Customer Reviews

The Lost (Warhammer 40,000 Novels)

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

 

 

I first came across Dan Abnett's 40K writings in the Eisenhorn Trilogy. Amazing writing, in my opinion one of the very best 40K series ever written. Thankfully for us sci-fi (and 40K) fans, Mr. Abnett has been prolific in his output for war-filled grim universe of the 40th millennium. The story of Tanith's First-and-Only regiment, and its legendary command Colonel-Commissar Gaunt, has been a mainstay of the 40K literature for years, there being some twelve volumes released so far. A few years ago Games Workshop started re-releasing the earlier books in omnibuses. This omnibus, The Lost, is the third omnibus, consisting of four complete titles, as follows:

Book 8: Traitor General
Book 9: His Last Command
Book 10: The Armor of Contempt
Book 11: Only in Death

The book itself consists of 1,016 pages, and for those who haven't read any of the titles contained, is obviously a good value compared to each individual title costing around $8-9 each.

I won't give away any spoilers or plot here, but I found the books to be compelling read. Mr. Abnett's writing is, simply, so much better than the vast majority of other 40K authors. The characters' actions seem plausible, reasonable, and the glimpses we get into their inner turmoil are gripping and realistic. So many of the 40K novels are two-dimensional blood and gore, each vying with other to top the graphic violence and chaos. Not so Mr. Abnett's books. His description of the battlefield and the ebb and flow of combat is superb.

I highly, highly recommend this omnibus. And when you're done with it, go and check out the Eisenhorn Trilogy--you won't be disappointed.

I'm a big fan of the Omnibus books Black Liberty releases. Just my personality, but I don't like to buy book series separately. I often don't have cash to buy them all at once and later I forget and end up missing a book. With the Omnibus books, you have the entire book series at your finger tips and at a discounted price. It's even better on Amazon because they often discount them.

This is not the first Omnibus novel for this series, but this is the first one I've actually read; I didn't have any problems getting into the story though. The story is your basic military story, where the main characters are not super human, just extremely well trained. It'd be kind of hard to give a detailed review of something so massive without this review becoming many pages long. So I can at least give you a general idea what to expect. Really though, all you need to know is that these are some pretty cool stories about rank and file military troops (well, more like special forces) that grab you from the beginning and you could do a lot worse than this book.

Traitor General

Commissar Gaunt and a small squad of special ops must meet up with the planetary resistance on the Chaos controlled world named Gereon. Their mission is to assassinate an Imperial general before he reveals vital military secrets jeopardizing the entire Imperial campaign. Can they trust the resistance? Are they tainted already? It's a cool look at what happens to the conquered plants. This one was my favorite.

His Last Command

Gaunt returns from his mission on the Chaos world under suspicion of being tainted and finds his regiment has been merged with another and is now under a new commander. He and his men are eventually brought back into combat to fight and prove themselves yet again.

The Armour of Contempt

You'll remember the planet Gereon from the first book, well now the Imperial Crusade has finally seen fit to turn its attentions to liberating the planet from Chaos. Why have they decided to visit this doomed planet? It's not because the Imperium is full of nice guys...

The book is actually two parallel stories. Gaunt tracking down the resistance fighters he left on the planet and one of the Ghost's children who is just joining the Guard.

Only in Death

Gaunt leads his unit in battle on the fortress world of Jago. They're tasked with holding a fort, but weirdness abounds when they start seeing dead comrades. Basically, it's an excuse to delve into psychological aspects of the characters in addition to the fighting. Generally, people either really like that kind of thing or really don't. I thought it was handled well.

At four novels and over a thousand pages, this book is cheap entertainment. If you like military science fiction, you can't go wrong. More generally, if you're new to Warhammer books and you're trying to pick a book, you'll seldom go wrong with a Dan Abnett one. The guy does good work. He's not overly wordy in his descriptions, creates interesting characters, and writes compelling stories. There's a reason he's regarded so highly in so many reviews here on Amazon.

I was enjoying His Last Command up until page 384 when about 47 pages of the story are replaced with 47 pages from the later book The Armour of Contempt. Kind of wish I knew what was in those missing pages.

Dan Abnett once again has a wonderful addition to the Black Library (or, more correctly, the omnibus edition at a great price), in the form of The Lost.

The overall pace is quite different from the other books in the series, focusing more on the more famous individuals, rather than the more Ghosts-centric & squad based approach of the other books. However, this has helped make things more personal, and even at times reaches the level of individualization reached by Glen Cook in Chronicles of the Black Company or the Eisenhorn (A Warhammer 40,000 Omnibus) books.

I would recommend it highly for anyone who is a fan of the WH40k universe or Dan Abnett. There is even a clean enough break where those new to the Ghosts could drop into the series with The Lost and not be entirely at a disadvantage.

No spoilers here. Dan Abnett's Warhammer 40K novels are some of the best and his Imperial Guard stories continue to inspire other Black Library writers as well as 40K hobbyists. I've seen many hobby projects inspired by the exciting stories and imagery from Dan Abnett books. Check it out!

Following in the footsteps of the previous two collections, The Lost is a wonderful collection of four novels: Traitor General, His Last Command, The Armour of Contempt, and Only in Death. Each story connects with the next in the series, but they all finish strong and there are few mysteries or cliffhangers. The end of Only in Death sets up a nice situation for the twelfth novel, Blood Pact, and I can't wait to read that next (or perhaps get the last omnibus, The Victory, whenever it comes out). The plot is solid, writing is superb, and the characters are in-depth. While you don't have to read the previous two omnibuses, it'd be better if you did. Just to get a feel for the Tanith First and its members, especially characters that are important in the first two collections but only make a brief appearance in The Lost. Overall, an excellent display of storytelling by Black Library's finest, Mr. Abnett.

The Dan Abnett Gaunt's Ghost series is one of the best places to start for those new to 40K. The Founding Omnibus is a great place to start. The Lost Omnibus contains 2 stories that I have read but was still cheaper for me to buy than the two novels I haven't read separately. Abnett's style is very easy to follow even though the 40K universe is very complex. It is interesting to see Abnett's own evolution in 40K through the Gaunt's Ghost series. As good as it gets in 40K.

The Black Library omnibuses are a great and inexpensive way to get a whole lot of good reading. In this latest offering in the Gaunt's Ghost series you get four top quality Abnett tales (Traitor General, His Last Command, The Armour of Contempt, Only in Death) for your money and a great way to keep all the titles to hand. Add to the mix the Abnett seal of quality, bloody combat, great descriptive prose and a way of tale spinning that make many authors weep and you know that you've got something special. That said, remember that this is part of an ongoing series (this being books 8-11 of the Gaunt's Ghosts series) so please read them up to this point to get the most out of it.

If you've been following with the Gaunt books, then you'll find more of the same goodness that kept you going this far. Only problem is this particular volume printing seemed to have let out some books with major misprints, at a particularly interesting part too. I was unfortunate to get one of them. Other than that, it was a great book.

I lost a lot of sleep over this book. ITs a big book and I had a hard time putting it down. Dan Abnett does a great job of character development. He gives you characters that you can really get attached too and care what happens too. Also he portrays the 40k universe and its players a little bit more intellegently and clever than some other novels in this series by different authors. The book is a ominibus of a number of stories that all build on one another, so there is great continuity.

You can't go wrong with this one, if you a fan of the 40k series.