Customer Reviews

Blood Angels: Deus Encarmine (Warhammer 40,000)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The characterization of the Blood Angels felt way off to me.
Too many little details detracted from the novel.
The structure and organization of the Blood Angels
was also a bit inaccurate in my opinion.

Since when were senior veteran Space Marines so
wishy washy....or so lacking in leadership?
How could Chapter Master Dante actually allow
an inquisitor of all ppl to be in overall command
of a company of Blood Angels to recover an artifact
tied to Sanguinus himself?
Where is the suspicion the Blood Angels should have
towards the inquisition?
Too many actions and decisions seemed way out of character.

The characters felt more like imperial guardsman than Astartes.
Also, how many companies were fielded in the novel?
It seems in each battle, dozens of Blood Angels were mowed down
and yet, they always seem to have dozens of more squads.
Last time i checked, there were about a hundred marines
to each company.

The novel in itself was decent as reflected by the 3 stars.
Still, the novel was somewhat weak because i found the
characters to be weak.

Deus Encarmine is apparently James Swallow's first foray into the 40K universe and at times, his unfamiliarity with the setting shows. He does not appear to be as well versed with the background material as are some more familiar Black Library authors and as a result, he sometimes takes liberties with his story that long time Games Workshop fans might find a bit disconcerting. That having been said, Swallow does manage to craft a fairly engrossing tale.

Deus Encarmine chronicles a small band of Blood Angel space marines assigned to ceremonial garrison duty on an isolated cemetery world. When the planet is unexpectedly attacked by a determined force of Word Bearer chaos marines, the Blood Angels are aided by some comrades returning from a successful crusade to recover an ancient artifact belonging to the Blood Angel Chapter. Although the initial attack of the Word Bearers is blunted, the Blood Angels struggle internally with how to best address the continuing threat posed by the Word Bearers and how to best use the recently recovered artifact. Fueled in part by some old animosities and conflicts, different factions emerge and tensions arise which threaten to pit Blood Angel versus Blood Angel.

For the most part, Swallow's overall story is more sophisticated and nuanced than are his characters. Swallow admirably weaves together several different story arcs and the book benefits from layers of intrigue and betrayal. To the very end, readers are left guessing as to the true motivations and goals of the various main characters. Unfortunately, these characters still tend to remain relatively two dimensional and cliched. The bad guys tend to be angry, reflexively violent and downright psychotic while the good guys often come across as arrogant, aloof and overly pious. Swallows' battle scenes are a bit too simplistic with perhaps too heavy a focus on the blood and gore aspect and far too many casualties. Still, Deus Encarmine remains an entertaining light read and I found myself looking forward to the next installment in the series.

I confess that I LOVE the Blood Angels. They're one of my favourite chapters of space marines, so I was really looking forward to this book. However, I must also confess that I was disappointed and even a little frustrated whilst reading this. The problem is not the writing (which is pretty good), and its not the plot (which, leaving a few niggles aside, is also pretty good). The problem is the fact that Swallow's Blood Angels are not the same as mine! I had such a strong image of them already, after all the background fluff published by BL, and Swallow seems to have interpreted it differently.
Sitting down after finishing the book, I realised that it wasn't fair to condemn this book simply for being written by someone who isn't me! In its own terms, this is an exciting and interesting read ... certainly worth your time (and a little cash). I'm even going to try the sequel ...

The author does not understand the storyline / universe in which the story is set. A reader who is new the Warhammer 40K books may enjoy it, but a reader who is familiar with the Warhmmer 40K story will find the glaring errors annoying. It is as though the author was given a 10 minute "overview" of the Warhammer 40K story just covering the major points.

Additionally, this book (and the sequel) are both examples of amateurish writing. There are numerous internal inconsistencies within the story.

I have read many of the 40K novels. I have enjoyed many of them. This was not one of them. Some authors can write books that transcend the fact that they are the intellectual properties of someone else. They can make them their own and transcend the genre. This author is not one of them. Much of the dialouge and details seems very forced and inconsistent. If you play the game that this novel is based on, you get the feeling you are reading bad fluff. Everything reads as if the author is reading directly out of a codex and forces it. A bad book, badly written.

Many of the Space Marine books are very similar and it takes a lot to make them stand out. I wasn't sure if novels about the Blood Angels would work with the sort of story that was being offered (the return of Sanguinius), but this blew me away! Bloodsoaked battle scenes and good characters and good use of the BAs chapter background all the way through. There is a cliffhanger ending but it left me breathless!

I find that 40K fiction tends to be hit or miss depending on the skills of the author in question. Dan Abnett is by far the best of their stable.

This book felt like a short story that had been padded up to novel length with a thesaurus and a good deal of duplicate exposition. The author frequently "tells" rather than "shows" and the characters tend to be pretty thin - those that are "evil" are blatantly so, and those that are "good" tend to be conflicted and do a great deal of soul searching.

Not being an expert on the Blood Angels, I can't comment on the accuracy of the author's representation, but judging from his liberty with other pieces of canon (such as some psyker elements) I wouldn't be surprised if there were fudges made there as well.

If you're a Blood Angel fan, or simply must keep up on GW's storyline for the 40K universe, then you'll most likely read this, but for the rest of us, don't bother.