Up till now, Dan Abnett's Prospero Burns was my high-water mark for 30k/40k ficiton. Soul Hunter is really good. It may even better than Prospero Burns and I'm a Space Wolves fan.

In a sense, Dembski-Bowden pulls of a Soprano's maneuver with Talos and the Night Lords. You know they're the bad guys, but inch by inch you get pulled into seeing the Imperium and the long war through their crimson lenses. It's not just Octavia who's on their side by the final chapter.

It's a really clever bit of writing. Especially in regards to CSM politics. They could easily be slavering morons, but even Abaddon is depicted with more nuance than you'd expect. The Exalted in particular--well I really didn't see his arc coming to be honest. ( )

Listen to audio narrated by Andrew Wincot.

I finished this book wondering how the heck I was going to right a review. It took me a couple weeks to finish because I kept stopping to read something else. It's dark and gritty, with lots of bloody battles. I often enjoy that type of book but I couldn't connect with the characters or the story. The only character I liked was the slave Septimus. Over and over I kept asking myself where is this going? what's the point? How can these guys be immortal if they are dying right and left. Not really getting the point of fighting for over 10,000 years.

It felt like lots of bits and pieces of a story smashed together. There's chunks of fighting, chunks of history telling, more fighting between outside forces and between themselves, and an ending that didn't seem to resolve anything or I was just too dense to get it. I've seen a lot of rave reviews for this book and I don't get it.

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This is the book that encouraged me to become an author. I love Aaron's twisted sense of humour, cinematic style of writing, and want fantastic characterisation; so I wanted to try it myself. Each character, even the 'walk-on's', have some fantastic lines and interactions. Each one feels like a true individual, worth remembering even if they are slain mire pages later. The story is exceptionally well crafted and pulls you in to the better end. The descriptions of the Night Lords themselves in particular bare mentioning; these twisted super men who, despite their vile acts of death and torture, you find yourself rooting for. A fantastic, gritty and at time's darkly humourous read. ( )