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Gaunt's Ghosts #1-3
The Founding
On the battlefields of Aexe Cardinal, the struggling forces of the Imperial Guard are locked in a deadly stalemate with the dark armies of Chaos. Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt and his regiment, the Tanith First-and-Only, are thrown headlong into the living hell of trench warfare, where death by an unseen enemy is always just a moment away. The only chance for Gaunt and his lightly armed scouts to survive is to volunteer for a mission so dangerous that no one else dares accept it!
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If you've never experienced the start of Black Library's longest-running Warhammer 40,000 series, now's your chance. And if you have, you can read them again, like revisiting old friends.
955 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2007
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July 19, 2019
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August 19, 2009I read this book not as a warhammer fan, but as a spouse to one. Keep that in mind as you read this review.[return][return]Gaunt's Ghosts, for those unfamiliar is about a regiment of Imperial Guard, led by a colonel commissar. What makes this band special is that the night they were commissioned, their commander saved them from the destruction of their homeworld. Viewed as homeless, barbaric and useless, this band is the underdog, striving through each war to win a new planet for themselves, usually undercut by dirty handed politics.[return][return]The first book had a good plot, but characterization was weak. Abnett developed rivalries that lasted through the entire omnibus, and I assume into the following ones. The history of the Ghosts was hinted at, briefly explained, but characterization was weak.[return][return]The second book brought the characterization deeply needed in the first book, but was composed mainly of flashbacks, finally detailing the death of Tanith, and the major 8 or 9 characters got their own chapters detailing their strengths and weaknesses. However, once the flashbacks ended, it took a couple of pages to realize there was a present tense to the story in the last few chapters.[return][return]The third book had a good mesh of characterization and plot, though suffered from starting 30 pages too early. While not spoiling anything, Abnett gave five or six secondary characters two chapters to be introduced, while explaining their planet was under attack.[return][return]The ending story was a nice way to end the book, with a remembrance for the characters, so rarely thanked for their work.
October 20, 2012
Warmaster Slaydo is dead. The man wrangled as many different bureaucracies, and herded as many cats as he could, in order to raise a crusade to take back the Sabbat Worlds from the forces of Chaos. He slew the Archenemy @ Balhaut, but was mortally wounded in the process. As he lay dying, Slaydo promoted one of his favorite subordinates, Ibram Gaunt, and ordered him to raise an Imperial Guard unit of his own. What should've been a mopping up action @ Balhaut was bungled by the new warmaster, Macaroth, and the Chaos fleets escaped.
Every settled planet in the Imperium of Man is subject to the Imperial tithe: as many able-bodied men as that planet can provide to feed the meat grinder of The Emperor's wars. Gaunt arrived on the planet Tanith to review his new troops at about the same time as the Chaos forces, on their way to safety, passed by Tanith and burned the planet to cinders. Barely half the new Imperial Guard unit escaped. There were no other survivors. Gaunt's new unit was christened the Tanith First and Only.
The collection is composed of 3 books and 1 short story:
* First and Only - Supposedly this is the first novel Dan Abnett ever wrote, which is of course not true, and it's an easy lie to spot: no one's first book could possibly be this good.
* Ghostmaker - an introduction to each of the main characters, interspersed between the interminable waiting before a major campaign. Yes, all the characters appear for the first time in the first book (dur), but this is where we actually meet them.
* Necropolis - The word means "city of the dead". I expected this to be about Necrons. I was oh so very wrong.
* In Remembrance - This takes place roughly around the the time the story in Necropolis is drawing to a close. Given how unrelentingly intense Necropolis was, this is a good way to unclench and bring down the reader's adrenaline levels in a controlled fashion. Including this in the omnibus was a very smart choice.
If you or someone you love enjoys war stories, then this is the perfect book for you. It's like Band of Brothers on steroids. I cannot recommend it enough.
Every settled planet in the Imperium of Man is subject to the Imperial tithe: as many able-bodied men as that planet can provide to feed the meat grinder of The Emperor's wars. Gaunt arrived on the planet Tanith to review his new troops at about the same time as the Chaos forces, on their way to safety, passed by Tanith and burned the planet to cinders. Barely half the new Imperial Guard unit escaped. There were no other survivors. Gaunt's new unit was christened the Tanith First and Only.
The collection is composed of 3 books and 1 short story:
* First and Only - Supposedly this is the first novel Dan Abnett ever wrote, which is of course not true, and it's an easy lie to spot: no one's first book could possibly be this good.
* Ghostmaker - an introduction to each of the main characters, interspersed between the interminable waiting before a major campaign. Yes, all the characters appear for the first time in the first book (dur), but this is where we actually meet them.
* Necropolis - The word means "city of the dead". I expected this to be about Necrons. I was oh so very wrong.
* In Remembrance - This takes place roughly around the the time the story in Necropolis is drawing to a close. Given how unrelentingly intense Necropolis was, this is a good way to unclench and bring down the reader's adrenaline levels in a controlled fashion. Including this in the omnibus was a very smart choice.
If you or someone you love enjoys war stories, then this is the perfect book for you. It's like Band of Brothers on steroids. I cannot recommend it enough.
March 28, 2022
I should've read these books twenty years ago.
I've often thought, bad as it sounds, that I like books more than I actually like reading. Much as I might enjoy a book, I'm always counting how many pages left and how soon it'll be until I can finish it, shelve it and enthusiastically start the next one - my favourite aspect of the whole endeavour. I leave large gaps (sometimes years) in-between reading books in a series, even those I rate 5 stars. I juggle many, many series at once. I jump about, preferring the constant variety.
This omnibus changed things. There are 3 novels (and 3 independent short stories) here - and like I would do for anything else, I put it away on my shelf for a while in-between each novel and read something totally different. But not, like everything else, because I wanted a break. No, this time I forced myself to take breaks solely because I didn't want to rush it and finish it too soon. Yes, this is the first book I can think of where I was actively slowing myself just to make it last, rather than eagerly jumping to something new.
These stories, it feels, have invigorated a genuine love of reading in me. Strange, you might think, that miserable grimdark stories spun off from tabletop wargaming would do that. Especially when I entered them with very middling expectations - I thought they'd be pulpy action fun, and nothing more. But they proved so much better than that.
I believe this sudden enthusiasm (we'll see how long it lasts!) on my part for these stories is something personal that won't apply to most others. Partly because it's a genre I have very little experience with but clearly am all there for (military sci-fi), partly because it's tapped into this young teenage nostalgia (from when I was into the Warhammer 40k hobby itself) and dormant love for the universe, and partly because these are, surprisingly, genuinely well written and absorbingly dramatic stories. It's like adult me is reaching back across the decades, finding that kid and saying 'Listen, this universe is so much more intense and dark than you can ever believe. You only know a fraction of what's out there, kid. You think you know this universe but you don't, you just don't. But let me show you. Let me remind you of the love you had for it - and take you further still.'
I was hooked from the first short story. The first novel solidified that. Although a lot of people say you should skip the first two novels and jump to the superior third, the first one is actually my favourite - or maybe it being the thing that filled me to the brim with that initial enthusiasm has something to do with that. I believe it is the best paced, with easily the most ambitious structure - flashbacks and all - and with more variety than the third book, yet better tied together/constructed than the second. It also offers relief from intensity that the third book doesn't.
There are many scenes throughout the omnibus that stick vividly in my mind, but the thing that jumps out to me is the first introduction of a Space Marine (or as Games Workshop increasingly focuses on, the proper, more serious name - Adeptus Astartes). That is, a Chaos Space Marine. It was what most struck me early on with the 'this isn't the 40k you thought you knew' feeling. Ignorant of the lore, I used to consider Space Marines as little more than elite, badass soldiers in tough power armour fielding heavy weapons, rather than the immortal, superhuman demigods they are. So when a single Chaos Marine appears to the ordinary soldiers we follow in these books, it's really presented as an 'oh shit' moment.
