Customer Reviews

Blood Pact (Warhammer 40000 Gaunts Ghosts)

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

 

 

In Blood Pact, Abnett seeks to bridge the conclusion to Only in Death while at the same time setting up a new series of Gaunt's Ghosts novels. He succeeds to excellent effect.

Picking up two years after Only in Death, the Ghosts have languished in a rear area of the Crusade in which they had fought for a decade without pause. It is not to their liking. Members of the unit have turned to crime simply to relieve their boredom, while others have found themselves growing too used to creature comforts and are growing fat in their leisure time. Until a special prisoner arrives and disrupts the peace, sending the Ghosts back to what they know best: combat.

Abnett delivers something unique in Blood Pact in terms of the many scenes of the Pact cult members working through their planning stages and their pursuit of the traitor who has arrived on Balhaut. The traitor has requested to speak with Gaunt and him only. The disparate groups converge on the place of the traitor's imprisonment and much carnage ensues. Gaunt leads a tiny group in evading the chaos warriors, who in their scenes demonstrate actual compassion for one another, as well as rational plotting and problem-solving. Hardly what readers of 40k books would associate with agents of Chaos. Like the relationships in the Ghosts, the Pact unit has grown into a sort of family, exhibiting pride at the others' accomplishments (even if of a grotesque nature), concern at the loss of their own number, and drive to accomplish their mission at any cost. Abnett thus shows us why the Pact are such a good foil for the Ghosts: They are opposite sides of the same coin, simply serving different masters with opposing goals.

There is really only character development of Gaunt's character, as he has the most to work through. Not only was he the most damaged survivor of the combat in Only in Death, he has succumbed to the sloth of the posting to Balhaut. He must overcome the sluggardness that has overtaken him while also puzzling out the many different plots against the traitor he takes under his protection. He must deal with disturbing new abilities granted by his replacement eyes, seeing ghastly future events in time to avert them. He faces his own past ghosts and confronts his mortality in a strange way when he learns that the historians on Balhaut believe he died while carrying out the heroism of the campaign on that world before he took over the Ghosts. As he states, no one (even Gaunt) remembers anything correctly, but his visions of the future have been accurate. So he moves forward and does not focus on the past which he could not recall clearly anyway.

Abnett shows once again why he's such a prolific author: he's just extraordinarily good. From the overall plot to the many subplots, everything drives the story of this book and the overarching plot of the Ghosts series itself, never wasting a word. The characters seem so real in their actions and reactions, their feelings and observations, and their dedication to their friends and their beliefs. There's really nothing to complain about in this book, aside from the fact that it reads too quickly and one is left sad knowing there will be a long wait for the next installment.

Blood Pact was a huge disappointment. This is the first of Dan Abnett's books I have not liked. I've read all of the Ghost's novels, Eisenhorn and the Ravenor Trilogies. I've played tabletop 40k since I was a kid. I love Warhammer, and the tales Abnett is famous for. But his latest addition to the series left me feeling let down and quite frankly - bored.

Character development is fair. We get a chance to see Gaunt's past and how he thinks. There were interesting tidbits about Tona and Ezrah. Rawne certainly had his moments. The actual storyline was dry, with very little combat (and none on the epic scale that we have come to love) and it felt very detatched from the Warhammer universe. It felt like a rushed and hurried mess. Even the cover art is sorely lacking.

I think that it's required reading for any Ghosts fan just for the background. The rest of it felt bloodless and without any soul. I sincerely hope for a better book next time. The story concludes in an abrupt, sudden and jumbled fashion. I can only hope his next novel makes up for this epically boring read.

Gaunt's Ghosts are an elite scout unit fighting the endless wars of the 41st millennium. In this volume after years on the front line the Ghosts are redeployed to Balhaut, a safe world in the rear lines and must face a new foe - boredom.

The book starts slow, establishing that after years on the edge the Ghosts find themselves falling apart. Discipline is lax, some are committing crimes and even Commissar Gaunt is having trouble paying attention to his job. But this quiet time is shattered when the Blood Pact infiltrate Balhaut seeking to kill a Blood Pact prisoner before he can talk.

