Bookworm Speaks!- Titanicus Review
Bookworm Speaks!
Warhammer 40,000
Titanicus
by Dan Abnett
****
Acquired: Half-Price Books
Series: Sabbat Worlds Series, Book 3
Publisher: The Black Library (November 26, 2009)
Paperback: 608 Pages
Language: English
****
The Story: When the vital forge world of Orestes comes under attack by a legion of Chaos Titans, the planet is forced to appeal for help. Titan Legio Invicta, although fresh from combat and in desperate need of refit and repair, responds, committing its own force of war engines to the battle. As the god-machines stride to war, the world trembles, for the devastation they unleash could destroy the very world they have pledged to save.
Savage action on an apocalyptic scale and dark political intrigue meet head-on in this Warhammer 40,000 epic.
The Review: Warhammer 40,000 is among the richest and most diverse settings in modern day science fiction. The almost endless amounts of factions, individuals, and groups from both friend and foe, all offer an amazing array of storytelling opportunities. Several of those factions stand out among the crowd though, the Adeptus Astartes, the Imperial Guard, and of course, the Titans. Towering, walking, engines of war. The ground shakes with every step they take.
That alone is one of the reasons why this book deserves a spot on the shelf on any servant of the Emperor’s library. The titan’s are among the most badass mechs in all of science fiction. They would eat Gundams for breakfast, Mechwarriors would be crushed under their feet. Jaegers may put up good fight but would ultimately fall victim to the Titan’s many, mighty guns. Epic weapons for an epic franchise. Clever segway into the first positive point…
What makes Warhammer 40k so distinctive is how the fiction is a living juxtaposition between epic, nay mythic levels of storytelling and a remarkable intimate and human level of storytelling. The machine’s level city blocks with every footstep and can destroy armies with one shot of one its several weapons, but the book does not focus on that. We focus on the most important part of any story: the characters. The crews of the Titans and the common folk on the ground are all written with such intimacy juxtaposed with the earth shattering epics
Even the various Titans become characters in their own right. They all have personalities and differences in spite of their lack of scintillating conversations. It is confirmed canon that Titans are sapient but in an erratic, unpredictable, wild way. They can’t talk, to say the least. The Titans are very much a double edged sword, which further adds to the drama. They are as much a threat to the Imperium as they are to the Imperium’s foes. The crews of the God Machines have the wrangle the violent machine spirits lest they go out of control and destroy everything in sight. Some of the most dramatic conflicts in fiction are inner conflicts and almost every story that involves the Titan God Machines involves these battles within.
It is important to remember that the Adeptus Mechanicus are not scientists. They are religious order, to whom gods are machines. The Titans are the holiest machines of the Mechanicus, walking temples to the Omnissiah, (that is such a catchy term) the dichotomy between the absurdly powerful technology and the almost arcane veneration and tribal organization of such machines creates a unique picture for the reader to digest. Unfortunately it may be a little too much to digest and if does not all go down as well as it could. The author probably could have used a harsher editor. The story goes on a little too far and gets bogged down in the interesting but perhaps pointless subplots.
Unlike several other Black Library tomes in his possession, Bookworm has not had much desire to revisit the battlefields of Orestes. Bookworm most likely will someday but this lack of re-readability should be indicative of this story’s idiosyncrasies. Bookworm can really only recall a handful of passages with clarity, those being the subplot of the toymaker who sells toy Titans.
The aforementioned richness of the Warhammer 40k setting can at times work against itself. There are so many details that it is not difficult to get lost in all the unfamiliar terms. Exposition is a double edged sword in writing fiction and there is little to be had here. That does work in the story’s favor though, it doesn’t waste the reader’s time. It draws them in right from the get go and doesn’t let up…not for a page. That can be exciting but it goes a bit fast sometimes and becomes a bit of blur.
The author of this book is often stated as being a good place to start when jumping into the grim darkness of the far future, however, this particular work of the author is not an ideal place to begin.
Final Verdict: Titanicus, while perhaps not the most shining example of the Black Library or Dan Abnett, Titanicus does fall under worthy canon as being a glimpse into the most powerful weapons ever fielded by the Imperium of Man.
Three Symbols of the Collegia Titanica out of Five
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