If you have no interest in taking the 40k universe seriously, that's fine (there's always Orks). But these stories (and going on to educate myself with endless in-depth, 90 minute lore videos on Youtube) really impressed upon me the dark, hopeless, terrifying tragedy of it all. Seeing the universe from the perspective not of tanky Space Marines blasting and chopping everything in sight, but from significantly lower down, the scared, desperate, extremely vulnerable soldiers of the Imperial Guard, makes much more of an impact.
Chaos - which dominates the Black Library (Warhammer/40k publishing), and is almost entirely the antagonist in all these Imperial Guard (or Space Marine) stories, I can no longer merely see as the 'gnarly evil dudes with horns, and oh look, cool daemons!'. Here the true horror of Chaos is made apparent. Chaos is insidious, everywhere, sensory. You don't just see it, but feel it, hear it, smell it, taste it. The stories do an amazing job at showing how scary it really is, how it can tear at the mind and drive people mad, turn just about anyone from a loyal citizen or soldier into a depraved cultist more than willing to sacrifice themselves and their once friends.
The second book here is the weakest of the three - though that's only relative to the others, for it still (just about) scrapes a 5 star for me (though I understand why others less enthusiastic than me would rate it lower). It's only weaker because it's really just a series of very loosely strung together short stories, without the space to build into something more. Its positives, though, are in the variety of the scenes, including the foes. I was very pleased to see Orks be the antagonists for one story. The author, Dan Abnett, darling of the Black Library, was wise not to include any comical Ork speech, allowing them to be perceived as genuinely threatening (and getting me to look up 'how big is an Ork'* - and finding myself, like all the other times the book got me looking things up I wanted to know more about, down quite a rabbit hole). Another story made interesting inclusion of .
The best reason for why the second novel shouldn't be skipped, though, is that each story focuses on a different character. This definitely helps get a much better sense of the principal characters in a much bigger sea of names (many of whom last long enough only to die), even if you are only keeping hold of them in your mind as quick tropes. Mkoll the perfect scout, Larkin the unstable sniper, Corbec the big, beardy, brawly badass made officer, Caffran the young Trooper working out his place and loyalties, Milo the youngest, the "mascot" with hidden psychic ability, Bragg the gentle giant lugging huge guns about, who might well be smarter than he appears, Varl the charismatic sergeant with a metal arm, Dorden the elderly medic, and Rawne the dickhead. Oh and Commissar Gaunt, of course.
The third book, which I understand is a lot of people's early favourite of this long series Gaunt's Ghosts, is insane. It's incredibly intense and I've never read a siege story - or any war story - quite like it. I would hesitate to describe it as 'epic' - that word seems too bright, too enthusiastic, like 'oh dude it was epic!'. The scale here is incomprehensible, the level of death and destruction incredible and deeply sobering. Honestly, I struggled to keep on top of it, of the numbers and sizes of everything, but then that's the nature of telling this kind of story and trying to keep the imagination on track. Abnett consistently grounds us by focusing on the POVs of individuals, but this is still by many orders of magnitude greater than anything like Helm's Deep. We are talking something like 6 million enemy soldiers, maybe half a million tanks, and monstrously vast siege engines, devastating a city many times bigger than London (including vertically). Hollywood would balk at the cost of making something like this come to life.
Unlike the other stories, there is almost no let up here. You feel the exhaustion of the siege the same as the soldiers. It goes on and on without respite. The bitter human cost is not brushed aside. This is no noble defence full of rousing speeches and waving flags. This is no David Gemmell story. The numbers of refugees and civilian casualties are in the millions. Never before have I read a fantasy story that paints just how utterly devastating war can be. Reading this, you know, even victory were to come, nothing could ever be the same again.
One other thing I do want to mention about the third book, is the serious introduction of female characters. The first book has none I can think of and is very much men-make-war, the second has one of note but is at least a significant and interesting role. The third, though, seems like a coming tide, that Abnett made a decision to blow women right through the universe, setting not just multiple female characters up for future warmongering, but changing the whole gendered system of the Imperial Guard as we (thought we) knew it. I do think it's very clear what Abnett was doing here, it's not subtle, but neither does he beat you over the head about it. It's more a 'shit, and here comes the women!' feel, like Abnett made a deliberate point of opening the gates, shifting the macho-man's world of these 40k stories into a new, somewhat more balanced realm. I found it welcome and well handled.
The omnibus ends with a necessary quieter short story, a coda that lets us finally breathe from the intense pressure and violence-packed pace of the novel that preceded it.
Within all these stories, the sci-fi/fantasy elements are up and down in their presence; sometimes we see gigantic siege engines and psychic powers and even horrific daemons of the Warp, other times it's more like WW1/WW2 combat with lots of laser weapons. At its essence, I would describe as others have - Band of Brothers in Space (although, if I'm being pedantic, not usually in space itself, just as Star Wars is rarely warring between the stars).
I've already written way more than I meant to (as usual), so I'll leave it here. But before anyone tells me, I'm already well aware at least the next two omnibuses are considered to be even better!
Don't read this book if:
- You have no interest in the Warhammer 40k universe, and are pretty certain you couldn't be persuaded to have interest.
- You don't like reading about war, and lots of violent action (seriously, avoid these books like the plague).
- You don't like guns in your space fantasy. Lots and lots and lots of guns.
- You need female characters right from the beginning.
- You need hopeful, optimistic, happy stories.
- You need to feel like there will be some ultimate final victory in sight, or/and you like your victories to have meaning.
P.S. The only other 40k story I have read so far is the first book in the Night Lords omnibus. It was cool to see from the perspective of the "bad guys" (in quotes because everyone in 40k are the bad guys, not least the Imperium itself), and I recommend it, but ultimately it couldn't touch Gaunt's Ghosts. Maybe that's partly because I think - just as in movies and videogames - it's more interesting to me to see the relatively vulnerable underdogs try and take out big, powerful boss dudes than to take the POV of one of those walking power fantasies crushing every mortal in sight. Okay, the Doom Slayer aside.
Others on my radar:
I have - received today - Brutal Kunnin' by Mike Brooks, an Ork novel that looks to inject a lot more fun with proceedings, as well as the first Ciaphas Cain omnibus by Sandy Mitchell (more light-hearted Imperial Guard stories inspired by the likes of Flashman or Blackadder). On my list I also, when paperbacks one day become available, have Abnett's beloved Eisenhorn and Ravenor omnibuses (Inquisitor stories), Ruin by Nate Crowley and the Infinite and the Divine by Robert Rath (both Necrons books, should make an interesting change), The Lords of Silence by Chris Wraight (looking forward to gooey, vile Nurgle fun), and the 40k horror of Fire Caste by Peter Fehevari.
* The answer is, the average Ork Boy is the height of a man (though they stoop), but they can range from about 5 foot to about 30 feet (the Ork warlord known as The Beast of Beasts). They have no upper limit - theoretically one could reach the atmosphere!
I've often thought, bad as it sounds, that I like books more than I actually like reading. Much as I might enjoy a book, I'm always counting how many pages left and how soon it'll be until I can finish it, shelve it and enthusiastically start the next one - my favourite aspect of the whole endeavour. I leave large gaps (sometimes years) in-between reading books in a series, even those I rate 5 stars. I juggle many, many series at once. I jump about, preferring the constant variety.
This omnibus changed things. There are 3 novels (and 3 independent short stories) here - and like I would do for anything else, I put it away on my shelf for a while in-between each novel and read something totally different. But not, like everything else, because I wanted a break. No, this time I forced myself to take breaks solely because I didn't want to rush it and finish it too soon. Yes, this is the first book I can think of where I was actively slowing myself just to make it last, rather than eagerly jumping to something new.
