Book Review - Nocturne

'On the Anvil of War are the strong tempered and the weak made to perish, thus are men's souls tested as metal in the forge's fire.'

Nocturne is the final chapter in the Salamander trilogy and Nick saved the best for last. If you have been following along you remember the ending of the last book with Vulkan He'stan returning, Tsu Gan getting captured and Dak'ir's powers at question. This book answers the question of what happens next and goes even further. It is a true roller coaster ride. You have warp battles, planetary destruction, demonic possession, a trial and the Dark Mechanicus just to start things off.

This time out Kyme does a great job of pulling from all the other pieces of the series including the short stories and audio books. For example when they do the roll call for the dead before battle they mention one of the characters from  Fireborn. We also see the return of the child Bak'en saves in the Salamander book as a new scout going through the trials. This is a nice touch and goes a long way to leaving as few loose ends as possible.

One thing he does a little differently this time is he fleshes out characters that may have been missed or a little flat in previous books so you see them change over the roughly 3 or 5 years that pass from the beginning of the series. Unlike the Ultramarine series no character comes out of any of the books unchanged. Even the Salamader's famous pragmatism is tested against the anvil. In some cases even breaking the character under the  strain. This adds heavily to the body count but also shows how dire and bleak a world Nocturne is. It lives up to its death world status.

One return we see is the Marines Malevolent. Seeing how they crossed paths the first time it was unique to seen them again. Kyme really doesn't like loose ends. I wont spoil what happens with them but a little taste can't hurt.

' "What is the fate for the Marines Malevolent now?" he mused. "What fate for the dammed?" One of the wounded stirring caught Lorkar's attention. ... Lorkar leaned in close. "Tell me, brother. I will answer if I can." He heard the tension in a gun trigger being slowly squeezed and whet he realized what the wounded warrior was saying, knew his critical error.'

This is a section you will just have to read to get the full effect. Trust me you will like the outcome.


Over all the story holds up well and has enough twist and turns that had me not wanting to stop reading a few times. The big thing is everyone is expendable. None of the we need him later to push the story stuff. As I said the body count is high but with a purpose. Every death furthers the story or is used to end story line. It may be a little hard to follow if you missed the other 2 books because there is no back tracking about the characters. This is a solid ending to the series.

I give this one 5 drake heads out of 5! Read it and be tested at the Anvil.

  

I see the sun.

The postal gods have decided that I was worthy and delivered my copy of Promethean Sun. I was expecting it to be a little bigger and with higher quality pages for the $50 plus shipping but oh well.

On to the pictures.

Book Review - Firedrake

I just finished the second book in the Tome of Fire trilogy, Firedrake. This book takes place some time after the first with quite a few shakeups in the Salamander 3rd Company. If you have listened and read the connecting stories for the trilogy this isn't a big of a shock and even it you didn't allot of it was predictable. This time we are given 3 intertwines stories that dive deeper into the mystery posed in the first book. There is Dak'ir ascension and first trials, Elysius's capture/escape and the appearance of Vulkan He'Stan in a quest to recover an artifact. This is a lot of ground to cover in a short time and I have to give credit to Nick Kyme he does a good job tying them together.

His style compared to the other Black Library writers is a little heavy handed with not a lot of foreshadowing or hiding of purpose. Each character plays their part and though they grow throughout the book the growth  isn't in dramatic changes. It feels more like I am playing the cards I am dealt. This does lead to a few characters ending up in predictable situations with the classic saved at the last minute solutions.The pacing on this one is better than the first book with each segment moving forward to a logical breaking point before the next story arc takes over.

The biggest change is the detail level he gives in this book. 40K authors are know for creating lavish worlds full of little details and that is the shining point of this book. There are no blank walls or empty battlefields. You are given everything from the scale of the room to the dust floating in the air. If you are into building terrain and looking for ideas this book is great for that. I am already picturing a couple of custom tables from the book.

Over all I liked the book and it is pretty fast read with only a few gripes. The gripes being the same ones I have with all the 40K book where once an objective is reached the story ends with a short hop back to their ship/home world to await the next mission. Just once I want to see a real fighting escape. The other issue is the epilogue feels more important than the rest of the book. This could be due to it being a middle book in the trilogy. They normally server as a place holder for what is next. On the plus side it answers almost all the questions asked in the first book Salamander even if we were about 80% of the way to the answers already.

Is it worth reading, yes. Though not the best Black Library book it has more than enough to hold its own and is an enjoyable read. If you read the first or any of the connecting stories then you have to continue. There is nothing worse than stopping in the middle. If for anything then to find out if Dak'ir and Tsu'gan kill each other before the series ends.

3 blotter rounds out of 5.