Synopsis: Inquisitor Roth and his henchman Silverstein are sent to the worlds of the Medina Corridor to uncover the location of a set of ancient artefacts. Meanwhile, the Ironclads, a force of Chaos traitors, invades the subsector in search of their artefacts for their own nefarious ends. With the Ironclads' indomitable army crushing all before it, will Roth be able to find the artefacts in time and prevent a terrible cataclysm engulfing the Medina worlds?
What to expect: Quite a surprise actually! When I read the recommendation of Dan Abnett on the front I thought "big whoop!" but hot damn, Dan's words ring true. Henry Zou knows what he writes and his military background shines through, presenting a well written and enjoyable novel that is heavily grounded in realism, despite the lasers and mysterious space magic.
At first I was a bit thrown off, the introduction gave us a very well-written invasion of an Imperial world, where the Ironclad, a large renegade Guard army, first strike with a sudden and unexplained fervour. We are then introduced to the main character, Inquisitor Roth, who at first struck me as a pompous arsehole with his actions. But this was quickly replaced by actual care for him and made me look at him in a somewhat different light. The other characters are equally interesting for the most part, with a nice twist or two along the way that had me nod happily. Good show!
Most surprisingly was the amount of humanity found in this novel. Just little blurbs of citizens suffering under the Ironclad here and there, but those tiny blurbs, while horrible, do add to the humanity of the novel. You never hear about those things. Of the so-called patriotism of a world at war where people line the streets ready to donate blood to their nearest hospital for the coming fighting, of grief struck parents begging a miner to dig through the rubble of their home in search of their child, the reaction of a crowd bursting in tears upon finding the bodies. Ripped from the headlines, these little blurbs could easily fit into our era, but they aren't. And these little blurbs are what made it such a captivating read, it had humanity, it tells you what happens to the citizens.
Of course, the CantiCol are the primary fighting force alongside the Ironclad. A great deal of the novel is spent with them, an interesting regiment to say at the very least. And such glory! The last stand of the 66th(?), the siege of a hive city, the elite Lancers. Marvellous.
A few minor nitpicks are the main character coming across as a pompous a** at first and the naming and description of some of the weapons could've been a bit better. But it doesn't really detract from a great read and a great opening to a promising series.
Final Verdict: This isn't Eisenhorn, or Ravenor, but that's not meant in a bad way. It's good to see someone else write something Inquisition oriented and succeed. Some minor nagging points aside I really enjoyed reading this and I can't wait to see where the prequel coming out soon and the other instalments will take these series. All I can say is Gaunt's Ghosts have found their match when it comes down to good and solid Guard fiction.
4,5 out of 5
