Customer Reviews

Enforcer (Warhammer 40,000 Omnibus)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I would not recommend this be anyone's first exposure to the WH40K universe as it assumes the reader has knowledge of the world in general and the Adeptus Arbites in particular. (I made that mistake, but got enough information from the Dark Heresy RPG book to make sense of it.)

The first and third books and short stories contained in Enforcer are a good look at how dark and gritty WH40K is and how tough law enforcement has to be to keep order. The second book did not deal all that much with the law. The author talked about the law and the research Shira did to prepare for the hearing. But when the hearing came, it turned into a battle and no law was actually done. That bothered me because I did not feel like Shira was very important to that book.

One problem I had with the books is the number of character's the author introduces. I seriously considered making a list of them while reading so I could keep them all straight. The primary characters are easy, but there are a lot of secondary characters that can get confusing.

I had never heard of either Matt Farrer or Shira Calpurnia before I picked up this omnibus, so I really had no expectations, but even if I had looked forward to this for months I would not have been disappointed.

The author's intriduction sets the stage very well, talking about how ordinary humans in the 40th millenium could be just as bad as the aliens or corrupted. I am a big fan of detective novels, and the protagonist Shira Calpurnia is very well done.

One of the worst problems the Black Library (the publisher of these types of books) has is that it sometimes lets books slip out that make no sense and where the author has no grasp of the setting. Farrer has the setting down cold. These novels are filled with the crazy darkness of the Warhammer 40k universe, with the Arbites standing out as cold and efficient dispensers of justice.

If you want to find out more about the Adeptus Arbites and what it is like to be normal in a universe filled with the supernatural and fantastic, get this book. If you have liked any of the various novels about the Imperial Guard, you will not be disappointed.

Excellent introduction to items not normally explored in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, including the Ecclesiarchy, Rogue Traders, and an in-depth look into the wierdness involved with the transmission of data via sanctioned psykers from planet to planet. Where the story doesn't hold up sometimes in terms of detective stories (though it ultimately comes across as a hard-boiled-detective-in-the-Warhammer-40,000-universe style story), it makes up in action.

This is a great way to look into the daily lives of normal people living in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, as seen through the lens of the Adeptus Arbites. Just as with the Inquisition-focused storylines, you get to see something other than the ubermenschen Space Marines (not that they aren't fantastic as well), and return back to the chaos and mayhem caused by simple human greed.

A good read. Strange, considering I'd never heard of Matt Farrer and he'd produced a trilogy!

This book series is quite a tribute to the warhammer 40k universe and the author has been very meticulous in his explanation and depth of the story matter. Even down to the minute details of the certain religious festivals and all the protocols that the participants would go through. I will agree with one of the aforementioned reviewers that a first time reader of warhammer will be hopelessly loss in the subject matter. What is the warp, who is this god-emeperor the arbrites seem to have this zealous devotion for, what is this machine god? This is no fault of the author but just the reality of the size of the warhammer lore that one is assumed to have some knowledge of the warhammer world before reading this book. To compound to that I found though that there was at times too many minor characters introduced in the story and it becomes quite perplexing as to their relevance to the story. Ultimately though the author manages to invoke the feelings gloom and grimness that is 40k. Human life has little value and above all there is unswerving dedication of duty to the emperor and the law. It's unfortunately though that books like this remain largely untouched by the masses who will gravitate towards things like "twilight" and harry potter. The fact these books only have about 4 reviews is testament to that.

Matthew Farrer captures the feel of the dark W40k universe like no other (well, maybe save Ian Watson). These novels provide an in-depth look on the workings of the Adeptus Arbites, the feared judges and arbitrators, the upholders of the Imparial Law. There are places and events in the omnibus that will stay with you for months after reading them. I would personally rate these novels higher, than either the great Eisenhorn or Ravenor stories (both by Dan Abnett), and this says quite a lot. A must-read for W40k fans.

