Title: Warrior Brood
Author: C.S. Goto
Published by: Black Library
Publication date: Sept 27th 2005
Genre: Sci-Fi/Bolter Pporn
Pages: 256
Format: eBook
Source: Private Collection

Blurb/Synopsis

The world of Herodian IV is doomed when the nightmarish tyranid hive fleets descend from the depths of space, intent on devouring every living thing on the planet. In the vital hours before the planet is lost, Inquisitor Kalypsia and a team of Deathwatch Space Marines are sent on a mission to investigate a vital research outpost. The terrible secret they uncover could spell a fate worse than death for Kalypsia and her warriors – maybe even for the whole of humanity, but can they escape to safety before they are torn apart by the ravenous aliens?

Review

Playing catch up with this book so I can read the next one with Spalanz and Dave.

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Deathwatch Space Marines are sent to kill a hive-tyrant on the world of Herodian IV only… not really. Because the Inquisition is involved and no one really knows what the Inquisition is up to. Not even the Inquisition!

This is an older Space Marine book, so I am somewhat forgiving about lore elements that aren\’t quite right compared to today\’s standards. And I don\’t know if they were correct at the time, honestly, I just glossed over a lot of it.

This book is 100%, pure bolter-porn. Personally, I expect a bit more from my Black Library reads, but it is what it is – again, it\’s an older book and I think reader expectations have developed since this book was penned. The first chapter, a good, 15-20% of the book features the Mantis Warriors fighting against Tyranids. There\’s no reason for this. They\’re just there having a good old scrap with the bugs because, heck, this book probably came out on the back of a Space Marine/Tyranid boxed set. (*cough*Battle for Macragge*cough*) The reader is thrown into the thick of it all and, it\’s a bit of a slog to get through. Battles are cool and everything, but there needs to be more substance than \’Bolter goes boom.\’

And, honestly, even after this point, when the Deathwatch Guys get introduced, things don\’t really improve. None of the characters really stood out as remarkable and their names could have been replaced with \’Generic Space Marine 1\’ and it would have had little impact on the story!

And yet, I enjoyed it.
This is the first Black Library book I\’ve read in a while that didn\’t make me feel \’cheated\’ in some way. It does exactly what it says on the tin. It gives a good, adrenaline-fuelled battle, a bit of dubious inquisitorial action that, if enacted by any other upstanding citizen of the imperium, would be classed as. pure heresy. The characterisation could have been better, the lore could have been a lot more accurate, the space marines themselves could have been more \’space-marine-y.\’

But for the first time in months, I am looking forward to reading another Black Library book and looking forward with hope that the next book in the series is better and hoping that Spalanz and Dave are ready to tackle Warrior Coven in the near future and hearing their thoughts as we read along together.