Reviewed by Dave Millest
The Gildar Rift by Sarah Cawkwell
When the ancient warship Wolf of Fenris emerges from the warp, Imperial forces find that it has been overrun by the dreaded Red Corsairs. However, this is no mere raiding party – Huron Blackheart and his entire renegade fleet soon follow, intent on conquering the Gildar Rift and tightening their grip on the sector. Lance batteries and torpedo salvos burn fiery contrails through the void, and only Captain Arrun of the Silver Skulls Space Marine Chapter can halt the renegades’ advance. The fate of the Rift will not be decided in the heavens but on the surface of Gildar Secundus below.
The
Gildar Rift is one of the latest novel in the Space Marines Battles
series. This novel is written by Sarah Cawkwell and prior to this novel I
had not read any other BL works by her, or at least not knowingly, and I
as such I went in with an open mind and was far from disappointed by
what I found. In the Gildar Rift The Silver Skulls Space Marines have
taken it upon themselves to patrol the Gildar Rift to repel the ever
present xenos threat. The Silver Skulls differ from the other chapters
by being very superstitious. They also have a number of Powerful
psykers, Prognosticators, who are consulted before important decisions
to try and divine the outcome before the course of action is followed. I
liked this as in some cases it seemed that some officers would even ask
for their blessing before even reloading their bolter!!
Captain
Daerys Arrun is in charge of the fleet assigned to protecting the
Gildar Drift, and has moved from his flagship to the Dread Argent to
oversee a bold and controversial experiment. The Dread Argent might not
be a flagship, but it is still a formidable engine of destruction, which
is why when they receive a distress call from The Wolf of Fenris Daerys
Arrun feels confident they can assist the Space Wolves. A small team is
assembled to board the friendly spaceship to determine what is going
on, but it's assumed the situation is hostile. Nothing can prepare them
for what they find on board. The arch-enemy have launched an attack on
the system with the Wolf of Fenris being the bait which springs the
trap. The Silver Skulls find themselves in dire straits both in space
and down on the planet. Every move they make has been foreseen by the
insane, but brilliant traitor, Huron Blackheart. Fury grips Daerys Arrun
as he watches his brothers fall to the traitorous Red Corsairs. The
Silver Skulls ranks are thin enough already and they cannot afford to
lose more, but more importantly they cannot let the system fall to the
arch enemy.
Like
with everything before things can get better they have to become worse.
In this case Sarah Cawkwell certainly delivers on disasters, and things
get so very bad it almost hurts to read. OK so it does feel forced in
one or two places, but that’s the nature of compacting major events in
to small novels, but when accompanied by explanations of why the space
marines are helpless to act it does feel a bit odd, but not out of
place.
Sarah
Cawkwell does a very good job in raising the stakes and building up
suspense and her work with the characters emotions mean that you begin
to share captain Daerys Arrun's pain every time one of his men die. The
Gildar Rift is, from start to finish, an intense read with a lot of
fighting. I also liked the ship to ship battles as their immobility
makes those battles a great juxtaposition to the fluid ground fighting.
The whole novel and battle pretty much boils down to how much punishment
your ship and your men can take! It might sound boring but it's
actually pretty exciting, and you can feel the ship tremble from the
impact of the enemy's missiles. Down on the planet the fighting is more
brutal and personal with The Silver Skulls are facing a horde of
cultists and Red Corsairs and I feel that Sarah Cawkwell does a good job
describing the mayhem and it feels convincing with a quick pace.
The
Gildar Rift was a solid delivery from Sarah Cawkwell and is packed
full of the right ingredients to please even me! The underlying plot
device (don't want to spoil the whole point of the book) made things
interesting and felt like a fresh idea. The only issue I have with it is
that when you read the plot device the marine's constantly worry it’s
the wrong thing to do and is heresy but for me it just makes me think
that actually its already that something that happens in other Adeptus
branches within the imperium so it isn’t that wrong - cryptic I know but
once you’ve read it you’ll understand - or email me if you don’t know
what I mean. If, like me, you expect a grim read, non-stop action, and
religious zealots you have found the right book. I think it's fair to
say The Gildar Rift was an excellent first outing for the Silver Skulls
and Sarah Cawkwell but it is most definitely setting the stage for a
second novel. Without about The Silver Skulls suffer from a bloodied
nose, and I would like to see them take the war to the Red Corsairs,
giving them the initiative and the first strike. The plot and characters
as well as the potential for more novels gets a solid 5 stars from me
for this newest of 40k writers.
Dave Millest reviews lots of sci fi books and you can find his blog here.
1 comments:
Have you read any of the other Space Marine battles books? I'd like to get your take on any that you have read.
I've read Helsreach and Rynn's World. Helsreach was excellent. Rynn's World was alright. The difference for me? I felt like I had more insight into the Black Templars when I finished Helsreach. Much less so with the Crimson Fists after Rynn's World. Don't misunderstand; I like the bolters, chainswords, and plasma cannons just as much as the next guy. More importantly however, I like to learn a bit more about the Chapter featured in the book.
I guess all that is my long winded way of asking whether or not you feel like you know the Silver Skulls (or Red Corsairs for that matter) better than you did before?
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