40k books: The Killing Ground

[Bob the Gunslinger]

I haven't really been keeping up with the latest few 40k books to come out, but instead of just asking for a bunch of reviews I've decided to start with a review of my own.

The Killing Ground, Graham MacNeill's follow up to the horrible Dead Sky, Black Sun, was a pretty good book. Uriel and Pasanius are both likable characters, even if they are not the most interesting. Once again, MacNeill shows that he is much, much better at writing non-Astartes characters; MacNeill demonstrates some real talent by eliciting more than a few emotional responses to his characters and I was genuinely touched in one scene. There are a few surprises in the story (not exactly twists), and many of the loose ends from DSBS get tied up at the end.

Overview: Uriel and Pasanius, as well as the Unfleshed, arrive on Salinas, a recently conquered planet with a strong resistance movement, i.e. the 40k stand in for Iraq. While the Unfleshed hide from humanity and attempt to find peace with their conditions and the Emperor, Uriel and Pasanius surrender themselves to Colonel Kain (heh), one of the occupiers responsible for the atrocity referred to as the Killing Ground Massacre and quickly entangle themselves in the Planet's politics. That's when the dead begin using the recent surge of warp energies on Salinas to come back and haunt the perpetrators of the massacre. Uriel must find a way to stop the warp ghosts before the entire planet is destabilized, while finding some way to insure the Unfleshed their safety... There is more to the story, but I don't want to spoil anything.

The Good: MacNeill's portrayal of Salinas as an occupied territory was much easier for me to enjoy than BSG's New Caprica, and the analogy was handled with more subtlety. There were a lot of interesting characters, both good and bad, and even Uriel came across well. The subplot dealing with the Unfleshed's search for salvation was moving, even if it felt a bit smooshed on out of necessity, what with the Killing Ground following DSBS. There's a scene near the end that nearly brought a tear to my eye. Finally, I really enjoyed the portrayal of ...well, let's call them the special guest characters of this episode, since I don't want to give too much away.

The Bad: Much of the bad elements of the book are a direct result of the suck that was DSBS. There are far too many goofy explanations and embarrassing actions spread throughout the book for me to single any out, but the constant fallout from the previous book did hurt The Killing Ground and may even destroy some of the SOD necessary to enjoy it. The other major weakness of the book was the action. In this novel, Space Marines seem to suffer from Inverse Ninja Competence syndrome to the point where some very elite soldiers are killed instantly by attacks that shouldn't even scratch the paint on their armor. The battle scenes might have worked in a Marvel Comic book kind of way, but just felt hugely inconsistent with the 40k universe as I know it, and even more so after reading some of Connor MacLeod's fantastic work on the 40k canon. Finally, there were some pacing issues, but non nearly as bad as what DSBS suffered through.

In conclusion, I liked the book, and I would recommend it to anyone who is a somewhat serious 40k fan (enough to have read DSBS), but not to casual fans. In either case, you should probably wait for the paperback. If Graham MacNeill were to write his own SF setting, or even just some 40k books without Space Marines, I would definitely buy them.


Now, have I missed any really good Warhammer books lately? I haven't read anything else that's come out since before Hammer of Daemons.