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Blood Angels #3-4
Blood Angels: The Second Omnibus
A classic Warhammer 40,000 villain attacks! Fabius Bile plots to bring the Blood Angels low using their most precious artefact – the blood of the primarch Sanguinius himself.
The Blood Angels stand apart from the other Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes, descending from the skies on wings of flame. While they are renowned for their ten-thousand-year history of glorious battle and honourable deeds, these secretive Space Marines seek to hide the dark flaws at the core of their being – the Red Thirst and the Black Rage – from the rest of the Imperium. Do they fight any longer for the protection of mankind, or merely for their own salvation?
The Blood Angels stand apart from the other Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes, descending from the skies on wings of flame. While they are renowned for their ten-thousand-year history of glorious battle and honourable deeds, these secretive Space Marines seek to hide the dark flaws at the core of their being – the Red Thirst and the Black Rage – from the rest of the Imperium. Do they fight any longer for the protection of mankind, or merely for their own salvation?
688 pages, Paperback
First published January 31, 2012
13 people are currently reading
216 people want to read
About the author
James Swallow
302 books1,070 followersJames Swallow is a New York Times, Sunday Times and Amazon #1 bestselling author and scriptwriter, a BAFTA nominee, a former journalist and the award-winning writer of over sixty-five books, along with scripts for video games, comics, radio and television.
DARK HORIZON, his latest stand-alone thriller, is out now from Mountain Leopard Press, and OUTLAW, the 6th action-packed Marc Dane novel, is published by Bonnier.
Along with the Marc Dane thrillers, his writing includes, the Sundowners steampunk Westerns and fiction from the worlds of Star Trek, Tom Clancy, 24, Warhammer 40000, Doctor Who, Deus Ex, Stargate, 2000AD and many more.
For information on new releases & more, sign up to the Readers’ Club here: www.bit.ly/JamesSwallow
Visit James's website at http://www.jswallow.com/ for more, including ROUGH AIR, a free eBook novella in the Marc Dane series.
You can also follow James on Bluesky at @jmswallow.bsky.social, Twitter at @jmswallow, Mastodon at @jmswallow@mstdn.social and jmswallow.tumblr.com at Tumblr.
DARK HORIZON, his latest stand-alone thriller, is out now from Mountain Leopard Press, and OUTLAW, the 6th action-packed Marc Dane novel, is published by Bonnier.
Along with the Marc Dane thrillers, his writing includes, the Sundowners steampunk Westerns and fiction from the worlds of Star Trek, Tom Clancy, 24, Warhammer 40000, Doctor Who, Deus Ex, Stargate, 2000AD and many more.
For information on new releases & more, sign up to the Readers’ Club here: www.bit.ly/JamesSwallow
Visit James's website at http://www.jswallow.com/ for more, including ROUGH AIR, a free eBook novella in the Marc Dane series.
You can also follow James on Bluesky at @jmswallow.bsky.social, Twitter at @jmswallow, Mastodon at @jmswallow@mstdn.social and jmswallow.tumblr.com at Tumblr.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 14, 2012
James Swallow's excursions into the 40k universe are always amongst the strangest - not for their content (which is typically macabre), but something about his writing style just feels out-of-step with his peers. He writes them as pretty straight forward action-adventure stuff, but if I could put my finger on why it feels a little different - I'd have to say there's a touch of anime in there. Not in the setting, obviously (which, being 40k, are decidedly European), but something about his characters, and his stories.
It's hard to explain - something about the way that the Rafen (a divided hero, as all Blood Angels are - constantly at war with his bestial side) will confront and defeat the stories' main villains by directly tapping into cosmic power (in this case, of his progenitor) - a trope very common in a lot of heroic action anime's I've seen. The odd references to Neon Genesis Evangelion in the first volume also allude to the author's interest in that particular medium. This isn't a complaint, mind, just something that's struck me as I attempt to articulate what it is about Swallow's books that stick out for me.
That said, this is pretty standard 40k affair - prose is serviceable, but unremarkable. Characters are largely pretty thin, existing to either move the plot or create conflict within it. That said, there is a certain simplistic enjoyment to be gained from this series if you aren't interested in anything beyond that - and the climax of this particular duology was pleasantly engaging, which surprised me, given the fact that, after the scale of the original pair of novels, these two are decidedly scaled-back. The stakes are much the same, but less immediate - indeed, after facing near extinction in the first duology, much of these books concern themselves with the consequences of that near-disaster, looking towards the chapter's long-term survival.
All in all, for a time-waster, you could do worse, I suppose. The odd flavour of the story helps give a slight distinguishing mark to an otherwise standard Space Marine series. I kind of wish there was something about it that I could effectively damn, so I could say something more interesting about it - but there isn't. The book is just there. It is a story about Vampiric Genetically Engineered Super Soldiers fighting their own darker natures and the forces of hell. Take it or leave it.
