Book Review: Blood Reaver – Aaron Dembski Bowden.

Blood Reaver is part two of the Night Lords Trilogy, and it has taken me longer to read that I wanted it to. This is not because of the book being terrible, but because of my own time constraints.

I was more than happy to pick up the tale of Talos and ‘friends’ once more and find out about there misadventures. This time, they found themselves at the dubious mercy of Huron Blackheart and his cronies. I am not going into detail about the story itself because I want you to go and read it for yourselves. You should do so, and here is why.

Characters! In this novel there are some fresh, new character to get your teeth into and some old flames back to haunt us. Talos, First Claw and the rest of the Night Lords from the first book are back and in full flow. Bickering and sniping at one another to the point of becoming murderous continues to thrill the reader, but leaves enough room for empathy. Even the character of the Exalted – or Vandred as he was formerly known prior to his possession – offers some choice moments within the story. Added to the violent mix is Variel, an apothecary who belongs to the Red Corsairs, also known as The Flayer, is a new face who is chillingly great. His cold, ruthless and detatched demeanour only adds to the story and the role he plays leaves the reader guessing to the very end.

Alongside the Space Marines is the mortal crew. The new additions are a brilliant foil for those that already exist and the development of the interwoven relationships between them all is well written and feels natural, rather than forced.

As always, ADB’s writing is a delight to read. I am not usually a fan of reading void combat, however the end of this novel, which featured such had me gripped and reading until the small hours just to find out what happened and who survived. Those that did not survive had my eyes prickling. That I was able to connect to the humblest of characters within the novel says a great deal about how the book is put together. The action pacing is perfect, making me need to know what happened.

Go and read this novel, it is a whirlwind and worthy of your time!