Customer Reviews

Grey Knights (Warhammer 40,000 Novels)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ben Counter starts off his new Warhammer 40,000-based series with a bang. Already known for his excellent Soul Drinkers series set in the same universe, Counter introduces his readers to a new fighting unit called the Grey Knights Chapter. This fighting unit would be considered the elite of elites. They're Space Marines just like the Soul Drinkers Chapter in his other series, but they're training, fighting prowess and mission directive puts them even above the other Space Marine Chapters. Grey Knights act as daemonhunters for the Imperium and as such they're seconded to the Inquistorial Order that deals with all things daemonic and Chaos: the Ordo Malleus.

The book centers on one specific Grey Knight Justicar (a veteran leader title) by the name of Alaric. In addition to being a hardcore and dedicated soldier for the Imperium, Counter has fleshed out the character by making Alaric act and behave beyond the psycho-conditioning and training given Space Marines. Alaric never expresses any doubts about his role as a Grey Knight but he does contemplate the role Grey Knights must perform to keep humanity safe from the daemonic and its allies. Alaric acts beyond his training and shows initiative that Space Marines are not well-known for.

The story itself centers on Alaric, his men and the Inquisitors who command them fighting a side, but pivotal battle to the raging Black Crusade currently being waged in the 40K universe. The battles scenes are well-written and action-packed. Counter doesn't pull his punches in describing the horrific consequences of these battles on the human body and even on the superhuman physiques of the Grey Knights.

There is a lacking of deeper characterization in the supporting characters around Alaric, but as an introductory novel to this series I'm willing to let it slide abit. In the end, the book is about Alaric and the Grey Knights. Counter does a gret job in introducing both to the fans and readers of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

If you ever played the game Warhammer 40,000 or read any of the books based on the game then this book is an excellent read. This book just isn't about your run of the mil Space Marines, its about the Grey Knights. These guys are the elites of the elite. Psycho doctrinated from youth to be the unwaivering servants of the Imperium, to right the most grevious of wrongs, to kill the most foul things that ever existed... Deamons. To anyone who knows the game, Deamons were the meanest thing to exist untill these guys came along.

Written like his previous books (Soul Drinkers and its sequel Bleeding Chalice) this has all that any Warhammer 40K fan will want. Action, adventure, mystery, gory details, and the triumph of good over evil no matter the costs. It begins with a epic battle and ends with an epic battle. It gives you the run down on the Ordo Malleus and what their job is in the grand scale of the Imperium. It keeps you on your toes with a few twists and turns that while are almost expected are suprising at the same time. All in all a very good book. I had a hard time putting it down.

Any fan of the Warhammer 40k universe should already be familiar with the Grey Knights. And to most of us, they are one of the most interesting yet mysterious Space Marine Chapters in the Imperium. With this in mind, one's expectations would be pretty high when beginning this novel, but once again, Ben Counter delivers a solid and impressive story. Well, for those of you benighted souls who don't recognize the Grey Knights Space Marine Chapter, the Grey Knights are the Chamber Militant of the Inquisition's Ordo Malleus. Translation: They kill daemons for a living! Yes, that's right. Grey Knights are Marines specially trained and outfitted for the sole purpose of killing anything that comes out of the warp. So, of course, any novel about the Grey Knights should have, say, inquisitors? Check. Daemons? Check. Intrigue? Check. Psykers? Check. Ferocious, bloody, detailed, all-out warfare? Check. Yes, that's right, this novel has it all. Ben Counter provides, in my opinion, his best work yet, giving Warhammer 40k fans almost everything they could ask for in one nice, long (400 pages!) novel. Now you might have noticed that I really haven't gone into the details of the plot, but really, think about it. What do you think a novel about the Grey Knights should have? Make a wish list. Then keep it with you while you read this novel, because you're gonna get everything you asked for.

