Thursday, September 12, 2013

Void Stalker review

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 ReaverTalos 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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