40K Book Review: Sabbat Worlds
Just in case you didn’t know, Dan Abnett was diagnosed with late onset epilepsy last year, messing with his Black Library schedule of war and slaughter. Luckily for us, Black Library have put together an anthology of work dedicated to Abnett’s Sabbat World’s Crusade, from the authors in the Black Library stable that Abnett admires the most.
Sabbat Worlds is edited by Abnett himself, who gives a nice introduction to each story: not only letting you know what he admires about the writers and the story. The headline authors include Graham McNeil, Aaron Dempski-Bowden and Sandy Mitchell. And there are a couple of pieces from Abnett himself: the first an early story that was published as a chapbook for Games Day UK, and another entirely new novella which also bridges one of the gaps between novels.
The various authors have an impressive world to embroider: some pick characters, some settings or ruined worlds left in the wake of his characters, and it’s a pleasing selection to read from.
McNeil opens the collection with a story that follows one of the characters from Double Eagle, as she flies with the Apostles on another of the Sabbat Worlds.
I don’t remember reading Dempski-Bowden before, but this story is certainly a cracker, and it’s great to see the pool of talent at Black Library deepening a little more with his arrival. His story didn’t quite hold together, but it was so gripping from the start it was hard – not so much to go along with it – as to stay on your feet as it grabbed you and dragged you off towards its conclusion. (Aaron’s The First Heretic
Sandy Mitchell is a too seldom heard of writer, whose comic commissar tales are one of the brighter elements of BL fiction. He pulls out a solid tale here as well.
As for the Abnett pieces, well, they’re both new to me and set a while back in the Gaunt’s Ghost story arcs, and although there feels like a little bit of retro-fitting the story lines and characters it’s a pleasant excursion to go back to the pre-Verghastite days, when Gaunt’s Ghosts were still the Tanith 1st and Only.
Justin Hill is a novelist, painter, wargamer, so old he was gaming in the days before Warhammer was a twinkle in Rick Priestley’s eye. Shieldwall, the first of his Conquest Series, covering the events that led up to the Battle of Hastings, will be published in May 2011.
