The Great Betrayal by Nick Kyme

Thousands of years before the rise of men, the dwarfs and elves are stalwart allies and enjoy a era of unrivalled peace and prosperity. But when dwarf trading caravans are attacked and their merchants slain, the elves are accused of betrayal and the peace begins to fracture..


This is the first instalment in a new six book series under the banner of the Black Library's Time of Legends series (essentially  the fantasy equivalent of the record breaking Horus Heresy saga) and delves into the story behind The War of Vengeance, the great conflict that would turn the dwarves and elves against each other.  I don't play Warhammer and only have a sketchy idea of the history behind the races, so it seemed a perfect fit to see if this was something that Joe Average could pick up off the shelf and enjoy- more often than not tie-in fiction comes across as having a lot of baggage of the do I need to read all 18 of the previous books to understand it variety. 

The novel opens with a huge, 42 page battle scene illustrating what the dwarves and elves had accomplished together, then switches to the story proper as cousins Morgrim and Snorri explore some of the ancient, abandoned tunnels beneath the mountain stronghold they call home. It's a decision that soon leads to Snorri earning his future nickname 'Halfhand' but it also sets them on a path that neither of them could have foreseen. Snorri, a prince amongst his people, burns with the desire to prove himself to his father, to try and match the glory his father earned in the long years of war it took to secure the mountains against the orks and other menaces that had plagued them. But it is a time of peace, and his ambitions are stymied and his frustration manifests itself in impetuous outbursts and biting retorts, all wedges in a widening gulf between him and his father. Morgrim is his steadying influence, a solid and sensible presence and a good foil for Snorri's brash arrogance.

The Elvish homeland at this time is beset by civil war between the High and Dark Elves, and commando- like parties of Dark Elves are loose in the mountains, seeking to stir things up between the dwarves and the High Elves. Their ruthless cunning and cruelty is matched only by their paranoia and one-upmanship, all of which is shown in the thread of the story that follows one such group. Suspicion and xenophobia soon follow in the wake of the rising bodycount in the hills, and much of the novel revolves around the resultant turmoil as the peacemakers on both sides strive to hold back the mounting tide of anger and fear. Snorri, never a friend of the elves and buoyed by the company of belligerent advisors, becomes the figurehead for the rebellion against his father's edicts while Morgrim fights to moderate his cousin's attitude and to pull his people back from a war that increasingly seems inevitable.

There are multiple storylines woven through TGB that Kyme uses to flesh out his world, providing different viewpoints on the events that Snorri and Morgrim are at the forefront of, expanding the scope of the principal thread of the story, hinting at hidden plots and generally keeping it fresh and the reader hungry. The path that the story follows twists and turns, balancing gentle worldbuilding and intrigue with beautifully savage action and this, combined with a cast of well plotted and interesting characters, is what kept me turning the pages. He's managed to seed the novel with sense of the epic scale of the brewing conflict, making it a meaty and most satisfying read right up to the merciless death that brings TGB to a close. If you've never liked or understood Dwarves, either in Warhammer or general fantasy, you'll be wanting to grow a beard and carry an axe by the time you finish this. It approaches their culture with respect, eschewing cheap shots and short cuts, and in doing so, makes it all feel very 'grown up'.

So, could Joe Average pick up and enjoy The Great Betrayal? A resounding yes- and more than that, he should. This is good, solid fantasy writing that deserves a prominent place on any bookshelf. 

You can visit Nick's website here, or read an extract of TGB here.

No Easy Day by Mark Owen

For the first time anywhere, a first-person account of the planning and execution of the Bin Laden raid from inside the US Navy SEAL team who carried out the extraordinary mission to kill the terrorist mastermind.

From the streets of Iraq to the successful rescue of Captain Richard Phillips from pirates in the Indian Ocean; from the mountaintops of Afghanistan to the third floor of Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan, operator Mark Owen of the US Naval Special Warfare Development Group - commonly known as SEAL Team Six - has been a part of some of the most memorable special operations in history, as well as countless missions that never made headlines.

..

I like reading first hand accounts of battles and wars. It feeds my inner armchair warrior and, besides the side-effect of being great background and research for characters who may one day populate my own writing, it's also humbling and a reminder that for some people out there, war is more than a genre and patriotism about more than waving a flag. 

I'd also like to think that I've read enough of them of them to be able to catch the whiff of self aggrandisement that threatens to creep in when someone's writing about themselves. No Easy Day is pleasantly whiffless. By the time he was brought in for the operation that lies at the heart of the book, Mark Owen had served on active, operational duty for over 10 years. 10 years of actual shit-hitting-the-fan deployments. That's plenty of time for reality to filter out any ego stoking bullshit, and it comes through in the writing. 

