'Cult of the Spiral Dawn' – Peter Fehervari (Black Library)



I've read a few Warhammer 40K books in my time (and at the same time not nearly enough, I will keep on reading...) and apart from a few exceptions, it's mostly focused either around humanity and its defenders or those (post) human traitors who want to bring it all down. CAVEAT: This is all based on what I've been able to read so far, let me know if I'm missing out on an Ork-centric piece or whatever ;o)
This being the case, when I saw a book that was all about Genestealers, I was all over it the second I got paid. I've only seen Genestealers as an afterthought, in a Word Bearers novel (and again, please tell me if there's another Genestealer book out there that I've missed?), so I was really interested to see if and how they could hold up for an entire novel. And if that wasn't enough, Peter Fehervari seems to be a bit of a Black Library 'hidden treasure', if the Amazon reviews etc were anything to go by so I was more intrigued than ever. So I got down to my reading and swiftly found out that 'Cult of the Spiral Dawn' is like no Black Library book that I've ever read. And, despite the odd moment, it's brilliant.

The galaxy is vast, and worship of the God-Emperor by His faithful takes many forms. The Spiral Dawn is one of the countless sanctioned sects of the Imperial Cult. As a gathering of Spiralytes make their holy pilgrimage to Redemption, the sect's world of origin and a shrine world of the Imperium, they find not a haven of enlightenment and introspection, but a soot-choked hellhole where their order's founders and an unorthodox regiment of Astra Militarum maintain an uneasy coexistence. As tensions between the serene congregation and the superstitious Guardsmen mount, the new arrivals begin to unravel the dark secrets concealed at the heart of their faith.

'Cult of the Spiral Dawn' is one of those books that is so easy to get lost in. Some solid world building and Genestealer action, at the beginning, baits the hook and before you know it you're hooked. The next thing I knew, it was a couple of hundred years later and the main plot was about to kick off. And there's the thing, the plot doesn't kick off as such. What we have instead is a twisty turny tale (just like a Genestealer, I think) focusing on what you get if you cross the devious Genestealers with some naïve Imperial cultists and possibly the most paranoid regiment of Imperial Guard (sorry, Astra Militarum) that you've ever met, the Vassago Black Flags. The end result is a tale of dark and subtle deeds played out against the grimmest looking Shrine World you've ever seen, plenty to get stuck into with loads of layers of plot playing out. It's amazing to watch Fehervari not only set this all up but just remain in control of it throughout, Here's a writer that is just in control the whole time and it really shows in the smooth running of the plot(s).

What I also got a lot out of was the solid vein of horror running through 'Cult of the Spiral Dawn' . I've always thought that most, if not all, Warhammer 40K books were essentially horror fiction at heart but Fehervari takes it to another level here, bringing it to the surface with a vivid exploration of the alien nature of the Genestealers and playing this off the natural tendency of Imperial humans to fear the alien. Add in a natural gift that Fehervari seems to have for drawing out the tension, and then slapping the reader in the face with something horrifying, and you've got an excellent horror novel on your hands as well as an excellent Warhammer 40K novel. It's all good.

The only things that didn't quite gel for me were the open ended ending and the slightly strange decision to add a prequel tale at the end of the book. With everything else being so tightly managed, it didn't quite feel right for the ending to be left floating.like that (although I can understand why it did) and it just felt odd, having a prequel tale after everything else had already happened. These are relatively minor quibbles though and maybe Fehervari left the ending vague just in case a sequel sprang to mind? We can but hope.

I will always love a novel that looks to try something new, in an established setting, and 'The Cult of the Spiral Dawn' is just that novel. If this is the standard, I'm looking forward to reading more by Peter Fehervari very soon.

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