To Brave The End (Tales of the Blackshield Dogs 1)

To Brave The End (Tales of the Blackshield Dogs 1) by Frank Dorrian. A Blackshield Dogs novella, originally published by Impaled Monarch Publishing, February 2017. Approx. 142 pages.

On a recent meandering through Amazon searching for some good, dark reads, I came across The Shadow of the High King by Frank Dorrian. I was instantly intrigued: fantastic cover, loads of legit-sounding reviews, and what I read in the Look Inside sample was engaging, descriptive, and grim. Alas, I have not had time to budget to reading it just yet, but I also noticed something. Dorrian has a pair of novellas, which take place in the same world as High King. These novellas center around a mercenary group known as The Blackshield Dogs. I love good mercenary tales, so I figured; what better way to sample the work of this new (for me) author?

First, here's the blurb:

Many faces, many names, have passed through the ranks of the Blackshield Dogs. But few of them ever surpassed the bloody reputation of the man known and feared on Caermark's battlefields as Red Harry.

But before he was Red Harry, before he was anything, he was Harruvard of Werrewood, a man-at-arms sworn in service to Lord Gadrin Strael.

Injured and left for dead during a bitter conflict along Lord Gadrin’s borders, his life was saved by the kindness of a stranger. But as Harruvard's past refused to let him go, that same kindness soon would be stained red.

In the deep of winter, beneath creeping snows and biting ice, the black seeds of the monster Harruvard would become were sown by the hands of men, and nurtured by their cruelty.

Again, I went into this story not yet knowing the "Red Harry" of High King notoriety, so, I was introduced to the man in his former iteration of Harruvard, man-at-arms in the service of Lord Gadrin, and, at the point the story opens, a deserter with murderous soldiers and hounds on his tale.

Left for dead in an icy river, Harruvard is saved and nursed back to health by Daina, a widowed mother struggling to get by in Larkrun, a local logging town. Driven by her own innate kindness to assist Harry, Daina is still leery of his potential past baggage, and hesitant to allow her young son, Cenrid, to bond with him. The loss of a father to Lord Gadrin ill-planned gambits against fellow Lord Algar have left a huge vacuum in the boy's heart; and a potential father figure and competent soldier gives him two things to idolize. However, over the course of his convalescence, tensions ease, and the impromptu 'family' begins to form bonds.

Unfortunately, there are always obstacles. Every step Harry has to take is one where he must look over his shoulder, checking to see if his past has caught up to him yet. And before him lies the ugliest of small-town politics; the smarmy alderman who lords over his small demesne, bullying its residents. 

Well, I am loathe to engage in spoilers, but it isn't hard to venture a guess as to what transpires at the confluence of these various factors. Again, this is a fairly dark story.

So, how does it all stack up?

Well, the template of appearance of mysterious stranger/chipping through the tough woman's exterior to get to the gooey bits/bonding of a cool man with a sword and a boy who needs a father figure is not a new one by any means. But how many times have I reiterated that tropes are fine so long as the writing is good, the action is good, and/or the characters are compelling? Well, in To Brave The End, you get all three.

Dorrian's writing is, simply put, fantastic. His world-building is vibrant and harsh. You feel and hear the snow crunching under your feet. You suffer as your vitality is sucked away in the throes of the Sothorin River.

The characters; well, the main characters, are well done. They are flawed, they are hurting, and, in their own ways, they are fumbling desperately in the dark for the connection that they need. It lends to a palpable tension when you realize that, once the connections are made, a world such as this would never allow them to last.

Harruvard is a strong, sympathetic character. He carries the shame of being a deserter, although anyone in their right mind could see legitimate cause in the impetus of his egress. On top of that; he fights a constant battle to contain the voices which perennially jockey for control of his mind: Sorrow, Death, and The Thirst. It will be the Thirst which solidifies his legend as Red Harry.

Once we get to the antagonists, I won't say that they are one-note. They're not. But they are brutally irredeemable, making them frightfully effective in their work.

And finally, we have the action. Action scenes are simply wonderful here. They are brutal, bone-crunching, and real. There's no ballet. There's no gratuitous splatter. We get the urgent, violent clashes of those who've had everything stripped away and refuse to surrender what little bit of livelihood they have left. There's dirty, malicious fighting by men for whom killing is rote work solidified by years of practice. We get hardcore, one on one, duels to the death. And we also get grand spectacles of unrelenting violence.

There you have it. All in all, a great, quick read, and you can get it for only 99 cents over at Amazon. Highly recommended.

Cover:
While I love the gritty, grimy, realistic cover for Shadow of the High King, I must say, this trash polka inspired cover is really eye-catching.

