'The Carbis Incident' – Victoria Hayward (Black Library)


Yesterday was a day in the office and as always, that meant a little short story action on the bus in so I didn't miss my stop. It's only ever happened the once, and there was a lot of alcohol involved at the time, but that was enough for me. Dartford's alright but you don't want to be hungover there in the middle of the night... But anyway.

I always have a short story or two, on my Kindle App, for the commute into work and yesterday's read was a very easy choice. I thoroughly enjoyed 'Blood Sands' (Review Here) so 'The Carbis Incident' it was then...

A century ago, the world of Carbis was cut off from the Imperium by warp storms. History says that none escaped to warn the wider Imperium of whatever dangers beset the world – but a journal in the possession of Inquisitor Venicii says otherwise… Now the inquisitor has come to the beleaguered planet along with his warband to discover the truth. A truth that could provide Venicii with a powerful weapon for his greater mission.

If 'Blood Sands' was the tale that had a little 'Aliens' moment, 'The Carbis Incident' is very much a mixture of 'The Thing' (only nearly everyone gets to be the Thing here) and the non-Euclidean moments of your favourite Lovecraft. The result is an unsettling tale that really plays to the darkness inherent in the WH40K setting but also makes it clear that humanity is fighting to survive in a universe that it barely understands. What the Inquisitor, and his band, find could even be human tech but so much knowledge has already been lost, they wouldn't even know if it was or not. Which brings us onto the plot.

While the mystery of Carbis is fairly straightforward, it's what that mystery does to certain of the main players (can you see that I'm trying so hard not to give the game away?) that is worth the price of entry all by itself. Those who fight this secret war must be able to withstand the greatest temptations and 'The Carbis Incident' shows what happens when that temptation proves too much. It's a sobering, and slightly gross, lesson that once again, shows the reader very clearly what the stakes are for humanity's survival in the setting as a whole.

I had a lot of fun reading 'The Carbis Incident' and am keen to see how Hayward tackles WH40K next. I wouldn't say no to something novel length now, fingers crossed...

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