Confederates. Just when it seemed one was becoming a view point character you could follow he’d end up dead, more than once “off screen” while you were following another viewpoint. I understand it hammers home the cruelty of war but I had trouble “caring”.
Another, perhaps bigger, issue I had was the wasted potential. The "Sea Spider" alone was skin crawlingly fantastic and could have fueled a story alongside his fanatical priest/enforcer. Then there was the pious Imperial slowly converting to worship of Khorne, that could have been an interesting process to focus on and keep with the madness theme, and the Arkhan Confederates themselves whom came across as an interesting "faction". Think space Confederates mixed with some New England touches, they love their Founders for instance, and touches of steampunk. Fleshed out more and centered around the civil war in their backstory, specifically the Chaos taint, I think they’d been a fun addition to Germanic Kreigers and Soviet Valhallans
Which is not to say the novel was bad. The action scenes were quite nice with the Tau's diverse army keeping everything fresh and exciting. One moment the Guard is dealing with arrow shooting savages, the next their under drone attack. And during it all the Kroot, Tau, or Vespid are displayed properly "alien like" and frightening. Balance was a little off at times, such as when a sentinel killed a Hammerhead, through it helped to maintain the "tension".
Overall, despite my bellyaching, I'd still rate the story three stars out of five. It was a decent read, at times page turning, with brutal but fun battle scenes. Certainly better than "Fifteen Hours" in my opinion, the story had a point and concludes it in a dramatic, serviceable if not quite satisfying manner.