Soul Hunter [Paperback]

It has been quite some time since Simon Spurrier's very enjoyable "Lord of the Night", and finally, the Night Lords Legion is deigned with another novel dedicated solely to them. Somewhat different in tone and atmosphere from much of the Warhammer 40,000 fiction, "Soul Hunter" is a well written, atmospheric romp centering on this enigmatic Legion that is a real page-turner.

Your enjoyment of this novel will likely be heavily based on three things. First, it requires you to be somewhat steeped in Warhammer 40,000 lore, and is not a very good introduction to the universe from someone not already familiar with it (I would point you to Dan Abnett's "Eisenhorn" omnibus as a good first introduction to Warhammer 40,000 universe instead). If you have never read a novel based in this universe, many references integral to the enjoyment of this book will be lost, or will break the flow of the book as you attempt to look them up. Therefore, it is a great Warhammer 40,000 novel, but perhaps not a great general science fiction novel, especially for those not familiar with the universe. I have rated "Soul Hunter" as a Warhammer 40,000 novel, since probably 90% of the readers looking at this entry have arrived here because it is one, but had I not been a universe affictionado, the rating would have probably been somewhere around 3 stars, as it holds far less appeal to the general public outside of the fans of the universe.

Second, while "Soul Hunter" is not a direct sequel to "Lord of the Night", it does throw in more than a few Easter eggs to those who have read the previous Night Lords novel. It should be noted that reading "Lord of the Night" is not necessary for you to enjoy "Soul Hunter", but it does enhance the experience (not to mention that "Lord of the Night" is a very enjoyable novel on its own merits).

Third, while there are numerous action scenes, the overall pace of the novel can be a bit slower at times, as the characters are often brooding and pensive, spending quite a bit of time in flashbacks, thoughts of the past, or pondering on their future. Personally, I find it to be a refreshing change from some of the faster paced Warhammer 40,000 fiction, but if you are looking for constant, non-stop action, there are many introspective parts within "Soul Hunter" that may not be to your liking.

Now that the basic criteria is out of the way, I shall spend a little time discussing the plot. Talos, a former Apothecary turned de-facto sergeant of the 10th Company of the Night Lords Legion is afflicted with a prophetic ability, which makes him valuable to both the leader of his warband, and to Warmaster Abaddon, the leader of the fractuous forces of Chaos Space Marines. Throughout most of the book, Talos is subject to the manipulations of his immediate superior, as well as powerful Abaddon, which place him and his warriors in mortal danger time and again.

The portrayal of the main character is rather sympathetic, and the many flashbacks give him depth, while parts written from the perspective of human serf Septimus provide for a good contrast with the Space Marine sections. The portrayal of the degenerate, disintegrating remains of the Night Lords 10th Company is handled very convincingly, and the novel succeeds in maintaining a gloomy, "grimdark" atmosphere that is a trademark of Warhammer 40,000 universe. Talos' struggles against the slow descend of the warband and the Legion into Chaos worship and corruption are portrayed well and with sympathy, The quotations at the beginning of each chapter are appropriate to the story, and add more to the ambience of "Soul Hunter" without being too predictable.

My only issue with the book was the ending, which felt like it left a lot of loose ends, and had some rather uncharacteristic behavior from one character (who shall not be named for the fear of spoiling the surprise). I understand that it is supposed to be a first novel in the series, and it does make me wish to see the series continued soon, but some of the events feel almost a bit rushed, their potential not fully realized (for example, the impact of Malcharion appears to have been much smaller than the earlier parts of the novel led me believe). At the same time, I hope that the sequel will resolve those lingering issues, so that they are seen as lead-ins into the next book in the series.

Overall, if you are a Warhammer 40,000 or Night Lords fan, I would highly recommend "Soul Hunter".

I've always been one of those people that played the `good' side of any game. When I played World of Warcraft, it was as an Alliance character. I make all the good and moral decisions in Dragon Age and Mass Effect. So it was no surprise that I was, as many are, drawn to the forces of the Imperium when I found myself diving into the Warhammer 40k universe. From the Inquisition to the Astartes and the Imperial Guardsman, there is a dearth of literature and information on the "forces of good." And that's really all I've ever read. I knew of the Word Bearers books, but much despised them due to the Blood Angels series, and never really had any interest in any of the other traitor tomes.

And then Graham McNeill's A Thousand Sons came out.

In that book, I was first introduced to--what we now know as a traitor faction--a group of Astartes that, while in the current canon are heretical, intrigued me. Then I went to Adepticon and had the pleasure of chatting up Aaron Dembski-Bowden and his book, Soul Hunter, made its way into my luggage.

Being really unfamiliar with any of the fluff surrounding not only the Night Lords, whom Soul Hunter is about, but also the Chaos Space Marines in general, I didn't know what to expect when I cracked open the pages and began to read. What I got was a 2-day adventure into the unknown, and hopefully the start of an intriguing series.

