Bookworm Speaks!- Baneblade by Guy Haley

Bookworm Speaks!

Baneblade: A Warhammer 40,000 Imperial Guard Novel

by Guy Haley

****

The Story: By the blessing of the Omnissiah was the Mars Triumphant born – from the forges of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the mighty Baneblade super-heavy battle tank comes to bring death and destruction to the foes of the Imperium. As part of the Paragonian 7th Company, Honoured Lieutenant Marken Cortein Lo Bannick commands the venerable war machine in a bitter war against the orks in the Kalidar system. As the campaign grinds on it begins to take its toll upon his crew, and old clan prejudices from the regiment’s home world arise once more. In a war which cannot be won by force of arms alone, such division may prove to be their undoing.

The Good: Stories about soldiers are always great reading but their is something special about the stories that involve soldiers and their vehicles, such as a tank, ship, or submarine. Even though they may be inanimate objects, the bond between master and steed is cultural pin that has pervaded the human psyche even after the horse become relegated to the sidelines of civilization. The vehicle becomes as much a character as the people inside of it. The Mars Triumphant is a living thing (so to speak) and the reader finds themselves rooting for it as much as the crew inside. 

As for the inside, while Bookworm’s knowledge is limited, he feels that this book describes a not inaccurate summary of what life is like being a tanker. The cramped, noisy, dirty, interior of the Mars Triumphant probably brings back memories for tank crews of every era. Granted, there are no tanks in the real world as large as a Baneblade but Bookworm digresses. All of this makes the Mars Triumphant feel very real and the crew along with it. Anyone who has spent some time around engines can feel the rumble of the tank’s machine spirit in their minds.  

The crew is not lacking all that much either. Lo Bannick is one of the main characters of the story and his tale of exile from his comfortable life is a very compelling one. Perhaps not the most original of stories, there is a universality about it that makes it a very good story. 

A favorite character though is the Enginseer Brasslock of the Adeptus Mechanicus. The Adeptus Mechanicus are known for eschewing human emotions in favor of cold machine logic. They accomplish this through cybernetic implants. The Adeptus Mechanicus are responsible for maintaining the technology of the Imperium of Man and thus created the Baneblade tank. Brasslock is heavily modified but throughout the story we see the all too human reactions to his struggles and how even though he is supposed to reject such things such as faith, he still clings to them, even in his darkest moments. 

That is what makes Warhammer 40K so compelling, despite taking place in a nightmare future where human lives are a penny a dozen and some of those humans can turn themselves into cybernetic and/or genetic monstrosities, things such as honor, duty, and faith are still very much a part of us. Still very human. 

The Flaws: The main problem with this book is its formatting, in particular the non-linear narrative. This is a common problem with several Warhammer 40K Books and it is getting to be quite old. The story flashes back to the aristocratic lieutenant, Lo Bannick’s previous life on his homeworld and his subsequent disgrace and exile into the Imperial Guard. To add on to that, the story flashes back to the time before the arrival to Kalidar in the first place. The stories themselves are not uninteresting it is just that we’ve been reading about this timeline already and we have to suffer through yet another plot arc, just to continue it in the next chapters. At times, the whole thing can get rather clumsy and perhaps one more rewrite and editing session could have been utilized.  

Also some of the characters are hit and miss. Some like Bannick and Brasslock are very interesting but some of them are little more than one shot caricatures. The only one that Bookworm can really remember is the one who has both icons of the Mechanicus and the Imperial Aquila around his neck. 

Final Verdict: Even though Bookworm has not read that many books about the Imperial Guard, but he suspects that this may not be the greatest one to start with. Nonetheless, it does venture into a key angle of the Emperor’s Armies and tells a memorable story. 

Four out of Five Bolt Shells 

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