Fiction Fridays: Book Review: Prospero Burns

So, yesterday I finished a second readthrough of Dan Abnett's book Prospero Burns, part of the Horus Heresy series of books from Black Library. Set in the background of the Warhammer 40k universe, these books delve into the rich history crafted for the game, expanding upon it and showing us how we got to the grim darkness that we know and love.

Prospero Burns is actually part of a duology, a companion book to Graham McNeill's A Thousand Sons. Both tell a single story from two different sides, that story being the Scouring of Prospero. Prospero is the homeworld of the Thousand Sons Legion, an Astartes force which is able, to a man, to manifest psychic powers to such an extent that people believe it to be sorcery. In A Thousand Sons, and in fact from the known facts of the Warhammer world, we know that they have indeed delved into true sorcery, especially their Primarch Magnus the Red. As such, they are censured by the Emperor, who forbids them from practicing their magics again, and when they break that pledge the Wolves of Fenris are unleashed upon them.

This half of the story is what is told in Prospero Burns. We learn about the Space Wolves Legion and how they operate as a force. The Heresy-era Wolves are incredibly different from their more modern counterparts. Where modern Space Wolves are seen as boisterous and amicable by the normal humans of the Imperium, the older force is an object of fear and terror to much of the fledgling Imperium, and even see themselves as the Emperor's Executioners. The fact that we get to see all of this through the human eyes of Kasper Hawser allows us to see the fear, but also we're allowed to get close to them and see the Rout, as they call themselves, at rest.

Abnett has always been most at home writing the 40k world through merely human eyes. Not to say that he can't write Astartes, but he has had quite a bit of experience writing the human perspective with his Gaunt's Ghosts series. This book is yet another example of how well he can write, as the main character goes through monumental changes through the book. As he becomes more and more a part of the Rout, we can see his mindset changing bit by bit, going from the aloof researcher he wanted to be at the start, to becoming the skald of Tra, a historian and storyteller to one of the Great Companies of the Rout and truly a member of them, even to the extent that the last portion of the book, which actually details the attack on Prospero itself, is told in first person as if he is telling the story to the company.

One of my favorite portions, and I will mention that there are going to be minor spoilers at this point, is how he used a single portion of text, repeated over and over, to great effect. Kasper's memories have been messed with, which is part of why he came to Fenris to study the Rout in the first place. Over much of the book, we see portions of his memory and life before he came to Fenris, but there is one memory that Kasper sees in his dreams. We see this memory multiple times, each time he wakes before it finishes, before he can turn around and see who is behind him. But each time is subtly different, until finally it features prominently in the last battle, though I won't add anymore for fear of great spoilers. Oh, and spoilers done.

All in all, Prospero Burns is a fantastic novel, and is a must for any fan of the Warhammer 40k setting. Like all good stories, it surprises us, not only with the plot points (some designed to mislead, especially those leading to the ending), but also with the exploration of who some of these organizations are. The Astartes are all shrouded in enigma for various reasons, and like much of the Horus Heresy series, this one is devoted to shedding some light upon these warriors we love to play with on the tabletop.

Fiction Fridays: Tau

So here we come to another Fiction Friday! Again, we're on our Tau kick this week, so we'll keep with the theme and let's try and make some background for my Tau army, shall we?

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The 343rd Rapid Response Cadre served along the forefront of the Third Sphere expansion of the Tau Empire. Hailing from the Sa'cea sept worlds and bringing the martial tradition of their world to the new colonies, the members of this Cadre have fought in numerous engagements across numerous worlds.

Several times the cadre engaged against the forces of the Imperium's Space Marines, from numerous chapters as they sought to stop the Tau's expansion. Several warriors distinguished themselves in these engagements, such as Shas'la Guid'vel who managed to intercept and destroy a Land Speeder which was making its attack run on another squad of Fire Warriors despite the rest of his squad having been scattered by an incoming hail of bolter fire. Another, Shas'la Yos'srin, had his unit charged by one of the Astartes battlesuits called Dreadnoughts. Maneuvering behind it in the heat of battle, he was able to place a precisely aimed pulse round in its reactor core and destroyed it. Both were promoted for their heroism.

