Reading Lamp

Review: Damocles by Various

This one was a difficult book for me to finish. The review may be a bit more on the rant-y side, but you'll see why.
Please note that the book will be re-released as a paperback early 2015, as part of the Space Marine Battles series.

The Story:

"Two centuries ago, the Imperium of Man and the upstart Tau Empire fought to a standstill in the Damocles Gulf. Now, as the 41st millennium draws to a close, the tau have returned. As the world of Agrellan falls under attack, the White Scars and Raven Guard rush to its defence, but with the skilled Commander Shadowsun leading the alien forces, the Space Marines and their allies are hard pressed. Kor’sarro Khan, Huntmaster of the White Scars, swears that he will win the day in the most direct way possible – by taking Shadowsun’s head.

Gathered within this volume are four novellas that focus on the events of the second Damocles Gulf Crusade. This book contains:
Blood Oath by Phil Kelly
Broken Sword by Guy Haley
Black Leviathan by Ben Counter
Hunter’s Snare by Josh Reynolds"

The Review

I'd be lying if I'd tell you Damocles was an easy read. It most assuredly was not, at least to me.

I started reading this anthology back in April, and it took me until late July to finish. Why, you ask? The easiest way to answer that would be to point towards the first of the four stories in this anthology.

Blood Oath by Phil Kelly

I absolutely could not enjoy this one. It made the White Scars feel flat, unlikeable, and even the focus on O'Shaserra, the famous Commander Shadowsun of the Tau Empire, could not fix the lack of substance in this novella.

Where Kor'sarro Khan felt often incompetent and out of character, especially when clashing with the other imperial forces on Agrellan (including Colonel "Iron Hand" Straken of the Catachan Devils and the head of a house of Imperial Knights), Shadowsun came across as a cliched female warrior who neither could not get over her old rival O'Shovah, Commander Farsight, nor get the respect of her subordinates. Even her shield/combat drones seemed disrespectful towards her, and the stealth team attached to her seemed badly misplaced. Her mutterings about Farsight felt especially jarring, as they occured way too often. If a scene centered on Shadowsun, you could bet she'd bring up "the traitor Shoh" again.

I did like the portrayal of Aun'Va, however. He came across as a prick, an arrogant self-aggrandizing prophet. It suited him.
Colonel Straken, who I have a soft spot for, was completely underwhelming in Blood Oath. He had a few lines of dialogue, and even those were mostly about telling Kor'sarro Khan off.

Overall, however, there was not much to gain from this story outside of fairly shallow action. On various occassions the story felt like bad marketing for Games Workshop's expensive, then-new Imperial Knight kit and the Tau Riptide. Yes, they're impressive warmachines, I get it, but this story felt like it was fawning over them way too much.
I did enjoy the Tau's coordinated strikes to bring down most Hives on Agrellan within hours, but those scenes were over so quickly, I felt disappointed overall.

Blood Oath felt wrong, and it is by far the weakest story in this collection. That I score Damocles at 4 stars is testament to how much I enjoyed the other stories by comparison.

Broken Sword by Guy Haley

Ah, Guy Haley. It won't be news to you that I adore his novels. He writes some of the best non-human characters out there, whether it be greenskins, eldar, artificial intelligences or, in this case, Tau.
Broken Sword is a totally different story from Blood Oath - and not just in terms of quality. It goes under the hood of Tau society, the indoctrination of humans into the Greater Good, and as such offers Guy Haley a lot of room to show off his skills at constructing the Tau as an advanced species, and an intergalactic empire.

Unlike Blood Oath, which depicted the Tau as ruthless conquerors and usurpers of mankind's right to rule the stars, Broken Sword depicts them as liberators, offering freedom to the oppressed people of the fringe worlds between Imperium and Tau Empire, and the kind of life they never knew was possible.

