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A review by shookone
Legion by Dan Abnett
4.0
As a Warhammer book it’s pretty good. Abnett introduces a new faction to the ongoing storyline, and gives us a break from all the space marines by telling a story that’s primarily about regular human soldiers. Or at least as close to regular humans as anyone gets in this setting. It’s still Warhammer, it’s still shlocky and more than a little ridiculous, but it feels slightly more grounded than the other books in the series I’ve read.
Where it drops the ball is when it tries to be a spy novel. I don’t know about you, but when I think spy novels I think mystery, I think of suspicious characters with shady motivations and questionable loyalties, I think of paranoia and a sense of the hero trying to outrace and out think the bad guys. Abnett sort of gestures vaguely towards that kind of thing, there’s some really effective bits where soldiers are trying to work out who’s on whose side and if they’re being betrayed by their own superior officers. Abnett then undercuts his own efforts by immediately letting you know in the next scene that the person or situation a given character is worried about is totally cool. A little hard to believe the first time it happened. After it happened a couple more times all I could do was laugh. Overall I’d call this book a success, but the mishandling of the spy stuff makes it a book that succeeds in spite of itself.
Where it drops the ball is when it tries to be a spy novel. I don’t know about you, but when I think spy novels I think mystery, I think of suspicious characters with shady motivations and questionable loyalties, I think of paranoia and a sense of the hero trying to outrace and out think the bad guys. Abnett sort of gestures vaguely towards that kind of thing, there’s some really effective bits where soldiers are trying to work out who’s on whose side and if they’re being betrayed by their own superior officers. Abnett then undercuts his own efforts by immediately letting you know in the next scene that the person or situation a given character is worried about is totally cool. A little hard to believe the first time it happened. After it happened a couple more times all I could do was laugh. Overall I’d call this book a success, but the mishandling of the spy stuff makes it a book that succeeds in spite of itself.