These stories, it feels, have invigorated a genuine love of reading in me. Strange, you might think, that miserable grimdark stories spun off from tabletop wargaming would do that. Especially when I entered them with very middling expectations - I thought they'd be pulpy action fun, and nothing more. But they proved so much better than that.
I believe this sudden enthusiasm (we'll see how long it lasts!) on my part for these stories is something personal that won't apply to most others. Partly because it's a genre I have very little experience with but clearly am all there for (military sci-fi), partly because it's tapped into this young teenage nostalgia (from when I was into the Warhammer 40k hobby itself) and dormant love for the universe, and partly because these are, surprisingly, genuinely well written and absorbingly dramatic stories. It's like adult me is reaching back across the decades, finding that kid and saying 'Listen, this universe is so much more intense and dark than you can ever believe. You only know a fraction of what's out there, kid. You think you know this universe but you don't, you just don't. But let me show you. Let me remind you of the love you had for it - and take you further still.'
I was hooked from the first short story. The first novel solidified that. Although a lot of people say you should skip the first two novels and jump to the superior third, the first one is actually my favourite - or maybe it being the thing that filled me to the brim with that initial enthusiasm has something to do with that. I believe it is the best paced, with easily the most ambitious structure - flashbacks and all - and with more variety than the third book, yet better tied together/constructed than the second. It also offers relief from intensity that the third book doesn't.
There are many scenes throughout the omnibus that stick vividly in my mind, but the thing that jumps out to me is the first introduction of a Space Marine (or as Games Workshop increasingly focuses on, the proper, more serious name - Adeptus Astartes). That is, a Chaos Space Marine. It was what most struck me early on with the 'this isn't the 40k you thought you knew' feeling. Ignorant of the lore, I used to consider Space Marines as little more than elite, badass soldiers in tough power armour fielding heavy weapons, rather than the immortal, superhuman demigods they are. So when a single Chaos Marine appears to the ordinary soldiers we follow in these books, it's really presented as an 'oh shit' moment.
If you have no interest in taking the 40k universe seriously, that's fine (there's always Orks). But these stories (and going on to educate myself with endless in-depth, 90 minute lore videos on Youtube) really impressed upon me the dark, hopeless, terrifying tragedy of it all. Seeing the universe from the perspective not of tanky Space Marines blasting and chopping everything in sight, but from significantly lower down, the scared, desperate, extremely vulnerable soldiers of the Imperial Guard, makes much more of an impact.
Chaos - which dominates the Black Library (Warhammer/40k publishing), and is almost entirely the antagonist in all these Imperial Guard (or Space Marine) stories, I can no longer merely see as the 'gnarly evil dudes with horns, and oh look, cool daemons!'. Here the true horror of Chaos is made apparent. Chaos is insidious, everywhere, sensory. You don't just see it, but feel it, hear it, smell it, taste it. The stories do an amazing job at showing how scary it really is, how it can tear at the mind and drive people mad, turn just about anyone from a loyal citizen or soldier into a depraved cultist more than willing to sacrifice themselves and their once friends.
The second book here is the weakest of the three - though that's only relative to the others, for it still (just about) scrapes a 5 star for me (though I understand why others less enthusiastic than me would rate it lower). It's only weaker because it's really just a series of very loosely strung together short stories, without the space to build into something more. Its positives, though, are in the variety of the scenes, including the foes. I was very pleased to see Orks be the antagonists for one story. The author, Dan Abnett, darling of the Black Library, was wise not to include any comical Ork speech, allowing them to be perceived as genuinely threatening (and getting me to look up 'how big is an Ork'* - and finding myself, like all the other times the book got me looking things up I wanted to know more about, down quite a rabbit hole). Another story made interesting inclusion of .
The best reason for why the second novel shouldn't be skipped, though, is that each story focuses on a different character. This definitely helps get a much better sense of the principal characters in a much bigger sea of names (many of whom last long enough only to die), even if you are only keeping hold of them in your mind as quick tropes. Mkoll the perfect scout, Larkin the unstable sniper, Corbec the big, beardy, brawly badass made officer, Caffran the young Trooper working out his place and loyalties, Milo the youngest, the "mascot" with hidden psychic ability, Bragg the gentle giant lugging huge guns about, who might well be smarter than he appears, Varl the charismatic sergeant with a metal arm, Dorden the elderly medic, and Rawne the dickhead. Oh and Commissar Gaunt, of course.
The third book, which I understand is a lot of people's early favourite of this long series Gaunt's Ghosts, is insane. It's incredibly intense and I've never read a siege story - or any war story - quite like it. I would hesitate to describe it as 'epic' - that word seems too bright, too enthusiastic, like 'oh dude it was epic!'. The scale here is incomprehensible, the level of death and destruction incredible and deeply sobering. Honestly, I struggled to keep on top of it, of the numbers and sizes of everything, but then that's the nature of telling this kind of story and trying to keep the imagination on track. Abnett consistently grounds us by focusing on the POVs of individuals, but this is still by many orders of magnitude greater than anything like Helm's Deep. We are talking something like 6 million enemy soldiers, maybe half a million tanks, and monstrously vast siege engines, devastating a city many times bigger than London (including vertically). Hollywood would balk at the cost of making something like this come to life.
Unlike the other stories, there is almost no let up here. You feel the exhaustion of the siege the same as the soldiers. It goes on and on without respite. The bitter human cost is not brushed aside. This is no noble defence full of rousing speeches and waving flags. This is no David Gemmell story. The numbers of refugees and civilian casualties are in the millions. Never before have I read a fantasy story that paints just how utterly devastating war can be. Reading this, you know, even victory were to come, nothing could ever be the same again.
One other thing I do want to mention about the third book, is the serious introduction of female characters. The first book has none I can think of and is very much men-make-war, the second has one of note but is at least a significant and interesting role. The third, though, seems like a coming tide, that Abnett made a decision to blow women right through the universe, setting not just multiple female characters up for future warmongering, but changing the whole gendered system of the Imperial Guard as we (thought we) knew it. I do think it's very clear what Abnett was doing here, it's not subtle, but neither does he beat you over the head about it. It's more a 'shit, and here comes the women!' feel, like Abnett made a deliberate point of opening the gates, shifting the macho-man's world of these 40k stories into a new, somewhat more balanced realm. I found it welcome and well handled.
The omnibus ends with a necessary quieter short story, a coda that lets us finally breathe from the intense pressure and violence-packed pace of the novel that preceded it.
Within all these stories, the sci-fi/fantasy elements are up and down in their presence; sometimes we see gigantic siege engines and psychic powers and even horrific daemons of the Warp, other times it's more like WW1/WW2 combat with lots of laser weapons. At its essence, I would describe as others have - Band of Brothers in Space (although, if I'm being pedantic, not usually in space itself, just as Star Wars is rarely warring between the stars).
I've already written way more than I meant to (as usual), so I'll leave it here. But before anyone tells me, I'm already well aware at least the next two omnibuses are considered to be even better!
Don't read this book if:
- You have no interest in the Warhammer 40k universe, and are pretty certain you couldn't be persuaded to have interest.
- You don't like reading about war, and lots of violent action (seriously, avoid these books like the plague).
- You don't like guns in your space fantasy. Lots and lots and lots of guns.
- You need female characters right from the beginning.
- You need hopeful, optimistic, happy stories.
- You need to feel like there will be some ultimate final victory in sight, or/and you like your victories to have meaning.
