'Assassinorum: Iron Sight' – Robert Rath (Black Library)

I was full of 'Imperial Assassins are so awesome' after reading 'Divine Sanction' last night; honestly, I was like a little kid... If you read my review you'll see why. With that in mind then, it was no surprise then that when I saw another 'Assassinorum' short story by Robert Rath (while looking for 'Divine Sanction' cover art to 'borrow') I was pretty much all over it right away.

It ended up being a bit of a race against time to finish 'Iron Sight' as I've only got the one charger in the flat, right now, and that was charging my phone. I did it though and 'Iron Sight' ended up being well worth that extra effort.

There are few in the Imperium more patient than a Vindicare Assassin. These superlative killers wait for days or weeks to take the perfect shot, ending their target's life with a single squeeze of the trigger. For Absolom Raithe, his patience has reached its limit. For 27 days, his target has eluded him. The Jackal Alphus he hunts is cunning indeed – but none can escape an agent of the Officio Assassinorum forever, and Raithe will claim his kill…

If I've learnt one lesson today (and it's just gone one in the morning while I'm writing this, I like to learn my lessons early, apparently) it's to never again follow an 'Assassin post' with another 'Assassin Post'. I've also learnt to just write 'Assassinorum' once and just copy and paste the rest, seriously... .As good as both 'Divine Sanction' and 'Iron Sight' are, they're good for very similar reasons and that doesn't leave me with an awful lot that's new to say here. That'll teach me...

'Iron Sight' is a good read though, a brilliant read in fact, and that's the main thing with Rath once again setting a strong character against an enemy, that's just as good at it's job, and seeing what happens. What happens is basically all the best bits of any 'Mad Max' car chase mixed in with a strong Western Vibe (two gunslingers and only one will be left standing at the end) to give the reader a story where the pages just flash by and you're at the end before you even realise it. That's a good thing though as it's clearly what Rath had planned and he pulls it off brilliantly. Everything you find in the story is there for a reason and it all fits together and flows just as I'm sure it was meant to.

Absolom Raithe clearly isn't your average Vindicare Assassin, I understand that they generally kill from a distance, as he is more than willing by now to do the job up close and personal. Again, this all helps the story do it's job as it would be a very different tale (certainly not as exciting) if we just sat somewhere with Raithe and waited for him to make the shot. No, this way is much better as not only do we get a 'sniper duel', which is great but we also get to see what all that assassin training is for, an operative that absolutely will not stop until either the job is done, or they are dead.

With those stakes then, 'Iron Sight' is a tale that has to end one way or another... and it does. While the ending is perhaps a little too inevitable to be really compelling, I just loved the little dose of stylistic flair in how the beginning and ending of 'Iron Sight' are tied together by one very apt theme. I can't think of a better way to round this story off.

'Ironsight' then is just brilliant and a story that any Warhammer 40K fan, with a Kindle, should grab if they haven't already. I wouldn't be surprised if we see Rath's name on longer works in the near future, I'll bet there are assassins involved.