"Grey Knights" starts with a bang and keeps the action coming. The story concerns the elite daemon-slayers of the Imperium, the Grey Knights Space Marine Chapter, and their race against time to stop the reincarnation of one of the most powerful daemon princes ever seen. The story is fairly straightforward, but takes a few twists and turns I didn't see coming. Justicar Alaric of the Grey Knights is an interesting character, and hopefully we'll see more of him in the future (a la Ragnar from the "Space Wolf" series). The fight scenes are tense and bloody, and Counter pulls no punches when it comes to character death and dismemberment. Make no mistake, every Imperial character in this story is put through the wringer and then some.

If I have a criticism, it is that several of the supporting characters (mostly the Grey Knights themselves) are not given much character development until they're being eulogized by the author. I'd rather get to know and like the character BEFORE they meet their gruesome fate. Apart from that, "Grey Knights" is a great example of WH40K storytelling, and left me wanting more. What more can you ask for than that?

First let me say that the story is excellent. Very entertaining and very gripping. The plot twists are dynamic and not quite so obvious and predictabe. The character development was exceptional for a Warhammer 40K novel. Most Warhammer 40k characters are about as 2 dimensional as possible without falling off the page, but these characters actually had something to them. The depth of the plot, for a Warhammer novel, was also excellent. It is obvious that Mr. Counter put alot of effort into going beyond the typical hack and it paid off wonderfully. The story had the proper "feel" of the Warhammer 40K universe as well. Some authors do not capture that. Mr. Counter pulled it all together in an excellent novel that I highly recommend.

This book is awesome. Good Points and Bad Points-
Pros-
Lots of action
Lots of Grey Knights smiting daemons with riteous fury and vengeance
Better than average plot
The bad guys get just what they deserve
Ending was awesome, if a bit Dues ex machina
Cons-
A little TOO much Smiting
Hero is sometimes overshadowed by other characters- i.e. Tancred

As an avid reader of Black Library fiction, Ben Counter is a bit of a confusing author to me. He writes with the vicious streak that you need to write with to accurately represent the type of sci-fi/fantasy war found in these books, and you'll never be able to accuse Counter of assembling a story without a plot. And this book is extremely well-paced. On the other hand, there are some elements of his work in this book that seem very derivative; the main character is extraordinarily dull, and Counter sometimes seems a little bit too focused on the superhuman abilities of Space Marines.

And, heck yes, they're supposed to be superhuman. I understand that, believe me. The Grey Knights are awesome, as well, with their shields of faith projected around them and their massive halberds as hand-to-hand weapons. It's hard not to think the Chapter is cool, as not one member of it has ever fallen to Chaos (one of the primary antagonists in the world of WH40k). They are demon slayers. Nothing in these descriptions says that they have to be wooden with no distinct personality characteristics. Literally the only way to tell Alaric, the main character, from the other Marines is that the book focuses on him. I'm told that in the Soul Drinker stories, Counter does a better job with his Space Marine protagonists' personalities, and that's good. It doesn't show up here, though.

The main plot of the story is Alaric and his fellow Knights must stop the reappearing of an ancient, immensely powerful demon and the man who would summon it, an ex-Inquisitor named Valinov. I have no problem at all with this plot, as it's generally very well paced and executed. That doesn't mean it doesn't have some annoyingly derivative parts. Is anyone else here a big fan of Inquisitors? I am, and what I don't understand about Black Library stories about them in general is why authors find the need to have so many of them cross the line into Chaos worship. Don't get me wrong, Inquisitors work in higher-risk situations than probably anybody in the Imperium in this universe, but jeez, if they're going to be given all this authority...shouldn't they be trained to reject Chaos?

What I'm saying is that this has been done before. Valinov is an ex-Inquisitor, and in this book there's another character closely related to the Inquisition who--surprise!--falls down the path of Chaos despite there never really being anything that would suggest he/she would be weak enough to let it happen. I can only assume that Dan Abnett and Ben Counter have differing views on how corruptable people are. In Abnett's books, one can avoid corruption by the "Armour of Contempt" and apparently that ain't true here. You can fall to Chaos despite working feverently against it and hating what it stands for.