P.S. The only other 40k story I have read so far is the first book in the Night Lords omnibus. It was cool to see from the perspective of the "bad guys" (in quotes because everyone in 40k are the bad guys, not least the Imperium itself), and I recommend it, but ultimately it couldn't touch Gaunt's Ghosts. Maybe that's partly because I think - just as in movies and videogames - it's more interesting to me to see the relatively vulnerable underdogs try and take out big, powerful boss dudes than to take the POV of one of those walking power fantasies crushing every mortal in sight. Okay, the Doom Slayer aside.
Others on my radar:
I have - received today - Brutal Kunnin' by Mike Brooks, an Ork novel that looks to inject a lot more fun with proceedings, as well as the first Ciaphas Cain omnibus by Sandy Mitchell (more light-hearted Imperial Guard stories inspired by the likes of Flashman or Blackadder). On my list I also, when paperbacks one day become available, have Abnett's beloved Eisenhorn and Ravenor omnibuses (Inquisitor stories), Ruin by Nate Crowley and the Infinite and the Divine by Robert Rath (both Necrons books, should make an interesting change), The Lords of Silence by Chris Wraight (looking forward to gooey, vile Nurgle fun), and the 40k horror of Fire Caste by Peter Fehevari.
* The answer is, the average Ork Boy is the height of a man (though they stoop), but they can range from about 5 foot to about 30 feet (the Ork warlord known as The Beast of Beasts). They have no upper limit - theoretically one could reach the atmosphere!
February 1, 2024
Three novels featuring three tales of the soldiers known as Gaunt’s Ghost, men whose home planet no longer exists. Victim to a spreading force of chaos.
Introduces Gaunt himself and many of the secondary characters we follow along the series.
Part of the Warhammer 40K universe.
Introduces Gaunt himself and many of the secondary characters we follow along the series.
Part of the Warhammer 40K universe.
May 25, 2019
Abnett is still grasping for his style and talent in the first two stories of this omnibus, but the third is already among his best.
November 3, 2024
War = bad???
February 14, 2022
It’s bemusing that this book gets listed as an introduction to the Warhammer 40K universe, even on the Black Library’s website. Because… …it’s not really, unless that newbie is already primed for some schlocky sci-fi with tinder dry characterisations.
The Founding includes Abnett’s earliest works in 2000, with the Sharpe inspired Colonel-Commissar Gaunt leading an Imperial Guard regiment on the Sabbat Crusades. Don’t worry too much about the terminology, there’s better books to introduce you to Warhammer 40K.
Unfortunately the omnibus includes an embarrassingly bad forced romance, a book that that’s just a patchwork of old magazine short stories, and a serial killer’s spree of redshirting minor characters.
Strength of Character
In such circumstances, the rulebook of Imperial Guard warfare was clear: if in doubt, move forward.
The second novel in the omnibus, Ghostmaker, serves as belated characterisation for the major characters. It’s done by way of the aforementioned patchwork of short stories, framing them within a wider story that is itself pretty garbled.
The problem, other than the creaky structure, is that I don’t find the short stories good at achieving their purpose. The set pieces are too obviously tailored to make a one note comment on the character (wow, Bragg is smarter than you think, Larkin gets scared, etc etc), which means the stories themselves come off as uninteresting and not overly meaningful. Admittedly Milo’s trick with the sugar is a shining exception.
Contrast the approach of collating character stories with Domer’s blinding in the first novel in the Omnibus, First and Only. Domer in the main narrative suffers a dramatic setback (losing your eyes generally being considered harmful) but his strength of character in overcoming it drives the story forward. He’s critical to what happens, so it sticks in my memory.
My preference reflects my feelings on the Horus Heresy books that are set in the same fictional universe. While character is more important to the plot, what those characters do and interact do relate to the plot, even when the latter is a bit wobbly at times.
Shoot’em up
The creature was a dog, if a dog could be the size of a horse, if a horse could move as fast as a hummingbird.
Abnett had talent from an early stage, and judging by some of the short stories included, he was getting the hang of it by 2002. Necropolis, the third novel in the omnibus, is reasonably tight as a story, if narrowly focused. The combat is good, if in a fantasy sense where the same guys keep fortuitously surviving as everyone around them dies at stunningly high rates.
It’s also a good record, as the series has quite a few further stories, so it will be interesting if Abnett’s improved writing in other books such as Ravenor or Horus Rising fed through to this, relatively combat heavy, series.
The Founding includes Abnett’s earliest works in 2000, with the Sharpe inspired Colonel-Commissar Gaunt leading an Imperial Guard regiment on the Sabbat Crusades. Don’t worry too much about the terminology, there’s better books to introduce you to Warhammer 40K.
Unfortunately the omnibus includes an embarrassingly bad forced romance, a book that that’s just a patchwork of old magazine short stories, and a serial killer’s spree of redshirting minor characters.
Strength of Character
In such circumstances, the rulebook of Imperial Guard warfare was clear: if in doubt, move forward.
The second novel in the omnibus, Ghostmaker, serves as belated characterisation for the major characters. It’s done by way of the aforementioned patchwork of short stories, framing them within a wider story that is itself pretty garbled.
The problem, other than the creaky structure, is that I don’t find the short stories good at achieving their purpose. The set pieces are too obviously tailored to make a one note comment on the character (wow, Bragg is smarter than you think, Larkin gets scared, etc etc), which means the stories themselves come off as uninteresting and not overly meaningful. Admittedly Milo’s trick with the sugar is a shining exception.
Contrast the approach of collating character stories with Domer’s blinding in the first novel in the Omnibus, First and Only. Domer in the main narrative suffers a dramatic setback (losing your eyes generally being considered harmful) but his strength of character in overcoming it drives the story forward. He’s critical to what happens, so it sticks in my memory.
My preference reflects my feelings on the Horus Heresy books that are set in the same fictional universe. While character is more important to the plot, what those characters do and interact do relate to the plot, even when the latter is a bit wobbly at times.
Shoot’em up
The creature was a dog, if a dog could be the size of a horse, if a horse could move as fast as a hummingbird.
Abnett had talent from an early stage, and judging by some of the short stories included, he was getting the hang of it by 2002. Necropolis, the third novel in the omnibus, is reasonably tight as a story, if narrowly focused. The combat is good, if in a fantasy sense where the same guys keep fortuitously surviving as everyone around them dies at stunningly high rates.
It’s also a good record, as the series has quite a few further stories, so it will be interesting if Abnett’s improved writing in other books such as Ravenor or Horus Rising fed through to this, relatively combat heavy, series.
April 28, 2010
06/04/10: Finished "First and Only" number 1 of the 3 books in this Omnibus.
Dan Abnett writes some good action scenes; although some of the actual warfare, weapons and tactics seem a bit out of place in a SF setting (it opens with a set piece that's more or less out of WW I trench warfare, complete with poison gas...)
Very little about the Warhammer 40K background, setting and tech level is explained - which mostly doesn't matter to the story, but is a bit frustrating as a Warhammer uninitiated reader.
So far the characters seem a fairly standard Mil-SF lot, including the honourable, commander who cares for his men...
If I had bought this as a standalone book I’d probably be 50/50 about buying then next one (so 2-3 stars rating range).
12/04/10: Finished "Ghostmaker" the 2nd book - a series of short "memories" that showcases each of the core Ghosts wrapped in a linking framework story that ends in a confusing meeting with some Eldar (whatever they are...)
Mostly it seemed like a bunch of contextless action sequences who's main aim was to invent new and gorier ways for those around the main cast to explode into sprays of shattered organs...
The actual writing isn't bad - its just that this book is all action and no plot at all - the 1st book at least had the "rogue" general plot going on.
In stand alone mode: 2 stars and very little chance i'd ever pick up the next one.
28/04/10: Realised I have no desire at all to read the third book in this omnibus - maybe at some, much, later date.
