'Nurgle's Gift' & 'The Tallyman' – Guy Haley, Anthony Reynolds (Black Library)


We're getting to that point of the summer holiday where we're trying to cram as much as we can into what's left before the kids go back to school. And it's been good today, I took my youngest on a little journey round the Natural History Museum and to the 'Comic and Book Exchange' at Notting Hill Gate. Lets just say that she was more impressed with one than the other, I'll let you guess which was which... ;o)

It didn't leave a lot of time for reading though. Funnily enough, it feels like I'll get more reading done when I go back to work tomorrow (and the kids go back to school). Luckily though, I had a 'Warhammer 40K, Quick Read' on my Kindle, waiting to be read, and here I am, ready to share some thoughts on the whole thing.

I've always had a soft spot for the Chaos Marines who are in it for nothing more than to glorify their patron gods by just doing what they do. The World Eaters are an obvious example and I do love my fighty little traitors but I'm all about the Death Guard doing Nurgle's work just by putting one foot in front of the other and being infectious. I'm not big on the rest of the lore but it feels like if their work did topple the Emperor, Mortarion and his men would see it as a handy bonus in the face of the greater work. A whole book about Nurgle and his followers then sounded like a bit of a treat and it was, just not for the reasons I thought I'd be getting. There was hardly any Death Guard basically but that was ok. We got some really atmospheric horror pieces and the return of some old 'friends'...

NURGLE'S GIFT (Guy Haley)

On a world wracked by plague, new arrivals bring hope to the beleaguered populace. When the Sky Warriors emerge from the venomous mist, they come with promises of salvation from the ailments that blight the people. But a sacrifice will be required' Will the price be too high, or will the villagers be willing to give up one of their own to the tainted Space Marines?

Nurgle's gift... You don't need to ask for it but you can't give it back once you have it. The inhabitants of a plague wracked world find this out to their cost in Guy Haley's neat little slice of creeping terror. It's not a long piece but 'Nurgle's Gift' is so engaging, in its build up of tension set against this drab and murky dying world, that I just got lost in it straight away. Warfare in the forty first millennium isn't just about massed ranks of Guardsmen and squads of Astartes, ' Nurgle's Gift' shows a more insidious war taking place on a world that might never see one of the Emperor's finest. And the true horror is that the choice the villagers make is effectively redundant before they even decide. A great piece of WH40K fiction that I wouldn't be surprised to see take it's place in the Warhammer Horror line at some point.


THE TALLYMAN (Anthony Reynolds)

Stranded above a daemon world in the heart of the Eye of Terror, Marduk and the 34th Host of the Word Bearers venture onto the tainted planet in search of missing legionaries. But when they encounter the daemonic servant of the Plague God known as the Tallyman, they realise that their desire to save their brothers may doom them all'

They're back! I never thought I'd see Marduk and his warband again (especially after I had to get rid of my books and saw how much replacement copies would be...) so I was really pleased to see them back in action and venturing into Nurgle's own Garden on a rescue mission. 'The Tallyman' is more of a 'shoot em' up' affair but I liked the change in pace and I thought Reynolds struck a good balance between showing us the horrors of the Garden and then letting us see Marduk and his men fight their way through it. What was the Tallyman counting though? Diseases? I wouldn't mind knowing a little more about that (but that's what Google is for).

'The Tallyman' is also more of a 'bridging story' than 'Nurgle's Gift'. Marduk and crew don't end the story in the same place that they started and that can only be a good thing if that leads us into more tales of the 34th Host. Fingers crossed...

A great way to unwind, after a heavy day, then. If you have a Kindle and you want to get into Warhammer fiction, these shorter reads are the best way to get started; make this book one of the ones that you pick up first.

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