Their Shas'el, Commander Darksight, distinguished himself against the Dark Eldar. Attempting to defend a resupply post being struck by a corsair raid, Darksight found himself and his bodyguard attacked by numerous eldar upon skyboards. One, later determined to be the enemy commander, came towards Darksight in the blink of an eye, and so he was forced to fight at short range. The honorless enemy was utilizing chemical enhancements to boost his already considerable combat prowess, and seeing an opportunity Darksight ripped the control mechanism from the enemy's body. Possibly by blind luck, the drugs began to cascade into the eldar's body, killing him instantly. Their leader dead, the remainder of the Eldar vanished back into the night from whence they came.

When the Tau took control of the Imperial-held world of Taros, the 343rd served proudly, rushing from engagement to engagement as needed. Their most notable battle was against the Elysian Drop Troops attempting to take control of the capitol's water supply, coming in at the forefront of that attack. Despite heavy casualties, it was the 343rd that finished off the ill-advised attack.

After a layover on Sa'cea itself for rebuilding and retraining, a new Shas'el took over command of the Cadre, known as Commander Longstride. Favoring manouvre and rapid strike tactics even moreso than most Fire Caste do, he removed some of the more static elements of the force and retasked others, relying on his Hammerhead Gunships and Razorshark Fighters for anti-armour fighting, while his few remaining Broadsides took over as anti-air. He was also assigned one of the new XV-104 Riptide suits, and assigned it to one of his most senior pilots.

So far the rebuilt 343rd remains untested. However, while the 3rd Sphere Expansion may have halted temporarily, rest assured that it will start up again soon, and the 343rd will be there at the forefront. Whether at a new world, or in the defense of old holdings, they will do their duty.

Fiction Fridays: Scene Study

Today I'm gonna give a shot to writing something original. Just a quick scene, nothing too in depth. Hopefully I can get something going with it, but feel free to tell me if I'm failing.

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He stood at the window, watching the sun rose across the horizon, the waves crashing against the stone below. Is this what they were watching last? he wondered as he just took in the beauty of it for a moment, trying to dispell the darkness that he knew was behind him.

"Detective?" one of the technicians asked from behind him, breaking the spell. "Is everything alright?"

Jon turned around to look at the young woman. "No, it's not. If everything were alright, after all, I wouldn't be needed here." At the woman's confused look, he forced a smile on his face and set a hand on her shoulder. "But to answer your question: yes, I'm fine. Just woolgathering, is all. Shall we begin, then?"

She nodded, a spark returning to her blue eyes as she led the older man back towards the scene. Her fellow technicians were already photographing and documenting everything, though they had been careful not to move anything as yet. Jon still needed to do his sweep and see what could be found. So he started like he always did: with the bodies. "So what do we know so far?" he asked the girl as he knelt down beside them.

"Two victims, obviously," she said. "Male is one Timothy Dallop, age 23 and owns the apartment. Female is Jennifer Tews, age 21. Doorman remembers seeing them both come in last night, ID'd the woman as the girlfriend, as if their, ah, situation didn't fill that in already."

Jon looked at her from where he stood beside the bed, the naked bodies lying on it partially covered by the sheets. "Yes," he said simply. "Fairly obvious. Please continue," he asked as he resumed his examinations.

"No obvious cause of death," she resumed, "no weapons found in the apartment." She fidgeted nervously for a moment before adding in a rush, "This is another one of those, isn't it? The murders you've been investigating?"

Jon looked at her and shook his head. "Too early to tell. Could just be a double suicide, maybe a murder-suicide. Still need to run down a lot of information before we can make that conclusion." He stood up and circled the bed. "Though to be honest, who would swallow a poison and then immediately hop into bed with someone? Who called it in?"

"The doorman," the technician supplied. "It being a Tuesday and all, he noticed when Mr. Dallop didn't come down in time for work as he does every day, and so got curious. He tried to ring up here, but got no answer. He eventually came up and tried the door, which was locked. That's when he called us."