Dan Abnett writes some good action scenes; although some of the actual warfare, weapons and tactics seem a bit out of place in a SF setting (it opens with a set piece that's more or less out of WW I trench warfare, complete with poison gas...)
Very little about the Warhammer 40K background, setting and tech level is explained - which mostly doesn't matter to the story, but is a bit frustrating as a Warhammer uninitiated reader.
So far the characters seem a fairly standard Mil-SF lot, including the honourable, commander who cares for his men...
If I had bought this as a standalone book I’d probably be 50/50 about buying then next one (so 2-3 stars rating range).
12/04/10: Finished "Ghostmaker" the 2nd book - a series of short "memories" that showcases each of the core Ghosts wrapped in a linking framework story that ends in a confusing meeting with some Eldar (whatever they are...)
Mostly it seemed like a bunch of contextless action sequences who's main aim was to invent new and gorier ways for those around the main cast to explode into sprays of shattered organs...
The actual writing isn't bad - its just that this book is all action and no plot at all - the 1st book at least had the "rogue" general plot going on.
In stand alone mode: 2 stars and very little chance i'd ever pick up the next one.
28/04/10: Realised I have no desire at all to read the third book in this omnibus - maybe at some, much, later date.
March 14, 2012
First & Only was the book that got me interested in writing in general and sci-fi particularly. It was an amazing (and brilliantly graphic) portrayal of war in a sci-fi setting. I absolutely loved Colm Corbec, and the fight through the tunnels underneath Menazoid Epsilon was incredibly harrowing and nerve-wracking, even now after having read it twenty times! Ghostmaker was just as superb, collecting the original awesome short stories together; my personal favourite is the original "pilot" story with the destruction of Tanith. And of course, we come to Necropolis. This has to be my favourite novel of all time (seriously), for several reasons: one, it's the first novel-length warzone the ghosts have been in; second, the sheer scope of the war to defend Vervunhive is absolutely insane; third, like Richard Sharpe before him, Gaunt finally shows everybody the commander we as the reader know him to be (and the comeuppance for Gaunt's version of Sir Henry Simmerson); finally, some of the most amazing action sequences I've ever read in a book, or seen in a movie!
December 31, 2025
Excellently written accounts of a fighting force in the worst spots, with the odds against em and the man of honour leading the charge.
Abnett is always Excellent.. the characters are real and fascinating.
however the back and forth pacing in book one took a spell to acclimatise to and the characters portraits in the 2nd book were brilliant but the formatting was a surprise ad slowed down my enjoyment as I kept searching for a meta tale which wasn't there.
the stronger focus of the 3rd book and final short story landed brilliantly an excellent part of 40k cannon
Abnett is always Excellent.. the characters are real and fascinating.
however the back and forth pacing in book one took a spell to acclimatise to and the characters portraits in the 2nd book were brilliant but the formatting was a surprise ad slowed down my enjoyment as I kept searching for a meta tale which wasn't there.
the stronger focus of the 3rd book and final short story landed brilliantly an excellent part of 40k cannon
February 19, 2025
My friend has been bullying me to start this series for a little over a year now and as you can see, I finally caved and oh boy am I happy that I did. This series has proven to me why it is one of the most popular around from the very beginning and now I have to go buy the rest of these books to see it through to the end.
As for a simple breakdown. I would say that the first book may be a little confusing if you don’t have much background knowledge of Warhammer or the ghosts but still tells an amazing story nonetheless. It is the second book where you get a more in depth look at each of the individual troopers who play the main role of the story and takes place before and after the first book. They both get the reader invested not only in gaunt, but all the individual ghosts as they struggle to survive in the sabbat world crusade. You will see man men come and go, learn to love only to watch them die. It’s heart breaking but it immerses you in the world like few other stories can because in this series, there is truly no one safe.
Get ready for nonstop action, exquisite soldier shitbaggery/tomfoolery, and an unforgettable story of brothers in arms as they fight for a slowly dying memory as it is all they truly have left besides each other.
To the Tanith first and only, the first and last!
As for a simple breakdown. I would say that the first book may be a little confusing if you don’t have much background knowledge of Warhammer or the ghosts but still tells an amazing story nonetheless. It is the second book where you get a more in depth look at each of the individual troopers who play the main role of the story and takes place before and after the first book. They both get the reader invested not only in gaunt, but all the individual ghosts as they struggle to survive in the sabbat world crusade. You will see man men come and go, learn to love only to watch them die. It’s heart breaking but it immerses you in the world like few other stories can because in this series, there is truly no one safe.
Get ready for nonstop action, exquisite soldier shitbaggery/tomfoolery, and an unforgettable story of brothers in arms as they fight for a slowly dying memory as it is all they truly have left besides each other.
To the Tanith first and only, the first and last!
July 20, 2023
I’m obviously very late to the game on this one, but wow. After years of urging from my spouse to read these, I’m so glad I’ve started. The sheer imagination required to write something with so much detail and story-building is honestly mind blowing.
Through the first book, we meet the Ghosts and Gaunt himself, and while there’s very little backstory your gripped from the beginning and begin to pick up the story as it goes along. The second book gives much needed history, back story, and character development while going between flashbacks and current events. The third book, though.. the third book is intense and dark. The story crests and we truly learn what it means to be Ghosts, we see the nefarious underworks of political rivalry, we see how hubris will destroy entire populations. But we also see humanity and camaraderie, we see how groups can learn and benefit from each other under the right people. We see good versus evil personified.
There is so much to unpack with these books, but until you read them you can only graze the surface. An incredible blend of grim dark, sci-fi, fantasy, and military story components all melded together.
“There is no peace amongst the stars, for in the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.”
Through the first book, we meet the Ghosts and Gaunt himself, and while there’s very little backstory your gripped from the beginning and begin to pick up the story as it goes along. The second book gives much needed history, back story, and character development while going between flashbacks and current events. The third book, though.. the third book is intense and dark. The story crests and we truly learn what it means to be Ghosts, we see the nefarious underworks of political rivalry, we see how hubris will destroy entire populations. But we also see humanity and camaraderie, we see how groups can learn and benefit from each other under the right people. We see good versus evil personified.
There is so much to unpack with these books, but until you read them you can only graze the surface. An incredible blend of grim dark, sci-fi, fantasy, and military story components all melded together.
“There is no peace amongst the stars, for in the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.”
April 20, 2020
*copy from Netgalley in exchange for a review*
Gaunt’s Ghosts is one of the flagship series of the Warhammer 40,000 novel-verse. There’s fifteen or so of them now, chronicling the adventures of the titular Ghosts, a regiment of guardsmen, regular humans, trying to make their way in a universe filled with demons, super-human cyborg warriors, psychotic orcs, condescending, murderous space-elves and all sorts of other creatures with attitudes that range from grudging tolerance to apocalyptic hostility. Into this mix step a gang of soldiers with very little in the way of armour, armaments, or chances for survival. They’re the Imperial Guard, humanity’s first line of defence against all the horrors of a hostile galaxy - and they tend to be led by people who see guardsmen as fungible assets, to be thrown at the enemy until they overwhelm by sheer force of numbers, stepping over piles of their comrades on the way.
