Commissar

Imperial Guard

by Andy Hoare

An Astra Militarum novel

The disgraced Vostroyan 77th Imperial Guard face a violent uprising on a prison planet, not to mention the hostile attentions of their new commissar. Can they achieve victory and restore their reputation?

READ IT BECAUSE
It's an interesting take on the Imperial Guard – seeing a disgraced unit through the eyes of the commissar who's been sent to turn them back into a useful fighting unit.

THE STORY
Deployed to the prison planet of Furia Penitens to quell a violent uprising, the 77th Vostroyan Firstborn regiment of the Imperial Guard find themselves in a precarious position. The rebels are in a fortified prison-hive, all but impenetrable. A disgrace suffered by their forebears haunts them. And they hate their new commissar… Can Commissar Flint bring them victory and restore their reputation, or will the 77th fail again?

Genres: 40k, Science Fiction

289 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 2013

Reviews

[Sud666 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Commissar is the story of the Vostroyan 77th Firstborn Regiment. It is also about Commissar Flint.

The 77th was wiped out in a previous engagement and has been completely reconstituted. Commissar Flint has been sent as Regimental Commissar and is charged with bringing them up to fighting form. Their first mission is on a Prison planet undergoing a rebel uprising.

But there are a lot of subplots going on. From the secrets of the 77th's strange chain of command to the potentially heretical experiments going on within the prison. Who knows how much is a great story. It is always interesting to see other parts of the Imperium other than the Adeptus Astartes. The Commissar was very interesting. The ideas behind the 77th are also very well done.

This is an action packed, yet mysterious, tale. Full of rebels, mutants and psykers. Not the usual Space Marine fare (in fact not a single Space Marine makes an appearance). A fun read and a worthy addition to the Warhammer 40K novels.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a straight up, shooting from the hip, Imperial Guard novel. The Commissar, Flint is a strong and devout servant of the Emperor and the plots and and intrigue he finds himself and his newly re-forged Army in are insane. This book is well written and has strong and memorable characters. The fight scenes are dirty and visceral. It is nice to see a writer go into how students of the Schola Progenium are trained and how they work within a functioning Guard regiment. The powers and duties of a Commissar are overwhelming, the duty and dedication to duty and inspiration a Commissar reflects upon his troops is well defined here. Overall a great book and a unique delving into what it is to serve as a political combat officer amongst the Armies of the 41st Millenium.

Danny

[Paulo "paper books only" · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading this novel in only 3 days I don't think this was a very solid read.
First of all it went the same way other Commissar novels go. We expect them to be brutal and here we have a character that thinks he is hard when he must but overall he didn't even had to execute anyone.

Most of characters besides Flint, Kohlz (which to me felt like Jurgen) and Vahn all other characters were poorly developed.

I thought this would give more insight on Vostroyan, Penal Facilities or even on Penal Legion and it gave nothing at all. The only thing I learn is that Vostroyan mentality reminds me of Chinese from the 3 Century or so. So, even if he is a criminal just because he is your more "important" cousin in hierarchy of your family you can't do anything? Bah

The all colonel stuff and history was smelled a thousand leagues away.
The ending was a bit fast and unfortunately I didn't get the all "the convicts that fought for you are going to fight under the commissar" in just one line or so. Bah...

All in all, not that good. Sorry. Both fifteen Hours and Deathworld are way better.

[David Somers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually one of the better 40k novels I've read. Started well, became excellent but started to peter out a little at the end though finished well.

Not as grimdark as some books but plenty of visceral combat to keep you going. Wish we had learnt more of the backgrounds of the lead characters and hope to see them in a future book.

[Tjalli Óðins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the best Imperial Guard novel but quite enjoyable. (3 1/2 stars)

For what it lacked in story, it made up for it with so much gore and horrific descriptions of slain and butcherd prisoners/Glavigers.

Commissioner Flint is a bad ass (like all Imperial Guard that survive more than one battle) that is sent to a prison colony to stop an uprising. Accompanied by the 77th Vostroyan Firstborn, who were recently decimated and rebuilt.