The main protagonist is one such man who joined the Tau'va, believing it superior to the imperial rule and embracing it fully. The story is, for the most part, presented as the protagonist's retelling of the events, which offers further commentary in retrospect. We follow him through certain points of the war for Agrellan, and see him forge bonds of friendship with a member of the Tau Water Caste, their diplomats. This offers a fairly unique spin on the Tau Empire topic, and I enjoyed it greatly.

On the other hand, we have the Raven Guard attempting to capture said Water Caste Tau, which is also told in an interesting fashion. The action in the story is rather light, and more akin to skirmishes with few Space Marines, rather than the large scale warfare seen in the first story. This is, in my opinion, a plus.

Overall I'd say this is my favorite story of the bunch. It offered plenty of insight as well as twists and turns, and kept me engaged as a reader.

Black Leviathan by Ben Counter

I struggled a bit with this story. It takes the war for Damocles from Agrellan to a neighboring world, which, until the Imperium's arrival, had been inhabited by nomad-savages.

The descendants of these tribes reject the Imperium's claim for the world, and ally with the Tau to rid themselves of their overlords and return to the good old ways.
Set to prevent the Tau from overtaking the planet are a squad of Ultramarines led by a Captain I've never heard of, and another squad of Jade Dragons, a Chapter created for this story.

While I did not quite like the Ultramarines in this story, the Jade Dragons made for an interesting story. Ben Counter did a fine job characterizing his new Chapter, lending them both their own traditions as well as superstitions, which both play into the overall story. They also give the two very different Chapters reason to mistrust one another, and rather than cooperate clash on various occassions.

On the Tau side, we see yet another Water Caste member who is busy spinning a net of subterfuge and traps around the Space Marines. This Tau made for a very good antagonist, even though direct confrontations were avoided. He played both the Space Marines, the Tribes and the general population as well as his own Tau Fire Warriors like pawns on a chess board.

Black Leviathan is a story about subterfuge, mistrust and good intentions that carve the way for bad results. It was more of a political tale than an action piece, but the bolter action pieces did not disappoint either.
A second good story in this collection.

Hunter's Snare by Josh Reynolds

This final story by Josh Reynolds of Warhammer Fantasy fame goes back to Agrellan and the White Scars, forming a sequel to Phil Kelly's Blood Oath. Thankfully, Josh managed to set things right and return the White Scars back where they belong: In the saddles of their bikes, laughing while they kill their Tau enemies.

Hunter's Snare is, at its core, a deadly dance between two very different yet so alike hunters - Kor'sarro Khan and Commander Shadowsun. After the events of Blood Oath, Kor'sarro returns to hunt down the Tau Commander, and the two characters dance a dangerous waltz of feints and snares.

Kor'sarro is back to the way I enjoy reading about him - a passionate, dedicated huntsmaster who does not lack humor and finds respect for a worthy enemy. I would also say that Josh Reynolds is a great pick for writing White Scars - he understands their character, and manages to put good humor into their mouths.

Unlike the first story, Shadowsun and the Tau are taking the backseat in Hunter's Snare. They do appear as antagonists, catching the Scars off-guard on various occassions, but we do not get an insight into them the way we did in previous stories. This works well for the story, and I enjoyed the focus on the Khan and his brothers.

I'd also like to point out that there are various nods to characters from Chris Wraight's Horus Heresy novel Scars, which I appreciated greatly.

Josh Reynolds, in my opinion, is an excellent writer with a sure hand when it comes to writing and placing humor. His characters, whether it be Gotrek and Felix from The Serpent Queen, the whole cast of Bernheimer's Gun or the protagonists of his original novel The Whitechapel Demon, all come across as interesting people, and manage to make me chuckle rather frequently. Most importantly, the humor always seems to fit the story's context, and Josh knows when to be serious instead.
I like this skill, and am looking forward to reading more of his stories, with The Whitechapel Demon being on my current reading pile.