Not so the commander of the Ghosts. Gaunt is a blend of political and military, a colonel of a regiment, but also a Commisar, a political officer whose job is to ensure loyalty to the undying God-Emperor who sits at the centre of humanity’s empire in this grim-dark future. Stereotypically, Commissar's do this by shooting a few of their more recalcitrant men in the head, but Gaunt, at least, seems unwilling to waste lives, and seems reluctant to kill his own men. This omnibus edition of the first three books in the series shows us Gaunt at various points: in childhood, in training as a Commissar, as part of another regiment, whilst raising the Ghosts as a regiment, and in the aftermath, as they and he work together to, if not save the universe at ;east try to prevent it getting any worse. And from this we see Gaunt grow. He’s clever, and focused, and driven, and has a surprisingly dense core of morality at his heart. This is a man who appreciates loyalty, and truth, and has a genuine conviction in the divinity of his Emperor, and in the necessity of the Guard to help keep humanity safe. But Gaunt is also ruthless, when he needs to be, willing to make sacrifices in order to achieve his goals (though unwilling to make the same sacrifices if they’re meaningless). There’s a growing hard-edge to Gaunt, a willingness to do what he feels needs to be done over the years, as tragedy takes friends and colleagues. But at the same time, there’s a heart, a willingness to stand by his men, to take risks with them, to do his best to keep them alive, even as they all walk into the cannon-fire together. The blend of compassion, ruthlessness, personal courage, tactical acumen, loyalty and a razor-sharp intelligence help embody Gaunt, and the complexity of his character is at the heart of what makes these stories so readable.
It’s not all about Gaunt, of course. This omnibus includes a variety of short stories from Ghost engagements on multiple worlds, and uses that as a framing device, showing us the perspective of different key personnel in the Ghosts. From the gentle Trooper Bragg, whose inability to hit anything with a weapon gave him both the sobriquet “Try Again” and a penchant for carrying around massively heavy weapons, to the slitheringly lethal Major Rawn, willing to stab you in the back and the front simultaneously ands powered by an engine of internal fury, to Colonel Corbec, hearty, bluff and well aware of his role as Gaunt;s counterpart, the Ghosts all have their own personalities; they aren’t all just faceless numbers, but given to us as individuals with their own backstories, needs and desires. That helps us care about them and the stakes they’re working for on the page, and we can feel more as they live and die around us, on battlefields filled with horrors and heroism in equal measure. My only complaint would be the lack of women in the Ghosts, though this looks like it could be resolved in later volumes.
The stories themselves? Well, this is Warhammer 40,000. The baddies tend to be, really, pretty bad. Here we see ravening cultists, corrupt aristocracies, warped creatures that used to be men, daemonic machinery, and all sorts of other nastiness. There’s less grey here than you might expect, at least initially; though Gaunt and his Ghosts aren’t always the best of people (and the Ghosts are driven by the tragedy of being the last survivors of their world), they are pretty much always better than the enemies they face in this volume. For example, Rawne’s scheming and black marketeering seem pedestrian in the face of literal teleporting demons that can rip you limb from limb, or quiet, whispering horrors that slowly turn men mad. And it’s all wonderfully described, in prose that carries the screams of battle and the punch of laser fire in its wake, telling us tales without a wasted word, whilst also managing to describe this horror of a gothic nightmare future with every necessary detail to make it feel intensely alive, a lived-in space that is real, from the gothic-cathedral ships plying the space lanes, to the charnel-house of a billions strong hive-city under siege. The universe is real here; you can step through the page, and follow the crump of artillery shells and the sound of crisp-commands soaked in blood, to stand beside Gaunt and his Ghosts at the edge of the world, saving a humanity which will never know or care about the sacrifices that they’ve made.
Overall, I’d say this is a very well done piece of military science-fiction, which benefits from being wrapped into the dense lore of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. It avoids glorifying the conflicts the Guard take part in, and lets us see them as humanity doing its best to survive, to do the right thing, and to make things better. In a world populated by larger-than life aliens, and super-human Space Marines, the genuine humanity of Gaunt and the Ghosts is refreshing, and their trials and tribulations are the more compelling because of it. I was gripped from the first page, and if you’re looking for some good military sci-fi, an entry point into the 40k world, or both, I’d say this would be a great place to start.
Gaunt’s Ghosts is one of the flagship series of the Warhammer 40,000 novel-verse. There’s fifteen or so of them now, chronicling the adventures of the titular Ghosts, a regiment of guardsmen, regular humans, trying to make their way in a universe filled with demons, super-human cyborg warriors, psychotic orcs, condescending, murderous space-elves and all sorts of other creatures with attitudes that range from grudging tolerance to apocalyptic hostility. Into this mix step a gang of soldiers with very little in the way of armour, armaments, or chances for survival. They’re the Imperial Guard, humanity’s first line of defence against all the horrors of a hostile galaxy - and they tend to be led by people who see guardsmen as fungible assets, to be thrown at the enemy until they overwhelm by sheer force of numbers, stepping over piles of their comrades on the way.
Not so the commander of the Ghosts. Gaunt is a blend of political and military, a colonel of a regiment, but also a Commisar, a political officer whose job is to ensure loyalty to the undying God-Emperor who sits at the centre of humanity’s empire in this grim-dark future. Stereotypically, Commissar's do this by shooting a few of their more recalcitrant men in the head, but Gaunt, at least, seems unwilling to waste lives, and seems reluctant to kill his own men. This omnibus edition of the first three books in the series shows us Gaunt at various points: in childhood, in training as a Commissar, as part of another regiment, whilst raising the Ghosts as a regiment, and in the aftermath, as they and he work together to, if not save the universe at ;east try to prevent it getting any worse. And from this we see Gaunt grow. He’s clever, and focused, and driven, and has a surprisingly dense core of morality at his heart. This is a man who appreciates loyalty, and truth, and has a genuine conviction in the divinity of his Emperor, and in the necessity of the Guard to help keep humanity safe. But Gaunt is also ruthless, when he needs to be, willing to make sacrifices in order to achieve his goals (though unwilling to make the same sacrifices if they’re meaningless). There’s a growing hard-edge to Gaunt, a willingness to do what he feels needs to be done over the years, as tragedy takes friends and colleagues. But at the same time, there’s a heart, a willingness to stand by his men, to take risks with them, to do his best to keep them alive, even as they all walk into the cannon-fire together. The blend of compassion, ruthlessness, personal courage, tactical acumen, loyalty and a razor-sharp intelligence help embody Gaunt, and the complexity of his character is at the heart of what makes these stories so readable.
It’s not all about Gaunt, of course. This omnibus includes a variety of short stories from Ghost engagements on multiple worlds, and uses that as a framing device, showing us the perspective of different key personnel in the Ghosts. From the gentle Trooper Bragg, whose inability to hit anything with a weapon gave him both the sobriquet “Try Again” and a penchant for carrying around massively heavy weapons, to the slitheringly lethal Major Rawn, willing to stab you in the back and the front simultaneously ands powered by an engine of internal fury, to Colonel Corbec, hearty, bluff and well aware of his role as Gaunt;s counterpart, the Ghosts all have their own personalities; they aren’t all just faceless numbers, but given to us as individuals with their own backstories, needs and desires. That helps us care about them and the stakes they’re working for on the page, and we can feel more as they live and die around us, on battlefields filled with horrors and heroism in equal measure. My only complaint would be the lack of women in the Ghosts, though this looks like it could be resolved in later volumes.
The stories themselves? Well, this is Warhammer 40,000. The baddies tend to be, really, pretty bad. Here we see ravening cultists, corrupt aristocracies, warped creatures that used to be men, daemonic machinery, and all sorts of other nastiness. There’s less grey here than you might expect, at least initially; though Gaunt and his Ghosts aren’t always the best of people (and the Ghosts are driven by the tragedy of being the last survivors of their world), they are pretty much always better than the enemies they face in this volume. For example, Rawne’s scheming and black marketeering seem pedestrian in the face of literal teleporting demons that can rip you limb from limb, or quiet, whispering horrors that slowly turn men mad. And it’s all wonderfully described, in prose that carries the screams of battle and the punch of laser fire in its wake, telling us tales without a wasted word, whilst also managing to describe this horror of a gothic nightmare future with every necessary detail to make it feel intensely alive, a lived-in space that is real, from the gothic-cathedral ships plying the space lanes, to the charnel-house of a billions strong hive-city under siege. The universe is real here; you can step through the page, and follow the crump of artillery shells and the sound of crisp-commands soaked in blood, to stand beside Gaunt and his Ghosts at the edge of the world, saving a humanity which will never know or care about the sacrifices that they’ve made.
