Night Lords: The Omnibus

A book about sadistic murderers shouldn’t be this good. But it is, and it is also so much more. Interesting plot, amazing characters. Moreover, it is actually quite deep and philosophical.

I wanted to use this quote from one of the Night Lords to describe who they are and how they see themselves before discovering that another reviewer had already had the same idea. I used it all the same because it illustrates what are perhaps the main themes of the Night Lords trilogy (Soul Hunter, Blood Reaver and Void Stalker and the three associated short stories): a desperate quest for identity, for redemption and for vengeance. The Legion of the Night Lords is made of murderers mostly recruited from the hive gangs of Nostromo by Konrad Kurze, their Primarch who used murder and torture as instruments of imperial compliance. It is also one of the “Traitor Legions” which sided with Horus, betrayed and massacred the Legions that had remained faithful to the Emperor and sought to overthrow him. Some 10000 years later, when this story begins, what is left of the Legion has broken up into multiple war bands who survive through hit and run tactics and surprise attacks, murdering and destroying its way through the Empire, and fleeing when confronted with a strong defence. The hero, Talos, once an Apothecary of the Night Lords, belongs to one of these war bands, along with the few that remain from his squad. One of the most interesting features of this book is Talos’ vivid memories and flashbacks of the times when the Legion was still united and it’s Primarch still alive. These allow the author to display Talos’ powerful emotions, a mixture of nostalgia and despair with, somewhere, a tiny glimmer of hope. They also allow for some interesting and fascinating contrasts between what the Night Lords could have been, what they were and what they became. Another strong point that is present throughout this trilogy is the depth of the characterisation. This is particularly true of Talos, but it also applies, perhaps to a lesser degree, to many of the other Night Lords, starting with the members of his squad. It also applies to the Exalted, the sergeant once called Vanbred and who used to command this squad, who has become warped (in more senses than one) and who has seized control of a strike cruiser and what is left of its crew and of its Night Lords Company. A further point that is superbly made throughout the three books is the ambivalence of the Night Lords. None of them, not even Talos, are sympathetic. At times, they are atrocious, sadists, monstrous and despicable torturers, murderers and psychopaths. However, they are also “something else” at other times. Talos is no idealist and no romantic. However, he still believes in a cause that goes beyond ensuring his own survival. He also shares the foresight of his father the Primarch and all of the suffering and nightmares that such a talent can bring. His loyalty to their dead leader and to his dreams is also unquestioned. All of his brothers know this it and this is one of the main reasons why they follow him and want him as a leader. As the book shows in a rather superb way, many of his Night Lord Brothers, however flawed and horrible they may have become, still believe in something, if only some twisted sense of brotherhood that surfaces from time to time. An additional point is the talent with which the author shifts the atmosphere through the books. The first one is very much dominated by feelings of bitterness, despair, decadence, self-loathing and self-preservation. The Night Lords have fallen. They are no longer the proud and invincible warriors of old. The Legion has been broken apart. They have been fighting and running for centuries. The war band to which Talos belongs is made of the remnants of two whole companies but the surviving Night Lords are only around eighty or so. They are running out of supplies and face extinction. By the end of the third book, emotions and feelings have changed. The pride of the Night Lords' war band and its self-belief has been largely restored. They no longer run. Instead, they decide to fight, and to fight for each other, even against desperate odds. Yet another point is Talos’ ambivalence towards his human slaves, the evolution of his emotions over time and the complexity of their relationships. They too, just like another Apothecary who is a former Red Corsair Space Marine, develop a sense of belonging and become part of the brotherhood, of this dwindling band of survivors. Then there are the multiple battles and assaults, all of which are quite superb and quite different from one another. Easily worth five stars (and perhaps even ten!) and certainly among the very best books that have been published by Black Library.

....Not that there is any obvious distinction between who is good or bad guys in W40K. A visceral insight to the Night Lords Legion, or a certain band of it anyway. Great to have as an omnibus and the short stories really add to the depth and feel of the Night Lords landscape. Great read; this had me hooked and I like my stuff dark and anti-heroic. You get plenty of both here! Not for the squeamish or faint hearted. ADB has done a great job of getting the reader in to a position where you actually root for these guys and the "realism" of cutting your losses (and running), conserving ammunition, constantly hanging on for resources was fantastic - it added to the desperation of the whole plight of the warband.