This book has a lot of promise. It's basically an inversion of an earlier book Traitor General where Gaunt had to execute a captured Imperial general before he talked; now Gaunt has to protect a traitor. Abnett does his usual excellent job of creating and fleshing out a new world. Balhaut is a cemetery world, the site of a Famous Victory where pilgrims and mourners come to remember those who died. Abnett introduces some fascinating characters including an artist who creates portraits of the dead complete with made up uniforms and non-existent medals.

But it really goes nowhere. Once the hero, villain and MacGuffin are introduced the plot goes in circles and no one is in serious danger. A few main characters get the same, tiresome, flesh wounds they've gotten in other books but in the end no matter how many fights they are in, no matter what crimes are committed, everyone is returned to their status quo.

I still enjoy Gaunt's Ghosts but my interest is dropping. Unless Abnett begins to shake up his comfortable collection of characters and put them at real risk I'm not sure I'll stick with it.

Blood Pact follows a newly rebuilt Commisar Gaunt, along with the Ghosts, entering the third year of a down rotation on a fairly nice planet, far away from the front lines of the Sabbat War. When Gaunt is personally called in to interrogate a possible defecting general of the Blood Pact, Gaunt finds himself suddenly plunged into a desperate fight against the Inquisition and the Blood Pact attack group sent to assassinate him. The attentive will notice this is a almost lamely complete reversal of the plot line from Traitor General.

The plot is put together nicely, following several different plot lines that all snake together well for the conclusion of the book. Combat is fast and rather brief, given the overall tone, but this allows for more side story and dialogue than is usually possible in a GG novel.

What makes is a rather downturn in the overall plot is the side stories themselves. While they were rather nice, they weren't built for the mantra of the 40k universe. The Blood Pact seem more human by the book, despite the fact that one of the few nice things about the 40k verse is that good and evil are rather starkly contrasted, whereas the Blood Pact assault team seem more like fanatics of an esoteric religion, complete with a suicide bomber daemon spell partway through the novel. Notice the not-so-subtle parallel?

And while the remainder of the book was well written, its starting to reach for material that it didn't really need. Gaunts character is subtly altering in ways that are annoyingly unnecessary, especially given that the universe has a wealth of backstory and side story that could be used at any time. The Saint? Milo? I doubt that the analogy works well, but its like Abnett walked away from the gold mine to pick some berries. The berries may be sweet to some, but there not exactly what he was there for in the first place. Lastly, Abnett work has always been something that you could chew on for a long time. I blasted through this in a 4 hour plane ride.

Basically if you like the Ghosts, its a toss up between loving and loathing this piece. Though the long wait and light weight hopefully means hes cooking up something bigger and better in the background.

The Tanith First had been pulled back from the front line of the Sabbat Worlds Crusade and eagerly await news of their next deployment. They have been on Balhaut about a year now. The men have gotten bored and that can be a dangerous thing.

Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt is called in to Section with no warning. An enemy prisoner is being interrogated, but refuses to speak with anyone except Gaunt. Mabbon has defected from the Blood Pact and is somehow connected with Gaunt's last mission on Gereon. Having been a high ranking enemy soldier, Mabbon has information that can help the Imperium win the war. Before Gaunt can learn the information, they are attacked. Gaunt must flee with the prisoner and go to ground until Mabbon's intelligence can be revealed.

The Blood Pact is determined to kill Mabbon before the information is given. The Blood Pact infiltrate the ostensibly secure crown world with enough confidence and ability to stage a frontal assault on the Commissariat's headquarters. They have a highly trained witch, using her warpcraft, to help seek out Gaunt and Mabbon no matter where they flee. Gaunt has no idea how far the Blood Pact's reach and influence extends and must be extremely cautious as to whom he trusts for help.

**** FOUR STARS! Though this is the twelfth book in the Gaunt's Ghosts series, new readers will have no trouble fully understanding and enjoying it. This story easily stands on its own. I found this to be a fast paced adventure with bits of humor thrown in to help break the tension at times. Dan Abnett certainly knows his craft! Very well done indeed! ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

