“The Grey Knights Omnibus”, by Ben Counter

768 pages, The Black Library, ISBN-13: 978-1844166961

Okay, full disclosure: I did not read The Grey Knights Omnibus by Ben Counter, but rather each of the individual novels – I just thought it would save time to review all the works at once in this fashion. I’m sure you approve. Set during the events of Abaddon the Despoiler’s Thirteenth Black Crusade, the Grey Knights trilogy records the various righteous exploits of the Grey Knights chapter and its counter-daemon operations under the supervision of the Ordo Malleus. While its primary protagonist is Justicar Alaric, many of its characters are drawn from the ranks of the Daemonhunters and the Inquisition (and if you have no idea what I’m talking about, just move right along to the next review). Grey Knights is the first novel in the Grey Knights series, published in 2004. Confronted by a Daemonic infestation of extraordinary magnitude led by the powerful daemon Ghargatuloth, the Inquisitors of the Ordo Malleus are forced to call in the Justicar Alaric and his Grey Knights, with their psychically charged force weapons, storm bolters and fierce loyalty to the Emperor of Mankind, to help deal with the situation. Dark Adeptus is the second novel in the Grey Knights series, published in 2006. The book once again features Justicar Alaric, the Grey Knight who banished Ghargatuloth back into the warp last time; THIS time the story goes to Chaeronia, a forge world that has disappeared for a century, only to come out of the warp in the middle of a new system disrupting the planetary alignments. The Grey Knights are called upon to investigate. What they find there is something…Chaotic. Hammer of Daemons is the third novel in the Grey Knights series, published in 2008. In this novel Justicar Alaric is captured by the forces of chaos and taken to the Daemon world of Draakasi where he is forced to fight in gladiatorial games dedicated to Khorne. His only hope is to find the legendary Hammer of Daemons. Along the way he must combat mutants, xenos, Warriors of Chaos and the terrible Duke Venalitor, he will also be forced to team up with some unlikely allies in his quest to return to the Imperium and his Battle Brothers. Whether you are an avid Warhammer 40K fan or not, these books will leave you satiated; the action is relentless, the characters are complex, and the stories are extremely developed.