Soul Hunter, again, focuses on a the Astartes of the Night Lords; more specifically, it focuses on Talos, a sergeant of the much diminished Night Lords 10th company and his compatriots, as they carve our their piece of the galaxy in the face of enemies, both Imperially aligned and otherwise. More so, Soul Hunter is an exploration of the character of a traitor Astartes chapter, with Talos as the focal point.

Talos is unique for quite a few reasons. First, Talos suffers from prophetic visions, much like his martyred Primarch Konrad Curze. They are debilitating and occur randomly, but they are a great boon to the company Talos keeps and a sought after commodity to those seeking power. He is also quite unique is his viewpoints of the Chaos gods. Quite simply, Talos does not accept the Chaos gods as his own, nor does he think highly of those that accept their power. We see this exemplified in his interaction with his superior, a Chaos-mutated Astartes named the Chosen and his slavering, Khorne-worshipping comrade, and the disdain in which he approaches them. Finally, Talos' has an affection for his serfs that is quite unexpected for a traitor Marine; his relationship with his serf Septimus is interesting and really adds to the novel's plot.

The crux of the plot focuses on Talos' efforts to keep his once proud, now depleted company of Astartes, from being completely annihilated and eventually return them to glory. Talos' prophetic abilities greatly help his cause, though they are not without problem. The first major plot event finds Talos' prophecies discovering an asteroid that is more than it seems, allowing him to acquire a slave that can benefit the chapter. Later, his abilities are sought after by the Warmaster Abbadon, to a less than harmonious result. The fractious nature and uneasy alliances of the Chaos Space Marines rears it's head in full force here, to great effect. The plot is well focused and driven, though I'd say the real strength of the plot is in the harmonious weaving together of the characters.

Dembski-Bowden has done a marvelous job of creating Talos as a sympathetic and relatable character, despite the fact that he is not a `good' character. Creating likeable bad guys is one of the hardest things to do in literature; amoral characters are by nature unlikable, so creating one such as Talos is really something. I think the real genius of the character, and the reason I found myself liking him, is the fact that he is affectionate towards Septimus and that he is opposed to the Chaos powers--the thing I find most objectionable about the Chaos Marines. Dembski-Bowden crafted a real winner with Talos.

The other facet of the novel that stood out so completely to me, and helped me to enjoy the book as thoroughly as I did, was Dembski-Bowden's prose. It is descriptive without being overly so, and is written with purpose and clear direction. Whereas some authors in the Black Library seem to occasionally wander with their narrative, Dembski-Bowden's is terse where it needs to be and more fully developed when appropriate. In addition, his pacing is spot on; he blends enough narrative and background information with more climactic sequences very well, and the novel reads quickly (I finished it in two days) as a result.

Because of his masterful character creation and well-paced plot, Aaron Dembski-Bowden has crafted a real winner in Soul Hunter. Talos ranks up there with my favorite Black Library characters (I'm even modeling a miniature after him!) and Soul Hunter is a great entry level novel for any Imperial fanboy that is looking to dip his toe into the heretical, and a must read for those of you already invested in the dark powers.

(8.5/10) Highly Recommended.

"One of the most intriguing and unusual novels from Black Library, Soul Hunter will challenge your perceptions about life as a Traitor Astartes." ~The Founding Fields

I have read precious little of the published work of Aaron Dembski-Bowden, limited to his Horus Heresy novel The First Heretic and his short stories in the first two Space Marine anthologies and the Horus Heresy: Age of Darkness anthology. Up until I picked up Soul Hunter and its sequel Blood Reaver at Games Day UK 2011, I was fairly impressed with his work. There is something about the quality of his work, the style, the characters, the setting, the unexplored concepts that is highly evocative and suitably tight in its execution.

Truth be told, I was never interested in the Night Lords novels until very recently and my friends kept asking me to give them a chance. Of course, after reading his Horus Heresy work, I was really looking forward to seeing how he tackled a proper full-length 40k story. Short stories only get you so far.

So it was with a fair bit of excitement that I picked up this novel and started reading through it. My first reaction after getting through the first few chapters was one of surprise and not a little disappointment.

I think that is a case of buying too much into the hype surrounding the novels. Everybody praises Soul Hunter as one of the best BL novels, the reviews are stellar, the author himself is lauded all across fandom, and even has a cult following that would like nothing less than to have him be the mover and shaker in the Horus Heresy stories yet to be told.

And that really threatened to ruin the book for me and I nearly put it down because of how simple, straightforward and slow it seemed.

But I am glad I stuck through with it. I knew a little about what to expect in terms of the plot since I find spoilers so irresistible.

But you know what? I enjoyed the novel. I certainly have mixed feelings about it but it is one of the books which I will happily read again and again for the sheer entertainment value.