I am an avid fan of Mr Abnett's works for the Black Library, particularly the Guant's Ghosts series. Each one seems to be grittier and more involved than the last until.... Blood Pact. This book was feeble at best compared to previous efforts. The book was much shorter in length than previous volumes (this should have been my sign in hindsight) and had a tired, jaded feel to it throughout. Perhaps this was a deliberate mirror of the state of the regiment itself but its effect on me was profound. GOne was the high suspense and plot twists, not to be found was the high degree of detail that puts one right in the middle of the action and lets you feel everything the characters feel which is so much a part of the mystique of a Dan Abnett book. The action was sparse and fairly unimaginative for the most part. The one situation that showed some real promise and potential was the situation when Major Rawn, Captain Ban Daur and pals took over the underground club, fought off the criminal opposition and after escaping sure destruction they get pinched by the authorities. Good stuff and headed for an interesting end I thoiught yet basically after all that they languish in the cells, are let out to help in the emergency with a vague promise/threat of punishment to come later after the crisis is over. The bad guys were very dissaapointing in this book too. After the Blood Pact Apperance in previous volumes in the series as the Uber warriors of Chaos and just a step below a Chaos Space Marine in evil mayhem and destruction, here they started out strong living up to their reputation and quickly turned into just another group of bad guys that get killed off as usual. So, the bottom line is this: If you are a Guant's Ghost fan you will be dissapointed in this offering but buy it for your collection anyway. If you are Dan Abnett fan then I recommend you skip this one as it will dissapoint. If you have never read Dan Abnett, definitely read this book first. You will enjoy it. It moves along at a good clip and has plenty of action to keep you entertained in fine fashion and the bonus is every book of his you read afterwards will get better.

I had no way of knowing that this one book was coming from a seller located overseas from my home. By the time this information was available to me it was too late to try to order it from a store located on the same continent much less the same country. Forty plus days estimated delivery and no way of being told until after the order, there needs to be some way of being notified before ordering so i can choose a different seller. On the plus side i have been ordering books from amazon for nine years or so and this is the first problem i have had so no biggie all in all i would say i am a satisfied customer with one small problem in that time. Go amazon.

Dan Abnett has once again crafted a cohesive and engaging story involving Ibram Gaunt and his Ghosts! 'Blood Pact' includes everything that I have come to know and love from Abnett's fiction: great military action, sentimentality, calculated attention to detail and well-devised, dynamic characters. I know what to expect from this series of novels but I always wind up pleasantly surprised by the author's ability to refresh old ideas while at the same time connecting obscure story arcs from previous books. This novel is no different, while it includes the usual Abnett fare, the author does throw a few curve balls our way...This story is set on Balhaut site of the Imperium's 'Great Victory' over the forces of Chaos. Gaunt took part in the heavy fighting on Balhaut and was with Warmaster Slaydo when they re-captured Balopolis (as a result of his service during the war Gaunt was promoted to Colonel-Commissar). Balhaut and more specifically Balopolis hold numerous memories for Gaunt, most of them bittersweet concerning comrades lost and killed during the savage combat. In addition to a massive war memorial, Balhaut also contains Imperial administrative buildings and military headquarters--which become targets for the titular group.
I do not want to provide any spoilers, but the action heats up pretty quickly between the Imperial soldiers, namely the Tanith Ghosts and their arch-enemies the Blood Pact.
My favorite thing about this book is how Abnett approaches human memory through Ibram Gaunt and other less-dynamic characters. We get to see Gaunt's perceptions of the 'Great Victory' along with his attitude regarding war memorials. Many of the civilians he interacts with throughout the story have some connection to the Balhaut war, it is how Gaunt reacts and responds to these people and his own memories that truly makes this novel such an engaging read! For me, the best part of the book is the epilogue which actually takes place during the fighting in Balopolis.
This is a great book! 'Blood Pact' offers something for everyone--hardcore fans get more Gaunt adventures, military buffs get a great war story and newcomers will see why Dan Abnett is commonly referred to as the 'master of war!'

There is no need to give you an overview of the book. You ARE going to read this if you are a fan of the Ghosts and you will NOT be disappointed. "Blood Pact" has a little bit of a different feel to it, but is still great and the characters are brought to life in a whole new setting. At first I was worried about the suspense I am so used to in a Ghost novel, but I was not let down and the whole concept really worked for me. In fact the novel's plot made a great scenario for my "Dark Heresy" campaign. all in all it was a great book and really added depth to Gaunt and some of the more popular (and still alive) ghosts.

He is bounden to beleue in ye trinite. And ye felowe beleueth in a quaternitie: Sir Thomas More

Dan Abnett's "Blood Pact" is the twelfth novel in his Gaunt's Ghost series and, in my mind, his most intimate investigation into the psyche of Gaunt. For the nervous, superstitious, conspiratorial among you, let's add another "Double Eagle," to make the series contain thirteen.

