Let me begin my review with a caveat: while I have been a fan of the Warhammer Fantasy (WHF) setting for many, many years and I have even been a fan of the Warhammer 40,000 (WH40K) setting, I have never been a big fan of the WH40K fiction. (For the uninitiated, WHF is a gothic fantasy setting, whereas WH40K can be best described as gothic space opera.) I have written several reviews of WHF novels for RPG.net and it should be clear by now that I like most of the WHF fiction that makes it into novel form for the Black Library. It has been a long time since I really gave WH40K fiction the chance to impress me, so I decided to give it a go and see what is out there, especially with all the new books being published by the Black Library these days. With this in mind, I picked up
Storm of Iron.
The plot of Storm of Iron is a stock WH40K plot, in my mind, but one that works well. A large force Imperial Guard (the good guys) have been stationed to defend a barren planet, though none of them apparently know why. Through a combination of stealth and internal betrayal a group of Chaos Marines (the bad guys) effect a surprise attack on the planet. They quickly capture the spaceport and begin a siege of the massive fortress the Imperial Guard were sent to defend. What follows is a series of battles, dripping with blood and gore, in which the Imperial Guard put up a good fight but are clearly overmatched by the discipline, fury and equipment of their adversaries. In some ways the violence is mindless and overbearing—but this is not necessarily a bad thing.
There are several main characters, and therefore several perspectives from which the story is told. Interestingly, the author has chosen to view much of the story from the perspective of Honsou, one of the champions of the Chaos Marines, who are of the Iron Warriors chapter. A "half-breed" who was created from the genes of not only his own chapter, but also the genes of the hated Imperial Space Marines, he is portrayed as an efficient, ruthless soldier who is ill treated by the other leaders of the Iron Warriors. Here is one thing that, as a fan of WHF, always bothers me about WH40K literature; in WHF the forces of Chaos are for the most part portrayed as scheming but disorganized, or chaotic. In WH40K many of those given over to Chaos are portrayed as ruthless and ambitious but not chaotic. Honsou is one such. At the beginning of the novel he does not even seem that ruthless, simply an ambitious soldier among a group of daemon-worshippers. As the story progresses, he becomes more ruthless but otherwise his character seems decidedly different from the cold calculation of Forrix, the chief engineer, and the bloodthirsty madness of Kroeger, the other lieutenant.
One of the better features of the book are the action and battle scenes. The author has a definite flair for depicting science fiction battles. Some may object to the level of gore but war in real life has never been pretty and the brutality and horrors of warfare has long been a theme of all Warhammer fiction. In particular, I enjoyed the depiction of the siege undertaken by the Iron Warriors to capture the fortress held by the Imperial Guard unit. Those who are not already fans of WH40K need to understand that while the technology is highly advanced, society has stagnated under the Empire. Therefore advanced weapons mingle with superstition and ancient ways of fighting. This manifests itself in characters referring to their advanced targeting systems as "targeting spirits", assault units being armed with high-tech swords, massed cavalry charges by armored units, and siege warfare more reminiscent of 17th and 18th century warfare than anything else (hence, I imagine, the tribute paid by the author in giving the leader of the Imperial Guard the name of Vauban). The depiction of siege warfare in the book is excellent. The author even makes it plausible that, despite the advanced weaponry, there could be a siege reminiscent of World War One. The only obvious problem here is that the Chaos Marines inexplicably fail to use airpower in their attacks on the fortress, though the defenders’ air force is destroyed early on in the story.
I had a good time reading the book which left me pondering why it is that I enjoy reading WH40K fiction but always come away feeling a bit unsatisfied. As I read, I began to see why. It is pulp fiction in its purest form: full of mayhem, action, white hats and black hats. It does not, however, aspire to much more. Whereas WHF fiction oftentimes seeks to take the Warhammer universe somewhere new and to explore the horror elements of the setting—while still retaining pulp elements—the WH40K fiction I have so far been exposed to seems to content itself with action and violence and go no further. In other words, it can be good fun to read, but leaves me wanting more.
The bottom line is that if you like your fiction pulpy, your violence gory, and especially if you like WH40K fiction, then you cannot go wrong with this book. Despite my issues with Storm of Iron, it was well written and the action scenes and battles were well depicted. In the end, it was fun to read. And maybe that should sometimes be all that counts.
Style 4.5 Warhammer imagery is great in any case, depiction of battles is excellent, fun to read, cool cover
Substance 3 pulp fiction and nothing more
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