Hammer of Daemons (Grey Knights) | List Price: $7.99
Discount Price: $4.06
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Conan in the 40k universe [Posted on 2008-03-19]
I enjoyed this book greatly, but if one changes the name of the planet to 'Stygia,' 'Space Marine' to 'Cimmerian,' and 'Alaric' to 'Conan' you get a pretty good book too. Ben Counter develops his Grey Knight hero greatly, but at the cost of developing the Warhammer 40,000 universe. The Chaos world setting is not particularly believable or original. The story does point to a very interesting future novel, however.
Back on track [Posted on 2008-03-30]
In GREY KNIGHTS, the first book in this series, the reader was introduced to Justicar Alaric of the Imperium's superhuman daemonslayers. The Space Marine chapter that works closely with the Inquisition to quash the particularly tough servents of Chaos (for the layman, that's the bad guys), the Grey Knights are as cool as Space Marines get. The first book in the series had some weird parts, but generally was a first class science fiction/40k invention.
Counter really lost the thread in DARK ADEPTUS, however. His characters got more wooden, the story was painfully narrow, and Alaric ended up talking a daemon into actually becoming a daemon. If you're asking "what?" It's because the book generally had issues with common sense.
So it was with anticipation and quite a bit of reservations that I picked up the third book of the series. Good news: it delivers. With this third book in the series, the Grey Knights trilogy surpasses the SOUL DRINKERS series (Counter's other series of note) easily. When Alaric and his allies suffer a terrible defeat, he is taken captive and brought to the Chaos world of Drakaasi. Forced to fight as a Gladiator in the arena without his shield of faith (all Grey Knights have psychic powers), Alaric must fight his own impending madness as well as Chaos horrors to find a way to survive. But survival is not another for Alaric, he needs to find a way off Drakaasi.
I won't spoil the plot. It's a bit a simple, but very smoothly executed. Alaric goes back to being a three dimensional character--as he was in the first book--and the subplots involving his relationships with the other arena slaves were well done. The action scenes were straight out of GLADIATOR and it's a little hard not to imagine...Whatsisface...Russell Crowe fighting the chaos champions. Anyways, the novel is action-packed and gives the series exactly what it needs to continue a positive fashion.
Awesome [Posted on 2008-04-21]
Thsi book is currently one of my personal top 10 Warhammer 40k titles. Ben Counter drags our Grey Knight champion through hell itself, severly testing his physical and mental endurance while keeping the climax and conclusion elusive until the bitter end. Not you regular good guys beat bad guys story, but good guy turns.... well, you read it.
A very good book [Posted on 2008-06-03]
I really enjoyed this third book in the Grey Knights series better than the first two books. It is well written with lots of action. I could not put it down.
Justicar Alaric is awesome [Posted on 2008-06-25]
Ben Counter does it again with his 3rd installment in the Grey Knights saga. What makes this book so great is that it is a fun book to read. Is it the greatest book ever? No, but it certainly is perfect for a fun read. The plot is interesting, and there is no lack of action. Another welcomed thing to the book was seeing chaos in all its glory, via a planet devoted to Khorne and its lords and leaders. As a side note, one thing I loved in the story was the inclusion of the orks. Although they don't play a major role, I love the way that Counter uses them in the story.
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