“Gaunt’s Ghosts: The Saint”, by Dan Abnett

1024 pages, The Black Library, ISBN-13: 978-1844164790

Gaunt’s Ghosts: The Saint is an omnibus edition from the Black Library that collects four novels together: Honour Guard, The Guns of Tanith, Straight Silver and Sabbat Martyr. Dan Abnett is the writer that introduced me to the Warhammer 40K universe, and to this day he remains one of my favorite Black Library authors. This excellent compilation is a great example of why: his writing is detailed, infectious and action-packed; however you quantify it, this guy can really tell a cool military story and this value packed edition has four novels of the highest quality within. The Saint is actually the second collection of Gaunt’s Ghosts, the first being The Founding (reviewed on July 6th, 2020; you should start there if you haven’t already). It will only deepen your appreciation of some of the plot twists in this one if you are familiar with these characters already, although this book is easily understandable to the uninitiated. Any fan of war fiction or sci-fi in general will find a lot to love in this underappreciated gem.

This story arc was very well done, and Abnett realistically develops several characters – including Soric, Larkin, Milo and Rawne – and the series continues to flow well, moving from chaos-infected planet to chaos-infected planet. Gaunt himself takes more of a backseat, but that is alright due to the fact that he still gets face time in important parts. Now that we know of the Ghosts and their stealth and tracking abilities, it’s time to not only grow the characters, but also make better use of their unique abilities. Their missions become more specialized, much to Gaunt’s pleasure (and dismay). While Gaunt is no longer the focal point of this series of books, he’s still very much a presence and gets his share in, too; with that said, in most of the books in the second omnibus, the main character is just as interesting as their grim commander, so it all works out (I think).