Death World

"Death World" by Steve Lyons is situated at the crossroads of four genres--(1) it is a military science fiction like Robert Heinlein's "Starship Troopers," Joe Haldeman's "The Forever War," and Gordon Dickinson's "Dorsai;" (2) it is a "deathworld" novel reminiscent of Harry Harrison's Deathworld series; (3) it is the story of a single squad in combat like "Platoon" and "Sands of Iwo Jima;" and (4) it is a horror novel like "Alien" and "Predator." Irrespective of the genre echoes reverberating throughout the text, it remains true to Warhammer 40K. The usual 40k tropes abound: The troops go to war in the Gothic battle-barges of the Empire. They deal with the inept and sometimes corrupt Imperium commanders. Horror exists at every turn--from the dangers of the corrupting warp to the attack of zombies in the night. Consequently, the novel appeals to both gamers and science fiction fans. In summary, the novel concerns a squad of Catachan jungle fighters sent into the jungle of Rogar III to assassinate an Ork Boss. The Empire and the Orks are mining Rogar III; however, over the last few months the planet inexplicably has begun to mutate into a death world. In the Warhammer universe a death world is one that for whatever reason is inhabitable by man. We learn that Rogar III world is sentient and does not want either the Imperial troops or the Orks on its surface. To rid itself of the invasions, it engineers its nature to become toxic to both humans and Orks. The beauty of "Death World" lies in the deft way in which Steve Lyons presents the story. He introduces the squad in a straight-forward, no-nonsense way; he focuses on the protagonist--Lorenzo--;and he develops all his characters naturally through the narrative. He preserves the unities and abides by the conventions of his genre. The story reminded me of some of the movies I loved as a kid--"Operation Burma," "A Walk in the Sun," "Battleground." If you like "Death World," I also recommend Lucien Soulban's "Desert Raiders," Harry Harrison's "Deathworld," and Dan Abnett's "Double Eagle."

Being my first 40k novel I actually liked it. It had lots of action and some small minor plot twists involved. I don't play Warhammer 40k so some of the terms in the book were pretty new but I eventually figured out what they were. For example, I don't know exactly what constitutes a death world and it was never really explained in the book. It must figure that you know what makes up a death world in the first place. Although there is a 'prologue' on page 5, it is extremely short, being only one page and all it does is describe the Emperor and his intentions with the galaxy. Too short for me because I would of liked to read more about it. But I was mainly in it for the action and it started off with it right away. They were not to fancy with the technology so I was able to keep up with everything. As far as style goes, I would say it was about average compared to some other books I've read such as "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin who is excellent. So, I really have no complaints there. A few other details in the book as far as environmental surroundings were not fully explained so I pretty much had to picture it all myself by making it up so that was no biggie either. Overall I'd have to say that Warhammer 40k players will enjoy this and as far as an introductory novel, newbies like me would enjoy it too although we'd most like have to look up a few words to get what they are.