Gaunt's Ghosts - The Founding

Sci fi is an amazing genre, full of depth and possibility.  It offers opportunities for scope and scale.  So why is it that the second best series of sci fi novels out there are a franchise based off Warhammer 40,000's least popular army?  Let's take a look.

First and Only: Ladies and Gentlefolk, allow me to introduce the Tanith First.  An imperial guard infantry regiment with a specialisation in scouting and infiltration.  In this first book, we're introduced to them and most importantly, to their commander.

Immediately, the book presents what will unquestionably be the main quality of the series.  Strong, well written characters.  Ibram Gaunt, Elim Rawne, Colm Corbec, Try Again Bragg, Hlaine Larkin and god knows how many others.  Remnants of a destroyed planet, fighting under the man who ordered th5em to abandon their world.

In this debut novel, we see them swept up in a conspiracy by various powers to gain control of an army of robotic soldiers that has them dicing with some of the most dangerous elements in the imperium.

More importantly though, this novel is about Gaunt's character particularly and his sad history with his uncle Dercius.  These two plot threads compete for dominance throughout the novel, before coalescing together in a climax that brings emotional closure to both.

Now, for a debut this is not bad.  But it suffers somewhat from being much more tied to the overall 40k setting than later novels.  Part of what makes the series so compelling is the way that Abnett makes the more esoteric elements of the setting, magic and aliens and the like, a rare encounter for the ghosts.

Perhaps it's first novel syndrome, but there's a lot more of that in this novel than you'll find in later ones.  But it is of course essential reading.  Rather than the world, or even the ghosts, more than any other, this novel is about Gaunt.  To understand his character in later novels, this one is essential.

Ghostmaker: Having been thoroughly introduced to Gaunt over the first novel, this time we are getting to know the tanith themselves a little better.  Here we find them engaged in a nasty trench war.  But that's not the focus of this novel.

Instead, we spend the majority of our time in flashback, getting to know individual ghost's better.  The book plays out in an episodic structure, each section giving focus time to a different character.

There are major standouts here as short stories.  Colm's protection of Tolin in particular stands out as a fascinating mini story, one that could easily work as a full novel, but in its trimmed down state works as a tight little tale.

The flashback to the fall of Tanith as well is particularly well executed as is Mkoll's fight with the dreadnaught.

But ultimately, this is perhaps the weakest novel in the series, purely by merit of it's more episodic structure and the inherent slowness that structure lends to the main story.  All of the flashbacks take place before the main plot kicks into gear, which does somewhat make you wish Gaunt would stop reminiscing and get on with it.

Necropolis: Back when I first discovered the series after a recommendation from tvtropes, this was the novel were it began to click for me.  As I've said, the first is held back by it's rather intimate ties with the larger verse and the second by its more episodic structure. 

In this novel we are introduced to the prototypical Gaunt's Ghost's tale.  An epic, sci fi battle, done from the perspective of the man on the ground, the standard imperial soldier.

That, in a sentence, is the appeal of the series for me.  40k is a fascinating setting, with a ton of potential.  The sheer scale of events that take place in the verse is truly mindblowing.  But the best way to communicate that scale is to put a normal person amongst it, staring out at the chaos.

That's what Abnett does at his best and this is one of the best examples of it.  There are so many fantastic moments in this novel, not least of which is the introduction to verghastites that will come to be hugely important characters.  Criid, Kolea, Soric and Daur are all met in this book and serve to provide a fantastic spread of people from Vervunhive, really drumming in what a real war fought at this scale might be like.

There are so many incredible scenes in this novel, from the fight at Veyveyrgate, the initial shelling of Vervunhive and the assault on the spire, to tiny little moments, like Criid and Caffran's budding relationship or Larkin's horror at seeing what lies beneath the Zoican helmets.

Abnett would go on to improve on this book and I'll write about those at a later date.  But necropolis was where the series took form and really began to play to its strengths.

The Founding: It is by far easier to find the omnibus editions of the Gaunt's Ghosts books and that's how I read them.  Each omnibus forms an arc (though according to Abnett, this only started being intentional with the third omnibus, the lost) so I feel I should give some review to the collection as a whole.

The founding is what it says on the tin.  It's about Gaunt and his Ghosts.  The first book introduces us to the commander, the second to the regiment, the third gives us our first true experience for combat for them.

Which is not to say there isn't combat all the way through all three, but the first two are about getting you to know the characters.  Like I said, the formula here is to put believable, sympathetic characters that the audience cares about into the big scifi battle situation.  So those first two are about drawing those characters.  Now this and the other teething problems I've mentioned make this the weakest omnibus in the collection.  Which is not to say they shouldn't be read.  First and Only and Ghostmaker are excellent 40k novels.  If you like the setting, you will enjoy them thoroughly.  But Necropolis needs no qualifiers, it is simply a great novel, a bar the series will continue to meet and on a couple of occasions even raise.  Read them.  Even if only on the promise of further greatness in later volumes.  Read them.

Posted in: 40k, Book, Book Review, Colm, Corbec, Elim, Gaunt, Gaunts Ghosts, Ghost, Hlaine, Ibram, Larkin, Rawne, Review, SciFi, War, warhammer, warhammer 40000, warhammer 40k