The Night Lords are a legion that has never really had any major screen time until Aaron came around. They featured in Graham's prequel short story Chains of Command for his Ultramarines novels, and they featured in Lee Lightner's first Space Wolf novel, Sons of Fenris. In the former, the Night Lords undertake a tank assault while in the latter they use misdirection and traps in a city battle. Two different cameo portrayals and two very unsatisfying outlooks on the legion. If there is more, I have yet to get around to reading any of it.

For me, Soul Hunter challenged my perceptions of the legion. I'd always seen them as vicious, murderous, Raptor-loving Chaos Marines. Those last two words are important: Chaos Marines. The Night Lords are anything but. They are also not Raptor-lovers like most people believe them to be. While the other eight legions gave themselves over to the Chaos Gods, the Eighth Legion remained separate from that inevitable corrupting influence, succeeding for the most part.

They are also not the well-off, living the high life type of Traitor Marines I thought all Chaos warbands are. They are something totally different and Aaron does a great job of portraying that aspect of it. He hammers it at you again and again until you accept it and then a bit more. I don't say that with any disrespect however and I laud his efforts at making it so crystal clear again and again.

It is needed.

The once proud legion is now split off into warbands, scavenging off their dead enemies, allies and brothers alike. They are losing direction because their Primarch's guiding influence has been lost to them. Bereft of purpose, they have been reduced to brokering deals with others more powerful than themselves for what amounts to scrap. Some among the splintered legion do not even care about staying true to the Night Haunter's visions. They are all out for themselves.

All except for the First Claw of Tenth Company: Talos, Cyrion, Xarl, Uzas and Mercutian the newbie. There is a very clear vibe throughout the novel that First Claw is just tired of the state of the legion, and their company in particular. Numbers are at an all-time low, their Captain is a maniac, too much infighting in the company and so on.

Things need to change, sooner the better.

But that is not all the novel is about. We get a very human perspective into the shadows and darkness legion in the form of Talos' servants, his artificer Septimus and the company's new navigator Octavia, as well Septimus' interactions with the other human crew of the company's strike cruiser Covenant of Blood. So we don't see the legion just from the Space Marines' points of view, but from that of the regular humans as well.

It makes for a very nice and unusual narrative that I must say I find unique in the current offerings of Space Marine centric novels for precisely that reason. This approach is very common in the Horus Heresy series as well.

Although unlike the Heresy novels, where I am getting slightly bored by the constant human perspectives in nearly every book, it is refreshing in the mainstream 40k novels. It makes for a very gloomy, dichotomous and engaging reading which on a lot of reflection I find that I actually quite enjoyed. When I first finished reading the novel I didn't like it, but having thought about it, my feelings were unfounded.

What makes Soul Hunter a great novel is that it challenges you at every turn. It forces you to accept that not all the traitor legions and warbands are coloured with the same heavy brush-stroke of `They are evil Chaos-worshippers'. It forces you to accept that sometimes even the elite Space Marines sometimes do not get to fight on their own terms with a proper execution of their trademark doctrines. It forces you to accept that not all Space Marines, whether good or bad (notice I don't say good or evil), actually act all the time like Space Marines. Cyrion is perhaps the best example of this and he is my favourite character in the entire novel for his witty quips and comments.

In that same vein, Aaron's dialogue is also very good and as someone who struggles quite a bit with it for my fanfics, it is also educational to a degree. All the characters, whether it is Talos the Prophet, Uzas who is slowly falling to Khorne, Cyrion the smart-ass, Captain Vandred the Possessed or Octavia the newly inducted-against-her-will servant, they all have their unique voices. They act like how they should, and they talk like they should. They are each different from each other, with different mindsets, different ideologies, different perspectives, and Aaron gets it all across very clearly.

The theme of shadows and darkness is also quite prevalent throughout the entire novel, and it makes you feel like you are walking into a house of horrors, except one where your own friends are more dangerous than your surroundings. I felt spooked at times for sure.

The only main criticism that I can really apply to the novel in all honesty is the slow pace of it, even during the action scenes. There is an attitude in the novel that things will play out in their own time and that there is no reason to rush the ending. I am not a fan of that. I can see that it is necessary for the narrative but I still don't enjoy it. I like my adrenaline-pumping scenes too much, which is why I found the last third of the novel with its boarding actions to be the highlight of the novel. I wish it had been expanded upon a bit more.

C'est la vie.

If you want a change of pace from the other Black Library books, if you want to experiment with your reading, or if you are a fan of the Night Lords, I recommend this book. It is definitely one of the must-reads of Black Library fiction and it showcases more than The First Heretic just why Aaron is as good as he is. Not to mention that the trilogy has just started with this one and these guys are going to back in no time at all when I review Blood Reaver next.

Score-wise, I will have to give the novel a 9.5/10. Originally, after having just finished it, that score would have been quite a bit lower. But like I said, this book forced me to really think about why I didn't like it and it ended up that I actually did like it. It is a very thoughtful novel, more so than most other Space Marine novels and it works very well in it's favour. The epilogue is also grand, setting the stage for the eventual showdown.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 27 reviews  3.9 out of 5 stars