This book, the fourteenth of the Gaunt's Ghosts novels by Dan Abnett,* more than lived up to the high-bar expectations set by its predecessors. Dark and grim as are all stories told in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, the characters are as well-fleshed-out as ever and the stakes for our beloved Tanith First regiment have seldom been higher - Chaos-worshippers and Imperial stalwarts alike screwing together a tightly-driven plot that is as deft as it is unpredictable. My one gripe is that it ends on a gigantic cliffhanger which by dint of my now having finished this one compels me tomorrow to visit my local Games Workshop to get a copy of the next instalment.
* A writer who has never failed to entertain me. I will tell this tangential story here cos I may as well own it (even though in past years it has been a fact I've tried not particularly hard to share with friends or acquaintances); when I was a teenager I loved this series of novels to such an extent that when faced with the medically-informed possibility of death and offered something along the lines of Make A Wish Before You Pop It my chosen dream-fulfilment was to attend Games Day, meeting there not only the creative teams behind my much-loved armies (orks & tyranids, go hard or go back to Terra) but also had lunch with Dan and was privileged to talk at length with him about the writers' life, inspiration, and just how damn good of a universe to write in/about 40k is. He was incredibly kind & accommodating to this morbid nerdy adolescent - and though I didn't realise it directly at the time, inspired me lots to simply write. So if you're reading this, Warmaster - thanks, and expect a solid mention in the acknowledgements if I ever get my own novel finished.
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