The first thing is that it's very readable. This isn't about blocks of dates and a dull treatises about this-general-did-that and so-and-so-lobbied-for-this; it's a reader friendly account that is meant to set the record straight about what it means to be a SEAL and the truth behind what happened on the raid that saw Osama reaping his personal whirlwind. It's about the men, not the man, and the vehicle that Owen uses to put that it across is by sharing some of his own experiences. It's through these that we're shown the level of dedication, the level of professionalism and the particular mindset that is required to go out there and do what needs to be done, time and time again. By building this foundation into the book before he sets out the background and preparation for the raid on Osama's compound you can understand how their professional detachment from the scale of what they were attempting and exactly why he decided to write the book.

It's well written, very engaging, and while it doesn't breach any official secrets, there's enough in there to make you reconsider a few familiar headlines from the war in Afghanistan (and think about more than the next unlock next time you fire up Call of Duty). Thought provoking without melodrama, No Easy Day is a welcome addition to my non fiction shelves and I would recommend it without hesitation whether you have any particular interest in the military or not. 

Know No Fear by Dan Abnett

Unaware of the wider Heresy and following the Warmaster’s increasingly cryptic orders, Roboute Guilliman returns to Ultramar to muster his Legion for war against the orks massing in the Veridian system. Without warning, their supposed allies in the Word Bearers Legion launch a devastating invasion of Calth, scattering the Ultramarines fleet and slaughtering all who stand in their way.

And so begins the 19th book of the Horus Heresy series.

The first thing you notice is that KNF is presented in the style of a chronicle of the battle of Calth rather than an out-and-out novel like its predecessors, the heading of each chapter showing the countdown to when Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines, gives the order to return fire. It’s a very clever device, adding to the tension as the Word Bearers make their final preparations amidst the unsuspecting Ultramarines who are denied the reader’s knowledge. It’s a bold move, perhaps borne of the fact that the subheading on the cover is ‘The Battle of Calth’, or that ultimately the entire Horus Heresy is a retrospective study of what shaped the 41st millennium into the no-hugs-just-war hellhole that the rest of 40K is set in. Whatever the root of the idea, it works. This is a huge confrontation, one that ranks right up there with the Dropsite Massacre in terms of impact, and it deserves the epic tone that this approach gives it. It’s tricky to put exactly why and how it works into words, but it does (hence Dan being the NYT bestselling author and not me).

It’s a hybrid approach, made up of varying percentages of found footage, military report and typical third person narrative, and what that does is enable Dan to convey the sheer scope of the battle while seamlessly blending in the facets of the battle from the perspective of a range of Space Marines and troopers scattered across the battlefields. Through their eyes we are afforded a glimpse of uncounted moments of otherwise unseen heroism and bear witness to their deaths. The scope and intensity of the unadulterated violence that is unleashed is no less than awesome. There’s a very real sense of how utterly lethal and unforgiving a battle between Space Marines would be. You can tell Dan was having some real fun with this, and has really pulled the stops out in the action stakes; it’s crisp, dark and relentless, and reaffirms why he’s the crown prince of military sci-fi.

The stars of the show are the Ultramarines and how they react to the invasion as they’re steadily pushed to the brink of destruction. It’s a good insight into their psyche at that time, and an interesting take on how they assess and deal with such threats. Guilliman too gets a similar treatment, and while he doesn’t get as much attention lavished on him as, say, Corax did in Deliverance Lost, he’s nonetheless fleshed out and given more character. And he swears. I hooted with childish glee when Lorgar resorts to calling him a “giant pompous arsehole”. Thank you, Dan. They’re Primarchs. Soldiers, albeit on a scale we can’t really appreciate, but they’re not saints.

KNF clocks in at a respectable 412 pages and is a novel of epic, brutal proportions. I finished it over two days of commuting, including two jealously guarded lunch hours where I sat transfixed by blood, betrayal and heroism next to my cold and forgotten coffee. To say that I enjoyed it is an understatement, and my only complaint is that I want more.

You can watch the trailer here, read an extract of KNF here and visit Dan's blog here.

Remember that Dan will be at Games Workshop Plaza, Oxford Street on the 18th Feb (starting at 12 noon) where he'll be signing of Know No Fear!

The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie

They say Black Dow's killed more men than winter, and clawed his way to the throne of the North up a hill of skulls. The King of the Union, ever a jealous neighbour, is not about to stand smiling by while he claws his way any higher. The orders have been given and the armies are toiling through the northern mud. Thousands of men are converging on a forgotten ring of stones, on a worthless hill, in an unimportant valley, and they've brought a lot of sharpened metal with them..