It's hard to explain - something about the way that the Rafen (a divided hero, as all Blood Angels are - constantly at war with his bestial side) will confront and defeat the stories' main villains by directly tapping into cosmic power (in this case, of his progenitor) - a trope very common in a lot of heroic action anime's I've seen. The odd references to Neon Genesis Evangelion in the first volume also allude to the author's interest in that particular medium. This isn't a complaint, mind, just something that's struck me as I attempt to articulate what it is about Swallow's books that stick out for me.
That said, this is pretty standard 40k affair - prose is serviceable, but unremarkable. Characters are largely pretty thin, existing to either move the plot or create conflict within it. That said, there is a certain simplistic enjoyment to be gained from this series if you aren't interested in anything beyond that - and the climax of this particular duology was pleasantly engaging, which surprised me, given the fact that, after the scale of the original pair of novels, these two are decidedly scaled-back. The stakes are much the same, but less immediate - indeed, after facing near extinction in the first duology, much of these books concern themselves with the consequences of that near-disaster, looking towards the chapter's long-term survival.
All in all, for a time-waster, you could do worse, I suppose. The odd flavour of the story helps give a slight distinguishing mark to an otherwise standard Space Marine series. I kind of wish there was something about it that I could effectively damn, so I could say something more interesting about it - but there isn't. The book is just there. It is a story about Vampiric Genetically Engineered Super Soldiers fighting their own darker natures and the forces of hell. Take it or leave it.
October 1, 2024
“For The Emperor and Sanguinius! Death! DEATH!”
Can I get a HELL yeah?
Naturally, I would have loved to have gotten to the first two of these as I feel like it would have given THESE two a bit more juice, but I seriously had a ton of fun with these two novels (and three accompanying short stories and a neat appendix that fills in some appreciative context).
Basically, we pick up the Blood Angels on the tail end of an inter-chapter civil war that pushed them to the brink. Now, agents of the Ruinous Powers (including the incredibly named “Primogenitor Fabius Bile of Undivided Chaos”; a true standout asshole I cannot wait to read more about eventually) seek to take advantage of their disarray and thus two mightily baited narrative hooks are provided and then barreled through with plenty of lavish gore, unexpected moments of brotherly nobility, and many, many set pieces that made me audibly go “fuck yeah” to my empty living room.
And ultimately, this ends up being shockingly user friendly for people maybe wanting to understand all the fuss about the Imperium of Man and its always interesting (heavily gimmicked) layers of factions. They form a neat little duology on their own, they are incredibly readable, and they move like a bolter shell basically from the jump.
I very much look forward to seeing how Rafen and the gang got started.
Can I get a HELL yeah?
Naturally, I would have loved to have gotten to the first two of these as I feel like it would have given THESE two a bit more juice, but I seriously had a ton of fun with these two novels (and three accompanying short stories and a neat appendix that fills in some appreciative context).
Basically, we pick up the Blood Angels on the tail end of an inter-chapter civil war that pushed them to the brink. Now, agents of the Ruinous Powers (including the incredibly named “Primogenitor Fabius Bile of Undivided Chaos”; a true standout asshole I cannot wait to read more about eventually) seek to take advantage of their disarray and thus two mightily baited narrative hooks are provided and then barreled through with plenty of lavish gore, unexpected moments of brotherly nobility, and many, many set pieces that made me audibly go “fuck yeah” to my empty living room.
And ultimately, this ends up being shockingly user friendly for people maybe wanting to understand all the fuss about the Imperium of Man and its always interesting (heavily gimmicked) layers of factions. They form a neat little duology on their own, they are incredibly readable, and they move like a bolter shell basically from the jump.
I very much look forward to seeing how Rafen and the gang got started.
February 25, 2013
Redeemed:
An interesting short story that connects the events of the last chapter in Rafen's story to the events in the next two books. It is mostly about Rafen bringing the Spear of Telesto home and also about him being tested. It makes sense to have the character be mistrusted by most of the other Blood Angels at this point and have him redeem himself (at least partially) before the next sequence of book starts. All in all, a decent story.
Red Fury:
The first book of the Omnibus pitches delegations from all of the Blood Angels successor chapters and the Blood Angels themselves against clones created by Fabius Bile. While this is an interesting concept and it was cool to see all these successor chapters (especially the Flesh Tearers) in action, I nonetheless felt the action could not eclipse the sense of danger and desperation in the last book. The story was altogether a bit forced and did not feel like a natural progression of events. The book was a fun read overall, but I nonetheless feel it was the weakest in Swallow's Blood Angels saga so far.
