Soul Hunter. Aaron Dembski-Bowden

Thank you Aaron Demiski-Bowden, this book easily became one of my favorites. And in my view a must read for any beginners into Warhammer 40,000. The book entails the story of an Excommunicates Chapter, the Night Lords, who keep fighting their relentless war. What makes this book a must read is not 'just' the chaos taint and their undying and blind fight against the Imperium. Instead it portrays, thanks to Mr. Bowden's amazing skill, how not every heretical Chaos Space Marine is actually a heretical Chaos Space Marine. Instead that there are other aspects that drove Astartes from the Emperor during the Horus Heresy. And yes, at times it does slow down from the constant fighting. But it is great that way. Not every book needs to be a giant and constant meat grinder of doom. But as some mentioned already in previous reviews: it does contain reflections of the Horus Heresy and the Night Lords in particular. It shows the truth of a certain death that history has forgotten. Yet some haven't. That some have turned away from their ancient oaths of vengeance and honor. While others still fight with them as their guides. Overall, in my opinion, the book is well done and is perfectly situated to become a great series.

I've always been one of those people that played the `good' side of any game. When I played World of Warcraft, it was as an Alliance character. I make all the good and moral decisions in Dragon Age and Mass Effect. So it was no surprise that I was, as many are, drawn to the forces of the Imperium when I found myself diving into the Warhammer 40k universe. From the Inquisition to the Astartes and the Imperial Guardsman, there is a dearth of literature and information on the "forces of good." And that's really all I've ever read. I knew of the Word Bearers books, but much despised them due to the Blood Angels series, and never really had any interest in any of the other traitor tomes. And then Graham McNeill's A Thousand Sons came out. In that book, I was first introduced to--what we now know as a traitor faction--a group of Astartes that, while in the current canon are heretical, intrigued me. Then I went to Adepticon and had the pleasure of chatting up Aaron Dembski-Bowden and his book, Soul Hunter, made its way into my luggage. Being really unfamiliar with any of the fluff surrounding not only the Night Lords, whom Soul Hunter is about, but also the Chaos Space Marines in general, I didn't know what to expect when I cracked open the pages and began to read. What I got was a 2-day adventure into the unknown, and hopefully the start of an intriguing series. Soul Hunter, again, focuses on a the Astartes of the Night Lords; more specifically, it focuses on Talos, a sergeant of the much diminished Night Lords 10th company and his compatriots, as they carve our their piece of the galaxy in the face of enemies, both Imperially aligned and otherwise. More so, Soul Hunter is an exploration of the character of a traitor Astartes chapter, with Talos as the focal point. Talos is unique for quite a few reasons. First, Talos suffers from prophetic visions, much like his martyred Primarch Konrad Curze. They are debilitating and occur randomly, but they are a great boon to the company Talos keeps and a sought after commodity to those seeking power. He is also quite unique is his viewpoints of the Chaos gods. Quite simply, Talos does not accept the Chaos gods as his own, nor does he think highly of those that accept their power. We see this exemplified in his interaction with his superior, a Chaos-mutated Astartes named the Chosen and his slavering, Khorne-worshipping comrade, and the disdain in which he approaches them. Finally, Talos' has an affection for his serfs that is quite unexpected for a traitor Marine; his relationship with his serf Septimus is interesting and really adds to the novel's plot. The crux of the plot focuses on Talos' efforts to keep his once proud, now depleted company of Astartes, from being completely annihilated and eventually return them to glory. Talos' prophetic abilities greatly help his cause, though they are not without problem. The first major plot event finds Talos' prophecies discovering an asteroid that is more than it

Having read the author's first book, I was expecting good, but not great here. To my pleasant surprise I found myself really liking this book and was pleased with the polished effort. It is a great start to the Night Lords series, which appears interesting and full of kick-butt characters. Dembski-Bowden is rising to the level of an Abnett, in my opinion, and this only bodes well for the Black Library.

It has been far too long for Black Library to produce a Traitor Marine novel that does not show them to be slavering slaves of Chaos. The Night Lords are one of the few "Chaos" Space Marine Legions that have not completely embraced Chaos and this novel explores that concept in rich detail. "Lord of the Night" showed that not all Night Lords are tainted by Chaos and "Soul Hunter" greatly expands upon that idea. We see a company in one lone strike cruiser slowly suffering the prolonged effects of continual war without reinforcement and refitting. I can only assume the further novels of this series will explore this particular Chapter's attempts to recruit. This novel shows why the Night Lords fight while not being slaves to Chaos. They fight in memory of their martyred primarch, their genetic "father" who was betrayed and murdered by an assassin sent by his own father, the Emperor of Mankind. "Lord of the Night" stated the Night Lords side of what happened 10,000 years ago when he was murdered and "Soul Hunter" further expounds upon this which shows the Emperor in a negative light and greatly explains why this Legion which despises Chaos would still turn Traitor. This is a must have novel for Night Lords fans, Chaos Space Marine fans and Warhammer 40k fans in general. I do not recommend it for those new to the Warhammer 40k genre but for those already fans do yourself a favor and pick this up. It is beyond refreshing to read about a Traitor Legion that does not run around shouting "Blood for the Blood God!" or being manipulated by Tzeentch.

Some have complained about this novel. I suspect they fall into what is known in the modeling world as " rivet counters". I also suspect there is a conspicuos lack of significant other type companionship and an abundance of free time involved in their opinions. I loved this novel. Its different. There is only so much of " For the Emperor !, and " blood for the blood god ! " that even a fan can take. A lot of w40k novels lately read like the never ending fight scene in matrix 2, and are about as involving. If you are a marginal Night Lord fan, you will be ready to go get a Night Lords tattoo by the end of this book.