Blood Reaver review

The second Night Lords novel, Blood Reaver, has been finished. It is just as good and fun as the previous Soul Hunter novel.

Here we have the Night Lords lead by The Exalted (a fighting for control demon prince sharing and corrupting a Night Lord body), and the remains of the 10th Company of Night Lords he commands. The real star is still the 1st Claw and the quasi-non leader leader Talos and his rag-tag squad. They have survived the battle on the planet Crythe and escaped a bit worse for wear. After a quick raid on an Imperial space station they head to Hell's Iris to repair, rearm and recruit.

Hell's Iris is home to the Blood Reaver, better known as the Tyrant of Badab, Huron Blackheart and his Astral Claws. Now in a previous novel, Huron was made to be a drooling bit of crazy angry sauce. Here he is nothing of the sort. He and the Corpsemaster, the head apothecary for the Astral Claws, are written and portrayed as a nice bit of evil and deep breath….. they are smart and tactical. They are not the cookie cutter Chaos soldiers they were portrayed as before. The Night Lords meet with Huron for help and resupply, but it will cost them. See Huron has a plan and always needs soldiers, or fodder. He offers aid if the Night Lords will help with an assault on the planet Vilamnus. Why the planet Vilamus? Well it is home to the entire chapter of the Marines Errant and Huron needs fresh stuff and new gene seed.

Well along with their dealings with Huron, the Night Lords notice a familiar looking capital ship in the Chaos fleet. The Echo of Damnation and it was once a Night Lord ship. It has since been renamed and re-tasked in the service of the Astral Claws. Vandred, The Exalted, has a plan to work with Huron, but at the same time take back a ship that was once, and should still be in the hands of the 8th Legion. It is up to the 10th Company to help Huron, assault an Astartes chapter monastery, and then survive to steal back one of their own ships. How difficult could all that be? Plus there are the continued shenanigans of the Prophet/Soul Hunter Talos and his unit of miscreants and servants.

Blood Reaver does move slower than Soul Hunter, but it is just as entertaining. It is the second of three novels it doesn't suffer the bridge syndrome. The action is great, the human element is better than the first book, and the Night Lords are still the lovable bad guys we shouldn't be cheering.

The First Claw continues with their band o' brother feel and that is still awesome! The interactions between them and toward unfolding events are great. There are moments of dark humor and sarcasm that are just never seen in Chaos Marines. I expect this will continue in the third novel, Void Stalker. So far this series ranks up there with the Eisenhorn trilogy, and that is a fantastic and a personal favorite series! I'll be grabbing Void Stalker soon and can't wait to see how this series finishes.

As usual a list of events in the novel I found great...........

There is more Night Lord exposition and I'm a fan of that.

Hell's Iris makes Mos Eisley look like a gumdrop forest full of rainbows.

The addition of the Bleeding Eyes, an official cult of Raptors who fought on Terra as well, was a nice touch. They even come slightly warped.

Variel, the Astral Claw apothecary is great and his bedside manor is a real joy!

Astartes know no fear, but was great to see them unnerved by the Hymandra. Their various reactions to this little warp touched creature were stellar.

The breaking of Talos, mentally and physically, and what it is doing to him and his prophetic visions.

We learn how to really torture a member of the 8th Legion.

How the Night Lords are used during the attack on Vilamus and how Huron set up the assault is good stuff.

The flicker of honor/nobility that appears near the end of the post Vilamus space battle was a surprise.

The looming dread that seems to be in the form of a certain elfin space race that likes to wear a lot of black and white.