C. Z. Dunn

Only one of the four stories here is any good, but that one is very good. Graham McNeill's The Reflection Crack'd is a pleasantly grotesque attempt to undo some lore that they obviously decided they didn't like, but did so in a way that was deeply uninteresting. Nick Kyme's Feat of Iron is unreadable bollocks, boring and confusing in equal doses. The Lion is a bit better but nothing interesting really happens. Finally Rob Sanders The Serpent Beneath is a great story hinting at a secret civil show more war within the Alpha Legion - one of the best bits of seeding theories within the stories of the whole Horus Heresy. show less

This is literally everything I could want from a Warhammer 40K story. There's actual criticism of all manner of aspects the Imperium, both called out by the protagonist and show in the text, some action, a fascinating and perfectly embodied named character, an Astartes being appropriately immense, inhuman, and unforgiving.

The hypocrisy and awfulness is the point. Way too much in GW and BL lionise the Space Marines and Imperium, but this shows things as ridiculous and awful as they are and in show more a fun and compelling way.

Truly the cherry on top of a very mixed Dark Angels Audio Collection. show less

Honestly, this is nearly all crap. What saves it are three absolute crackers: The Last Detail, The Trial of the Mantis Warriors, and Orphans of the Kraken. What is interesting is that the authors of these three stories never did anything else good for GW - indeed none of them did much at all for GW apart from these stories. On the other hand, all the other authors represented here did LOADS of other things for GW but their contributions here are stinkers. The best of the rest is Graham show more McNeill's Consequences, which is well written and well paced and far better than any of his actual novels starring the same characters. Nick Kyme. Mitchel Scanlan, Jonathan Green, Ben Clunter, James Swallow, and Aaron Dembski Bowden all produce stories that are so crap I couldn't read them. Dull, poorly plotted and/or paced, crappy dialect, all absolute crap. A good thing none of these guys are editor in chief at Black Library eh? Apart from the works I mentioned, avoid. show less

A Mixed Bag That Gets Progressively Better

Opens with two extremely average and unsatisfying shorts, followed by two slightly longer pieces that actually have some substance, and ends with a short that is just about the most perfect kind of 40K story, remembering that the Imperium aren't the good guys and that the Dark Angels' relationship with the Fallen is supposed to actually be interesting and heartbreaking, not just edgelord posturing.

Black Library audio work is almost always great and show more these are pretty fantastic. show less