Since posting this, I’ve managed to read the first three books of this series by William King, so instead of writing about just the first book, I’ll do the first three. They make up the first Space Wolf omnibus anyway, so consider it a review for that.
The books tell the story of the first years of Ragnar Blackmane as a Space Wolf Space Marine, from being selected as an applicant to becoming a full Space Marine, and beyond. Compared to the previous books about space marines that i’ve read, the Blood Angels series, these were like a breath of fresh air. They are not the best books I’ve read by any means, but for mass market paperbacks based on a preset world, they aren’t bad at all.
For those not familiar with the background, the Space Wolf space marines are based on vikings and wolves. They are genetically modified soldiers that gain wolf-like qualities, such as enhanced smell, hearing, and function in small pack-like units. I’d write more, but you can read it all here.
The characters get a bit of development, are not whiny, and furthermore have some sort of internal dialogue where they actually question things. Ragnar might be a space marine, but he’s not the mindless killing machine that other authors tend to portray the space marines as. He even has flaws..he’s claustrophobic.Overall, this character doesn’t bother at all. The other characters can be a bit one sided though. You have Sven the friendly brave but stupid guy, the tough but wise and with a golden heart sergeant and so on. Still, this does not remove from the readability of the book.
What is annoying is what the author calls “banter” between characters. I’m all for that, but…come on…how many times can you make jokes about how stupid Sven is, or about how he is always hungry. Once…twice…but at some point it’s time to invent something new. And it just makes the characters sound more like school boys on an outing than like tough dudes able to kill anyone with one finger…Oh…and the fart jokes…those confused me for a bit…was this an attempt at humor…I hope not…thankfully those just happened once.
Another strong point of the novels is the variety of the locations and the enemies they face. Sure, due to lore constraints, the Thousand Sons chaos marines have to be there, but nothing becomes repetitive. For example, the first book takes place on an island, in a fortress, inside old abandoned ruins, and a chaos temple, the second involves an ork infested jungle, a space hulk and an eldar pyramid, the fourth books happens on Terra. There are inquisitors, chaos marines, orks, eldar, a jolly plague demon talking with a decidedly British accent and so on, you get the point.
The plots are also ok-ish..nothing really extraordinary, but not bad either. Overall, the books make for an enjoyable read. I didn’t even have to force myself to go through them, like it happened with the Blood Angels novels (yeah..those really marked me…too bad they had nice covers). I’d recommend these books to anyone looking to get into the WH40k world (which I’ve enjoyed a lot lately…damn you, Dawn of War video games!!!), or those who are already familiar with the setting, and are looking for more books to read.
