‘Ravenor’ – Dan Abnett (Black Library)

 

Page Count: 412 Pages

I actually have a copy of the ‘Ravenor Omnibus’ but the size of it makes it a little impractical for ‘commuter reading’, or any kind of reading that doesn’t involve a comfy chair and a free afternoon. I’m working on that by the way (the comfy chair, not the free afternoon, I have too many of those…)
Where was I…? Oh, yes :o) The omnibus isn’t a book to be lugged around, in my bag, so when I happened upon a copy of ‘Ravenor, it very swiftly became my ‘commute reading’ and… Here we are ;o)

I’ve needed to give my reading a little ‘jump-start’, just recently, and some ‘Warhammer 40K’ is always a good place to start. I’ll be honest, for large chunks of this read, I wondered if I should have picked another book but ultimately, it was worth the read.

The storming tale of Inquisitor Gideon Ravenor and his band of lethal operatives conveys the grim far future from the ground level up as they investigate the trafficking of a dangerous substance within the Imperium. With their investigations taking them from highly polluted planets and freakish carnivals to lawless frontier spaceports, their deadly quarry is always a step ahead…

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war. But it’s not just on the front lines… Far away from ravenous Tyranids and rampaging Orks, the Imperial Inquisition wages its own war against the Imperium’s unwitting, and only too aware, citizens who would bring down the Empire from within. It’s ‘Private Eye Stuff’ but on a galactic scale and with far more weaponry. And Dan Abnett proved himself to be the master of this particular part of the setting with his tales of Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn. Ravenor was Eisnehorn’s protégé and is now an Inquisitor in his own right; albeit horribly disfigured and confined to a mobile life support system. And that’s where we find him and his band, tidying up some loose ends and moving on to another case that could have far reaching implications. Okay, it’s definitely going to have far reaching implications ;o)

If you’ve read the ‘Eisenhorn’ books, you’d be approaching ‘Ravenor’ with a heady dose of anticipation at the prospect of more of the same. I was :o) That’s why I was a little disappointed then to find a book that, initially at least, felt like it was trying to be too clever with the number of false leads that it set up. That’s a matter of personal taste, I know, and any good detective tale needs a few false trails to get lost in. For me though, something a little more direct would have gone down more smoothly. That’s just me, your mileage will vary.

What I also struggled with was trying to get a sense of the backdrop that events were playing out against. In one sense, Abnett does an amazing job of conveying just how labrynthine the Hives, of the Imperium, are. There isn’t a lot that’s more bleak than being taken on a tour and thinking what it must be like to actually live in a Hive City. From where I was sat though, the plot was swamped by just how vast these places are. Does a chase need to take place across three Hive districts when it can be shown, just as effectively, over one? Again, that’s a matter of personal taste but from where I was sat…? It felt like Abnett got into it more than he needed to.

I stuck it out though and, as it turned out, didn’t regret it in the end.

When all the dead-ends, and needless scenery etc, have been taken out of the picture, what you have is a very solid detective story that loves to hide its secrets in plain sight and still surprise you with the ‘reveal’, either at the end of certain sub-plots or over the course of a finale that absolutely blind-sided me (and had a lot to say about the state of the Imperium, all at the same time). And it is populated with a cast of characters that I was either pleased to see again or more than happy to get to know properly. Or both at the same time… I’m thinking about Gideon Ravenor himself, sworn to protect an Imperium that he can only interact with on a psychic level. If he loses that ability, and it does happen to him, the sense of immediate disconnect is profound. I’m looking forward to seeing more of Ravenor as this series continues.

‘Ravenor’ was a tough nut to crack then (for me, anyway) but was worth sticking with. I’m hoping that the next two books are a little more accessible, we’ll see...