All in all, Damocles is not a bad anthology. It actually was a fairly good read once I got past the initial disappointment, or even distaste, for Phil Kelly's contribution to the book.
The biggest flaw of the whole collection is that it frontloaded the worst it had to offer, making me put the whole thing down countless times, over the course of many weeks. If I had known how much I would like the other offerings, I would have forced myself to finish Blood Oath sooner.

Be that as it may, I would definitely recommend picking this anthology up early next year, when it gets re-released as part of the Space Marine Battles series - the paperback is already announced. Though I do disagree on this being a SMB candidate, considering that it is most assuredly a Tau collection.
But I digress.

A big thanks to Guy Haley, Ben Counter and Josh Reynolds for turning my initial distaste for Damocles into a good experience.

Damocles on Goodreads

Review: Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan

I have been intrigued by Promise of Blood ever since I saw the cover art. It was far from the typical fantasy style, showing a character more based in a real historical era, which I very much appreciate. The quotes about overthrowing the monarchy sealed the deal that I had to check this out.

The Story:

"The Age of Kings is dead . . . and I have killed it.

It's a bloody business overthrowing a king...
Field Marshal Tamas' coup against his king sent corrupt aristocrats to the guillotine and brought bread to the starving. But it also provoked war with the Nine Nations, internal attacks by royalist fanatics, and the greedy to scramble for money and power by Tamas's supposed allies: the Church, workers unions, and mercenary forces.
Stretched to his limit, Tamas is relying heavily on his few remaining powder mages, including the embittered Taniel, a brilliant marksman who also happens to be his estranged son, and Adamat, a retired police inspector whose loyalty is being tested by blackmail.
But when gods are involved...
Now, as attacks batter them from within and without, the credulous are whispering about omens of death and destruction. Just old peasant legends about the gods waking to walk the earth. No modern educated man believes that sort of thing. But they should...
In a rich, distinctive world that mixes magic with technology, who could stand against mages that control gunpowder and bullets? PROMISE OF BLOOD is the start of a new epic fantasy series from Brian McClellan."

The Review

I went in expecting a revolution of sorts, a coup d'état, combined with court intrigue and civil war. Promise of Blood explored all of these things, and much more on top. Industry, worker unions, external pressure, even family relations and grief - and of course magic - played a role in this novel, and I loved it.

From the first chapter on, I was caught up in a scenario bigger than a single novel could encompass, so I am glad this was planned as a trilogy - with more short stories, novellas and further novels to expand the setting. The setting was very nicely described and explained throughout the book, and while there are still a lot of questions, mysteries and unknown factors, I never felt lost in this fantasy world. It felt coherent, logical and realistic, with lots of promise.

Despite the sheer scale of the conflict, however, the point of view characters, Field Marshal Tamas, his estranged son Taniel and inspector Adamat, along with a very strong cast of supporting figures, did a hell of a job getting the reader into the nitty-gritty of the revolution.

Tamas, as the de facto leader of the coup, presented the hardships of keeping the country of Adro together and the people satisfied, balancing personal feelings of vengeance with the population's needs. He is also the man in charge of the army, and has to make difficult decisions throughout the novel, putting himself into danger for what he believes is right. He is a hard man with an adamant will, but that is not all there is to this very compelling main character.

His son Taniel, in contrast, is full of doubt. His problems pile up to high heaven, ranging from his relationships with various characters to disdain for his own father, and drug problems. He still is a strong character the reader wants to see succeed and overcome his troubles.

While Tamas and Taniel don't share all that much time together in the book, the scenes they do interact in all have a certain amount of power, and their dynamic as father and son casts shadows up until the epilogue. While the story certainly is about revolution and the fall of the monarchy, it does not forget the human factor at any point.

Lastly, inspector Adamat offers more in-depth looks into the workings of the new council. His job is to root out a traitor among their midst, which gets him into danger on various occassions. It also serves to elaborate on the country's inner workings and politics. His plotline feels very much like a detective story, and a strong one at that. It opens questions and gives answers in equal measure, feeding the reader more and more information about the setting.
Adamat is the most important link between plotlines and characters, but he also shoulders his own history and troubles.

