‘Broken Honour’ – Robert Earl (Black Library)

One trap that I think every blogger falls into, at least once during their time, is that we never seem to find the time to go back and re-read our old favourites. Think about it, we’re all on a reading journey and that means moving forwards all the time; whether that’s reading the latest ARC or reading an older book that you’ve never tried. There doesn’t seem to be the time to look back or maybe there is, tell me that I’m wrong, I’m feeling a little sad about it all  But anyway…

I’ve always thought that life is too short to be reading books that I don’t enjoy and if it feels like hard work then I’m clearly doing something wrong  And those old favourites aren’t going to read themselves so… Here I am. I loved ‘Broken Honour’, back in the day, and now that I’d finally found another copy, it was time to re-visit it and see if it was the book that I remembered.

 

The armies of Hochland are at breaking point. Beset on all sides by the feral beastmen, the safety and prosperity of the province is shattered. These are desperate times. Mercenary Captain Eriksson looks to capitalise on the conflict, buying the freedom of a group of prisoners to form a new free company. The criminals are delighted to be released, but this comes at a terrible price - to fight and die in the upcoming conflict. Eriksson must lead his makeshift company into one bloody conflict after another, putting his faith in those who gave up on honour long ago. On the battlefields of Hochland, either damnation or redemption awaits them.

 

Now, I don’t normally do this (and don’t plan on making a habit of it) but time is at a real premium right now (and it’s only Monday while I’m writing this…) and my thoughts on ‘Broken Honour’ hadn’t really changed since the last I read it so… I’m going to be a little cheeky and use the review that I wrote back in 2011. You can read the whole thing Here but you won’t be missing much if you read it here (just an intro that I cut out here)…

 

‘Broken Honour’ takes its readers and places them right at the heart of things in a way that I haven’t seen for a long time. Whether it’s at the front line of conflict or in the midst of high level discussions in the corridor of power, Earl’s frank approach not only puts you in the midst of things but also makes sure that you want to hang around. Everything feels like it’s pivotal to the plot and this feeling is often borne out in the events that follow. Having said that though, it felt like one of the main plot lines kind of petered out when it really needed a more definite conclusion. If ‘Broken Honour’ is the start of a series, and a certain character resurfaces (frantically trying not to give too much away here...) then I can see the logic of this approach and I’ll quite happily take everything back. In the meantime though, a very interesting strand of the plot fell flat at the end and made light of all the potential that it had accrued in the meantime.

Apart from that, the rest of the plot flies along at a furious rate with the urgency of battle more than matched by the cut and thrust of politics behind the scenes. Whatever part of the story you find yourself in there is plenty to get into with the adventures of a disreputable band of former criminals who end up being a lot more engaging than you would have thought at first.
Captain Erikson is a sold character to hang the plot around as a person who knows full well what war brings but is still capable of making surprising decisions that develop his character and keep things interesting. It’s the actions of the men under his command though that really brings life to the plot with their differing reactions to the prospect of swapping the gallows for possible death on the battlefield. Life isn’t as uncertain as you’d think, for the men of the company, as Earl falls into the trap of signposting the survivors through the level of detail he gives their characters. This detail really lets you get to know each individual character though and I’m hoping for more of the same in the future.

Warhammer books aren’t all about the fighting and ‘Broken Honour’ is no exception with its examination of men under the stress of constant warfare. When the fighting really kicks in though, Earl proves that he is more than capable of mixing it with the Black Library ‘big guns’ with a brutal and visceral treatment of the subject matter that leaves you in no doubt as to the horrors of pitched battle in the Old World. I also liked the way that Earl gives us a wider picture of events and shows us things happening just off the battlefield that are just as terrible...

I guess the jury is still out on ‘Broken Honour’ (in a sense) until I see, one way or the other, what happens to that plotline I mentioned earlier. As a standalone piece though, the positive far outweighs the negative in a bone crunching and compelling piece of fantasy.

 

For what it’s worth, ‘Broken Honour’ resolutely remained a standalone book that never became a series. Which is a shame, I think the story had legs to go a bit further, albeit not with beastmen again. As it stands though, I think it held up really well after a long break between reads (twelve years…) and it was a welcome return to the Old World at it’s best. I’m hoping for more ‘Old World’ fiction when the new tabletop game comes out and I’d be more than happy to see Robert Earl get stuck in again.