Nightspear

The Carnac Campaign #1

by Joe Parrino

The dread forces of the necrons have descended upon the maiden world of Carnac. Led by Anrakyr the Traveller, the deathless hordes march across the verdant plains of the eldar world, bringing death to all in their path. In desperation, the seers of Alaitoc send Illic Nightspear and his pathfinders to kill the necron overlord and end the invasion at a single stroke. But Anrakyr’s allies have clouded the skeins of fate and Illic’s band of rangers find themselves not the hunters, but the prey…

Read it because
Illic Nightspear is sent to assassinate the leaders of a necron host on the maiden world Carnac. But a necron trap leaves Illic and his rangers hunted by necron deathmarks…

Genres: Short Stories, 40k, Science Fiction

42 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 24, 2013

About the author

Joe Parrino is the author of the audio drama The Shape of the Hunt and the short stories 'Witness', 'The Patient Hunter', 'In Service to Shadows' and 'No Worse Sin'. He lives, writes and works in the American Pacific Northwest. When not writing, Joe can be found skulking through the rain-lashed forests of the region. Like the elusive sasquatch, he enjoys reading, writing, pestering friends, traveling and other assorted activities.

Reviews

[Stephan · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I bought this short story I made the mistake of thinking it was an Eldar story.
I mean, it was released at the same time as the Eldar got some shiny new miniatures (remember: this is based of a miniature wargame) and was probably intended as a piece of fiction to promote the newest toys.

I couldn't be more wrong.
The new character, Illic Nightspear is a highly competent marksman and sniper. He's travelled the galaxy for hundreds of years, seeking out the enemies of the eldar and ending them all.
Here he gets his very own short story where he.
a) Runs from the Necrons
b) screams and rages
c) fails at everything he attempts

Way to go giving us an Eldar short story...
A better way of describing it would be to call it an Eldar story from a Necron perspective.
We can actually rewrite the title as well into "the Carnac Campaign part 1. Necron Deathmarks"

...A pity, really. Wasted potential.

If you like Necrons though, then this might be quite a good read!

[Lane Callahan · Rating 2 out of 5]

ok this was quite average. i actualyl found the prose itself very beautiful and well written, but other than that this felt confusing, unclear, and messy. i appreciated a more artsy/vague style of writing in a 40k book, but the lack of explicit descriptions of....anything....was almost comical. it was cool to see different aspects of eldar society, and to see a legendary eldar figure in action, but as always they were still written to somehow lose abjectly - so disappointing. nice short and sharp at least

[Abhinav · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was reviewed as part of a full Carnac Campaign review and can be read in full on my blog:

http://sonsofcorax.wordpress.com/2013...

Its been ages since I’ve read any Black Library short stories. I used to read them quite religiously up until January of this year, but then it all just kind of fell off since I was focusing far more on reading novels, whether from Black Library or any other publisher. A couple weeks ago, I started to go through some of the recently released short stories, and by “recently released” I mean the last eight months. And I was intimidated by how many had been released in this window.

However, the ones that really caught my eye were the three short stories that featured the Eldar and told the three-stage tale of the Carnac Campaign. Written by Joe Parrino, Graeme Lyon and Rob Sanders, these short stories proved to be among the best of the format that I’ve read over the years from Black Library. Nightspear, Sky Hunter, and Spirit War each tells us a different aspect of the Carnac Campaign, and I thoroughly enjoyed each of them.

First of all, just look at that fantastic painted cover. Such a great composition, capturing an Eldar Ranger in action, which is no small feat, if one knows much abut these warriors. I’ve seen some great Black Library covers over the years, especially in late 2011 and early 2012, but this one most definitely stands out as being among the very best.

The story itself features, as should be apparent, Eldar Rangers. The main character of the story is an Eldar “hero” of the kind I’d expect to see in a codex, Illic Nightspear, and his characterisation by Joe is one of the main strengths of the story. Nightspear deals very much with how Illic responds to the Necron invasion of the Exodite world of Carnac, especially in the face of unexpected complications which showcase both the strength of the invaders and the Eldar Rangers alike.

And that is something that I definitely appreciated a great deal. Joe doesn’t either side of the conflict an unfair advantage over the other. There is balance here. The Necrons have the upper hand in the first half, but Illic and the other Rangers retaliate in the second half and they too get the upper hand. Additionally, the cold, silent ruthlessness of the Necrons is balanced against the repressed control of the Eldar over their emotions. There is passion in their actions and in their response to the Necrons, in a way that totally fits with with the Eldar mindset.

I wasn’t expecting to like Nightspear so much, and I’m glad that I did. And I think its also the first Joe Parrino BL story I’ve read and much as with David Annandale’s Eclipse of Hope last year, Joe is off to a fantastic start. I expect more goodness from him.

[Lenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is a tough nut to crack but once you do it holds a treasure trove of information about the eldar and in particular the exodites. It feels like it is written to resemble poetry with reoccurring descriptions and sentences. This makes it a weird reading experience, especially for a 40k story. But funny enough it works and after a while it clicks.

The story itself is okay. It follows Illic Nightspear after a disastrous assassination attempt on a necron lord. The fully routed outcast and exodite host suffers disastrous casualties as they withdraw to the webway gates to bring word of defeat to the craftworlds. It's serves as a great story hook for the other stories in the Carnac Campaign.

Furthermore it is the only novel I know of centered around the exodites. There is the audio drama, the path forsaken, and some HH novellas that also references these enigmatic figures but I'm very happy this exists to flesh them out some more. Hopefully we get some more exodites soon.

[Hakan · Rating 3 out of 5]

O.K. story but, as it becomes customary with the Black Library and Games Workshop, waaaaaaay to pricey for the amount of content :-(

[Premysl Fiala · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually a very good reading.