The supernatural aspects of the story, mainly mythology, religious aspects and magic, were all handled well. There was one concept I wasn't so sure about when it appeared, but by the end of the story, I was in love with it, and now cannot wait to see what is going to happen next on that front. Most importantly, the supernatural side is consistent in itself, and while not fully explored yet, the reader gets a solid understanding of the basic rules.

Magic in the Powder Mage world is a complex topic. Firstly, there are two basic major types of mages that are in conflict with each other, prejudices and all: The title-giving Powder Mages and the Privileged.
Then there are the knacked, which happen to possess strange, abnormal traits, like the inability to forget things, or not needing sleep.

Where the privileged can be seen as your usual magic users with their elemental spells and powers that defy comprehension, powder mages draw their powers from gunpowder, manipulate bullets mid-flight, and consume black powder to enhance their own physical abilities for a time. Both types possess the third eye, which allows them to recognize magic in the world, if they actively open it.
Both sides also have their individual weaknesses and requirements for their magic to work - which I will not elaborate on.

Seeing that conflict exists not only on a political level, but also between beliefs, magic users and families, made me happy as a reader. It served to keep every aspect of the book interesting, and opened the doors to conflicts of interest on various occassions.
It also made it very clear how difficult it is for Tamas to stay in control of the situation, and put pressure on him, as a powder mage, father and military genius with a relatively short temper - which is sorely tested when the rival country of Kez gets involved.

The novel stayed tense from start to finish, a powder keg ready to explode at any time, and for that I personally thank Brian McClellan.
The alternating points of view served the story very well, keeping me, as the reader, second guessing and expanding my own knowledge at a satisfying pace. I actually cared about the characters and their friends. I shared Taniel's confusion, Adamat's fear for his family, Tamas's hatred for the murderer of his wife, and his ambition of raising his home country beyond the need for petty monarchs.

Promise of Blood kept me up at night. The book kept me hoping for the best, while fearing for the worst. It was a thoroughly exciting experience, which I will be sure to expand on by reading the sequels and spin-off stories. It opens up a fantastic new, imaginative world full of promise for not just blood, but also greatness.

Promise of Blood is an amazing debut novel, and you would be foolish not to give it a try.

I have already started on The Crimson Campaign, as a matter of fact, and read most of the short stories, which deepened my understanding of setting and characters greatly. I recommend giving all of the Powder Mage stories a try. You will not regret it.

Promise of Blood on Goodreads

Review: All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka

All You Need Is Kill, recently adapted as a movie under the title Edge of Tomorrow (and subsequently also re-released as a movie tie-in version, featuring the new title, urgh!), is a fast-paced sci-fi action novel. It uses common tropes, chief among them the time-loop and mankind fighting a losing battle against alien invaders, to craft a well-balanced narrative that is a joy to breeze through.

The Story:

"There’s one thing worse than dying. It’s coming back to do it again and again… When the alien Gitai invade, Keiji Kiriya is just one of many raw recruits shoved into a suit of battle armor and sent out to kill. Keiji dies on the battlefield, only to find himself reborn each morning to fight and die again and again. On the 158th iteration though, he sees something different, something out of place: the female soldier known as the Bitch of War. Is the Bitch the key to Keiji’s escape, or to his final death?"

The Review

Hiroshi Sakurazaka has written a grim story. Main character Kiriya Keiji is stuck in an unending nightmare of war and death. Where other people would break, however, Keiji is determined to break out of his personal hell and pay those alien invaders back for all the pain they inflict on him and his comrades. Reliving the same two days countless times, he struggles, learns, adapts and kills.

