Bookworm Speaks!- The Purging of Kadillus
Bookworm Speaks!
Warhammer 40’0000
The Purging of Kadillus
by Gav Thorpe
****
The Story: The Dark Angels battle the might of an ork Waaaagh!, led by the feared warboss Ghazghkull Thraka. Faced with an ork invasion of Piscina IV, the 3rd Company of the Dark Angels believes the threat to be minimal. As enemy numbers continue to increase, their commander, Captain Belial, insists that his Company are strong enough to resist. But Scout-Sergeant Naaman knows just how dangerous this foe can be, and when a renewed greenskin offensive takes the Dark Angels by surprise, the orks swarm towards Kadillus Harbour. Little do the Dark Angels know of the technological power available to the xenos, and the true scale of the threat they face. Belial, Naaman and their fellow Astartes fight a desperate siege at Kadillus, knowing that they must hold out until Imperial reinforcements arrive or the planet will be lost.
The Good: The Dark Angels are a very fascinating chapter of the Adeptus Astartes and it is quite nice to be able to see them march to war and move away from the persistent plot of hunting the fallen members of their brethren. It is important to give depth to any faction and/or characters in order to make it more than just a one-hat factor. This book always the audience to experience another facet of the Dark Angels, one where they are doing what Adeptus Astartes do best: Making battle and war.
Something that is really cool is the inclusion of the local army as characters. A favorite event in these books is when the Adeptus Astartes interact with ordinary humans. It serves two purposes: the first is that it illustrates the extent of the differences between the Astartes and the human forces. Astartes are so strong and the humans seem so frail. The second reason is that serves to show how similar they still are to ordinary humans. Astartes are not perfect and sometimes they forget that and they look down upon the multitudes of ordinary humans, but occasionally they are reminded of the courage of humanity and this book shows us that every now and then.
One of the best parts of the whole book is the beginning and the ending. Without giving too much away, it is here that we see the face of the enemy, Ghazghkull Thraka himself. Normally, prologues and epilogues are a hit and miss. Either they are useful towards the plot or they are a waste of time. Some authors advise to cut those parts out during editing. Anyway, we see the extent of Ghazghkull’s abilities compared to lesser Ork and for those who are unfamiliar, we see why he is one of the greatest foes ever faced by the Imperium of Man.
It makes Bookworm eager to read more about him.
The Flaws: This one was a bit of dud compared to classics of the Space Marine Battles series such as Rynn’s World or Death of Integrity. It is hard for Bookworm to pin down the exact factor that led to his lack of appreciation. There are several things to take into account…
The Dark Angels themselves lends to the book’s flaws. This chapter is known for its dour character and that does not lead to an interesting story. Character is half the battle when writing any work of fiction and the Dark Angels lack a lot of it. The only at times to differentiate one Space Marine from the other was by their name and rank and nothing else. There are one or two tender moments but they are overshadowed by the rest of the story, which is lacking or simply lost among all the generic action scenes.
Orks are a favorite enemy of Bookworm but they felt underutilized in this volume. After reading several books that feature Ork onslaughts known as a WAAAGH!, the Orks in this book did not feel like part of a WAAAGH! Ork onslaughts are supposed overwhelming things, like tidal waves of violence sweeping over the land and whatever defenders were there. Mountains of crude machines to be rendered into scraps and fire by bolt shell and las fire. The orks are more a like a storm than an army. In this book, the orks were an army and it felt…lacking compared to the all but unstoppable forces of other tales of the Black Library.
The ultimate problem is that the whole volume is too formulaic. The Space Marines are just that: Space Marines (tm) and nothing else, no certain quirk of their biology like the Blood Angels or the Space Wolves. No memorable characters to spice up the squads and only fleeting moments that prove they are still human. They are simply generic Adeptus Astartes and they lack significant character development. They fight the orks, alongside the local planetary defense force and the orks put up a good fight but nothing exceeding what most of the Dark Angels can handle. There is small twist about the orks near the end that serves as a climax for a preceding mystery about them but even then it lacks gravity.
Even the trademark illustration in the center of the book is lacking. Very generic and quite probably from some older codex (game manual).
Final Verdict: If you are a fan of the sons of the Lion, this book is worth checking out but don’t get your hopes up for something extraordinary.
Three out of Five Stars
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