The final chapter of
the Night Lord series has been finished, at it is awesome! The book is just
great from start to finish.
Void Stalker is the
final tale of Talos and the 10th Company
Night Lords. This group has been on the move since the end of Blood Reaver. Talos has had a
reoccurring vision of the Eldar killing everyone in
the 10th and he is running from it. He is also bound and determined
to make his mark against the Imperium as well. Then add in the fact his body is
rejecting his geneseed, the petty problems within the
10th and the love/hate relationship he has with all the Night Lords
in the galaxy. This all makes for a trying time for Talos. His solution? He decides to go on
vacation.
The 10th
Company moves away from the Eye of Terror and the approaching 13th
Black Crusade, as this is where they all supposedly die. Talos steers the gang toward the last place they ever
thought they would go, Tsagualsa. This is where the
Night Lords entire chapter made their home after they destroyed Nostromo. Here they will regroup and make a plan. Along the
way they are tracked and found by the Genesis Chapter, a Ultramarine successor
chapter. This leads to a great boarding action upon the Night Lord ship, Echo of
Damnation. The space battle resolution is also a bit of good time and
strategically crazy.
As they get to their
new/old home, they find it colonized by the Imperium. It has been given a new
name and has filthy humans crawling all over the surface. The solution to this
problem? Kill them all! Boy howdy do they do that with great relish and abandon.
After that bit of fun, Talos then rounds up anyone
with psychic ability for another project. Talos has a
way to get the Imperium’s attention and prove that the Night Lords are no joke.
It involves horrible torture and then eventual death by looking into the creepy
warp filled third eye of a Navigator. This leads to a backlash of psychic energy
that kills and cripples hundreds of Imperial worlds via the astropathic highway. Good times for everyone!
That is until the
running prophecy and dreams of Talos appear to be
coming true. Those pesky space elves appear and then begins a merry chase
through the galaxy. Craftworld Ulthwe arrives to put a stop to Talos and all his fun. They chase and block the Echo of
Damnation at every turn and warp jump. The Eldar seem
to be one to two steps ahead of the Night Lords. Well after a series of
blockades Talos has had enough. He returns to Tsagualsa for a final showdown with the pointy ears. the
10th Company will end the light footed pointy ears, or they will take as many of
them down with them. Either way it will all end in a giant batch of awesomesauce!
I was very very pleased with this series. Once again, Arron Dembski-Bowedn knocks it out
of the park. So far, this guy has written some fantastic 40K stories. I'm
getting read to dive into another one of his
Horus Hersey novels, Betrayer. After reading; Helsreach, The First Heretic and now these three Night Lord
books, I am expecting another great story from him.
As usual, a sampling
of some of my favorite moments................
The battle and
boarding action against the Genesis Marines is good stuff.
The continued chatter
and quasi-camaraderie between the members of 1st Claw throughout the
book.
How Tsagualsa was destroyed.
The how being the
Ultramarines and all their
successor chapters.
The fall and escape
from Tsagualsa back then.
The torture of psykers and how it is done to get desired results. Yes this
is demented and sad, but still horribly awesome.
Terminator armor +
dark catacomb fighting = twisted Night Lord Space Hulk.
Black Guardians sure
are squishy!
Howling Banshees are
good at fighting? Well another bit of fluff not matching the game.
Swooping Hawks are
good at something too? The combat between them and the Bleeding Eye Raptors is a
bunch of bull.
The confluence of
prophetic visions.
A damn Phoenix Lord
is thrown into the mix!
The epilogue does a
nice bit of tying loose ends together and doesn’t lead to another novel. Take
notice of this writers. You can tell a great story in a few books, it doesn’t
need to drag on through 10+ novels.
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