‘Leviathan’ – Darius Hinks (Black Library)

Page Count: 395 pages.

The ‘Reading Loft’ was cool but I’m enjoying having all of my books in plain view 😊 Makes it a lot easier for me to track down the ones that I’ve read but never quite got round to posting about here. Books like ‘Leviathan’ for instance. Now here’s an example of what happens when I go Christmas shopping by myself; I end up coming home with a copy of ‘Leviathan’ and doing my Christmas shopping online the next day… But anyway.

I can never get my head round the ‘Warhammer 40K’ rules, and my painting leaves a hell of a lot to be desired, but the release of Tenth Edition caught my eye as it came with ‘Leviathan’, the book of the game 😉 I love Hinks’ fantasy work but I’d never read any of his 40K work so ‘Leviathan’ looked like the best place to jump in and see what was what. It took a little while for me to get hold of the paperback edition but I did and here we are 😊 Let me tell you about it. Nothing too in-depth, work was intense yesterday and looks like being similar today

'The dream.... it is a portent... of the end.'

The fortress world of Regium has a proud history, For millennia, it has endured when others have fallen to ruin and damnation, standing defiant in defence of the Imperium of Man. But now it is shaken. Parasitic plagues run rampant, and Regium's citizens are haunted by dreams of horrific monsters feasting upon their flesh and marrow.

Lieutenant Castamon of the Ultramarines recognises these signs of an impending Tyranid invasion all too well. Rallying his warriors, the battle-hardened veteran launches a strike force to slaughter the xenos in the outer system, before it can reach Regium. But as this new tendril of Hive Fleet Leviathan proves unpredictable and deadly, Castamon and the First Company must harness all their skill, might, and zeal, or face utter annihilation.

As much as I love reading about Space Marines (and I really do, they are awesome), I always seem to approach those books with a little caution. As cool as Space Marines are, they’re… a little too good to be true aren’t they? Genetically engineered to be perfect warriors, where’s the fun in that? Well… If you haven’t read ‘Leviathan’ already, the good news is that Hinks is well aware of these potential pitfalls and sidesteps them like they weren’t even there.

Space Marines are more than a match for most xenos but if the threat is large enough in volume… things get interesting and xenos threats don’t come any bigger than a Tyranid hive fleet. Hinks certainly gets the ratio of Tyranids to Marines spot on and keeps things fresh with the resulting confrontations. We’re talking the whole range here, from minor ‘bug hunts’ to full on grand scale incursions; whichever scenario we’re given, Hinks keeps things flowing smoothly and I was pretty much on the edge of my seat with some of the twists that happened. Because that’s the thing, this is no ordinary Tyranid incursion, the Hive fleet has bred new horrors and Marines who are veterans of former encounters, with the Tyranids, suddenly find themselves on the back foot as they encounter brand new threats. It makes for some pretty cool set pieces but it’s also a great way to put certain Marines (I’m looking at you Vultis) on the spot and really see how they react when their innate sense of superiority faces a real challenge.

What I really enjoyed though were the bits featuring the inhabitants of Regium, facing up to the fact that their nightmares were not only true but were literally on their doorstep, ready to feast. It’s another challenge for the Marines; bred to protect humanity but only on the front lines, well away from actual humans (okay, they fight with other base-line humans but you know what I mean). Mix these two groups together and it becomes clear very quickly that most Marines don’t really know what to do with civilians scurrying around, especially those civilians who have schemes of their own to manage. It quickly becomes a fight for survival on two fronts and gives our plot a little more depth than just a standup fight with aliens.

There’s a lot going on in ‘Leviathan’ then and all credit to Hinks for keeping a tight leash on his plot when it could just dissolve into chaos. There’s a real sense of direction here and while the outcome is probably inevitable (I mean, Tyranids…), the journey makes it all worthwhile. Things are left open ended but you can see why 😉

If you haven’t guessed already, I thoroughly enjoyed ‘Leviathan’ and have my fingers crossed for more books from Hinks that tell us more about the ‘Fourth Tyrannic War’. Here’s hoping 😊