Jon rubbed his chin as he began to walk out of the bedroom into the rest of the meager apartment. "So a locked door, two dead bodies, and yet another mystery," he said as much to himself as to the girl. "Julie, I think this is just the start of another long week."

Fiction Fridays: The Dresden Files

May as well start a second series of posts to go along with the previous ones, and for the sake of alliteration we shall go with Fiction Fridays. Every Friday, I'll do my best to either bring you a book review or, if I'm feeling froggy, a short piece of fiction I've written myself.

This week, though, we'll go with a book review, or maybe overview is more appropriate a term, as I'm going to cover one of my favorite series thus far: The Dresden Files.

Written by Jim Butcher, the Dresden Files as of this writing consists of 14 novels and numerous short stories (which are for the most part helpfully contained in one book called Side Jobs) and can seem like a daunting storyline to jump into. But I believe it's more than worth it for anyone who's a fan of hardboiled detectives, supernatural weirdness, or even if you just need a good laugh mixed with a good story.

Harry Dresden is a wizard. He is also a private detective living and working in Chicago. In point of fact, he's listed in the yellow pages under "Wizard". The series revolves around his various cases (in fact, at several points the books are referred to as 'case files'), whether he got them from a mortal or from some of the other supernatural players in his world.

And boy, is it filled with supernatural players. There are werewolves, faeries big and small (though don't call them faeires to their faces; they prefer to be called the Fae if you need a generic term), angels and demons, creatures from Outside, and of course vampires. Three seperate types of vampire, in point of fact.

While the books all take place in Chicago, the books avoid feeling like these things are happening there arbitrarily, as would be so easy in these types of stories. Butcher does a fantastic job of making sure we know that things are happening worldwide - the Red Court of vampires controls and preys on most of Latin and South America, for example, and the White Council of wizards' security forces are stationed around the globe and always busy. More than that, though, he gives concrete reasons why things seem to come to a head around Chicago, as well, though I won't delve into those reasons here for fear of spoilers.

These books are definitely detective drama, each one narrated by Harry in first person just like a hardboiled detective should do, and considering some of the subject matter covered they should definitely be treated as such. After all, murder is a frequent occurance in any detective story, and the focus of one story is something that amounts to a mental rape. However, the darkness is constantly leavened by humor. Harry is a very snarky person and even uses it as a fear response, returning sarcasm for threats leveled against him by creatures that he has no business fighting, much less beating as he so often does.

For example, in one of the most recent books he's visited by the Archangel Uriel (yes, an archangel visits him, and on good terms no less). He nicknames him Mr. Sunshine. Of course, this is after he nicknames the Denarians - an order of people that have, more or less willingly, joined themselves to fallen angels bound within the thirty denarii coins that Judas received as payment - the Nickelheads. And let's not even go into the running gag of buildings setting on fire around him - to the point where one of the books starts with the line "The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault."

I swear, I had to put the book back down for several minutes after reading that line.

But in addition to all of this, one of my favorite things is that one of the secondary characters named Michael Carpenter. He is one of the Knights of the Cross, an order of warriors that fight against the Denarians in particular, and other supernatural evils in general, wielding three swords that have nails worked into the hilts. Specifically, the three nails from the Cross. Everyone who wields one is called by God, most often receiving a visit from the Archangel Michael who presents them with the sword. Michael is a rarity in fiction, a Christian who is not portrayed as a joke or as someone who is ignorant or what have you. He is a strong character who's faith in God and Christ is evident for all to see. He is a caring father, a loving husband, highly respected by all who meet him - even his enemies. This isn't to say he's perfect; in one story someone kidnaps his daughter, and his fury is very real and he's only stopped by a soft word from Harry. In all, he's an incredibly human character, a strong Christian man who is nonetheless flawed, just like we all are.

Now, be aware that these books read like popcorn. Butcher is very good at the art of leading, taking you so smoothly from one chapter to the next that you don't even realize that the "one more chapter" you were going for just became about five. I love these books, and would recommend them to anyone who might enjoy the genre. And if you're not sure if you would or wouldn't, pick up Storm Front and give it a try.