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Gaunt's Ghosts #14-15 + short story
The Victory: Part Two
A Gaunt's Ghosts Omnibus
Dan Abnett continues the saga of the Tanith First and Only, and their fearless leader – Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt.
READ IT BECAUSE
The Sabbat Worlds Crusade races towards a final conclusion – will Gaunt and his Ghosts prove themselves clever and skilful enough to outwit a cunning enemy who seems to hold all the cards?
THE STORY
The forge world Urdesh is under siege by the armies of Anarch Sek. Warmaster Macaroth has taken control of the campaign, and Gaunt’s Ghosts are at the centre of it. Victory or defeat here will decide the fate of not just a world, but the Sabbat Worlds Crusade itself. The enemy is canny, savvy, and playing the long game, full of twists and turns. Will Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt discover the truth, and head off disaster once again?
CONTENTS
– The Warmaster
– Anarch
– This Is What Victory Feels Like (Forever The Same) – a short story
– From There to Here – a short story
Dan Abnett continues the saga of the Tanith First and Only, and their fearless leader – Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt.
READ IT BECAUSE
The Sabbat Worlds Crusade races towards a final conclusion – will Gaunt and his Ghosts prove themselves clever and skilful enough to outwit a cunning enemy who seems to hold all the cards?
THE STORY
The forge world Urdesh is under siege by the armies of Anarch Sek. Warmaster Macaroth has taken control of the campaign, and Gaunt’s Ghosts are at the centre of it. Victory or defeat here will decide the fate of not just a world, but the Sabbat Worlds Crusade itself. The enemy is canny, savvy, and playing the long game, full of twists and turns. Will Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt discover the truth, and head off disaster once again?
CONTENTS
– The Warmaster
– Anarch
– This Is What Victory Feels Like (Forever The Same) – a short story
– From There to Here – a short story
978 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 25, 2022
111 people are currently reading
245 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 4, 2025
A beautiful ending to a long series. sure as sure.
the entire series has been a nice mix between hardships and small victories.
the entire series has been a nice mix between hardships and small victories.
July 19, 2023
I think this series has reached its natural end or a transformation point.
Picking up from the events in the first Victory Omnibus, the Ghosts, their Imperial Navy crew, and the Regiment's followers find themselves suddenly back in realspace, with shattered memories, fogged minds, and being boarded. After a fierce fight, they learn the truth. The loss of one of their war engines has cast them out of the warp, and ten years have passed.
They reach the vital forge world of Urdesh, where an essential campaign will be won or lost that will determine the fate of the war. To his shock, Gaunt is named a Lord Commander and ushered into the highest circles of the crusade's command and into a deadly new world of political infighting.
The two novels cover the final acts of the Urdesh campaign and are filled with Abnett's great characters, brilliant imagery, and vile enemies. The last book resolves many hanging plotlines, and as I said at the top, it is a perfect chance for the series to take a new direction. Gaunt is now the second in command of the crusade, the voice of the Warlord. The 1st Tanith is now his personal guard. I'd love to see the series lean into this, showing the big picture and infighting in the highest circles, as Gaunt did leapfrog over several people to be named to his new post. It would be fascinating to see the Ghosts evolve after over twenty years of combat and so many losses to find their new identity.
A great new omnibus in the Black Library's longest-running series following a single unit.
Picking up from the events in the first Victory Omnibus, the Ghosts, their Imperial Navy crew, and the Regiment's followers find themselves suddenly back in realspace, with shattered memories, fogged minds, and being boarded. After a fierce fight, they learn the truth. The loss of one of their war engines has cast them out of the warp, and ten years have passed.
They reach the vital forge world of Urdesh, where an essential campaign will be won or lost that will determine the fate of the war. To his shock, Gaunt is named a Lord Commander and ushered into the highest circles of the crusade's command and into a deadly new world of political infighting.
The two novels cover the final acts of the Urdesh campaign and are filled with Abnett's great characters, brilliant imagery, and vile enemies. The last book resolves many hanging plotlines, and as I said at the top, it is a perfect chance for the series to take a new direction. Gaunt is now the second in command of the crusade, the voice of the Warlord. The 1st Tanith is now his personal guard. I'd love to see the series lean into this, showing the big picture and infighting in the highest circles, as Gaunt did leapfrog over several people to be named to his new post. It would be fascinating to see the Ghosts evolve after over twenty years of combat and so many losses to find their new identity.
A great new omnibus in the Black Library's longest-running series following a single unit.
January 5, 2025
Solid conclusion for the Ghosts
March 2, 2025
Why Gaunt's Ghosts Is More Than Warhammer: A Reflection on Memory, Meaning, and Masterful Storytelling
Introduction: The Long March of the Lost
If you’ve read Gaunt’s Ghosts, you know the truth:
This isn’t just military sci-fi.