So there are thirteen novels in the series to date. However, Mr. Abnett tends to write quaternities with a single over-arching arc, so that brings us to two completed quaternities, a trilogy, and two extras--"Blood Pact," and "Double Eagle." Of these two, one is hors série--"Double Eagle"--and the other, "Blood Pact" is the beginning of a new quarternity.

The last quaternity began with the novel,"Traitor General" and ended with "Only in Death." In "Traitor General" an Imperial General, who is condemned to death, is captured (rescued)by the Chaos equivalent of the Imperial Guard--the Blood Pact--and taken to the planet Gereon. Gaunt and a select team travel to Gereon to assassinate the general.

Gereon is one of Abnett's greatest creations. It is here that Abnett begins to show what happens to a planet that is conquered by Chaos. Of course, we have seen the images of conquered planets before through the battles but we have not seen the day-to-day existence of those who live under the rule of Chaos before nor have we seen the chain of command of Chaos or its administrative echelons to the degree that we now do.

In "Traitor General,' Abnett begins a descent into detail and world-building that he carries through to the last book in the quaternity--"Only in Death." The third quaternity now called the "The Lost," contains some of the best writing that Abnett has done. Not only does he envision several remarkable worlds but he creates languages and cultures in way that would make Ursula K. LeGuin smile. He also begins to transform Gaunt.

To be true to the Aristotelian verities Gaunt must grow and change. In that Abnett has an almost limitless space in which to develop his story arc, the changes are slow. At book eleven, we reach the tale-tell sign of conversion--blindness. Book eleven is the pivot; the book of changes. The story must change and in "Blood Pact" it does.

"Blood Pact" is a different type of book than the others. Of course, it contains all the usual suspects; however, it is smaller in scope. This novel begins two years after the horrendous battles on Jago. The Ghosts are on Balhaut, an important location for Gaunt. This is where it all began, where things went bad for Gaunt. In fact, the people of Balhaut celebrate the bravery of the "dead" hero Gaunt. So, in effect, Gaunt is a ghost of sorts. Abnett is telling us that before "Blood Pact" Gaunt was a ghost, lost in the campaigns and blind to his greater role. Now, in this new quaternity, things are changing; Gaunt can see again; and, as is usually the case, in this most literary of tropes, Gaunt can see what other men cannot. He has a second sight. He sees the future and he sees into others.

The plot of "Blood Pact," revolves around a "pheguth," a traitor, just as "Traitor General" revolved around a "pheguth." This time, however, the "pheguth" is a member of the Blood Pact, and unlike Sturm, the traitor general, Mabbon is a good man or at least that is what we are told.

A Blood Pact unit, along with a warp witch, is sent to Balhaut, like Gaunt was sent to Gereon, to assassinate the pheguth. So the plot focuses on a battle between a small specialized force of Chaos assassins and Gaunt. Because the battle field is small and intimate, the novel feels different; and it is different in some fundamental ways. It does not have the sweeping battles of "The Lost Quaternity;" however, it does set the ground for the next arc and it continues to enflesh the series with new themes and revealed characteristics of the major characters. It also foreshadows the death of several characters and points to a Gaunt reborn with an enhanced reputation among his commanders.

The series has always been dialectical: good versus evil; light verses dark; twins--Rawne verses Gaunt; Blood Pact versus Ghosts--and Chaos versus Order. However, Abnett is the most material of the Black Library writers; he does not go easily into the horrible wastes of the warp. However, with Blood Pact he seems to be saying--all right--there is something supernatural out there and now I see it. With Maggs and his visions of the old dam and Gaunt's pre-conscious sight, Abnett is leaving his material universe and stepping over into the world of Chaos. Is he tainted or is he able to mediate between the forces of good and evil? And, of course, there is always that ultimate question: what is the good?

So, in conclusion, "Blood Pact," is an intimate transitional novel, focusing on Gaunt, his past, and his present. It also further develops the character and humanity of the forces of Chaos and through this enfleshment ennobles them to an extent not seen before in Abnett's work. This ennoblement then deepens the themes and enriches the texts that have preceded the novel. For instance, when we read "Double Eagle," and we read of the dog fights between the Blood Pact pilots and the Imperial pilots, we can now imagine them as corrupt but human, both brave and ruthless.