Fifteen Hours (Warhammer 40,000) [Mass Market Paperback]

Mitchel Scanlon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 12, 2005 | Series: Warhammer 40,000 Novels

Basic Training: Four Months. Planetary Transportation: Seven Weeks. Life Expectancy...Fifteen Hours. the stalwart troops of the Imperial Guard are the first line of defence against the nemerous foes of the Imperium. Their heroisn and courage is renowned across the galaxy and their armoured might has crushed countless rebellions and invasions. This action packed novel tells the story of a lone guardsman and his baptism of fire in a combat zone where the average expected lifespan is a mere fifteen hours. Fighting hand-to-hand against the barbarous orks, he must draw upon all of his training if he is to live to see another dawn. The horrors of war are only too real in this harrowing tale of carnage and valour!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mitchel Scanlon is a hot new talent residing in the sheep-infested valleys of Derbyshire. His first break was with the Black Library's Warhammer Comic and the character Hellbrandt Grimm. He is currently the writer of Hellbrandt Grimm, Lillana Falcone and Of Ancient Blood and has had fiction published in Infernol magazine.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Games Workshop (July 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1844162311
• ISBN-13: 978-1844162314
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #829,838 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fifteen Hours is not enough, July 10, 2005

By 

John T. Miller IV (Columbus, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fifteen Hours (Warhammer 40,000) (Mass Market Paperback)

From the first sentence: "The sky was dark, and he knew he was dying" Mitchel Scanlon's first Black Library novel, Fifteen Hours, sweeps the reader up in a darkly evocative and almost sublimely grim tale of the recently conscripted Imperial Guardsmen Arvin Larn. It is clear that due to his attention to detail and the novel's seamless transition from the pastoral agri-planet of Jumal IV to the war-torn streets and trenches of the city of Broucheroc that Scanlon has a firm grasp of both the facts and the nuance of the bleak and violent future of humanity. He shows this knowledge in both in the far-distant future universe of Warhammer 40,000 in general and it's foremost military machine, the Imperium of Mankind's Imperial Guard in particular.

Scanlon further punctuates the first person experiences of Trooper Larn with the occasional interlude where we are presented with insights into the characters and personalities of the Imperium that caused Trooper Larn to come to be at this hell-hole of a planet where he doesn't belong and in a war he has no part. We see through eyes and hear the thoughts everything from an Administratum Scribe to the Grand Marshall of a planetary army. Through these interludes we gain a further insight and the very real sense of an ominous future.

This is not a novel for the feint of heart. Mitchel Scanlon is almost aggressive in his realistic portrayal of the dark and at times hopeless life of a lowly infantryman of the Imperial Guard. He is, without a doubt, the first author of the Warhammer 40k universe that may actually present the universe as too grim, if such a thing can be said and it is clear he is no fan of the officer ranks. At times, this reality he confronts you with is so surprising that it will hit you in face and leave you jarred for a chapter or two. However, there is a method to Scanlon's madness, his sensuously morbid portrayal of the universe makes those rare moments of Pyrrhic victory, of laugh-out-loud levity, and even of hope feel all the more powerful and moving. I don't mind telling you, its one hell of an experience.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars gutsy and brooding, December 1, 2005

By 

Ash Ceye "Ceye" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fifteen Hours (Warhammer 40,000) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is proper war fiction. There's nothing glorious or pompous here ... its guts and hardship and brooding shadows. The concept works well, and Scanlon is clearly talented ... but something just seems not quite right, somehow. A great read, but it left me a little unsatisfied. Perhaps 15 hours is not enough, after all?

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A cut above average 40K fiction, and fantastically evocative, November 6, 2005

By 

P. Culliton "Long-time reader of military non... (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fifteen Hours (Warhammer 40,000) (Mass Market Paperback)

I'll admit it right away: a significant proportion of the 40K fiction that I've read seems almost as though it's written itself. While this certainly has something to do with how rich the universe is -- and how well Games Workshop has fleshed out so many aspects of that richness -- it can leave Black Library novels feeling a bit stale.

I have found very few BL books satisfying -- the only three in the past few years have been the uniformly wonderful Uriel Ventris novels from Graham McNeill. This book was certainly satisfying, but in a much different way.

As a child, I read Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front" and it helped to change my boyish illusions of war forever. This book -- truly, a novella more than a novel --, while certainly not "All Quiet" by any means, evokes those same feelings. There is a power in this story that is well-expressed by the soldier who reviewed it: this is how it is. This is not madmen in power armor cleaving through thousands of tyranid monsters while sustaining minor scratches -- it's war.

To those that mentioned the unsatisfying ending, the unpolished prose, and the ease with which they were able to put the book down, I ask: do you believe that reality always has a satisfying ending, especially for those that take up arms to protect us? Are you certain that you were not tempted to take up a more formulaic and rosy book, rather than face the harsher ugliness of this one?

As for the unpolished writing -- I agree, there were some spots that could have been better edited. However, I question any unfavorable comparison between this and other pieces of Black Library fiction: even the excerpts from "Gaunt's Ghosts" included in the Imperial Guard codex itself could have used some fairly heavy editing.

In short, I found this book to be a readable, evocative account of life and death. That it took place within the 40K universe is secondary. The story itself was excellent and well-told. In a way, I feel as though this book may, as mentioned by another reviewer, have been a bit darker than other 40K fiction, and therefore a bit mature for the folks who have come to expect the sword-spinning antics of superhuman genetically-engineered monsters.

A great book: definitely worth a read.