Quick Review: Ahriman Exile

 

As you may have gleaned from the title, this novel follows the story of the Chaos sorcerer supreme Ahriman. The story setting takes place in the 41^st millennium and primarily focuses on Ahriman’s rise or descent to power as a renegade sorcerer. The book itself is not super weighty, its about  416 pages that are not densely packed with text (it’s not a Dan Abnett tome to be sure) which makes it a fairly easy book to pick up and read when you have a spare moment I actually stopped and started reading it about three times over the course of two months, but the story is written well enough that I didn’t find myself helplessly lost or having to go back to certain parts to refresh myself. So in that way it makes a great summer reader or travel/vacation book.

The story itself is well written and is a good reflection on the author John French who is a rather recent addition to BL’s stable. While I have not read any of his other works, French does a great job of keeping the reader interested in the plot, weaving long and detailed combat scenes with subtle plots that feed into the main story and reveal more about who Ahriman really is or was. Over all I felt more like I was reading someone's personal Journal rather than watching a story unfold from some imaginary corner of the room, French’s style of describing battle scenes is also quite refreshing, there were multiple times where I would read a couple paragraphs that described a fight that in reality only lasted a couple seconds, but the action flows very well in these scenes and it never felt repetitive or gratuitous. There is also a decent supporting cast of characters that provide a decent B story to help the main plot move along, again not a lot of dense details, just a good light background on the supporting cast to help break up some of the longer bits.

The over all narrative of the story is mostly focused on the power of choice, and you definitely see the results of the ones that each character makes as the book progresses, again this is an area that French does a fantastic job in. Over all it felt like I was reading several mini-sodes out of the larger story, I don’t want to get to into the plot but I will say that there is the usual amount of grimdark splashed over everything, but it doesn't feel as overbearing as it does in some of the other BL series. I would say even if your not a fan of Chaos this book is still a solid read, on the other side of the coin if your really into thousand sons this is almost a required read.

I feel I am starting to ramble on a bit so I'll wrap it up. This book basically follows Ahriman around the universe whilst he solves groovy mysteries with his gang of scrappy renegades and outcasts as they track down the mysterious source of the hunters that have been sent to kill him, things get dicey when Ahriman realizes the truth has been with him all along and has to go on a  journey of rediscovery and personal development that will allow him the face down the demons that pursue him and unlock his true potential. The story was good but it definitely feels like its meant to be part of a series rather than a standalone novel, but its pretty easy to get into the plot and it’s a fairly quick read for anyone who enjoys BL novels. So if you like Thousand suns, or you just want to learn a bit more about Ahriman I can definitely recommend this book, same goes if your looking for a quick 40k fluff fix in your down time.

Check it out here

http://www.blacklibrary.com/warhammer-40000/ahriman-exile.html

Cheers

-Scott

Astra Militarum: Magis et minus,

 

When I was talking about the lore section on the show, I found it difficult to articulate exactly what it was about this codex that felt different from its predecessors. After I had a bit more leisure time to sit down and really go through both books I think I have been able to formulate a more accurate response to my original thoughts on the background and lore section. The biggest difference between the new Astra Militarum codex and the previous IG book is that the formers composition and tone seems to focus more on the here and the now and the future of the universe, rather than weigh the reader down with the details of the past. True, there are a fair number of articles in the new book that are taken from the last codex (there’s entries in the 5^th dex that go all the way back to 3^rd) but they compose and preface it in such a manner that it tends to drive the narrative forward, rather than just let the details hang in the middle surrounded by the inevitable grim dark future of emptiness and death that awaits humanity.

It feels like GW has turned back the clock from two minutes to five, the 13^th black crusade is just now happening, and while the overall theme is still an empire in decline, they have given themselves a little more wiggle room when it comes to future editions, and the expanded universe, some aspects of which they have subtly woven into this new edition. The first couple of pages reads like the extended version of the back cover of a Black Library novel, there’s a much heavier focus on narrative in this codex than in 5^th and it shows, in 5^th it was more “yeah you command a lot of guys and tanks, so use a lot of guys and tanks if you want, it’s cool” Whereas this time round they have such gems as “Squads of desperate men battle impossible odds , with nothing but faith and courage driving them to hold the line” and prefacing that section with a paragraph that focuses heavily on the grandiose dehumanizing scale on which the organization operates. They pulled the campaign map from this edition as well, effectively removing most of those events that were not noted elsewhere from the record, this was an odd move, while it did allude to battles of other non Cadian regiments, it did not really detract much from the main story, it did however show dates that went beyond the new timeline, so rather than re write it they just scrubbed it all together. The real shame in this is that new players will loose that quick and easy glance at the universe that most of us older players have grown accustomed to (I think it is still in the rule book though)

Other than that though, the fluff area is pretty much a copy paste affair from the last two books, with a few subtle entries removed, or re shuffled out of the first twenty pages or so. Over all I think GW did a good job with the codex, there could have been a bit more don to update the background, and yet again I see the same art work that I have been seeing for the last ten plus years (now in color!) I think in this edition you are getting a lot less to build on, a few pictures, no camo scheme guides (in the print edition anyways) and the same model photos we got from 5^th. After all that though, I can still say I was pleased with this edition and even though it was very subtle I do like the new emphasis on narrative that the new codices seem to be leaning towards, and now with the supplements that are supposedly in the works, we might get to see some of the gaps in this codex filled in later by future mini dex releases. I do hope that this is the case, and GW will release some more flavor back into the army, but I’ll reserve my thoughts on that matter until I get the product in hand, for more thorough review before lambasting any perceived money grab by GW.

 

Cheers

 

-Scott

BH Senior Jam Master