James Swallow takes us on a ride that I wanted off well before I reached the end. Fans of 40k will notice many blood angel characters act very different than how they are described in this book. I know that the 40k canon has this huge rule about if it could happen a story can be told about it, but this reaches fan fiction levels of bending the rules.
The protagonist is Rafen, a blood angel. He's not of a high rank, he is one of a thousand. This character is invented for this book. But this insignificant guy stops a civil war involving his brother, Defeats an unbeaten illness, survives a fight with an undefeated Astorath, injects himself with the blood of his primarch, and gains recognition and respect from the chapter master Dante.
It really feels like the author made this character to simply one up the entire blood angels chapter. Rafen is so loaded with plot armor he's indestructible.
Poor writing and a disregard for anything other than the protagonist made me loathe this book and this series.
James Swallow is a New York Times, Sunday Times and Amazon bestselling author and scriptwriter, a BAFTA nominee, a former journalist and the award-winning writer of over forty-five books, along with numerous scripts for videogames, radio and television.
His writing includes the Marc Dane action thriller series, the Sundowners steampunk Westerns and fiction from the worlds of Star Trek, Warhammer 40,000, Doctor Who, 24, Deus Ex, Stargate, Tannhauser and 2000AD.
His latest novel GHOST is out now from Bonnier Zaffre. For exclusive content, information on new releases and a FREE deleted scene from his novel NOMAD, sign up to the Readers’ Club here: www.bit.ly/JamesSwallow
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