It’s not just another campaign in the grimdark galaxy of Warhammer 40,000.
It’s a meditation on what remains when everything else is gone.
It’s a story about people who lost their home, and—against all odds—found a purpose worth dying for anyway.
And the deeper question the series asks is this:
How do we stay human in a universe designed to strip us of that very thing?
The Craft: Why This Series Works
Dan Abnett achieves something rare. With Gaunt's Ghosts, he doesn’t just write battles—he writes people living through battles.
✦ The Characters Feel Real
Across the omnibuses, the cast deepens and fractures. You can’t read the series without picking favourites—and dreading the moment they might fall. Whether it’s Larkin’s haunted genius, Rawne’s barely leashed fury, or Gaunt’s quiet, principled resolve, every character brings the weight of memory to the page.
✦ The Atmosphere is Tactile
You can hear the lasguns cooling after a firefight.
You can feel the dirt of Tanith underfoot, even centuries after the planet is gone.
You can smell the cordite and the damp, and somehow that sensory immersion makes the philosophy hit harder: This is what we fight to remember. This is what we lose when we forget.
✦ The Pacing is Relentless—but Gentle When It Needs to Be
Sure, there are siege breaks, doomed charges, and desperate defences. But Abnett gives us the quiet, aching spaces in between:
• The whispered campfire stories.
• The shared cigarettes before dawn.
• The moments when Gaunt writes letters to the families of the fallen, knowing he’s lying to make their deaths sound noble.
The Philosophy: Finding Meaning in the March
At its core, Gaunt's Ghosts is existentialist fiction wrapped in bolter fire.
• You will die.
• Your name will be forgotten.
• Your victories are grains of sand in a cosmic storm.
And yet... they march.
Like Camus’ Sisyphus pushing the rock up the hill, the Ghosts define themselves through action. Their world is absurd. Their Emperor is silent. Their cause is often suspect.
But they choose each other.
They choose to remember Tanith.
They choose to fight so the man next to them might see another sunrise.
In that, Gaunt’s Ghosts becomes quietly profound: it’s not the war that matters. It’s how we preserve our humanity despite it.
The Spiritual Undercurrent: Faith After the Fall
Religion in the series is subtle, yet potent. On one side, you have the oppressive, zealot-driven Imperium. On the other, the earthy, almost animistic beliefs of Tanith—omens in the wood, whispers in the dark.
This contrast asks us:
• What happens when institutional faith no longer serves the people?
• Can local, folk beliefs carry us through existential collapse better than empire-sanctioned dogma?
And there’s an answer in the Ghosts’ survival. They don’t pray because the emperor demands it. They honour the dead because someone must. They keep the old superstitions alive because they are the last threads connecting them to a home that exists now only in memory.
The Emotional Resonance: Why We Stay
By the end of the series (or even halfway through), you’re not there for the campaigns. You’re not even there for the Sabbat Worlds Crusade.
You’re there because you’ve become a Ghost yourself.
You want to see if Larkin finally conquers his demons.
You want to know if Rawne ever forgives Gaunt—or himself.
You want to sit one more night around the fire and hear one more story about Tanith.
And that’s the quiet genius of it:
Where most war fiction is about who wins, Gaunt’s Ghosts is about who endures.
Connections: What Other Stories Does It Echo?
If you love Gaunt’s Ghosts, you're hearing the same ancient drumbeat found in:
• The Things They Carried – the burdens of memory and loss.
• All Quiet on the Western Front – the futility of orders from above.
• Band of Brothers – the unbreakable bonds of those who fight side by side.
But it also reaches into deeper philosophical territory:
• Camus' defiance of absurdity.
• Tolkien’s lingering grief over lost homelands.
• The mythic resonance of the last survivors guarding the old songs.
Final Reflection: Why It Matters
When people say "Gaunt’s Ghosts is the best of Warhammer," they’re right.
But I’d go further:
It’s some of the best modern war fiction, period.
Because in a setting defined by endless death and darkness, Abnett found a story about life.
About holding the line.
About remembering what’s worth saving—even when you know it won’t last.
And that’s the quiet wisdom of the Ghosts:
We are all marching toward something inevitable.
But we don’t march alone.
Introduction: The Long March of the Lost
If you’ve read Gaunt’s Ghosts, you know the truth:
This isn’t just military sci-fi.
It’s not just another campaign in the grimdark galaxy of Warhammer 40,000.
It’s a meditation on what remains when everything else is gone.
It’s a story about people who lost their home, and—against all odds—found a purpose worth dying for anyway.
And the deeper question the series asks is this:
How do we stay human in a universe designed to strip us of that very thing?
The Craft: Why This Series Works
Dan Abnett achieves something rare. With Gaunt's Ghosts, he doesn’t just write battles—he writes people living through battles.
