A 'Did Not Finish'... 'Red Tithe (Carcharadons) – Robbie MacNiven (Black Library)

Well what have we here? It's a 'Did Not Finish', looking very sorry for itself but needing to be posted about and discussed. Lets get to it :o)
Now more than ever, it's really important to be kind to yourself and just admit that you're not that into the book that is proving to be so difficult to get into. It happens and there are so many other things happening, at the moment, that are more important than a book that isn't working for you. Put the book down and read something that you're actually going to enjoy. You owe it to yourself to put a little fun in your life, seriously :o)

With that all said and out of the way, lets talk about the latest book I didn't finish; a Black Library 'Space Marine' tale... Hang on, don't I usually polish these off without breaking a sweat. Well yes, normally I do. Not this time though... Have some blurb,

On the prison world of Zartak, darkness has fallen on arbitrators and inmates alike. The Night Lords have come, and with them the shadow of fear and pain. But they are not the only ones with an interest in Zartak. From the void, running on silent, another fleet emerges. Its warriors are grey-clad and white-faced, and their eyes are as black as the Outer Dark – the savage Carcharodon Astra. As these two packs of ancient, merciless predators stalk the shadows of the prison colony, both seeking a single young inmate with unnatural talents, the corridors run red with blood, and both factions will have to fight tooth and claw to leave Zartak alive. 

If there's one thing I like, in my sci-fi, more than Space Marines, it's a full on prison world. Full of absolute bastards, apart from the one poor sap who shouldn't be there but is, these settings are ripe for some bone crunching action and that's before something arrives to make everyone's day a bad one. 'Red Tithe' had a prison world and two sets of Space Marines, ready to fight it out in the corridors. This sort of thing should have been reading heaven to me but I struggled to get to the halfway point before I put the book down. 

What happened then?

I'll tell you what happened... Or rather, what didn't happen. It's easy, there were no characters you could really get behind and cheer/jeer on. The only one who came anywhere near close was the Arbitrator Rannick and she was reduced to a bit of a wreck after the boarding incident at the beginning of the book. I can understand someone being completely overawed by a ship crawling with daemons, and then having to deal with Space Marines as well, but it doesn't make for a character that you can spend a lot of time with. And that's harsh when she's one of the main characters.... 
The Space Mariens on each side were just cartoonish parodies who were given no room to be interesting as everyone was chasing the least interesting character of all, a young prisoner who would be invaluable to both sides but has little agency of his own. Seriously, when I left him, our prisoner was quite happy to take directions from the strange voice in his head. Because if you're a suspected psyker in a regime that 'hates the witch', you'd follow the voice in your head wouldn't it...

The end result then is a book that didn't hang together at all, from my perspective, as none of the characters seemed able to step up and make the book their own. With no strong characters, the events just shamble long and by the time I put the book down, it just felt like they'd shambled enough

'Red Tithe' is a book that had a lot of potential but unfortunately, very little of it was realised. If you play a Carcharadon army, in Warhammer 40K, 'Red Tithe' might give you a few pointers but me?  I'm ducking out of this series right now. Life really is too short to be reading books that you can't stand.