But something is not right at this world and treachery looms.

It starts off slow and finishes fast, not much time spent on fleshing out characters, but enough to get a feel for them. It is a tad bit gorier than the other novels I've read (in the series), but not as bleak. Which I find a strange combo, but it works for this novel.
Also I likes the ragtag group of prisoners made of ex-Imperial guards.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is a bit slow at the start but once it got going it was interesting. It had some twists that weren't expected and others that were. I would recommend this book for anyone who is a fan of the Vostroyans, as it gives a little bit of insight into the regiments

[Ulzeta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite fun.

[Adrian Dumitru · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good! I want more - maybe a series!

[Joanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic!!!!!

[Robert McCarroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the sort of book I hope for whenever I crack open a Guard novel. While the description is unassuming and does not fire up expectations, the yarn is well crafted, intriguing and never once feels like it's dragging or padded. That's not to say its infested with action beats, there are slow moments and sequences, along with tense scenes that make the eventual action beat pay off even better. The characters are varied, and some are better developed than others. The only part that strained my suspension of disbelief was an overflow channel that periodically flooded due to condensation in an inactive reactor (or something to that effect). The reason why the mechanism would pulse excess water at semi-regular intervals was poorly explained, as was the reationale behind having a watertight access hatch for an unrelated system coming up through the bottom of the drainage channel. Though I was able to get past this setpiece without being tossed from the overall story.

[Salatir · Rating 2 out of 5]

A decent Imperial Guard novel focusing on a commissar not named Gaunt or Cain. Set on a penal planet, the story is less about full on Guard battles and more about a strike team focused on infiltrating the hive-sized prison, locating the commander of the rebellion, and eliminating him. Though only slightly reminiscent of The Last Chancers, Commissar allows itself to be free of moralizing and pursuit of redemption. It's a straightforward read with little in the way of surprises, some suspense, and a rather flat ending. Whether a victim of due date, editorializing, or just running out of steam, Commissar lacked the "payoff" that other Warhammer books provide: an epic battle with the Big Bad Heretic. The novel ends with adequate closure but little Wow factor that would make me look for a sequel. Decently written, without mangling the language, but an otherwise average read.

[Bill Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read. At times I was disenchanted with the main character's reliance on a secondary group of characters rather than the group he initially started with - would have liked to see those (the provosts) guys utilized and fleshed out more. The combat gets a little muddy at times, and the maze-like structure the story takes place in makes descriptions of direction difficult and hard to keep track of (which portal are we at again? did we go back to the main chamber is this a new area?). There were also a couple of characters that seriously needed some commissariat sanction (read: bolt to the face) that unsatisfactorily did not receive such treatment... grr... Despite these issues, I enjoyed the book.

[Jona Marklund · Rating 4 out of 5]

An awesome read.

I just finished a train ride stretching over almost 10 hours, thanks to this book, most of these went by in what felt like minutes (it ended at some point, which in the case of this book was quite saddening).

While Andy Hoare isn't quite as linguistic as for example Dan Abnett I still enjoyed this book a great deal, if you liked Guant's Ghosts or just find Commissars to be fascinating in general, give it a read!

[Stephan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very good read. the only problem I had was that the main character was a bit too flawless, the author repeated himself a bit and that he never killed off any of the original characters. If he needed someone in the unit to die, you could bet on it being the recently added redshirt we just learned the name of. But still an awesome story!

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you can get through the first 150 pages the book speeds up considerably. However, it's mostly dry with no redemption for half of the characters that you follow throughout the story. If you want a Commissar story, stick to Cain or Gaunt.

[Chris Muck · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a good story. It bogged down in a few places as we figured out certain groups intentions, but overall not bad. If you are looking for a gritty 40k novel then go ahead and read it.

[Thiện Thái · Rating 3 out of 5]

Typical Commissar job, and Imperial Guard job.
Nothing inspire. Lot of text. Seem bored.

[Mark Horner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good but could have been much better