Overall, I’d say this is a very well done piece of military science-fiction, which benefits from being wrapped into the dense lore of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. It avoids glorifying the conflicts the Guard take part in, and lets us see them as humanity doing its best to survive, to do the right thing, and to make things better. In a world populated by larger-than life aliens, and super-human Space Marines, the genuine humanity of Gaunt and the Ghosts is refreshing, and their trials and tribulations are the more compelling because of it. I was gripped from the first page, and if you’re looking for some good military sci-fi, an entry point into the 40k world, or both, I’d say this would be a great place to start.
June 17, 2022
It started off slow and uneven for me. Turns out the first book is a serial series from a magazine and was borderline entertaining. The second book is a collection of short stories that fit a frame tale and a few of them were very well done but overall the collection was hit or miss. The third book however... Necropolis... what a read! The first true novel of the series, this book was amazing in all the ways the previous two weren't. Suddenly there is craft, adrenaline and an interesting sense of context in all the carnage that kept me turning pages to find out what happens to who in that poor city. By about the middle of this brick of a book I was convinced this collection was maybe a 2 or 2 1/2 star. Once I finished Necropolis I immediately grabbed the ebook of the next omnibus and I'm off to war again.
March 1, 2019
3 1/2 stars. I very much enjoyed the ride, but this definitely has the feel of a first novel. The breakneck speed of the plot generally works but it is all tied together a little too neatly and with slightly too many telegraphed twists and deus ex machina moments. I found the generic chaos baddies a little bit too generic. And some of the set pieces fall rather flat due to the somewhat breathless tone of the writing (the confrontation with the Absalom's captain and the scene with Gaunt and the woman at the end being the main examples I can think of). It's a very fun read, though.
November 17, 2020
Klárlega það allra besta hingað til. Ótrúlega vel skrifuð. Höfundurinn hefur magnaða innsýn í hið mannlega ástand og er alveg hreint einstaklega lunkinn í því að skrifa sannfærandi persónur og spennuþrungna atburðarás. Takk, enn og aftur, fyrir lesturinn.
January 20, 2025
Whatever
October 8, 2024
Great introduction to the Gaunts Ghosts saga. Really enjoyed the first two books, especially the climatic battle in the forest. The last book I struggled with for quite a while. But overall, I'm hoping this will be the gateway back into reading for me!
March 26, 2012
So, here I am back to the world of Warhammer 40K. This time, my victims were the Imperial Guard sweethearts: Gaunts' Ghosts.
In an overall, Dan Abnett is a great amazing writer. I'm not a fan of eternal battles but Dan puts into his writing humanity. And that, I confess, saves the day. He doesn't describe a battle to the boring detail of how many soldiers go to the front, how many bullets are lost, how many tanks go meeting their creator. No. Dan writes about people, for people. You feel what the character feels. That, for me, was enough to finish reading.
So, now each book... The Founding have "three books" and a short story. To be precise, the first three Gaunt's Ghosts novels. And it follows the story of the Tanith First-and-Only regiment, specialits in scout and recon, (nicknamed the Ghosts) and their charismatic commissar, Ibram Gaunt.
‘First and Only’
The first (and definitly not the only) contact with the regiments of Tanith is a hard blow. In a series of pages, in the Sabbat worlds, infested by Chaos forces, one encounters the charismatic characters from the regiment Tanith first-and-only and their sad story. Throughout the book, we are taken back and forth in time, as characters remember the founding of the regiment and Gaunt remembers his past, while still a child and teenager and, afterwards, as a young commissar-in-training with the commissar-general Delane Oktar. A book that covers a battle long lost against the past while facing chaos forces in the Sabbat worlds. And tells you the foundation of character interaction and personality. To a point that the battle and the reason for it are quite secoundary facing the history of these brave soldiers and how they came to be.
‘Ghostmaker’
Ghostmaker brings us to a battle a earlier than the one described in 'First and Only'. During the waiting for the heat and death on the field, the reader is taken to several small tales, insights of a selective group of Ghosts. In the middle of each tale, a insight on the waiting. The pace of the book is very pleasant. One keeps reading to search the insight of the next character. And when we notice, we are almost at the end of the book. Yet, the battle (finally) takes place and we can percieve who is the mysterious force behind the calling of the chaos forces in the planet. And what that force can do to our Tanith boys. This one was, and still is to the moment, one of my favourite books of this series.
'Necropolis'
It was hard for me to read this book. I never had the patience to hold to sieges. And this book is about a long siege. A siege that could be avoided if... well, you have to read to understand, of course. A lot of things could be avoided in this book if the right people had the guts for it. But they didn't, so a siege went under way. Once more Dan takes us so inside some characters humanity that we anger, cry and laugh with them. And when certain things happen, one gets revolted.
Meeting another commissar, the oh-so-typical-commissar, got specially on my nerves.
I found the book very well written, like the others, but the theme got me bored in the middle of the book. Only the perspective of a very warhammerish final, that usually goes against the odds, kept me reading. And I was not dissapointed with the end, and justice was made. What a rare sentence, to say in warhammer, justice was made, but truth have been told. What saved this book for me was the short story that ends the book 'In remembrance'.
'In remembrance'
We go back to 'Necropolis'. This time, by the eyes of a sculptor who had a very special commission. A aftermath tale, from a non-combatant character point of view was a fresh air. And the way he walks around, capturing the essence of the Tanith first-and-only, makes all 'Necropolis' worth reading.
In a overall, I know there are people that compare the Dan Abnett series of Gaunts with Sharp series. I'm not a fan of Sharp or its author, so I can't tell if they are close enough, but I can say I felt the battles pretty close. I felt like reading tales of 1 or 2 world war. And for someone that doesn't appreciate the usual war tales, Dan makes of me a happy reader for the humanity of his characters.
'Till next time Dan!
In an overall, Dan Abnett is a great amazing writer. I'm not a fan of eternal battles but Dan puts into his writing humanity. And that, I confess, saves the day. He doesn't describe a battle to the boring detail of how many soldiers go to the front, how many bullets are lost, how many tanks go meeting their creator. No. Dan writes about people, for people. You feel what the character feels. That, for me, was enough to finish reading.
So, now each book... The Founding have "three books" and a short story. To be precise, the first three Gaunt's Ghosts novels. And it follows the story of the Tanith First-and-Only regiment, specialits in scout and recon, (nicknamed the Ghosts) and their charismatic commissar, Ibram Gaunt.
‘First and Only’
The first (and definitly not the only) contact with the regiments of Tanith is a hard blow. In a series of pages, in the Sabbat worlds, infested by Chaos forces, one encounters the charismatic characters from the regiment Tanith first-and-only and their sad story. Throughout the book, we are taken back and forth in time, as characters remember the founding of the regiment and Gaunt remembers his past, while still a child and teenager and, afterwards, as a young commissar-in-training with the commissar-general Delane Oktar. A book that covers a battle long lost against the past while facing chaos forces in the Sabbat worlds. And tells you the foundation of character interaction and personality. To a point that the battle and the reason for it are quite secoundary facing the history of these brave soldiers and how they came to be.
‘Ghostmaker’
Ghostmaker brings us to a battle a earlier than the one described in 'First and Only'. During the waiting for the heat and death on the field, the reader is taken to several small tales, insights of a selective group of Ghosts. In the middle of each tale, a insight on the waiting. The pace of the book is very pleasant. One keeps reading to search the insight of the next character. And when we notice, we are almost at the end of the book. Yet, the battle (finally) takes place and we can percieve who is the mysterious force behind the calling of the chaos forces in the planet. And what that force can do to our Tanith boys. This one was, and still is to the moment, one of my favourite books of this series.
