Customer Reviews

Eye of Terror (Warhammer 40,000 Novels)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although the book did not follow all of the Warhammer 40,000 fiction exacly it was wonderful. The thing I liked about it is it's originality. This is the only Warhammer 40k book that has originality. It is the only warhammer 40k book that surprised me. I think that the view inside of the eye of terror that the author gives is amazing, and unique. All the little things that he mentiones, all the details, and the bizzare artefacts from there alone make the book worth reading. It is also one of the few Warhammer 40k books that show how evil, and vile chaos actually is, and at the same time why one might be tempted to give his soul to chaos.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and was surprised by this fact. I'm new to the Warhammer 40,000 hobby and thought this book would be a great way to quickly absorb some of the game world's back story. What I didn't expect was a top shelf sci-fi adventure novel as good as any I've read -- AND I learned a lot about the world of the 41st. century. I'd recommend this book to every 40K player, but also to anyone who's a fan of good adventure fiction. You don't need to play the game to "get it."

If you are truly in love with the dark world of Warhammer 40k universe, you will love this novel. One little gem that is tossed in here is how a space marine is created, from being recruited til the time that he is specially fitted for his armor so that he can serve his Emperor.

The gist of the novel is that a Space Marine goes off to fight for his Emperor and during the course of battle has to go into hibernation. When he wakes up he finds out that he has been asleep for 10,000 years and that the Choas Lords rule the universe, or so he has been told.

The great thing about Warhammer (40k or otherwise) is its rich history - so rich it's almost painfully real. It's so hard to find originality these days, but Eye of Terror succeeds on many aspects. Although the different plot threads could be knitted together a little closer, Bayley's story remains a wonderfully spectacular read. Spectacular in the sense that the scale of Eye of Terror's world (i.e Warhammer 40K) is so microscopically imaginative (that drink comes to mind), yet so macroscopically shattering (that drink's essence! Or the scale of the daemons! the wars!). I must confess I only have passing knowledge into the Warhammer 40k world, so perhaps I'm gawking - but hey, I gawked! That's worth at least four stars!

This is a great read. The story doesn't follow the Warhammer universe perfectly BUT it is Warhammer that is very original and very fun to read. It has more subtle depth then most Warhammer stories. If you aren't careful you'll miss the point that different people living their own lives totally seperate from each other can still effect each other and events around them through what seems like totally random action-with little nudges from Chaos and the Emperor that is. That gives it a random feel as though it is a bunch of short stories tossed together. However it all makes sense in the end if you are paying attention. Manipulations within manipulations. The author does a great job of living up to that.

This was the first warhammer 40k book I have ever read, since then Ive read 38 others... But this one in particular ive read at least 4 or 5 times, its a quick read compared to eisenhorn, or any of the other much longer books, but I seriously think this is still my favorite, after reading sooo many books about how awesome space marines are, or how great the imperial guard is, or how crazy chaos space marines are, its VERY refreshing to read this book. it really gives you some insight on what takes place off of the battlefield in the 40k universe, if your looking for constant battle of epic proportions, and 100% action on every page, youve found the wrong book, but if your trying to find out what life is liek wandering the stars and exploring new and undiscovered worlds, which each hold their own set of traditions and people, then this is definatly the book for you. There are not that many books about what goes on behind the lines of battle. Alot of the other reviews say that this is a half-decent book, but to me its a classic, this is also the only 40k book by this author. its a quick read to so if you dont end up liking it, it wont take you more than a few hours to get through the entire thing anyway. hope this helps. but I would defiantly recommend this book!

A very original story that describes chaos in a very interesting and colorful way; From its followers to its worlds and artefacts. While reading you get the impression that too many new story lines are established to deal with in a single book, but in the end it all comes together. It deals with the lowliest imperial and choas servants upto the mightiest demons, and even the emperor himself!

I found this book in a little used book store, and was shocked by its quality. Aside from the wonderfully detailed descriptions of the 40K universe, the unique subject matter (stuff written from the Chaos perspective is rare. Good stuff from their perspective is nigh nonexistent.) But what really got me is the characters. The two main protagonists, featured on the cover, are extremely well-written. Their perspectives, interactions, dialogue, all of it brings the events alive.

There's a few minor departures from established fluff, but its only to serve the plot. I don't think that warp-capable ships can be crewed by anything less than 500 miserable press-ganged voidsmen, but having a huge crew and a huge ship would ruin the isolation and drama. Instead, we get a "Han Solo in Hell" buddy picture, featuring a faux-rogue trader and his nebbish navigator on a small run-down cargo ship (It's the Millennium Falcon, lets be honest). There are a variety of side-characters as well, featuring fleet commanders, stranded-in-stasis space marines, and the inner thoughts of Greater Daemons. No one is an over-the-top action hero protagonist, there's just believable, flawed, likable characters.

While everything is treated quite seriously, there's a hint of the classic 40K deadpan parody. The heavily-policed imperial world where the characters in a coffee shop are harangued by a proctor for "in your 20-minute conversation, I've not heard you ONCE praise THE EMPEROR'S NAME!" is comedy gold.

This would be exceptionally useful to anyone who wants to play the Black Crusade RPG, but any 40K fan would love this read. Even if you're not a 40K fan, this is a fun book to pick up.

This is exciting & energetic stuff as only Bayley can do; the colorful textures of a Vance hyped up to delicious & exuberant extremes with strange & wondersoaked worlds that Bayley seems to just snap his fingers to appear: the water-world sequence and those dream jewels, just like the Rose cluster (which must be a nod to Charles Harness!) were marvelous moments of freewheeling imagination. Though I find it sad that he has to do just "franchise" stuff these days instead of getting his original work published, it is an exciting thing to have a new book in my hands once again, showing he has lost none of his considerable powers even when doing 'harnessed' work. Enjoy!

For some reason I just wasn't enthralled by this story as I have been with other WH40K titles I've read. A number of things about this book didn't settle well with me. Deviating from some of the history and standards set up for the WH40K world is somewhat annoying but ultimately a minor complaint. My primary gripe has to do with Bayley's writing style. A number of times I found myself loosing interest and forgetting what I had just read half way through paragraphs. I blame this on the writing, with sentence structure and wording not flowing very smoothly, resulting in a broken feeling. This was somewhat surprising for me because Bayley is a fairly accomplished author. Maybe I had too-high expectations because of that. Regardless, this in addition to the many editorial mistakes, resulted in a much less-enjoyable read.

The story is made up of three separate storylines that all come together at the very end of the book. The primary one follows a rogue trader on his quest to find rare and valuable merchandise in worlds surrounding the Eye of Terror (some sort of gateway into the Warp). Another focuses on a couple of chaos daemons and their plans to attack the Empire. The third follows the somewhat crazy-seeming commander of a naval battlefleet who wishes for glory and plans an invasion of the Warp. These three complex storylines include a number of very interesting characters and places that should have lead to a very interesting read. Unfortunately, it seems Bayley bit off more than he could chew with so many different things going on at the same time that the end result is a confusion of highly unlikely events taking place all the same time and an ending that leaves you off right where you started. Bayley's view of the Emperor and his power contradicts that of other authors. Tech-adepts fixing mechanical problems of warp engines by simply painting archaic symbols and reciting prays to the Emperor just doesn't feel right. Also, his portrayal of the Empire as a rather weak and extremely bleak consortium is unappealing.

Maybe I'm a bit too harsh on this one, but IMHO its not really worth your effort.