Refreshingly, AYNIK is not just about the terror of war, but also offers a fairly human angle. Keiji's comrades are, while stereotypical, well-considered for such a short light novel, and I was invested in the fates of Sergeant Ferrell, Yonabaru, cafeteria-girl Rachel, Shasta Raylle and, of course, the Full Metal Bitch, Rita Vrataski. It also never forgets to balance all the bad events with a bucket-load of humor (or Umeboshi :p). This benefits the book immensely!

While the novel's characters are for the most part male, the war hero Rita Vrataski takes a central role in the story, becoming Keiji's point of focus, with her bright-red Jacket battlesuit. Rita felt well-explored in the novel, and I enjoyed reading her interact with the various characters. One of the four overarching chapters of the novel specifically delivers Rita's perspective, and brings understanding of the Valkyrie. I liked this part a lot.

Needless to say, the action parts of the story are fairly exaggerated, as is standard-fare for most Anime/Manga-like stories. However, within the context of the story and technology, it never turned me off, or felt too exaggerated to be enjoyable.

All You Need Is Kill is not a particularly deep read. It is an action flick full of humor, growth and even romance. It is a blink into a possible future (one that I don't even find too far-fetched, as far as technology goes) where mankind struggles to survive against a completely alien foe. It is a tried and true concept, and one I enjoyed here.

I can clearly see why the movie adaption Edge of Tomorrow was so well-received. The novel lends itself exceptionally well to the movie format. That being said, I am looking forward to the Bluray release of the movie, to experience this story all over again.
All You Need Is Kill is an experience I wouldn't mind repeating.

All You Need Is Kill on Goodreads

Review: Mortarion's Heart by L J Goulding

I apologize if this review is a bit lengthy and referencing other works in the franchise; my perspective is certainly based on being a long-time fan of the lore, and I feel that it will be most valuable to people already well-invested in the background material. As a newcomer to the franchise, please walk away and start elsewhere.

The Story:

"The daemon prince Mortarion has emerged from the Eye of Terror at the head of a vast plague-horde, intent upon the corruption of the Imperium he once served. Under Supreme Grand Master Geronitan, the Grey Knights finally meet the daemon army in battle on the plains of Kornovin – a mobilisation of the Chapter the likes of which few have ever seen. Kaldor Draigo and his fellow brotherhood masters lead from the front, trusting to their lord’s secretive plan... until Geronitan is unexpectedly struck down by the Death Lord. With the eyes of the Inquisition upon them and the arcane path of destiny broken forever, the Grey Knights must cast aside thoughts of anything so petty as revenge. The Supreme Grand Master’s successor must be named, or all may be lost."

The Review

Mortarion's Heart has been a hotly debated topic ever since the story surrounding it had been introduced in the 5th Edition Codex: Grey Knights, back in April 2011. The short new piece of lore involving Primarch Mortarion and newcomer Kaldor Draigo was deemed inplausible, unworthy of being considered canon to the Warhammer 40,000 lore.
I can understand the fans' outcry, for Kaldor Draigo's new history appeared nothing if not over the top; a wishlist of deeds added to a new character, who I often saw described as a silly Mary Sue.

Among other tales of glory, Draigo was told to have beaten the Daemon Prince M'kar the Reborn (featured in Graham McNeill's The Chapters Due and his novella "Calth That Was" and Dan Abnett's "Unmarked" from the Mark of Calth Horus Heresy anthology) in single combat, repeating the feat centuries later. In the meantime, he also became the Supreme Grand Master of his Chapter, and carved the name of his predecessor into the Primarch Mortarion's heart. Nowadays he is travelling through dimensions and kicks mighty daemon butt in a realm outside of real time and space, saving his kin whenever necessary.

Many just considered it "fan-wanking" by the Codex's author, and I will not blame them, for a new character to the lore to make such an amount of buzz, defeating the big archenemies left and right, must certainly rustle some jimmies among fans.

