Customer Reviews

Pawns of Chaos (A Warhammer 40, 000 Novel)

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The Black Library is admittedly a purveyor of literature that would be considered pulp by those who have nothing better to do but sit about firelit studies and determine such things. Brian Craig is not a pulp writer. His works have battles yes, and at times they are exceedingly violent, but thats what Black Library is all about. The true book is a tale of realization, a study of motives and the passions that drive the forces at battle. In the Warhammer worlds Chaos is the undeniable enemy, but yet we never see things from their side. Pawns of Chaos explores the life of those who are sided with chaos and why they are not evil, and those people who serve the imperium and why they are not Just. The first reading left me a bit unsatisfied but after I began to think about the morals of the story I reread the book and was quite pleased by the tale. Be warned this is not the typical Warhammer Tale: Good party goes on quest to fight evil- battles ensue good triumphs more or less. This is so much more.

Be forwarned. Those who expect massive battles with Space Marines, Eldar, and high tech weaponry ought to look elsewhere. This is a story involving only one planet with one side of primitive screwheads fighting against another side of slightly less primitive screwheads. The main characters are not trained soldiers with incredible fighting skills. In fact, two of them are just simple peasants from a simple village.
Make no mistake, this is Warhammer 40K and the theme of this book goes exactly with what the theme of the Warhammer 40K world. Its the Imperium vs. Chaos at its most basic: a beleagured band of people must rise to defend themselves from a seemingly unstoppable enemy. But get this, it's the Imperium who's the unstoppable enemy!
The followers of Chaos are presented in an understandable light. Instead of going "Ha ha! I LOVE being evil!", the writer gives the Chaos followers understandable motivations and even points out certain positive aspects to this side, if in a roundabout way.
The writing style is a bit wordy. Sometimes you really have to go through a whole lot of writing to get to a simple meaning. There were several times when I got frustrated and just wanted to shout, "Get to the point, already!" It gets better later on in the book, or maybe I just got used to the style, but the writing is not done in a simple and easy manner.

Strong beginning, [weak] ending. This book starts as one of the best books ever written in the whole Black Library, WH40K universe. Its rich details, interesting plot and story line paint a picture of normal peoples living in WH40K universe trying to get about their life, not knowing anything of the great war in the universe. It reminds me of the Wheel of Time from Robert Jordan or those kinds of books, richly detailed and very "human nature".

But the book takes a turn for the worst, the more it goes toward the end, it goes from innocence to damnation, from interesting to dark, from richly painted environment, to basic structure, even the story loses strength at the end, the last half of the book [is bad], but the beginning is so wonderful, if you don't mind the terrible ending, and you're curious about the agriculture world in WH40K, get it, if not you might want to pass on this one.

The black library is generally pulp fiction. It can be entertaining but generally can't be called "good". Rarely does it stick with you. This one is atypical in that respect. It still has some of the usualy WH40k blood and guts, but a surprising amount of intrigue and light philosophy as well. Asking basic questions about pre-destination and the nature of an ordered universe. Its hardly ground breaking, but it strange to find in a Warhammer 40k book of all places.

The story follows around several characters in a primitive backwater, and how they are all ultimately being guided (un)knowingly towards very specific ends, hence the title "Pawns of Chaos".

For those looking for the typical blood soaked warhammer romp, look elsewhere, you'll probably find this one boring. For those looking for something (a little) bit deeper but still mired in the fantastic (I am a fan after all) WH40k universe, I highly recommend this.

...of violent battles. I found this book to be a real trial to finish and glad when it finally ended! Unlike the previous reviwer, I can't bear to read this again. If you're looking for more of the Warhammer 40K genre, this isn't for you, but if you simply want to know more about the Warhammer 40K universe (and a limited view at that), then you may consider this one.

This book was a real rough one to finish. It seemed like a 100 meter sprint, run in molases. Not one of the Warhammer 40,000/Black Librarys best. If you are looking for the usual fast paced and exciting story that you find in books like "First & the only", "Storm of Iron" or "Nightbringer", you will be very disappointed.

This was my least favorite Warhammer book so far. The action is all on a primitive planet which seems better suited for the WH fantasy series than WH40K sci-fi. The action is few and far between. The ending is very good, but doesn't make up for the rest of the book.

This book is truly terrible. Some of the worst text-on-paper I've ever read, the characters were ridiculous, the plot was absurd, the only redeeming feature was the description of the kid's mutation, but that's maybe two pages worth out of the whole thing. So less than 1% of this book is worth reading.

Then it had the gall to have such a cliche ending as it did. After the crap sundae that was this book, that was the corn niblet on top to solidify it as the worst thing I've ever read, not one single redeeming feature to it.

Although granted, I haven't read anything by C.S. "Multilaser" Goto yet, I hear he's really bad too.