'Necropolis'
It was hard for me to read this book. I never had the patience to hold to sieges. And this book is about a long siege. A siege that could be avoided if... well, you have to read to understand, of course. A lot of things could be avoided in this book if the right people had the guts for it. But they didn't, so a siege went under way. Once more Dan takes us so inside some characters humanity that we anger, cry and laugh with them. And when certain things happen, one gets revolted.
Meeting another commissar, the oh-so-typical-commissar, got specially on my nerves.
I found the book very well written, like the others, but the theme got me bored in the middle of the book. Only the perspective of a very warhammerish final, that usually goes against the odds, kept me reading. And I was not dissapointed with the end, and justice was made. What a rare sentence, to say in warhammer, justice was made, but truth have been told. What saved this book for me was the short story that ends the book 'In remembrance'.
'In remembrance'
We go back to 'Necropolis'. This time, by the eyes of a sculptor who had a very special commission. A aftermath tale, from a non-combatant character point of view was a fresh air. And the way he walks around, capturing the essence of the Tanith first-and-only, makes all 'Necropolis' worth reading.
In a overall, I know there are people that compare the Dan Abnett series of Gaunts with Sharp series. I'm not a fan of Sharp or its author, so I can't tell if they are close enough, but I can say I felt the battles pretty close. I felt like reading tales of 1 or 2 world war. And for someone that doesn't appreciate the usual war tales, Dan makes of me a happy reader for the humanity of his characters.
'Till next time Dan!
March 19, 2015
An omnibus of military SF.
These works are military SF. Bad things happen in them. Good characters get killed. But they have very dramatic plots, and many vividly drawn characters. Filled with honor and friendship and valor. Ibram Gaunt is a deeply developed character, and at any time, a dozen or so Ghosts are major characters. He does a massively multi-POV that lets in him get in a large scope of the battles they are in.
(One trick he has is to develop a character in a short scene. Sometimes this is to make you feel the death. Sometimes this indicates that a formerly minor character will be appearing front and center.)
First And Only is not, in fact, the start of the regiment. It covers enough to let you know, and it tells a great deal about Ibram Gaunt's past. Unlike the rest, it is told with flashbacks. In fact, a lot of flashbacks. It ends on a flashback, which is the perfect note.
Ghostmaker is a fixup. Well, not entirely, but parts of it are. Less of a plot than First And Only or the succeeding novels. Then, you get wonderfully sharp images and descriptions of actions and character, compacting in small sections. It suffers a little because a rivalry with another, aristocratic regiment is central to the plot, and there was a similar rivalry in First And Only -- but not much.
With Necropolis, we have the first novel that starts with their deployment and traces through their involvement in the conflict. Introducing new characters from the world, and starting arcs; this is the style for all the rest, and it works well in all of them. (He carefully varies the actual conflicts they are involved in.) Some arcs started in the first two, but this is where things really get going. While NecropolisI does end the first omnibus, it starts some rabbits that run through the next one.
These works are military SF. Bad things happen in them. Good characters get killed. But they have very dramatic plots, and many vividly drawn characters. Filled with honor and friendship and valor. Ibram Gaunt is a deeply developed character, and at any time, a dozen or so Ghosts are major characters. He does a massively multi-POV that lets in him get in a large scope of the battles they are in.
(One trick he has is to develop a character in a short scene. Sometimes this is to make you feel the death. Sometimes this indicates that a formerly minor character will be appearing front and center.)
First And Only is not, in fact, the start of the regiment. It covers enough to let you know, and it tells a great deal about Ibram Gaunt's past. Unlike the rest, it is told with flashbacks. In fact, a lot of flashbacks. It ends on a flashback, which is the perfect note.
Ghostmaker is a fixup. Well, not entirely, but parts of it are. Less of a plot than First And Only or the succeeding novels. Then, you get wonderfully sharp images and descriptions of actions and character, compacting in small sections. It suffers a little because a rivalry with another, aristocratic regiment is central to the plot, and there was a similar rivalry in First And Only -- but not much.
With Necropolis, we have the first novel that starts with their deployment and traces through their involvement in the conflict. Introducing new characters from the world, and starting arcs; this is the style for all the rest, and it works well in all of them. (He carefully varies the actual conflicts they are involved in.) Some arcs started in the first two, but this is where things really get going. While NecropolisI does end the first omnibus, it starts some rabbits that run through the next one.
January 19, 2015
This series of which I have read 17 novels regards the exploits of a military officer in the far future. He attempts to hold together the last remains of the population of a ravaged world, honing them as a military force and forwarding the constant fight against the enemies of man kind. The setting of this series deviates from both reality and other fiction novels so much that its full description could take an hour or more. Needless to say I found the complexity of the world to be delightful and enjoyed this series for its pure entertainment value, which was greater than that of any other book I've read. The depth of character development and powerful descriptive techniques involved in the creation of scenes made these books mirror life of a soldier in a way that reportedly has left many military veterans astounded that the author, Dan Abnett, has not seen battle himself. This series introduces thought provoking questions in a much less obvious way. They are seeded into the setting, the plot, and the words of characters in a way that may not fully sink in until you've read the novels several times, which I did, for all 17. The value of individual human lives in the face of the greater goals of humanity is repeatedly questioned. Also the question of how to rebuke Evil within yourself, which would seek to bring out the worst in you, is ever present due to the nature of man's greatest enemy. Needless to say these books are not lacking in philosophy. They are just great, if a little hard to get used to at first.
September 11, 2012
If you are a Warhammer 40k fan, then basically anythig Dan Abnett writes should be automatically added to your library. Gaunt's Ghosts, in particular, is an excellent series, better than any other in Warhammer, from my point of view. When it comes to fiction, I have come to be in the habbit of judging extended series based on how many characters from it I remember the names and personalities of-in short, how many the author makes me give a damn about. For this.....the list is enormous. By the omnibus, and the ones that follow it-if you like Warhammer, or SF in general, you won't be dissappointed.
September 22, 2024
This got me hooked like crack
April 12, 2008
Lots of action, Military Sci-fi
Not much on extended charcter descriptions, most development is done through the action and the way the characters act throughout action sequences.
Can be somewhat confusing if you aren't familiar with the Warhammer 40k universe.
Not much on extended charcter descriptions, most development is done through the action and the way the characters act throughout action sequences.
Can be somewhat confusing if you aren't familiar with the Warhammer 40k universe.
November 5, 2011
Intense, vivid, detailed, pure-play, big on story structure. Characters, ensemble, three books together, great map. Dense words, not one wasted. Memorable. Mozart effect. I got smarter, and out of breath. I had the best time! Next!
July 25, 2012
Excellent. You really empathise with the characters. They're all friends - even the bad guys :) The humour is just right alongside the 'trench' warfare. Will definitely read again. Dan is a charismatic writer - will keep an eye out for his books on other subjects to see if he retains it.
July 24, 2015
I'm gonna review this one as whole, so I don't have to go and click for all the 3 books from the founding. First and Third books are masterpiece. Necropolis is my second favorite book in the series, second only to Traitor General - which is from The Lost series.
April 12, 2018
The achievements, the losses, the relationships gained and lost. Abnett has this series on lockdown! A fantastic read through the challenges and triumphs of an imperial guard regiment and its commissar. Patiently waiting for my orders for the other omnibus books to arrive!
May 7, 2020
Joooooder que largo que se me ha hecho el libro. Me han gustado las historias, pero entre una cosa y otra he estado mucho tiempo cogiendo y aparcando el libro. Pero por fin terminado. Está bien. Gaunt mola y los fantasmas también.
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