With that context in mind, I was both excited and fearful of this release; it has been quite some time in the making, having been announced at the Black Library Weekender 2012.
Of course I hoped that L J Goulding, being one of Black Library's Editors and Loremasters, would take the tidbits of lore surrounding Kaldor Draigo and craft them into something more plausible, less ridiculous, and overall satisfying that fits into the universe.

Having listened to the audio drama twice since yesterday, I can confirm that, in my eyes and ears, Goulding has succeeded in delivering a story that easily beats what expectations I had, and may be even better than what I had hoped to receive.
Mortarion's Heart goes all-in on this piece of new lore. It shows the death of one Supreme Grand Master, the election of another and the victory of the latter. It roots itself into the background by referencing a lot of other works, including the Horus Heresy series. It even hints at future HH revelations, making me eager to learn more of specific side-plots of the long-running series.

Without spoiling the plot of the audio drama, I can tell you that the actual act of humbling Mortarion is not the single focus of the work. It is the character of Kaldor Draigo who, unsurprisingly, is the star of the drama; we get to hear how he ascended to the rank of Supreme Grand Master, and what aided his duel with the Death Lord.

As told by the Codex it would appear that Draigo, on his very own, crushed a whole force of daemons before banishing the Daemon Primarch - this is not what actually happens according to this audio drama. It was not as simple as that. While not physically aided in his task, Kaldor Draigo received other means of help from his fellow Grand Masters - all of which feature in the drama.

Above all, however, Mortarion's Heart makes sense of an odd and unexplained bit of lore. It turns the glory-tale of Kaldor Draigo into a relatable, believable thing, at least in context of the franchise. The humbling of the monstrous Primarch is not depicted as a one-sided battle, but as a struggle Draigo was fully equipped to subject himself to and stand a chance.

All of this is also presented by a big cast of voice actors, all of which did a fantastic job bringing life to the setting and characters. While I was not immediately convinced by the deep, rumbling (and a bit cliched) voice for Mortarion himself, it grew on me, as did Draigo's. The audio production was, once again, top notch, with a lot of sound effects throughout. Mortarion's Heart is a high quality product, continuing the upwards trend of Black Library's audio dramas.

I salute Laurie Goulding for turning this drama into a gem. He added a lot of nuance to a bland piece of writing, without contradicting the source material. Fans of Kaldor will still find a heroic tale, whereas disgruntled fans should be put more at ease through this work.
Considering Goulding also wrote an micro eShort for the Black Library Advent Calendar 2013, Kaldor Draigo: Knight of Titan, I hope to read more in the future.

Both C.Z. Dunn's Pandorax and L J Goulding's recent work have turned Kaldor Draigo from a ridiculously over the top character I would not ever have expected to like into one I can very well live with and appreciate.
While some gripes about his lore still exist in my mind, I hope they will be put at rest by an equally satisfying story as Mortarion's Heart at some point in the future.

Mortarion's Heart on Goodreads

Review: Crash by Guy Haley

This review was definitely needed, and entirely deserved. Crash was the fourth of Haley's novels I have had the pleasure to read, and it will not be the last. Read on to learn about another high-quality offering by Guy Haley.

The Story:

"Dariusz is an engineer whose career ended years ago; now, a man he’s never met sits in a bar that doesn’t exist and offers him a fresh start… at a price.
Cassandra — ‘Sand,’ to her friends — is a space pilot, who itches to get her hands on the controls and actually fly a ship, rather than watch computers do it for her.
The ‘Pointers’ — the elite 0.01% who control virtually all wealth — have seen the limitations of a plundered Earth and set their eyes on the stars.

And now Dariusz and Sand, and a half-million ambitious men and women just like them, are sent out to extend the Pointers’ and the Market’s influence across the galaxy. But the colony fleet is sabotaged and the ESS Adam Mickiewicz crashes, on an alien planet where one hemisphere is seared by perpetual daylight and the other shrouded in eternal night. The castaways have the chance to create society from scratch… but the hostile planet — or their own leaders — may destroy them before they can even begin."

