Customer Reviews
Civil war for the renegade Chapter - By: T. R. Alexander, 13 Feb 2008 
The fourth bookin the detailing the Soul Drinkers trials & tribulations after leaving the corrupt bosom of the Imperium continues on from the previous book `Crimson Tears'. While responding to a distress signal from a world apparently abandoned by the Imperium, the renegade Chapter suffers one of its toughest tests to date when the brilliant new recruit Eumenes leads a revolt against his brothers, splitting the Soul Drinkersin two. More difficulties arise when the Imperial response eventually arrivesin the form of the relentless Howling Griffins & the Inquisitor Thaddeus.
Although the Soul Drinkers series hasn't been the greatest of the Warhammer 40,000 novels but they have always been fun to read & this book is no exception. Although the first half of the book is something of a letdown the rest of the book is respectable, although still not as good as `Soul Drinker', the first bookin the series. The actionin the book is easy to follow & well written, especially the climactic battle between Sarpedon & the Howling Griffin Librarian.
There are some problems with this book however, with the editing slightly sloppyin places & the depiction of the orks is somewhat simplistic. The main problem I have with the book is the kill count for the Soul Drinkers, it is always stated how low on recourses & manpower they are but they appear to have an infinite number of faceless marines dieing throughout the series. Although this is a problem that dose occurin many 40K books, it is most pronouncedin this series.
Overall the Soul Drinkers series is coming along well, it is not dazzlingly good but it is entertaining & it will be interesting to see where the story goes from here & given some of the revelations about the Soul Drinkers history detailed here I will definitely be looking forward to the next bookin the series.
The Soul Drinkers face orks and themselves in the latest in the series. - By: Wj Getty, 07 May 2007 I only recently began to follow the Warhammer 40000 Black Library material, as with many other readers of science fiction, I pretty much viewed most black library material as existing only to cashin on the success of the game with trashy action sci-fi. The first series to begin changing my view of themin this light was the Ultramarines series, although even this had strong elements of action for the sake of action. Certainly books like the Space Wolves series were almost entirely dull, action-based affairs. The Soul Drinkers series however offered something better. All of the characters had depth & their motivations were clear yet I found that I genuinely grew angry at the wrongs done to the Soul Drinkers chapter during the course of the original trilogy. The books also improved as they went along, with Crimson Tears, the third bookin the series, being the best.
I finished Crimson Tears about two weeks before Chapter War was released & was incredibly anxious to read the new release. Chapter war picks up where Crimson Tears left off, with the Chapter fresh from their escapades against Dark Eldar & the Crimson Fists loyalist space marine Chapter & follows them instead to fight on a world besieged by the green horde of the Orks. Another fellow space marine chapter, the Howling Gryphons, have also been despatched to deal with the ork threat, but once again their focus shifts when they learn of the presence of the excommunicate Soul Drinkers. As this happens however, the Soul Drinkers themselves descend into a brutal power struggle, & yet more dark secrets of the chapter are also unfolding.
The premise was excellent but despite this, I felt that the novel perhaps over-reached itself. It was still a superb piece of science fiction writing & continued the series admirably, but perhaps because of the sheer brilliance of Crimson Tears, I found that this was perhaps a small step backwardsin terms of personal reading enjoyment.
Still, if you are thinking of reading any Black Library material, begin with the Soul Drinkers series, you won't regret it.
