‘Less Than Human’ – Steve Lyons (Black Library)


This is going to be a short post today as I was working late last night and there’s a strong possibility that it’s going to happen again this evening… Oh. Joy 😉

Yep, last night was busy and very quickly put paid to those lovely reading plans that I had. Luckily, my Kindle App always has a few short reads standing by, just in case, and that’s where I ended up turning to after it had all calmed down. It won’t surprise you to learn that I went for another Black Library short read because of course I did 😉 It was ‘Astra Militarum’ this time round (or ‘Imperial Guard’ if you’re as old as I am), another look at the Death Korps of Krieg and an answer to a question you maybe didn’t even realise you had…

Disrespect the warriors of Krieg at your peril…

A Mordian colonel pulls rank over a regiment of Death Korps of Krieg in an attempt to quickly end a war against the T'au Empire. Will the Death Korps give their lives to the Emperor as readily as the colonel supposes though? And if not… why?

I want to be careful here as I don’t want to give too much away… I enjoyed ‘Less Than Human’, probably more than I thought I would, given how other ‘Death Korps’ reads have gone. No small part of this was due to the nasty little skirmishes between the Korps and the Tau (whom I’ve never seen much of in battle before, looks like they can hold their own against the Guard anyway) which kept things ticking along, and pages turning, nicely. What I really got the most out of though was the sense of disquiet born from the action of the Krieg commander. Is there a little sedition brewing here or was it just a case of Krieg lives being given for the Emperor, just in a more efficient and targeted manner? It doesn’t affect the outcome of the battle (which of course, is a foregone conclusion) but it does leave you with a feeling that there’s more to the Death Korps than you thought and that is never a bad thing when you’re looking at a faceless army that pretty much lives to charge at the enemy.

Not a bad read at all then. If you’re a ‘Death Korps’ fan then you’ve probably read it already and enjoyed it. If you’re just reading through these short stories and haven’t got to ‘Less Than Human’ yet, it’s definitely worth your time when you get to it.

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