I'm rambing, and probably being too negative. Alaric is kind of a wooden character but a passable hero nonetheless, and the human (not Space Marine) characters that Counter crafts are all very good. It's kind of like watching a movie with a bad lead and a great supporting cast. They don't quite compensate for Alaric's Wooden Marine impression, but it helps the book move along better and helps you immerse yourself in the twisting plot. The final battle scenes are very well done and, as I've said before, Counter writes with the mean streak that you want to see from an author of a 40K book.

Overall, I give this book 3.5 stars, as the positives really outweigh the negatives to make this an altogether fun read. Nothing special, but fun. Dark Adeptus, the second book in the GK series, isn't nearly as good, but I heartily recommend this one.

I liked this book a lot. It's my first Ben Counter novel, but won't be my last. Well written and reasonably well paced.

My only gripe is that the battles scenes seemd a bit too perfunctory to me, as if the author was going through the motions just to get past them and on to the more interesting parts, such as character development and backstory (which are both done well I think). Battle scenes lacked real intensity and emotion in my view.

But nevertheless, I still recommend it.

Despite being 400+ pages, Grey Knights never got boring and was one of the most flowing novels I have ever read. To give you a brief synopsis, the book follows "Acting" Brother-Captain Alaric and three squads of Grey Knights as they attempt to stop the Demon Prince Ghargatuloth from being revived. Despite some other complaints I have heard, Counter provides a considerable amount of character development for Grey Knights and people around Alaric, especially Justicar Tancred who becomes Alaric's side-kick. For an action novel, the story is great and twistes in places I would have never thought. All in all this a worthy addition to anyone's library.

Was what I said when looking at this novel's interesting cover. It's been years since I've been an active Warhammer player. I was so far behind the quickly advancing storyline that I actually had no idea who the Grey Knights were or that they had a corresponding chapter in the tabletop game. However, all of that changed after I read Ben Counter's excellent "Grey Knights" the debut novel in a series detailing the exploits of Justicar Alaric and his fellow Grey Knights.

As any Warhammer fan knows the Space Marines are rarely known for their personalities, in fact, the lack of individualism is prided in the ranks of these super soldiers. However Counter does a fantastic, and I do mean fantastic, job of showing the power and diligence of the Grey Knights while the personalities of each shines through in their actions. He has learned a lot from his great "Soul Drinkers" series and subsequently brought a few ideas with him, mainly that readers don't like 400 page novels about cardboard cutouts and that a little internal conflict goes a long way. Of course, he could've learned this from writing for more than a few days, but I just wanted to plug his other series.

As stated previously this is the first in what is now a trilogy and this novel starts off with bang, well bang isn't the right word, it's more like a literal Wave of Mutilation. Yeah, if that doesn't prick up your ears I don't know what will. Not to give too much away but the turns and twists will keep you on your toes, especially when the traitor is revealed to all, even though the reader has known for quite some time. The Grey Knights themselves are as religious as any other chapter but this heir of mystery that surrounds them really draws the reader in and while you know Alaric will be something special, it is done is an extremely well paced and mature way. There's no flashing red arrow above his head that says "HERO!!" instead there are hundreds of small twinkling lights that gives the reader a reminder of his heroism but never blinds him with Alaric's nature as a protagonist. However, he is still the hero and thus the other Grey Knights tend to get lost in Alaric's deep personality and while this is a flaw it does not detract from the experience.

Ok, so what about the action? It's great, I know I've been throwing that word around quite a bit, but really the battle scenes in this book are awesome and even the training sessions are worth reading. Every battle and especially the climatic final showdown are done with an air of taste while simultaneously keeping the glorious excess of the game and mythology.

Counter writes with flare and thought in his debut and while not groundbreaking Sci-Fi it has its fair share of brilliant moments. It's not intellectual or mentally stimulating by any means, but "Grey Knights" is a ton of fun and a great read for those of you interested in the mythology of Warhammer (really, it's mandatory for you guys) and an enjoyable stand alone novel to anyone interested in Sci-Fi Warfare or a good story with great undertones.

Counter has made a new fan and also rejuvinated said fan's interest in Warhammer all over again and with Abnett and McNeil is bringing great Sci-Fi to us on a constant basis. Great debut and a great series so far, pick it up, you won't regret it.