My son got me this book. It's part of the
multitude of Warhammer 40,000 novels that were inspired by the games of the same name. If you're
unfamiliar with Warhammer 40K, it started out as a tabletop miniatures wargame set in a
dystopian science fantasy universe. From there, it's branched out into TTRPGs and video games.
My experience with it is limited to one videogame on the PS2, which I enjoyed until I got stuck.
Honestly, I have no idea where this book fits in the game's timeline, and as it takes place over several millenia—and I'm sure that I'm lowballing that guess—I don't know if that even matters.
Two immortal beings, Trazyn the Infinite and Orikan the Divine, are rivals seeking out an artifact that could... [sigh] Does it matter? It's just a MacGuffin that the two of them spend forever fighting over.
I think you have to be a fan of the game to appreciate this book.
A good deal of the novel is spent with these two ridiculously powerful beings battling one another or others getting in their way. These battles read like a MadLib™ of combat where you fill in the blanks of some weapon name and what it does while the other puts up a defense to counter said attack. Meanwhile, lesser beings serve as cannon fodder, willingly or not. To be honest, I found these battles boring because both characters are just so seriously overpowered that they're never in any serious danger. When you're lead to believe one of them might actually be seriously wounded or slain...Psych! They just transfer their consciousness into a prefab clone or whatever.
And for a pair of immortals who have lived far too long, they display the emotional maturity of two kids fighting over who gets to play with the dump truck in the sandbox.
Now this book does have its moments, and Robert Rath knows how to write them. You can see it when the two lead characters set aside their differences from time to time to work together or when he does a deep dive into the lore of the Warhammer 40K universe. But I also think that Rath is boxed in by the Warhammer 40K parameters that there must be X amount of battle scenes featuring Z amount of carnage. I wouldn't mind seeing what he can do on his own. But considering how successful he is in this sandbox, why would he bother?
2.5 stars
\_/
DED
