Book report

While on holiday I finally read my first Space Marine battle book, Helsreach. I was once a rabid fan of Black Library novels, well the 40K books. I am still a huge fan of the Eisenhorn trilogy, the first few Uriel Ventris books, Storm of Iron and the early Heresy books (up until Flight o' Eisenstein). I just fell out of favor and really a want to read any more 40K stuff. Why? I guess it was just getting stale.

A year ago I bought this book and watched it sit on my shelf. I decided I needed a book to read at night on vacation and grabbed it.

Well Helsreach is not awful, it is pretty 40K novel standard. What I did like was the fact they focused on an event that "happened," and used a few known characters (well some in cameo only). The battle at Helsreach during the third war on Armageddon. I really like the Armageddon wars for some reason. They are really appealing to me. Is it the vast Ork hordes. the outnumbered Imperial and Space Marine forces? I'm not sure, but for some reason I gobble up Armageddon stories.

This book focuses on Chaplian Grimaldus of the Black Templars, a known 40K character, and his force's defense of Hive Helsreach. They made him quite the fiery oratory hard ass a Astartes chaplain should be. I know on the tabletop Grimaldus is not super popular, but he is a named and usable model. There are also minor appearances by Seth, High Marshall Helbrect, and Yarrick. The Steel Legion plays a nice big role as it should. There is also the Titan Legion and Mechanicum are players as well. it is Armageddon and all these people/ forces should be there.



The writing is descent and typical for most 40K stuff. As a Marine heavy book, it didn't really feel like it. It felt like a bastardized version of Double Eagle, a Dan Abnett book that followed Imperial fighter pilots on a planet being invaded by Chaos. That book and this both introduce a lot of minor players and follow them through the book. Some of these play a large role, some are introduced just to be killed off the chapter after. Others are introduced and mostly forgotten and then reappear to influence the story somehow. This was what helped keep it fresh from chapter to chapter. It also helped paint a bigger picture of this battle. It wasn't just the Black Templars fighting, but it was also the Guard, Titan Legion and even civilians.

The over the top action movie Marine stuff was not as prevalent. The typical every Marine that is no the lead dies in some valiant and horrible way. There was some, but it was not too heavy with it. An aspect that I begin to find boring in most of the Marine novels. Does it need to happen every book? Yes and no. It is a war game and war novels, but not every Marine has to die a glorious death every death all the time.

The maps in the middle of the book were not really necessary, or helpful. I guess if you don't know anything about this planetary war then they might help a bit. It was also a fairly fast read as well. The chapters are short and broken up. As well as the font is fairley large. All that made for a quick 400 pages. It is a descent book. It was a fun read, but I am also a fan of the Armageddon wars. I will probably pick up the Crimson Fist battle book. Since it is also near to my heart, my first 40K army was Crimson Fist based/successor.

The real downside of the book was my want to start a Black Templar force after reading it. I could easily buy Grimaldus, and build his command squad. They give a descent description of the command squad and the command squad box would build most of these characters with a few extra bits to flesh them out. Grimaldus has been there since the Black Templar codex was released. He is still a descent model and would be fun to build an army around. I just have to resist the urge to build a defense of Helsreach Black Templar force.

I would recommend it if you like 40K stuff, Black Templars, or the Armageddon wars. Like I said it is a fast read and better than average 40k Black Library stuff.