‘Tatters of Hope’ – William Crowe (From ‘Veterans Of The Fall’ – Black Library)

 


Page Count: 120 Pages

I’ve been picking up the last few issues of ‘White Dwarf’ magazine to read the continuing adventures of Sergeant Elias Bain and his Cadian Shock Troopers. It was a great tale but if ‘Veterans of the Fall’ is anything to go by, I could have saved myself a few quid and waited for those adventures to be collected in book form. Oh well, like I said, it was a good read and there’s still something cool about having to wait a month to find out ‘what happens next’ ;o)

At the same time, there’s also something cool about having the whole story in one place and that’s what I had with ‘Tatters of Hope’. All five episodes collected in 'Veterans of the Fall', lined up and ready to go.

The ‘Tattershield’ Kasrkin troopers have taken down the Maligner but there are still plenty of Traitor Guard and Heretics who are ready to take his place and carry on the fight for the planet 04-Gavaine. The Tattershields, and supporting Anvil Battalion, are outnumbered and low on supplies but will fight until the very last to stop the planet falling to Chaos.

I’m not going to lie, ‘Tatters of Hope’ is very much ‘Tattershield’ x5 and that’s fair enough I guess; when you’re telling a story of unending war, there’s only so far you can take it before the same guns end up spitting the same bullets at an unending stream of the same faceless enemy. As the writer, the trick has to lie in getting the right mix of expanding on characterisation and making the inevitable pyrotechnics as eye catching as possible. It’s probably fair to say then that ‘Tatters of Hope’ is a novella where you know exactly what you’re going to get so you’ve got to be in just the right mood to pick it up. There are some surprises but the general thrust of the plot is only ever pointed in the one direction. And again, that’s the whole point really but, you know… ;o)

The good news, for me, is that Crowe does a great job of expanding on characters, that we’ve previously only had a glimpse of, and putting them in situations that absolutely gave me no choice but to keep reading. The outcome may not be in doubt but the payoff is that you have no idea who will be left standing when the gunfire (briefly) stops. It’s a trade-off that I was happy to make, albeit when I got to the end and a favourite of mine was still standing. At least for now, there’s one more novella to go. And the episodic nature of the tale really helps keep things moving along nicely; either through ominous rumblings of things to come, or full on cliff-hangers where ‘one more chapter’ becomes an absolute necessity.

No surprises then but wasn’t a dealbreaker for me. ‘Tatters of Hope’ delivers exactly what it needs to and as such, proved to be very effective at putting a little space between me and work. Couldn’t ask for more than that :o)

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