Tuesday 1 September 2009

SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW: Warhammer 40K: Emperor's Mercy - Henry Zou


BOOK BLURB:

Inquisitor Roth and his henchman Silverstein are sent to the worlds of the Medina Corridor to uncover the location of a set of ancient artefacts. Meanwhile, the Ironclads, a force of Chaos traitors, invades the subsector in search of their artefacts for their own nefarious ends. With the Ironclads’ indomitable army crushing all before it, will Roth be able to find the artefacts in time and prevent a terrible cataclysm engulfing the Medina worlds?


REVIEW:

What makes this tale by new author Henry Zou is the fact that he’s taken an established pattern from the Black Library, added his own military experience to the mix and presented the reader with an adventure that is knee deep in blood and gore. However, that said, its also what lets it down to a certain extent as it reads more various tabletop battle reports than the type of fiction that the Black Library releases so well. It is interesting, it does bring new characters to the readers imagination but part of the problem with this book is that there’s a deeper layer underneath that you wonder whether it was cut to make the book fit or just dumped due to constraints within.

Whilst a number of readers will probably enjoy this book, I did feel a little disappointed due to the hints of a greater sub plot than was fully realised. That said, however, they could well be saved for a later novel in this series so that as it progresses (now that Henry has established characters and world outline), will come to the fore to present a hitherto unknown new element to the Black Library Universe. Here’s hoping.

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