The Emperor's Gift - A review with Tzeentch

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

Greetings jellywurzells and marshthumpers, your dark master is here!

Today I am going to explain to you how amazingly awesome The Emperor's Gift is!

The Emperor's Gift by Aaron Dembski-Bowden

Non spoiler part:
Well, this book is just so superbly written, the characters are very easy to know, and the main character is about as far from Mary Sue land as possible.

The story follows Hyperion, a Grey Knight of the 8th Brotherhood. He's a member of squad Castian, by the sounds of it squads are named after their founder - I like this.
He's quite clearly an Interceptor, it's on his cover after all.
Squad Castian is as follows:
Justicar Galeo
Sothis (brother to Malchadiel)
Malchadiel (brother to Sothis)
Dumenidon
and Hyperion

Overall, this was a brilliant read that kept me on edge and kept throwing surprises at me

Rating: 5 out of 5


Spoilerific soufflé:
SOTHIS GETS KILLED! Sad times!
He tries to save Hyperion from getting killed by a Greater Daemon as he values Hyperion's life over his own
This book is all about the 1st war for Armageddon, Angron features quite heavily in this book
Logan Grimnar is an absolute badass (and a Jarl to boot)
Each of Squad Castian undergoes mental and physical challenges. There's quite a strain within the squad.
I felt quite happy and a bit sad about Hyperion to be honest, he found out who he was (a mate of Gideon Ravenor!!!), he's also a massive psychic leech, which is kinda cool.

[isotope99]

First war of armageddon sounds like a good backdrop as it's been less explored as far as I can tell.

On a more boring practical point, I believe that this book is only available hardcover and not paperback, which more than doubles the price and makes it harder to carry around (the main reason I ddin't pick up a pre-order copy).

As I am not yet a convert to the e-book, I would prefer it if Black Library were to release paperback options (which to be fair they do for most of their books). Haven't got the latest Ciaphas Cain book for this reason too.

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

That was released in paperback recently wasn't it? (haven't read any of Ciaphas Cain, to my lament)

Yeah, I admit that it's a bit steep, but I just walked into GW and saw the cover - I had to have it.
I suppose that because I buy BL limited edition books I'm not massively surprised by hardbacks.

It's an amazing battle, if the allies matrix comes into Warhammer 40k then I'm doing the Wolves with the Grey Knights. :D

[Psychosplodge]

It was reasonable, above average for the output of BL, shame it's hardback(takes up more of my already overflowing shelf space) as it's not hard back good in the same league as Cain, and Ravernor. IDK if it just hints too much at things that even the heresy series hasn't touched on (though i haven't read the GK codex so stuff might be in there anyways)

but yeah 6/10

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

I like that all the high-ranking Wolves are called Jarl, a nice tip to Skyrim. :D

[alshrive]

nice review, i appreciate the fact that nothing plot related is given away and i am intrigued. this i may need to stick on my kindle and have a read of!

[Defenestratus]

Greetings jellywurzells and marshthumpers, your dark master is here!

Today I am going to explain to you how amazingly awesome The Emperor's Gift is!

The Emperor's Gift by Aaron Dembski-Bowden

Non spoiler part:
Well, this book is just so superbly written, the characters are very easy to know, and the main character is about as far from Mary Sue land as possible.

The story follows Hyperion, a Grey Knight of the 8th Brotherhood. He's a member of squad Castian, by the sounds of it squads are named after their founder - I like this.
He's quite clearly an Interceptor, it's on his cover after all.
Squad Castian is as follows:
Justicar Galeo
Sothis (brother to Malchadiel)
Malchadiel (brother to Sothis)
Dumenidon
and Hyperion

Overall, this was a brilliant read that kept me on edge and kept throwing surprises at me

Rating: 5 out of 5



Finished it last night, my only complaints about the book were this:

1) The start seemed kind of slow. I know it didn't seem like it due to all the action but still.
2) The Knights seemed a little TOO human. Including some un-needed sexual tension IMO.
3) The whole "Battle Royale" got HBO'd (think Game of Thrones) a bit. It could have been much more epic.

After the massive rumble, I couldn't put it down.

[Wolfshade]

I dislike the hardback books, or when the change the covers/sizes. I have to have all my books in a series the same edition, it irritates me too much otherwise. Also having series written by different authros, do I organise them based on their author like my other books or do I have them in an in story order together or a special shelf dedicated to them

[Psychosplodge]

I like that all the high-ranking Wolves are called Jarl, a nice tip to Skyrim. :D

That's more to do with the vikings space wolves are based on...


I dislike the hardback books, or when the change the covers/sizes. I have to have all my books in a series the same edition, it irritates me too much otherwise. Also having series written by different authros, do I organise them based on their author like my other books or do I have them in an in story order together or a special shelf dedicated to them


^^^THIS

a million times this.
Though I always arrange by series, then author, then genre...

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

Finished it last night, my only complaints about the book were this:

1) The start seemed kind of slow. I know it didn't seem like it due to all the action but still.
2) The Knights seemed a little TOO human. Including some un-needed sexual tension IMO.
3) The whole "Battle Royale" got HBO'd (think Game of Thrones) a bit. It could have been much more epic.

After the massive rumble, I couldn't put it down.

I get what you mean by these points, though what ADB was going for with the tension was that Marines appreciate the feminine form but aren't aroused by it as they've been trained to ignore it.

@psycho - I spoke to ADB about this, it was mainly from Skyrim as he was addicted to it at the time, though historically fitting due to the mythology.

[Psychosplodge]

Fair enough, but as both the nord (norse) and space wolves are viking based anyways....lol

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

Yeah, I know, but Skyrim is an awesome game.
I believe that he made Grimnar come across a bit like Ulfric Stormcloak.

[Psychosplodge]

Not got round to playing skyrim yet, still waiting for it to drop to £20 I won't pay more than that for a game anymore, i'll just wait for it to get there...

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

It's worth every penny, I haven't even thought of trading it in.

[Psychosplodge]

I never trade games in, I try not to buy second hand, I just wait, which is usually better anyway as new releases are buggy as hell since internet enabled consoles...

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

"internet enabled consoles" - TDA dies a little inside. :(

[miteyheroes]

To bring the thread back on track... Oh my gods. What a book. Bloody amazing. Everything with the aftermath of the 1st War was just shocking and totally page-turning. Went much further than previous fluff about the 1st War, and was amazing.

[musical-fool]

I read this a few weeks ago and picked it because I thought that the story described by the blurb sounded intriguing enough to get me through my night shifts.

I have to say that I was extremely pleased to read it, I couldn't put it down. I also liked the SW interaction in the book (so much so that I have just finished the battle for the Fang, also well worth the read).

I agree with what has been said before about the sexual tension, is that the real emperor's gift, they still have urges towards the opposite sex? I dunno, but it felt wrong within such a context.

It is very much worth the read anyway.

I forgot to mention that the author's introduction to the book is an excellent insight to BL and wrighting generally, I thought.

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

Yeah, Aaron's a pretty cool chap when it comes to things like that. I especially love how he commented on his dedication to his daughter, then he got a son! "Curse you Alexander, why are you a man!?"