Heart of Rage:
This short story is unconnected to the rest of the Omnibus, telling the story of a squad of Blood Angels boarding a derelict tyranid hive ship. A gripping short story and well worth a read. It is thematically different but breaks up the reading experience nicely. I hope we see Brother Kale again some time.
Black Tide:
This is by far the best novel in both Blood Angels omnibuses. The story is immaculately constructed and Rafen really comes into his own as a character. It helps, of course, if you have an antagonist as awesome as Fabius Bile. I enjoyed reading this story immensely and it is worth reading the whole Omnibus just to read this conclusion. Rafen is a great character, easily on par with Loken or Garro from the Horus Heresy series. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. The whole setup is very well done and pitching the Blood Angels and Flesh Tearers not only against Chaos, but also against the tyranids was a great idea. I liked the inside into the mind of an Astartes and how they would react to prolonged incarceration. Plus, I am a sucker for submarine storylines and that part of the plot was also executed very well. A shame that they had to destroy the Neimos...
Bloodline:
Here we learn what happened to Rafen after he injected himself with the blood of Sanguinius. He also meets a battle-brother from the time of the Horus Heresy; in a way. Great follow-up to "Black Tide". I really hope Swallow writes more of these books, I can't wait to meet Rafen again.
An interesting short story that connects the events of the last chapter in Rafen's story to the events in the next two books. It is mostly about Rafen bringing the Spear of Telesto home and also about him being tested. It makes sense to have the character be mistrusted by most of the other Blood Angels at this point and have him redeem himself (at least partially) before the next sequence of book starts. All in all, a decent story.
Red Fury:
The first book of the Omnibus pitches delegations from all of the Blood Angels successor chapters and the Blood Angels themselves against clones created by Fabius Bile. While this is an interesting concept and it was cool to see all these successor chapters (especially the Flesh Tearers) in action, I nonetheless felt the action could not eclipse the sense of danger and desperation in the last book. The story was altogether a bit forced and did not feel like a natural progression of events. The book was a fun read overall, but I nonetheless feel it was the weakest in Swallow's Blood Angels saga so far.
Heart of Rage:
This short story is unconnected to the rest of the Omnibus, telling the story of a squad of Blood Angels boarding a derelict tyranid hive ship. A gripping short story and well worth a read. It is thematically different but breaks up the reading experience nicely. I hope we see Brother Kale again some time.
Black Tide:
This is by far the best novel in both Blood Angels omnibuses. The story is immaculately constructed and Rafen really comes into his own as a character. It helps, of course, if you have an antagonist as awesome as Fabius Bile. I enjoyed reading this story immensely and it is worth reading the whole Omnibus just to read this conclusion. Rafen is a great character, easily on par with Loken or Garro from the Horus Heresy series. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. The whole setup is very well done and pitching the Blood Angels and Flesh Tearers not only against Chaos, but also against the tyranids was a great idea. I liked the inside into the mind of an Astartes and how they would react to prolonged incarceration. Plus, I am a sucker for submarine storylines and that part of the plot was also executed very well. A shame that they had to destroy the Neimos...
Bloodline:
Here we learn what happened to Rafen after he injected himself with the blood of Sanguinius. He also meets a battle-brother from the time of the Horus Heresy; in a way. Great follow-up to "Black Tide". I really hope Swallow writes more of these books, I can't wait to meet Rafen again.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 3, 2016
Not as good as the first one, i did consider for a while to just give it 3 stars, but ended up with 4 because of the quality of the short stories in it.
Rafen grows leaps and bounds in the first part of this book, becoming a very interesting character, which saddens me that he becomes so... dull in the Black Tide book, i know there are many reasons behind it, but there were so many twists and turns left unexplored by the author that i just struggled to enjoy Black Tide.
Red Fury however? Mmm.
All in all, a great read if you enjoy Warhammer 40K, more so if your a fan of the Blood Angels.
Rafen grows leaps and bounds in the first part of this book, becoming a very interesting character, which saddens me that he becomes so... dull in the Black Tide book, i know there are many reasons behind it, but there were so many twists and turns left unexplored by the author that i just struggled to enjoy Black Tide.
Red Fury however? Mmm.
All in all, a great read if you enjoy Warhammer 40K, more so if your a fan of the Blood Angels.
March 20, 2016
This was all around, an amazing read.
From getting to see the Blood Angels and their successors, to one of my all time favourite Chaos characters, to the bleeding heart of the Blood Angels and Sanguinius himself.
From getting to see the Blood Angels and their successors, to one of my all time favourite Chaos characters, to the bleeding heart of the Blood Angels and Sanguinius himself.
August 23, 2012
Really good space marine action from the world of Warhammer 40K: a table top game. I call this bubble gum for my mind.
December 6, 2015
Not as good as the first one but still a very enjoyable read. Every time it slowed down, there was a plot twist that kept me interested.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews