Brother-Captain Gabriel Angelos of the Blood Ravens Space Marines throws his men into a last ditch defence of Tartarus -- a planet with a long and troubled history. A brutal ork invasion has left the world in ruins, and there are still more ancient evils at work. The mysterious eldar and the forces of Chaos are fighting a battle older than humanity itself. Gabriel must confront his own daemons as he leads the Blood Ravens through a spiral of intrigue that could expose the shadowy hand of the Imperial Inquisition as well as the long-forgotten secrets of both Tartarus and the Blood Ravens themselves.

(2004)

(cover art: Creative Domain, for Relic/THQ/BL Publishing)

Reviews:

4 STARS! Well done., November 21, 2005

Reviewer: Detra Fitch (USA); Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews

They are hand-picked from the elite of the galaxy's fighting men. Then they're surgically augmented for years until they are finally implanted with a black carapace that runs under their entire skin, permitting them to interface completely with the ancient power armor that enwraps them like a second skin. They are the Adeptus Astartes, , the Emperor's Space Marines.

Brother Gabriel Angelos is captain of the Blood Ravens, Third Company. He and his men arrive on the planet Tartarus to aid in its defense with the Tartarans Planetary Defense Force. A brutal ork invasion is devastating the planet. At the same time, the mysterious eldar is clashing with the forces of Chaos in a battle that has raged since before human time.

Gabriel would have his hands full with all this alone. But things become worse when Inquisitor Mordecai Toth arrives, demanding that Gabriel and his Blood Ravens evacuate Tartarus immediately. Yet things just do not seem right to Gabriel, especially when the inquisitor continues to say there are no Chaos forces on the planet even though there is evidence otherwise.

**** This military sci-fi begins in battle and ends in battle. Non-stop war and mayhem is the order of the day. I recommend this novel to all military sci-fi fans, but especially to those who have played the game! Well done! ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

Extract:

From pp.33-36:

The voices soared into an angelic chorus, filling the furthest reaches of space with silver light. It was a divine sound, ineffable in its beauty and valorous in purpose. The Astronomicon pulsed with life, riddling the Imperium with the light of the Emperor, filling it with the perfect sounds of his psychic choir.

Gabriel held the voices in his head for an instant, thrilling at the touch of this sacred beacon. They seemed to fill him with cool light, flooding his soul with the promise of salvation. It was like looking into the eyes of the Emperor himself and seeing him gaze back with implacable calm.

But the sound seemed to shift. The harmony faltered and then collapsed. Soaring sopranos screeched into shrill screams, and the unblemished light was suddenly awash with tortured faces. Deep reds bled into the stream of silver, curdling his thoughts into a sickly blend of bloody images. The screams grew louder, threatening to overcome his mind with their potency. And voices started to emerge from the forest of sound – voices that called his name – Gabriel Angelos, this was your doing. They were accusing him, hating him, reaching for his soul with the ice-cold fingers of the dead.

‘Gabriel!’

He fired out his hand, grasping the nearest neck in his iron-grip. The immense muscles of his shoulder and arm bunched into tension.

‘Gabriel.’ The voice was firm and gentle, but it was accompanied by a palm that slapped across his face.

The Blood Ravens captain prised open his eyes and stared into the face of his friend. ‘Thank you, Isador.’

Isador Akios gazed back at his captain with the tenderness of decades of familiarity. ‘You look terrible.’

Gabriel’s skin was glistening with sweat and a single bloody tear had streaked down his face, leaving a scar-like mark over his already scarred-checked cheek. His lip was split and bleeding where Isador had struck him. The plain tunic that he wore was soaked with salty water, and it clung to his muscular form as he rose from he posture of supplication before the altar.

‘Again, thank you, Isador,’ he replied as he got to his feet, meeting the librarian’s eyes levelly with his own, and wiping the blood from his mouth. ‘I was praying,’ he explained.

‘Yes, I can see that.’ Isador had seen Grabriel pray at each of the designated times of every day for over a century. He had always been devout, as you would expect from one of the Emperor’s Space Marines. But something had changed since the Cyrene campaign. There was not much room in their daily routine for personal space, but Gabriel now spent every spare moment in the temple, and Isador was concerned for his old friend.

‘Are we closing on Tartarus?’ asked Gabriel, reasoning that this would be why his meditations had been interrupted.

‘Imminently, captain,’ replied Isador, still studying Gabriel’s face carefully. ‘We have entered the Tartarus system and are preparing a trajectory for optimum orbit around the fourth planet – Tartarus itself.’

‘Any more news from the regiment on the ground, Isador?’

‘No, Gabriel, none. I pray that we are not too late,’ said the librarian with concern. The Blood Ravens Third Company had received the distress call from the Tartarus Planetary Defence Force – a regiment of the Imperial Guard affectionately known as the Tartarans – a couple of days earlier. The report was broken and intermittent, but the Tartarans appeared to be under attack by a large force of orks. Gabriel had immediately directed the Company’s battlebarge, the Litany of Fury, to make for Tartarus to offer assistance. The Blood Ravens had fought orks many times before, and they knew how to confront this foe.

‘What do we know of the planet?’ asked Gabriel as he brushed his way past Isador, heading for the command deck.

‘It is a civilized world and semi-urbanised. There are a series of cities and one space port. Most of the indigenous population are focussed in the cities.’

‘And what is the population, librarian?’ asked Gabriel, keen to know the details of the battle to come before throwing himself into it.

‘Nearly four billion,’ replied Isador, wincing slightly at the thought of the probable casualties.

‘Any idea why the orks would be interested in this place?’ asked the captain, wondering whether there might be some strategic targets that he ought to know about.

‘No, Gabriel. But then, the orks know nothing of reason. They appear solely concerned with war for its own sake. Our Librarium on the Omnis Arcanum holds many records on ork battle tactics, but little on their psychology.’ Isador had spent long years studying in the legendary Librarium Sanatorium, housed in the Blood Raven’s Chapter Fortress, the Omnis Arcanum. It was justly famed as one of the most extensive archives in the Imperium, and the librarians of the Blood Ravens were amongst the most knowledgeable servants of the Emperor anywhere in his realm.

‘War for its own sake?’ Gabriel stopped and turned to face Isador. He smiled. ‘We can do that.’

(copyright Games Workshop ltd, 2004 -- CS Goto)