The Review

Crash is a fantastic novel. That much I could tell from the early chapters on. Opening the new year with a book such as Crash really lifted my spirits - it is engaging, emotional, even frightening. It offers so many different things, woven into a convincing and satisfying narrative, I can only tip my hat to Guy Haley in respect and offer thanks for yet another quality read.

The book opens up with two expositional pieces of in-universe speeches or lectures, which immediately set the stage for the state of the Earth, roughly one and a half centuries into the future. They describe how humanity is outgrowing, and ruining, Mother Earth, and will have to take to the stars to spread their legacy, but also how the flow of wealth has become stagnant and how the ruling elite, the Pointers, have established their reign over the other 99.99% of earth's population.

From here on out, I was gripped. Haley took current problems, science's prophecies and the general consensus of today, took it further down the road for another century, and founded his world on the wide discrepancy between the prosperous elite and the bitter poverty of everyone else.
At the center of this, he also took the stock market to eleven, turning it into a pseudo-sentient being that acts mostly on its own, ever busy to keep making money for those who already have enough to not notice it multiplying further.

While the main part of the novel's story surrounds and succeeds the title-giving Crash of the ESS Adam Mickiewicz, it is the first part of 6 chapters (out of a total of 24), playing on Earth and in transit, that sets the mood for the whole book. It does so excellently, and when a sense of normality finally reasserts itself long after the Crash, the reader can actually feel relief, but also regret, being gone from this planet and its population set onto the path of selfdestruction.

The story's main characters, Dariusz Szczeciński, an impoverished geoengineer seeking to keep his family fed at all cost, and Cassandra 'Sand' De Mona, a cocky space pilot looking to escape monotony, as well as the supporting cast of various types, are all interesting to read about in their own ways. Some are real stand-out types, like Yuri Petrovitch, son of the Pointer responsible for the Mickiewicz's part of the space colonization program, or Corrigan, a security guard enlisted by the Pointers. Many others appear (and disappear) throughout the course of the book, some of which you will love, others hate.

Even though Crash has such a highly diverse cast, though, the colony effort and the hostile planet the Mickiewicz is destined to crash onto, are the real stars of the book. Right from the prologue on it gets clear that things went wrong, and the colonists have not reached the right destination, instead being stranded on a planet of which one half is bathed in eternal sunlight, whereas the other lives in darkness. Nychthemeron is a world so hostile and otherworldly, every bit of the way turns into a struggle, and the colony First Landing has to face threats from without and within to survive.
As technology failed, supplies dwindled and humanity's base instincts came to the fore, Crash shone with a believable tale that kept me on the edge of my seat.

As the book progresses, multiple timeskips are happening between chapters or parts of the novel. This helps immensely at showing the reader the growth of the settlement, but also the characters. Relationships between characters develop throughout the story, the people adapt to their environment and technological progress is being made. At no point did I feel that the story got bogged down, and seeing the characters I came to like grow with their new home was very satisfying.

And they have to grow, otherwise Nychthemeron would swallow the pioneers whole. Once again, I cannot stress it enough, Guy Haley excelled at creating a believable, rich environment for one of his stories. Leave it to the man to get you places, both hostile and beautiful. While I would not exactly enjoy a vacation on this two-sided world, it fascinated me with its geography, ecosystem, flora and fauna. There is a lot of depth here, and I would love to see it expanded on in future novels, if they are to be.

If it wasn't clear enough already, I adore this novel.
It was refreshing, kept me on edge, made me laugh and frown, had me care about its characters and anticipate the worst. The revelations at the end of the novel had me wide-eyed and grinning soon afterwards, and I loved every bit of it.

Crash definitely deserves a continuation, or as many as Haley would be willing to put to paper.
First Landing and Nychthemeron still have a lot of stories to tell - and if Guy gets to write them, I'll be around to read. I recommend you do the same by starting with this book. If you have even the slightest passion for science fiction, you will appreciate it.

Crash on Goodreads