He has had a number of successful books for The Black Library, a Games Workshop publishing house that specializes in books based on their tabletop gaming products (Warhammer / Warhammer 40k).
Of the writers for The Black Library he is one of my two favorites (the other being Bill King) and his Eisenhorn and Gaunts Ghosts series are by far the best of the product offering there if you ask me.
So it was with a level of excitement that I found Embedded, a book written outside of the Warhammer universe.
 |
| Dan Abnett. Not Warhammer. Awesome. Bad ass cover too. |
Embedded is a military science fiction book set in a future where colonization of worlds by the human race has become fairly common place. Mega corporations manage the process, and two major governments rule the stars: the United Status or the Central Bloc.
There is a Cold War feel to the whole United Status vs Central Bloc relationship in the book, which some may not like as it is a little dated. The Central Bloc settlers, as well as their military, certainly seem to have a very Soviet feel about them. Personally I liked this as part of the atmosphere - and it offset the very capitalist and marketing driven feel of the United Status (early on in the book you find out that a cola company has even paid to have people "chipped" so that they will say Freek (the brand) rather than swearing...) to provide a sort of alien menace.
The main character in the book is Lex Falk, a jaded and ageing journalist who has come to the as yet unnamed Planet 86 to investigate and report on what appears to be a small conflict involving rebel settlers.
When Lex arrives on the planet he gets fed the usual dribble that journalists in this futuristic world are fed including being taken out to see the "wall with bullet holes" like every other journalist.
The beginning of the book is a bit slow, however, it does build quite a bit of atmosphere.
In fact the first part of the book reminded me quite a bit of the movie War Inc. starring John Cusack - a movie where journalists are "embedded" with soldiers by going into a cinema and watching a VR movie. They aren't really investigating anything but just being fed what the military wants them to see and report on.
Of course not all is as it seems on Planet 86 and Lex Falk is too experienced to simply take the company line. He begins his own investigations and eventually a contact gets him enrolled in a secret program to actually embed the consciousness of a journalist in the mind of a soldier - in this case the much younger soldier Nestor Bloom.
Once that occurs the book speeds up rapidly as Nestor and his squad mates are dropped into action and Lex goes along for the ride.
While this is military science fiction and Dan Abnett is excellent at writing combat scenes Embedded is a much better read than most other books in the genre. Its definitely not all hardware descriptions and Pew Pew Pew action - the characters, especially Lex Falk, develop over time and the story itself is quite interesting.
In fact at the beginning of the book I remember thinking Lex Falk is cool, but what a dick. He was so jaded and ready to use everyone he came across to further his own ends. Towards the end he had grown, and grown on me. I liked the guy, and felt like he had become something more - like being embedded had given him something to believe in.
All in all a very good book and I really hope there is more of this type of work out of Dan Abnett.
(If you are interested in the Warhammer 40k books check them out at the Black Library. Its almost pure military science fiction / fantasy but Abnett's work is definitely still a good read.)
No comments:
Post a Comment