The first thing that struck me about the hardback copy was how good it felt in the hand with its lovely matt dust cover. It's chunky book, which has become a bit of a hallmark for young Mr Abercrombie, and weighs in at a respectable 498 pages.

The Heroes tracks the build up, execution and aftermath over the 3 days that a vicious battle rages in the North as the punitive force of the Union seeks to bring the army of the amoral and ruthless Black Dow to battle in an attempt to curtail his rising influence. The story is told from the viewpoints of 3 of the principal characters, the narratives weaving around each other to create a very convincing and visceral overview of the battle.

The first is the careworn Curden Craw, veteran of almost as many battles as Black Dow himself, but burdened with a streak of honesty and a notion of honour that few of his peers share. He's finding that his regrets at the hard life he chose all those years ago are growing by the day, eroding the beliefs that have kept him alive and sane so long.

The second is Calder, a self obsessed prince of the North whose desire to grab power is almost as strong as his disdain for the idea of having to work for it. He'll lie, cheat, steal and kill to get what he wants, and not necessarily in that order.

The third, and my favourite, is Bremer dan Gorst, the disgraced former champion.A master swordsman and lethally efficient killer, Bremer is tortured by the ignominy of his dismissal and is seeking redemption or death in the maelstrom of battle - and not even he is sure which he would prefer. Socially awkward and scorned by his peers, he seethes with bitterness and his narrative is littered with his caustic, unspoken thoughts.

There's precious little for the characters to sing about in the world Abercrombie has made for them- it's a brutal, unforgiving place, bleak and scarred by the wars of men and the legacy of the ancient feud of an order of wizards that's barely hinted at in this book- the resident archmage and one of his principal opponents do feature, but magic gets about as much screentime here as it did in Peter Jackson's siege of Helm's Deep.

What we get instead is political scheming, betrayal, axes smashing into faces with lethal effect, infected wounds, and the wounded screaming and pissing themselves. Death doesn't come easily, but when it does it's brutal and messy. And that's precisely half of what makes The Heroes so cool. The other half is the way Abercrombie brings his characters to life, rounding them out layer by later against the backdrop of a well crafted and immersive setting, making The Heroes stand out as much more than just a gorefest. Admittedly, the fact that he does lavish attention on secondary characters does threaten to clutter things up now and then, particularly when it comes to talking about the warriors of the north and their pedigrees, but it's a sporadic thing rather than a constant, and as such doesn't hinder the otherwise fast pace of the story.

If you like your fantasy hardboiled and gritty, then The Heroes is a wargasm waiting to happen. If you're looking for unicorns and Tom Bombadil, move along.

And no, I don't care for unicorns.

The Ten Thousand, Paul Kearney

Official blurb:

On the world of Kuf, the Macht are a mystery, a seldom-seen people of extraordinary ferocity and discipline whose prowess on the battlefield is the stuff of legend. For centuries now, they have remained within the fastnesses of the Harukush Mountains. They have become little more than a rumour.

In the vast world beyond, the teeming races and peoples of Kuf have been united within the bounds of the Asurian Empire, a continent-spanning colossus. The Empire rules the known world, and is invincible. The Great King of Asuria can call up whole nations to the battlefield. His word is law across the face of the earth.

But now the Great King’s brother means to take the throne by force, and in order to do so he has sought out the legend. He hires ten thousand mercenary warriors of the Macht, and leads them into the heart of the Empire.


When we meet Rictus, he’s made peace with the fact that he’s about to die. What he doesn’t realise is that fate has other plans for him, plans that will see his youth burned away in the forge-heat of battle.

I wasn’t quite sure where the story was going at first; having the hero spitting blood and making peace with his gods isn’t how I expected things to start. The setup is the snowball tipped over the edge of the mountain though. It builds on itself and becomes a thundering behemoth that bullies you into staying up late at night with the promise of ‘one more page’.

Paul paints a wonderfully gritty, solid feel to the legion of the Macht. The Kuf are rendered both exotic and mundane, alien and human.. but it’s what happens when these worlds collide that gives the second half of the book that extra va-va-voom that keeps you turning the page long after you should have turned the lights off. The battles bring the filth, fear and brutality of war to vivid life; the desolation of the aftermath lingers long after the swords are sheathed.

I'm pretty fussy when it comes to action; Liz can attest to the number of books I've binned after losing interest in a character's fate; I'm happy to say that Ten Thousand was never in danger of sharing their ignominious fate.

If you’re looking for intelligent action, look no further. Give those nice people your money and take Ten Thousand home with you.



(I'm still pretty depressed about Jason though. Poor bugger.)