Bookworm Speaks!- Deathwatch by Steve Parker

Bookworm Speaks!

Deathwatch by Steve Parker

****

The Story: Gathered from the many Chapters of the Space Marines, the Deathwatch are elite, charged with defending the Imperium of Man from aliens. Six Space Marines, strangers from different worlds, make up Talon Squad. On a distant world, a new terror has emerged, a murderous shadow that stalks the dark, and only the Deathwatch can stop it. Under the direction of a mysterious Inquisitor Lord, they must cleanse this planet or die in the attempt.

Warning: This Review may contain Spoilers. 

The Good: The Deathwatch is definitely one of the more intriguing aspects of Warhammer 40k lore and seeing them get the full novel treatment really is a treat. There are a lot of differences between normal Space Marine Chapters and that of the Deathwatch. The Deathwatch is a secretive organization that answers to the Inquisition and operates in tight-knit kill-teams instead of chapter companies and they consist of many different brothers from other chapters. This already sets the stage for some entertaining character interaction as the various chapters come to blows over past events or different points of view. 

The characters are really the heart of this text and it is their views and interactions that capture the heart of the Deathwatch along the side of the action that Warhammer 40k is so known for. 

The focus of the novel is the Brother-Librarian Lyandro Karras of the Death Spectres Chapter, and he really is the heart of the novel. Space Marines tend to be extensions of male macho fantasies and thus tend be more blood and guts. Not so with Karras, he has a thoughtful and contemplative personality that is different from a lot of Space Marines. Keeping in form with a librarian, he likes to read books and study ancient secrets, hence his code name of Scholar. The mental personality is a nice contrast to the action-adventure surroundings of the Deathwatch. 

The Dreadnought Chyron is also explored in some of the later chapters. Dreadnoughts, mortally wounded Space Marines who are hardwired into cybernetic war machines in order to fight beyond death, are always very fascinating characters and Chyron is no exception. Chyron is from the Lamenters Chapter, a chapter no one has seen or heard from in a long time. Chyron could very well be the last of the Lamenters and he is understandably very bitter and temperamental. He feels the only purpose left in his existence is to kill as many of the Emperor’s foes as possible. Common in Warhammer 40,000, but the reader is also treated to a deeper exploration of his character, how he laments being the last of his kind, no pun intended, and the very nature of his existence deprives him of the bonds of brotherhood with his kill-team. Chyron’s loneliness is very tangible. 

How this book exemplifies the character-development, is in the fish-out-of-water scenario, which is always compelling, if written well. His dedication and skill notwithstanding, Karras is still very far from home, surrounded by strangers, and forced to operate in ways he is not familiar with. Karras is very much out of his element and the author makes his struggles very real. 

The Flaws: The story could have done with one more rewrite. The story takes a few chapters to get going, and while the climax is the focus of the summary it takes a while to get there. The first half which described the training of Deathwatch members was good but maybe it takes a little too long. Training montages are fun but Deathwatch really is about the missions. What pulls the first act through is the main character as well as the other characters, which are a lot of fun and very interesting. Still, a little more editing may be advisable for future volumes. 

Some of the characters are not given as much attention as Karras or Zeed. The book is pretty much Karras’ story but it would have been nice to see the other characters such as Maximmon Vos or Prophet explored more thoroughly. The saving grace is that they are pretty interesting on their own. Maximmon Voss is interesting as a concept, even if we don’t see his deeper mind. 

Extending from that is the common theme of juggling multiple character perspectives during the narrative. Once again perhaps one or two could have been dropped in order to make the text more streamlined. 

Final Verdict:

Four out Five Stars

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