Blood Pact [Hardcover]

In Blood Pact, Abnett seeks to bridge the conclusion to Only in Death while at the same time setting up a new series of Gaunt's Ghosts novels. He succeeds to excellent effect.

Picking up two years after Only in Death, the Ghosts have languished in a rear area of the Crusade in which they had fought for a decade without pause. It is not to their liking. Members of the unit have turned to crime simply to relieve their boredom, while others have found themselves growing too used to creature comforts and are growing fat in their leisure time. Until a special prisoner arrives and disrupts the peace, sending the Ghosts back to what they know best: combat.

Abnett delivers something unique in Blood Pact in terms of the many scenes of the Pact cult members working through their planning stages and their pursuit of the traitor who has arrived on Balhaut. The traitor has requested to speak with Gaunt and him only. The disparate groups converge on the place of the traitor's imprisonment and much carnage ensues. Gaunt leads a tiny group in evading the chaos warriors, who in their scenes demonstrate actual compassion for one another, as well as rational plotting and problem-solving. Hardly what readers of 40k books would associate with agents of Chaos. Like the relationships in the Ghosts, the Pact unit has grown into a sort of family, exhibiting pride at the others' accomplishments (even if of a grotesque nature), concern at the loss of their own number, and drive to accomplish their mission at any cost. Abnett thus shows us why the Pact are such a good foil for the Ghosts: They are opposite sides of the same coin, simply serving different masters with opposing goals.

There is really only character development of Gaunt's character, as he has the most to work through. Not only was he the most damaged survivor of the combat in Only in Death, he has succumbed to the sloth of the posting to Balhaut. He must overcome the sluggardness that has overtaken him while also puzzling out the many different plots against the traitor he takes under his protection. He must deal with disturbing new abilities granted by his replacement eyes, seeing ghastly future events in time to avert them. He faces his own past ghosts and confronts his mortality in a strange way when he learns that the historians on Balhaut believe he died while carrying out the heroism of the campaign on that world before he took over the Ghosts. As he states, no one (even Gaunt) remembers anything correctly, but his visions of the future have been accurate. So he moves forward and does not focus on the past which he could not recall clearly anyway.

Abnett shows once again why he's such a prolific author: he's just extraordinarily good. From the overall plot to the many subplots, everything drives the story of this book and the overarching plot of the Ghosts series itself, never wasting a word. The characters seem so real in their actions and reactions, their feelings and observations, and their dedication to their friends and their beliefs. There's really nothing to complain about in this book, aside from the fact that it reads too quickly and one is left sad knowing there will be a long wait for the next installment.

Blood Pact was a huge disappointment. This is the first of Dan Abnett's books I have not liked. I've read all of the Ghost's novels, Eisenhorn and the Ravenor Trilogies. I've played tabletop 40k since I was a kid. I love Warhammer, and the tales Abnett is famous for. But his latest addition to the series left me feeling let down and quite frankly - bored.

Character development is fair. We get a chance to see Gaunt's past and how he thinks. There were interesting tidbits about Tona and Ezrah. Rawne certainly had his moments. The actual storyline was dry, with very little combat (and none on the epic scale that we have come to love) and it felt very detatched from the Warhammer universe. It felt like a rushed and hurried mess. Even the cover art is sorely lacking.

I think that it's required reading for any Ghosts fan just for the background. The rest of it felt bloodless and without any soul. I sincerely hope for a better book next time. The story concludes in an abrupt, sudden and jumbled fashion. I can only hope his next novel makes up for this epically boring read.

Gaunt's Ghosts are an elite scout unit fighting the endless wars of the 41st millennium. In this volume after years on the front line the Ghosts are redeployed to Balhaut, a safe world in the rear lines and must face a new foe - boredom.

The book starts slow, establishing that after years on the edge the Ghosts find themselves falling apart. Discipline is lax, some are committing crimes and even Commissar Gaunt is having trouble paying attention to his job. But this quiet time is shattered when the Blood Pact infiltrate Balhaut seeking to kill a Blood Pact prisoner before he can talk.

This book has a lot of promise. It's basically an inversion of an earlier book Traitor General where Gaunt had to execute a captured Imperial general before he talked; now Gaunt has to protect a traitor. Abnett does his usual excellent job of creating and fleshing out a new world. Balhaut is a cemetery world, the site of a Famous Victory where pilgrims and mourners come to remember those who died. Abnett introduces some fascinating characters including an artist who creates portraits of the dead complete with made up uniforms and non-existent medals.

But it really goes nowhere. Once the hero, villain and MacGuffin are introduced the plot goes in circles and no one is in serious danger. A few main characters get the same, tiresome, flesh wounds they've gotten in other books but in the end no matter how many fights they are in, no matter what crimes are committed, everyone is returned to their status quo.

I still enjoy Gaunt's Ghosts but my interest is dropping. Unless Abnett begins to shake up his comfortable collection of characters and put them at real risk I'm not sure I'll stick with it.

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