‘The Way Out’ & ‘Perdition’s Flame’ (Warhammer Horror, Black Library)
It’s Friday so you’d normally be looking at a post on whatever I read, on the bus to/from work, yesterday. Not today though… I had a touch of insomnia followed by a day in the office so while I had a book in my bag (I always have a book in my bag…), I was in no state to actually read it. Luckily, I had a couple of Black Library audiobooks on my phone so I listened to them instead.
As a rule, I don’t tend to do too well with audiobooks that are hours long and just a narrator narrating. Black Library though, have a nice line in audiobooks that have a full cast, run for just over an hour and are full of immersive sound effects I thought I’d see how that worked with a couple of ‘Warhammer Horror’ tales…
‘The Way Out’ – Rachel Harrison
In the midst of a vast gas nebula lies a remote watch-station, hanging silently against a tapestry of dying stars. It sits alone, patiently awaiting lost travellers adrift in the freezing vastness of the void. To such souls it appears as a blessing, a safe haven from the warp storms that wrack the immaterium and destroy the ships of those foolish enough to test the tides.
To Captain Arq and her crew, it is one thing - refuge. But things are never so simple.
I try not to play favourites but ‘The Way Out’ was my favourite of the two stories. I just loved the way that Harrison completely avoids any kind of explanation and just leaves the listener to fill in the gaps themselves, all while being freaked out by the unexplained happenings on the space station. There’s a real ‘inexplicable cosmic horror’ vibe here that captures the Warhammer 40K setting perfectly and it makes this ‘haunted house in space’ tale all the more effective for it. The unusually optimistic sounding Enginseer makes for a really jarring counterpoint to the rest of the party (which somehow makes things even more creepy) and I really got a lot out of how the ending of the tale has echoes of its beginning. There was no danger of my sleeping, on the bus, while this was playing :o)
'Perdition’s Flame’ – Alec Worley
The wind screams. The dark night is freezing. Vossk, a Vostroyan Firstborn, shrinks into a rock against a howl of memories. Having disgraced himself by deserting his post during a terrifying encounter, Vossk had resigned himself to penal servitude, though he's yearned for the chance to redeem himself. But in the 41st Millennium, such dreams are hollow when a man’s reality has been shaken to his core. Found in the shadows of a pitiless cave, Vossk relives his tale to his rescuer. But trauma stalks the weary, and in the face of an even greater horror, it grins at those whose courage has failed them once before…
‘The Way Out’ was the better listening experience, overall, but to be fair, ‘Perdition’s Flame’ also has a lot going for it with an intriguing setting, a chilling end and a nice line in ‘horror in the 41st Millennium doesn’t just have to be evil all the time, the forces of good are pretty horrifying as well’. I think it was just a bit of a shame that with this other stuff in the background, it felt like too much of ‘Perdition’s Flame’ was about a stand-up fight with a zombie horde. And I like zombies, you know I do, it just felt like there was potential for this story to be a little more than it ended up being. Still a lot of fun to listen to though; there are definitely worse ways to spend a bus ride home from work ;o)
As a rule, I don’t tend to do too well with audiobooks that are hours long and just a narrator narrating. Black Library though, have a nice line in audiobooks that have a full cast, run for just over an hour and are full of immersive sound effects I thought I’d see how that worked with a couple of ‘Warhammer Horror’ tales…
In the midst of a vast gas nebula lies a remote watch-station, hanging silently against a tapestry of dying stars. It sits alone, patiently awaiting lost travellers adrift in the freezing vastness of the void. To such souls it appears as a blessing, a safe haven from the warp storms that wrack the immaterium and destroy the ships of those foolish enough to test the tides.
To Captain Arq and her crew, it is one thing - refuge. But things are never so simple.
I try not to play favourites but ‘The Way Out’ was my favourite of the two stories. I just loved the way that Harrison completely avoids any kind of explanation and just leaves the listener to fill in the gaps themselves, all while being freaked out by the unexplained happenings on the space station. There’s a real ‘inexplicable cosmic horror’ vibe here that captures the Warhammer 40K setting perfectly and it makes this ‘haunted house in space’ tale all the more effective for it. The unusually optimistic sounding Enginseer makes for a really jarring counterpoint to the rest of the party (which somehow makes things even more creepy) and I really got a lot out of how the ending of the tale has echoes of its beginning. There was no danger of my sleeping, on the bus, while this was playing :o)
'Perdition’s Flame’ – Alec Worley
The wind screams. The dark night is freezing. Vossk, a Vostroyan Firstborn, shrinks into a rock against a howl of memories. Having disgraced himself by deserting his post during a terrifying encounter, Vossk had resigned himself to penal servitude, though he's yearned for the chance to redeem himself. But in the 41st Millennium, such dreams are hollow when a man’s reality has been shaken to his core. Found in the shadows of a pitiless cave, Vossk relives his tale to his rescuer. But trauma stalks the weary, and in the face of an even greater horror, it grins at those whose courage has failed them once before…
‘The Way Out’ was the better listening experience, overall, but to be fair, ‘Perdition’s Flame’ also has a lot going for it with an intriguing setting, a chilling end and a nice line in ‘horror in the 41st Millennium doesn’t just have to be evil all the time, the forces of good are pretty horrifying as well’. I think it was just a bit of a shame that with this other stuff in the background, it felt like too much of ‘Perdition’s Flame’ was about a stand-up fight with a zombie horde. And I like zombies, you know I do, it just felt like there was potential for this story to be a little more than it ended up being. Still a lot of fun to listen to though; there are definitely worse ways to spend a bus ride home from work ;o)
Comments
Post a Comment