Dawn Of War II (Warhammer 40,000 Novels: Space Marine Battles) [Mass Market Paperback]

Chris Roberson (Author)

Book Description

Series: Warhammer 40,000 Novels: Space Marine Battles | Publication Date: February 24, 2009

Action-packed tie-in novel to the Dawn of War 2 computer game by THQ.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Chris Roberson's novels include Three Unbroken, The Dragon's Nine Sons, Set the Seas on Fire, The Voyage of Night Shining White and Paragaea: A Planetary Romance.  He is the editor of the anthology Adventure Vol. 1 and co-founder of publishing house Monkeybrain Books.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Games Workshop; Original edition (February 24, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1844166864
• ISBN-13: 978-1844166862
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,006,769 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Chris Roberson's novels include Here, There & Everywhere, The Voyage of Night Shining White, Paragaea: A Planetary Romance, X-Men: The Return, Set the Seas on Fire, and the forthcoming End of the Century, Iron Jaw and Hummingbird, and The Dragon's Nine Sons. His short stories have appeared in such magazines as Asimov's Science Fiction, Postscripts, and Subterranean, and in anthologies such as Live Without a Net, The Many Faces of Van Helsing, FutureShocks, and Forbidden Planets. Along with his business partner and spouse Allison Baker, he is the publisher of MonkeyBrain Books, an independent publishing house specializing in genre fiction and nonfiction genre studies, and he is the editor of the Adventure anthology series. He has been a finalist for the World Fantasy Award three times: once each for writing, publishing, and editing; twice a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer; and twice for the Sidewise Award for Best Alternate History Short Form (winning in 2004 with his story 'O One').

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not the best, June 4, 2009

By 

Joanne Miller (Towaco, New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dawn Of War II (Warhammer 40,000 Novels: Space Marine Battles) (Mass Market Paperback)

In some ways, I think Roberson should stick to writing children's books (you'll find he wrote "Shark Boy and Lava Girl" novels). His prose are abysmal, his descriptions of things are absolutely horrendous (ex. He'd say "The marines were attacked by a Genestealer that jumped off a rock they were sheltering beneath", instead of something like "A humanoid creature with six-limbs, covered in thick, slimy carapace shells that resembled a mutilated spider with a human head sewn on, crawled over the granite rocky edifice with inhuman grace. With a savage hiss it jumped down to attack the prone marines sheltering beneath it"), and overall, I found this to be boring.

The only reason I can't give him a single-star is because of the fact that he did something which 40k fans have been clamoring for, for years; he actually incorporated real world science instead of pulling things out of his you-know-what (though he messed up saying that the Marine's specialist clotting cells, the Lahrimann cells, would travel with the Leukocytes seeing as how Leukocytes are White Blood Cells as opposed to Erythrocytes, which are Red Blood Cells, but it was a good effort none the less!), and he treated the lore with respect. Thus, even though I consider this novel to be a failure, I see good things coming from him in the future.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Extremely disappointing 40k, November 2, 2009

By 

Joshuabee "Joshuabee" (CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dawn Of War II (Warhammer 40,000 Novels: Space Marine Battles) (Mass Market Paperback)

There isn't too much I can add which others haven't already, except as an avid BL/WH40k reader this book is FAR more disappointing than even the lackluster first Dawn of War book.

The characterization is terribly flat and uninspired, the psychology and decision-making of the Space Marines is way off. It's obvious the author is not familiar at all with the source material and lacks any sort of understanding of the mentality or mind-set of Marines, not to mention the incredibly one-dimensional personalities. Space Marines aren't merely dudes in powered armor. I could cite half-a-dozen different glaring inconsistencies but it would be a waste of time.

Bottom line: Do not read this book if you enjoy 40k fiction. The 5-star reviews above are absurd, they were either paid for or the reviewers have not actually read the book.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Painfully boring, April 17, 2009

By 

Brian Long "Brian" (Ogden, UT USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Dawn Of War II (Warhammer 40,000 Novels: Space Marine Battles) (Mass Market Paperback)

I have a high bar for these novels. After reading the prose of Abnett, McNeil, Counter, and even several of the new authors, I expect a certain level of quality even in these splatterfest sci-fi books. This one is a blatant letdown in that regard. Its not bad per se, but no effort was put into it. The plot, although left open for possible exploitation and innovation, feels like the author was writing a term paper he wanted done with. Combat was slow and incredibly boring, and while I accept that its hard to write your thousandth combat scenario, and while I'll accept the flamers knee jerk response that I probably couldn't do better, it doesn't excuse the fact that there was no vitality in this. While its not the bottom of the barrel, it comes close. On my first attempt, I was unable to finish more than ten pages before a headache began to set in.