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

 

944 pages, The Black Library, ISBN-13: 978-1784966744 

Gaunt’s Ghosts: The Lost is an omnibus edition from the Black Library that collects five novels together: Traitor General, His Last Command, The Armour of Contempt, Only in Death and The Iron Star. Impressive as ever, Abnett’s talent in capturing the life essences of the Tanith First-and-Only makes me relish each time reading it, as if the reader is part of the regiment itself. You grieve for their sake and celebrate their triumph over monstrous enemies. This is probably the darkest that the Ghosts tales have ever gotten (at least, for now), and even if you can’t love that, you can certainly respect such a bold and unforgiving choice (in fact, one character in particular seems to completely disappear but will, I suspect, reemerge at some point in a future Gaunt story, or maybe in a different series altogether). I can’t help but respect an author who dares to make final and irreversibly consequential decisions concerning his characters, and I think it’s safe to say that pretty much everyone is changed by the events in these four books.

Abnett paints visceral pictures of a far flung future in which there is only war, and he never leaves any doubt as to the brutality of war; the pages damn near turn themselves as you push yourself to read faster just so that you can read more. Seriously, Abnett is very detail-oriented and injects so much action into his writing that I cannot put his books down – I literally spend nights reading until I finish the book and, thus, screw up my sleep patterns but, hey, what the hell? Abnett’s amazing job of balancing detailed descriptions as not to over exaggerate or make things dull and cheesy. Perhaps the best author Black Library has, and I look forward to reading the last chapter in the Ghosts series, with The Victory parts 1 and 2. If you’re a fan of Sci-fi or Warhammer 40k, the Gaunt’s Ghosts series is up your ally; an epic tale if there ever was one and a fantastic conclusion (for now) for the Tanith First-And-Only.