Having recently started a Chaos Space Marine army, I was scrolling through various novels to read around my chosen faction a little more when the advance order for this caught my eye. I decided to snap it up, recalling how many Black Library books I read previously that are no longer in print now, and not wanting to take a chance. I'm very glad I did too. The book consists of three novels - Soul Hunter, Blood Reaver and Void Stalker, as well as the short stories Shadow Knight, Throne of Lies and The Core. Whilst the RRP is a little more than you would expect to pay for most books this size, it is still a significant saving on the individual books, and given that it can be found cheaper than that elsewhere it's really not so bad. So, onto the stories themselves. The trilogy follows the lives of the tenth company of the Night Lords, focussing specifically on what they refer to as First Claw, a squad of battle hardened murderers, namely Talos (the main character), Cyrion, Xarl, Mercutian and Uzas. Talos suffers similar visions to the revered primarch of the Night Lords, Konrad Curze, leading to the rest of the company referring to him as the prophet. When lacking orders from the warmaster, Abaddon, Talos can often give guidance on a course of action based on his visions (neatly setting up plot points and motivation). Whether or not his predictions are heeded is another matter entirely of course - this is, after all, a Chaos Space Marine warband, full of all the infighting, betrayal, distrust and outright murder you would expect. Talos and the leader of the tenth company, The Exalted, are not exactly the best of friends, their strained relationship playing a large part in crafting tension in scenes where the two meet. Throughout the trilogy, we are offered perspective on the actions of the tenth through the eyes of those humans they rely on to do the things that hulking, armoured murderers either can't or just plain won't do. Septimus and Octavia are slaves of Talos - the former his artificer and pilot, the latter the navigator for the ship tenth company travel in, The Covenant of Blood. Septimus has been enslaved for a number of years before we meet him, whereas Octavia is captured during the course of the first novel, so we get the viewpoint of someone who has already come to terms with their position in life and someone who is forced to. The reactions of Septimus and Octavia to the things the Night Lords do are a large part of the character building, helping to provide much needed perspective on what would otherwise just be a collection of stories about evil beings doing evil things. The presence of Septimus and Octavia in what is a persistently dangerous environment really gives the reader someone to root for too - even if you aren't swayed to the side of their captors by the grey morality of the universe, you still hope the two slaves will make it out alright, as they have had no choice in their fates. Crafting a narrative which is asking the reader to be on the side of characters who revel in acts of terror and slaughter takes some skill, and it's laudable that Dembski-Bowden pulls it off with such apparent ease. Speaking of acts of terror and slaughter, there are plenty. It wouldn't be a Warhammer 40,000 book without plenty of "grimdark" in there, and this one has it in spades. Orbital boarding actions, elaborate infiltration missions, torture and terror tactics are all here, giving us more insight than ever before into how the Night Lords fight. My personal highlight was a township invasion which spent a paragraph on each warrior of first claw as they are first encountered by members of the populace. This whole chapter was very stylishly done, and really showed how the Night Lords approach warfare in a distinct and different way to other Chaos legions. The action scenes themselves are excellently paced too, with everything from orbital battles to ground war seeming to leap right off the page. Many of these scenes are as bloody and gore packed as you would probably expect if you've read any previous Black Library publications, and I would go so far as to say this is probably ups the ante on these elements, if only because of some of the scenes of torture. You have been warned... All in all, this book is one of the best Black Library publications I've read in years, full of interesting characters being pulled this way and that by forces they don't fully understand, and by allies they can't completely trust. A must for fans of Warhammer 40,000, and recommended for fans of the military sci-fi genre too.

Look at other reviews,I agree.great book by a great wh40k author.buy read enjoy

Brilliant. Sci-fi and horror. My first Warhammer books so I was dubious but these are great books full stop, forget the genre.

Une trilogie consacrée aux seigneurs de la Nuit et de la Terreur! Trois romans, deux novellas, cet omnibus est bien fourni pour quiconque est fan des Night Lords. Et j'ai adoré suivre les actions de cette bande si disparate mais aussi, bizarrement, plus "humaine" que d'habitude. Le grand talent d'Aaron Dembski-Bowden est de développer la personnalité de ses personnages jusqu'à leur donner une épaisseur qui les rend réalistes, et nous fait apprécier les plus grands salopards de la galaxie, qu'il s'agisse de Night Lords comme ici, ou de Word Bearers comme dans Le Premier Hérétique ou dans Félon, dans la série Horus Heresy. Les Night Lords sont des pirates et des pillards, et c'est très bien rendu dans cette trilogie, avec des assauts de vaisseaux très bien décrits et menés. On visite la galaxie en compagnie des night lords avec plaisir, des restes de Nostramo errants dans l'espace intersidéral jusqu'aux confins de l'espace connu, sur Tsagualsa, en passant dans le Maëlstrom devant Huron Blackheart lui-même. On suit Talos, un astartes hanté par le sentiment d'échec face à l'Imperium et par l'amertume de ce qu'est devenue sa légion, qui n'est plus que l'ombre d'elle-même après dix mille ans de Longue Guerre où jamais les légions traitresses n'ont semblé progresser contre l'Empereur. Pire, les machinations d'Abaddon n'ont fait que diviser encore plus des légions déjà divisées, comme le montre très bien le premier roman. Talos évolue au fil des romans et devient son propre maître, avec des ambitions retrouvées et mises en œuvre dans le dernier volet de la trilogie. Tsagualsa devient l'épicentre de son plan pour redorer le blason sanglant des Night Lords et peut être ressouder la Légion autour de ses grands projets. Sans en dévoiler trop sur l'intrigue, cette trilogie est une véritable réussite. La mélancolie de Talos tranche avec le réalisme de ses comparses, et crée un contraste vraiment intéressant tout au long de la lecture. Le final est parfaitement réussi, et l'épilogue nous montre un avenir potentiel pour lequel on se prend à attendre des développements (qui ne viendront jamais, malheureusement, parce que la Black Library suit les changements opérés par Games Workshop...). Non seulement les personnages progressent, mais avec eux, progresse également la situation générale dans laquelle ils évoluent: on ne lit pas un ensemble de texte "one-shot" sans aucun lendemain. Un excellent moment de lecture!

La trilogia di Dembski-Bowden è un’avvincente storia, che fa vivere al lettore le cupe dinamiche delle warbands dei Night Lords. Crudo, brutale e spietato anche con i personaggi stessi dell’opera. Soul Hunter, Blood Reaver e Void Stalker hanno tutti una narrazione coinvolgente. I personaggi hanno un carisma ben definito e ti ci affezioni nonostante siano i cattivi della storia. Consigliato a tutti i fan di Warhammer 40K AVE DOMINUS NOX!

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Fantastic book, well worth the price