✦ The Characters Feel Real
Across the omnibuses, the cast deepens and fractures. You can’t read the series without picking favourites—and dreading the moment they might fall. Whether it’s Larkin’s haunted genius, Rawne’s barely leashed fury, or Gaunt’s quiet, principled resolve, every character brings the weight of memory to the page.
✦ The Atmosphere is Tactile
You can hear the lasguns cooling after a firefight.
You can feel the dirt of Tanith underfoot, even centuries after the planet is gone.
You can smell the cordite and the damp, and somehow that sensory immersion makes the philosophy hit harder: This is what we fight to remember. This is what we lose when we forget.
✦ The Pacing is Relentless—but Gentle When It Needs to Be
Sure, there are siege breaks, doomed charges, and desperate defences. But Abnett gives us the quiet, aching spaces in between:
• The whispered campfire stories.
• The shared cigarettes before dawn.
• The moments when Gaunt writes letters to the families of the fallen, knowing he’s lying to make their deaths sound noble.
The Philosophy: Finding Meaning in the March
At its core, Gaunt's Ghosts is existentialist fiction wrapped in bolter fire.
• You will die.
• Your name will be forgotten.
• Your victories are grains of sand in a cosmic storm.
And yet... they march.
Like Camus’ Sisyphus pushing the rock up the hill, the Ghosts define themselves through action. Their world is absurd. Their Emperor is silent. Their cause is often suspect.
But they choose each other.
They choose to remember Tanith.
They choose to fight so the man next to them might see another sunrise.
In that, Gaunt’s Ghosts becomes quietly profound: it’s not the war that matters. It’s how we preserve our humanity despite it.
The Spiritual Undercurrent: Faith After the Fall
Religion in the series is subtle, yet potent. On one side, you have the oppressive, zealot-driven Imperium. On the other, the earthy, almost animistic beliefs of Tanith—omens in the wood, whispers in the dark.
This contrast asks us:
• What happens when institutional faith no longer serves the people?
• Can local, folk beliefs carry us through existential collapse better than empire-sanctioned dogma?
And there’s an answer in the Ghosts’ survival. They don’t pray because the emperor demands it. They honour the dead because someone must. They keep the old superstitions alive because they are the last threads connecting them to a home that exists now only in memory.
The Emotional Resonance: Why We Stay
By the end of the series (or even halfway through), you’re not there for the campaigns. You’re not even there for the Sabbat Worlds Crusade.
You’re there because you’ve become a Ghost yourself.
You want to see if Larkin finally conquers his demons.
You want to know if Rawne ever forgives Gaunt—or himself.
You want to sit one more night around the fire and hear one more story about Tanith.
And that’s the quiet genius of it:
Where most war fiction is about who wins, Gaunt’s Ghosts is about who endures.
Connections: What Other Stories Does It Echo?
If you love Gaunt’s Ghosts, you're hearing the same ancient drumbeat found in:
• The Things They Carried – the burdens of memory and loss.
• All Quiet on the Western Front – the futility of orders from above.
• Band of Brothers – the unbreakable bonds of those who fight side by side.
But it also reaches into deeper philosophical territory:
• Camus' defiance of absurdity.
• Tolkien’s lingering grief over lost homelands.
• The mythic resonance of the last survivors guarding the old songs.
Final Reflection: Why It Matters
When people say "Gaunt’s Ghosts is the best of Warhammer," they’re right.
But I’d go further:
It’s some of the best modern war fiction, period.
Because in a setting defined by endless death and darkness, Abnett found a story about life.
About holding the line.
About remembering what’s worth saving—even when you know it won’t last.
And that’s the quiet wisdom of the Ghosts:
We are all marching toward something inevitable.
But we don’t march alone.
February 26, 2024
another great read
Great end to an awesome series . One of those you wish you could read again for the first time to experience it again. Crazy plot twists at the end. I hope he continues to write more books with these characters.
Great end to an awesome series . One of those you wish you could read again for the first time to experience it again. Crazy plot twists at the end. I hope he continues to write more books with these characters.
July 14, 2024
From there to here.
March 17, 2025
At first, I was wondering why Dan was spending so much time talking about the retinue and the family life of the Gaurdsmen in the campaign, I did enjoy that. I realized why later when the Woe Machines appeared. Just absolutely crushing, Dan has taken the war to an entirely new level of misery. This isn't sci-fi anymore. It's a horror novel. Dan Abnett is now the master of war AND horror. I just couldn't even believe how sad and messed up the climax was. Can't wait for the next one as always.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 23, 2023
This struck me HARD. I have loved all of the Gaunt's Ghosts books, and this was definitely among the best. I genuinely shed a tear at the end, after having been unable to put it down for days. It left me longing for more, and considering re-reading the whole series because I miss the characters so, so much!
March 23, 2023
Quite fun.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews