Blood Pact (the novel) - a reviewReview of Dan Abnett's Blood Pact
Now, those who know me, know I have a love that borders on the obsessive for Dan Abnett's creation Gaunt's Ghosts. I have followed them since Necropolis was released in 2000, but I do have first editions of both Ghostmaker and First & Only as well. I also have a bunch of related fluff-bits as well as the miniatures set.
So, yeah, obsessive.
I say this to make it clear just how biased this review will no doubt be. I can't be truly objective where the Ghosts are concerned.
Now, following the events in the last arc, The Lost, things have changed quite a bit for the Ghosts. I won't spoil the ending to Only in Death (as I know one particular reader has yet to read the book), but the Ghosts have finally gotten the R&R they deserve after 15 years on the front line. They have been restationed on Balhaut. Yes, THAT Balhaut! This planet now makes a living from death (fnarr fnarr!) and death is indeed a recurring theme in the novel. I won't go into how, but you'll see if you read it.
I can start off by saying that no beloved characters are killed off in this one, but that is seldom Abnett's way when starting off a new arc. They tend to die in the last and middle ones. Which is odd considering how very present death is in this one.
Anyway, R&R after 15 years is appreciated in the Tanith First. There's just a little problem with the Ghosts. They are bored. Bored to death (sorry, I'll stop now). Gaunt and Hark, regimental commissars that they are, have their hands full. Matter of fact, Hark gets most of it. Gaunt tends to kick back at a club with some colleagues and has, shock and horror! started to gain a spot of weight!
This whole idyllic, but dull, way of life is broken rather abruptly with first, the reveal of a highranking enemy prisoner that will only speak to Gaunt. I can reveal as much as that he's named Mabbon Etogaur. Long-time fans will know who he is. The second thing that happens is that Balopolis is stormed by a shock troop of Blood Pact.
Blood Pact.
On Balhaut!
And they are bad mother-fethers, I tell you. They are sent to silence the Etogaur before he reveals Urlock Gaur's plans (or something) and what follows is a wild goos chase in which Gaunt finds himself on the run, together with Mabbon, with Blood Pact, Commissariat and the Inquisition on his heels.
So, in a way, the plot reminds me of Traitor General crossed with Hereticus, if that makes any sense at all.
The ending does come as a surprise, which I can't say Traitor General's ending did. TG was just Where Eagles Dare in Space.
What really makes this book tick isn't the plot. It is, as in most Abnett novels, the character interactions. Between Gaunt and Mabbon and between the Pactsmen. The best part is that Abnett, just like in Traitor General, gives us an insight into Chaos society, or the Consanguinity as he calls it. Damogaur Baltasar Eyl's and his sister Ulrike's interaction are very nice and gives a nice, and chilling, insight into just how Chaos "thinks". They come across as human beings, caught up in the eternal war, but their masters are different than those we are used to. And that is the only true difference.
And this is something that Abnett has always done well, in my opinion. He makes us care for all characters, even the tiny bit part ones. Even, as I saw in Blood Pact, the enemy.
This combined with his fantastic ability of description. For a long while now, in his novels, you have been able to feel the bullets fly, feel the crump as grenades go off. I can see the blood lust in the eyes of the Pactsmen as they charge against the Imperial lines. I can smell the electricity, blood and metal of the wire-wolf as it charges up and is set on the tracks of its victim.
The realism in Abnett's descriptions have gotten almost overwhelming but it is welcome in something so inherently unreal as the Warhammer 40'000 universe.
And then he describes a guy hit in the chest with a heavy lascarbine and blown backwards as "being sucked out of an air-lock".
No.
Nononononononono. No!
You can't do this. You can't. It's one of Newton's Laws.
A lasgun fires an energy beam. A pure energy beam. It has no mass. It cannot blow a human off his feet. As a matter of fact, seeing as the only moving parts of a lasgun is the trigger, it shouldn't have blow back either. But I can buy that Larkin's longlas has a kick at a pinch. I can buy it blowing someone's head off.
But blowing 'em off their feet?
No!
And this isn't the only time he does it. It happens repeatedly, mostly with las weapons. With something like a bolt, I can sort of buy it. But not with pure energy weapons like las.
And it is so sad that this happens. The book was great, but it doesn't get the beautifully perfect score that Only in Death got because of this repeated pissing in the face of Sir Isaac Newton.
I tried to make a calculation at how many Joules you need to punch a human off his feet. I guess it has to equal the mass in some way, but my physics knowledge is paltry where this is concerned. Maybe someone more knowledgable can help me crunch the numbers?
Mind you, it was still a very good read.
Work in Progress:
Vostroyan Colonel for =TotenVeloren
Elemental series (Wind and Water left) Germania bei Nacht Vostroyan Painting tutorial part 3 A'mon Ch'akai getting CGed Space Outlaws X picture (sketched) Mannimarco, Worm King portrait New ID picture Traditionally drawn Space Marines, both loyalists and Chaos My Blood Pact + their CSM commanders, traditionally Develop that idea I had about the Armageddon Steel Legions.
Christmas Spirited
Zest
Content
Cheerful