Getting an awesome tale, with an awesome cover, for a rockbottom price, is always a good thing.

The Thirteenth Psalm

The Thirteenth Psalm by Peter Fehervari. A Warhammer 40K short story, originally appearing in Inferno! Vol. 2, originally published January 2019 by The Black Library. Approx. 42 pages.

HachiSnax Note: Happy New Year Everyone! Hope all of you out there reading this are doing well; and all the best to you in 2019! The first 3/4 of 2018 were pretty dead here on the blog, but I tried to get back into the rhythm of review writing at the tail end of the year and punch out some reviews.

Will the trend continue this year? Here's hoping so. What I can say is; I cannot imagine a better review to kick off the new year than one of a story written by personal fave author, as well as good friend, Peter Fehervari! This story, The Thirteenth Psalm, appears in the recently released Inferno! Vol. 2, by The Black Library. I love the idea of resurrecting the Inferno! brand; and seeing it used as a showcase for some new talent (pulled from the pool of 3500+ submissions to BL's open callout last year). Yes, Inferno! features a lot of authors I'm not crazy about, as well as a ~50% share of dreaded AoS stories, but, you can't have everything.

Alas, this means that I am picking this story out (for now) and reviewing it singly. If I ever go back and read all the other entries (doubtful), I'll add this review to that. Don't hold your collective breaths...

~Cheers, Hach.

August 2019 update: The Thirteenth Psalm has been given its standalone digital debut; buy it here. And check out the cover:

The Thirteenth Psalm, from Black Library's Inferno! Vol. 2, marks the most welcome return of the Angels Penitent, the morbid Chapter introduced to us (along with their original iteration, the Angels Resplendent) by Peter Fehervari in his profoundly deep, heart-wrenching story The Crown of Thorns.

Side note: This is for those who, perhaps, are reading a story by Fehervari for the first time. I mention this since part of the appeal of Inferno! is outreach to new readers. Peter Fehervari is, in my opinion, and in the opinion of many others, the finest, deepest, and darkest author in the Black Library stable. Throughout the course of his body of work, he has masterfully woven a bizarre, mind-twisting tapestry known as the "Dark Coil". Ergo, each of his stories are interwoven with all the others, and all contain both important bridges between them, as well as cryptic, nuanced strands and references. 

If you are going into this story as a first-timer, I'd highly recommend, at least, reading The Crown of Thorns first. That is your best primer for witnessing the fate of the Angels Resplendent, and the current state of the Angels Penitent. On a side note, a reading of the outstanding novella Fire & Ice will introduce you to the planet Oblazt, upon which the action in Thirteenth Psalm transpires. 

And now, back to the review proper.

Formerly unparalleled artisans and craftsmen, the brothers of the Angels Resplendent fell into brutal religious zealotry with the arrival of the Undying Martyr, a mysterious and terrifying figure who espoused a regime of piousness and penance. Reborn as the Angels Penitent, the brothers have adapted an iconoclastic stance - going to far as to dispatch teams to expunge the artifacts crafted in their 'former life' from points across the galaxy (their creations were highly sought after in days of old).

Heading up one particular team (Absolution Company) is Bjargo Rathana - a former Artisan Illuminant turned Chaplain Castigant (a member of the dreaded 'Crown of Thorns' - the brutal conclave of Chaplains which oversees the draconian tenets of the Angels Penitent with an iron hammer; errrr, crozius.

In The Thirteenth Psalm, Absolution Company is tasked with the censure of a particularly heinous artifact; a massive, magnificent mirror crafted by one of the most-esteemed (former) artisans. What causes their mission to be markedly more onerous is the fact that this artifact in particular is a prized piece in the the collection of an Oblazt aristocrat, one Konteza Esseker. Esseker's tastes run towards the baser pleasures; suffice to say her manse is named the 'Concupiscent Hearth' with very good reason.

Now, if you know 40K stories, then you can guess that those with carnal desires have usually brokered deals with carnal beings. And, if you know Fehervari, then you know that whenever a mirror appears, some dark, painful truths are bound to be revealed.

The Thirteenth Psalm is Fehervari in top form. As bizarre, deep, and twisting as it is, it is still remarkably accessible. Also, what helps it stand out is that it is, bar none, Fehervari's most outright 'horror' story (to be honest, I am extremely perplexed as to why Black Library did not place this under the umbrella of their fledgling 'Warhammer Horror' imprint; in my opinion this would have been a fantastic inaugural work for it).

So how do all the parts stack up?

