Blood Royal

Kal Jerico may be of noble birth, but he hates the fancy life in the Spire, the top levels of the Hive. Kal has spent nearly his whole life in the Underhive, where seeing someone mugged or killed every few hours is normal. In the Underhive, you live by your wits and weapons. He has two partners; Scabbs is a cunning halfbreed with body odor that makes rotting corpses smell good, and Yolanda Catallus, a noble turned Wildcat ganger. The trio carve out a living as bounty hunters. Life becomes interesting when Kal is knocked out, kidnapped and taken to see his father. Seems his father, Lord Helmawr, high ruler of Necromunda, is having trouble with one of his heir apparent, Armand. Armand has clad himself in Spyer gear, stolen a priceless artifact that could ruin House Helmawr, and then struck out for the Underhive. It is Kal's royal duty to hunt Armand down and retrieve the artifact. Valtin Schemko, Kal's nephew, is to accompany Kal. But Valtin has never been below the Spire, so Kal has to do some tutoring as they trek down the Hive. Unknown to Kal and Valtin, a Spyrer until has been sent out to hunt down Armand as well. The race is on to locate the rogue noble first and apprehend him. However, Armand is more than a little insane. Clad in Spyer armor, Armand has been slaughtering just about everyone he has come across and drained all the blood out of each one. Everyone is talking about the Underhive Vampire. Yolanda and Scabbs cannot locate Kal, so they are after the vampire's bounty too. Yolanda was leader of the Wildcat gang, but left to partner up with Kal and Scabbs. Problem is that a Wildcat leader does not just leave. They either die defending the tribe or at the hands of the new leader in challenge battle. So the current Wildcat leader, Vicksen Colteen, takes her Cats out hunting. ***** There are several other key players in this book. Seems that everywhere you look more spies and hunters are showing up. This story starts out in a sprint and does not slow down at all. Be sure to have plenty of time before settling down to read this adventure. Fast paced, full of action, and a bit of comedy to lighten the darker times, this book will keep you glued. ***** Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

You will enjoy this tale. I enjoyed the whole story from beginning to end. There was good mix of intrigue and humour and unlike with some 40k novels, I came away from this feeling moderately satisfied. This is a pleasant installment in the Necromunda series and if you're interested in reading more about what it's like to exist in the hive city, you won't be disappointed.

I'm not a Warhammer 40k player. I do however like dark gritty, bloody action-filled cyberpunk and sci-fi. Blood Royal follows the infamous bounty hunter Kal Jerico through the Underhive. The Underhive is an undeground, lawless world inhabited by criminals and those who nowhere else to go in the "normal society" of Hive city which is controlled by the ever scheming noble houses of the Spire which looks down on the rest of society. With over 5 billion souls crammed tight in a hive city where no one can be trusted unless their in your line of fire, is it any wonder Jerico's mission to retireve a missing artifiact that belongs to the ruling house would be fraught with problems? Jerico is darkly humorous, the story is a pretty decent ride. Ignore the cheesy cover art and enjoy this page turner.. made me pick up the other Necromunda novels. And NO I do not work work any publishers or book companies! Just try it out. If your looking for hard sf or gone with the wind, keep looking. If you want a vicious slam, fast forward adventure, read this one.

The authors did a great job of translating the characters from the comic book page into prose form. Everything that is in the comic book adventures of Jerico is all here in great detail; even his CyberMastiff, Wotan. Excellent mix of just enough politcal manovering and gunslinging action that keeps the story rolling along without any dead spots or forced occurences. If I had to say something bad about it, there would only be one thing that you could force out of me and that would be the cliche name of one of the characters; you'll know who as soon as you read it. If you are even remotely interested...pick this book up. You won't regret it.