Excellent character! This book should have been called an omnibus as it is a a compilation of three separate novels. If you do not want to buy the three separate novels then by all means purchase this version instead. Plenty of action and plot twists. Hard to put this novel down.

Enforcer is a combination of three WH40K fluff pieces, all about title character: Shira Calpurnia. However, this is not your standard WH40K piece. Action is at a minimum, and the setting is far away from your standard war-zone.

The premise focuses on the Judge Dread-like Adeptus Arbites. Each of the three novels has a different feeling to it. The first one is a good introduction to the Arbites by cleverly putting a veteran character in a new environment where she must adjust. It allows for plenty of exposition about mundane things that only a novice would need explanations for, and yet keep working with a character whose interactions would take her all around the planet and star system that she patrols. There is plenty of political intrigue and a fair number of complicated, interwoven plotlines.

The latter point cannot be understated. Matthew Farrer weaves a complicated tale that touches on many aspects of the Imperium and its society. From the familiar Inquisition and Mechanicus, to the Ministorium, Naval Command and even the Astropath society, this is not an easy introduction to the world of WH40K. Fans will appreciate the depth to which Farrer delves across a large cross-section of the fluff. Rarely does the same institution appear twice in his novels, and you get an excellent feeling to how Imperial society functions outside the grimdark desperate-fight-for-your-life wars.

The author has not extended his work about Shira beyond these three books, which is a definite shame. These novels are highly recommended to anyone who enjoys the WH40K fluff. Like the Commissar Cain novels though, you'll want to have read a few other titles before you can really appreciate of these works.

I'm having fun reading through 40k novels, mainly through omnibuses and this was one I hadn't gotten yet. This was seriously one that I shouldn't have bothered with. The first book in there was excellent, I thought I might have finally found something to beat the Eisenhorn omnibus but that last two books ended up worse than the Ravenor omnibus.

Quite frankly, if you can find it cheaper, buy the first novel in the series "Crossfire" and forget the other two. The first one is hard hitting cop & detective in the grimdark future of 40k. I was impressed enough with it that if the others turned out to be a bit above half-arsed this was a five star book. Unfortunately...

The second one is more about multiple conspiracies that the great Shira Calpurnia is clueless about except for the rather stupid one of the Ecclesiarchy and the hard hitting arbites enforcers sit around with their thumbs up their rears while a courtroom turns into a bloodbath with conspirators running away and all kinds of other unlikely things. Shira takes a hand at the end and it looks like a serious pullout for the book and the character of Shira, but it ends badly in multiple ways and Shira ends up looking like a worse bungling fool than she did while the courtroom fiasco was going on. Just plain stupid.

The third one isn't any better and although the story is a bit cool with learning about the workings of an astropath station, it still is a bit lame with yet another bad ending as we are left without knowing whether Shira was vindicated or not. Quite frankly, at this point, I don't care whether or not any more get written, this wasn't about grim darkness, this was about sheer stupidity and incompetence, I'm not interested.

If you want pure grim darkness to catch the feel of 40k, get Dead Men Walking. That is dark dystopia that actually has some sense to it.

LIke action? Like a good mystery? Like detective books? Well this has it all! I picked this book up after reading sevral ohter books that had seconddary characters that were Adeptus Arbitus. And I had liked these tuff humans fighting along side the Space Marines. So that is what this book is about. Shira Calpurina is an Adeptus Aribtus. That is basicly a cop. But actualy they are spread through out the Imperium. They are enforcers of the strict Imperial law. And you will see in the book where that creates conflict in the book. Since they enforce Imerial law and not local planatry laws. The first book is the best to me. But this is a good sries.

This is an interesting story, I think. However, the pacing really leaves something to be desired. I made it through the first half of the first book before putting this down to read something else. I almost never do this, but this book just really did not grab me at all.

I think for those who are real fans of the WH40K universe, this book might be a good read... But for the overall quality of the writing? It unfortunately leaves something to be desired.