Story:
As with most Fehervari stories, The Thirteenth Psalm unfolds via a nonlinear narrative. We open in front of the reviled mirror, as Rathana recounts the events of the mission to the double who stands before him.

The mission, of course, had been a rapid descent into madness, as Esseker's insidious presence hounded the stalwart Astartes from the moment they stepped foot in her cursed estate.

To say more would risk spoilers. This is a short story, and Fehervari, as always, makes every word count. In short, The Thirteenth Psalm is a true Warhammer 40K Space Marine haunted house story. To put it like that makes the premise seem ludicrously incongruous; yet through Fehervari's masterful writing, it is an effective and terrifying slice of horror.

Characters:
Exceptional. When dealing with Space Marines, an author has to be creative to accommodate their particular emotional palette. Fehervari works within these parameters, and still imbues his characters with gravitas, with passion, with despair. Always despair. Despair which knows no bounds; constrained by no falls, allowing emotional tumbles which are never rewarded with even the catharsis of hitting bottom.

The Angels Penitent walk the endless path of perennial contrition; their grim raison d'etre the search for absolution for their past 'transgressions'. Of course, simple censure will never remedy these vain crimes, as the pride upon which their passions were predicated remain a fixed smear upon their souls.

Of course, the Konteza, as well as her vile mirror, find fertile ground for manipulation within these troubled souls.

Action:
Fehervari has stated elsewhere that action is never the focal point of his stories. That may be true, but in each of his stories, the action, when and where it occurs, is always top-notch. I've stated before, Fehervari has a director's eye for orchestrating action setpieces, and the results are as brutal and ugly as one would expect of combat involving genetically-enhanced humans encased in ceramite armor, and wielding wicked weapons of mass destruction.

There is one blistering action scene at the climax of The Thirteenth Psalm. It is all things mentioned above; and the ramifications are disastrous for all involved. The descriptions of all that transpires in this scene are palpable, real, and terrifying.

Name Game:
One of the highlights of reading anything by Fehervari is connecting the dots between stories; as well as searching for hidden meanings (or outright Easter Eggs) behind character and place names.

The primary connection in The Thirteenth Psalm is, of course, the return to Oblazt. Oblazt is still, as we saw in Fire & Ice, in the throes of revolt as those who've opted to throw in their lot with the Greater Good are in the process of overthrowing their aristo overlords.

As for names, Fehervari chooses those, especially for the brothers of the Angels Penitent, which carry connotations of beauty as well as religious significance.

However, there is one 'name-string' which I found particularly well done; both meaningful and clever. It involves my absolute favorite character in the story, Brother-Redactor Anselm (the main reason why Anselm became a fast favorite should be absolutely no surprise at all 😁). Anselm, a beautiful name on its own (an Italian name which emerged from Germanic roots), means "with God's protection". However, it also links to to painter Anselm Kiefer, who created a profound piece named "The Hierarchy of the Angels", seen here:

...which is roughly the same size and shape of the mirror in the story. Also remember that a true "Hierarchy of Angels" stands before the mirror in the story, as we have Brothers, a Sergeant, and Bjargo, a Chaplain Castigant (the ruling faction in the Angels Penitent). Pretty cool, right?

There's a tad more. Taking Anselm's last name, Kiefer, we saunter over to Kiefer Sutherland, who starred in a movie called Mirrors, which featured a pivotal character named....Esseker.

See, not only do you get a fantastic story; you get bonus word games as well.

Get your copy of Inferno! Vol. 2. If for no other reason than to experience this story, do it. You won't be disappointed.

Here's What It Is:

Peter Fehervari finally gets to unleash his horror chops in a terrifying, atmospheric, emotional haunted house tale.

The fear is effective, keeping us peeking around every corner, pondering what horrors might lurk there. The terror becomes real when we realize the horrors have nested in our very souls.

Also, as with The Crown of Thorns, there is an oppressively pervasive sense of sorrow permeating throughout the narrative. Perhaps the true horror here is the prospect of art, of dreams, of beauty, lost forever, scorched away from the eternal annals of time.

Cover:
No real use in critiquing the cover, as it is for the Inferno! collection and not solely for the story. I personally like this picture though; it has a nice, classic flair to it. I think it ties in to Guy Haley's serialized installment story, but I'm not sure.

The reason I even mention this is because I knew this was being used as the UK cover, but Amazon US was floating this atrocity as the potential US cover:

And yes, I can read the "Cover not final" note. Just, and no offense to lovers of Sigmarines, I can't stand them, and my distaste begins firmly with their aesthetics.

So, cool cover. Great story. Take care, everyone!