‘Transplants’ – Rob Young (Black Library)


I told you… This week is pretty much all about the short stories, mostly because DAMN work is kicking off pretty much constantly and I’ve got a million things that I need to get done before I go on leave at Christmas… I am really looking forward to Christmas 😊 Taking time out to read is pretty much essential, for my mental health, but there’s only so much time in the day and that’s where short stories come in. The Black Library short reads have got me through any number of morning commutes and lunch breaks where I’ve realised that I’ve left my book at home (which still happens far more than it should). Last night, it was the turn of ‘Transplants’ to get me through the awkward gap between turning off the work laptop and my pizza showing up… 😉

A trio of Cadian snipers from different backgrounds infiltrate a Chaos-corrupted city to assassinate their target. But what if their target already knows that they’re coming…?

On the whole, I enjoyed ‘Transplants’, a fast moving tale of urban warfare (slightly ironic, given that the tale starts with the Cadians sitting around waiting for something to happen…) with a twist that I saw coming but was still fun to watch play out. And any story that pits a Cadian sniper against a Chaos Space Marine (hand to hand, no less) automatically gets my vote. I love the Imperial Guard anyway and the Cadian’s epitomise everything that is good about them so to see it play out in front of me is always a bit of a treat and Young very much delivers on that score. A lot of creeping about punctuated with intense bursts of fighting, the tension and the payoff, what’s not to love about this approach?

As much as I enjoyed ‘Transplants’ though, and I really did, I couldn’t help but feel that it tried to do a little too much in not quite enough room… The focus is rightly on the mission but this doesn’t leave a lot of time or space for the really interesting stuff around the concept of ‘Transplants’ (recruits drafted in to bolster Cadian ranks… who aren’t actually Cadian themselves) and how this is hastening the demise of proud regiments who no longer have a home planet to draw forces from. Young touches upon this with Darya’s experience but doesn’t have a lot of room, or time, to give it the attention it deserves. This theme hovers around the edge of things then, offering a little context but not a lot else. Am I saying that I’d like to see this theme expanded upon in a longer book (with Darya as the lead)? Yes, yes I am 😊

That shouldn’t count against a story that does exactly what it sets out to do though, and in some style. What I originally thought was going to be a tale about organ harvesting (because it’s ‘Transplants’, oh never mind…) ended up being a lot more. If you’re collecting these stories (I think it’s an advent calendar kind of thing?) then I think you’ll enjoy this one.

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