RAVENOR: a Warhammer 40,000 novel (a review)

Ravenor by Dan Abnett (Games Workshop/Black Library) – This is a novel in the Warhammer 40,000 series, which utilizes concepts and characters from the various games, comics and other novels in that series. I’ve only just become familiar with this world, not being a gamer or a reader of much SF in recent years. If I get some of this wrong I apologize.

Having enjoyed a couple of graphic novel collections, comprised of stories from the WARHAMMER magazine, I was tempted to check out this novel when I happened upon it on the shelves here at the library. As I’ve said I haven’t read much, if any, SF for years except for a couple of STAR TREK novels but I used to read it regularly. Of course, the world of WARHAMMER is far more dystopian than most of the stuff I tended to read. This is more along the lines of the type of universe you’d find in ALIENS or STARSHIP TROOPERS than that in which the Federation sent out their gleaming starships. The Klingons would probably feel right at home, though.

The world of Warhammer is ruled by the God-Emperor, a man/being who has sat upon his throne for millennia, neither alive nor dead, but holding sway over thousands of planets and billions of souls. His legions offer up bloody tribute in his name as they battle other races and the forces of Chaos to hold together his empire.

Ravenor, the title character, was first introduced in an earlier series of books. He is a psychic of incredible power, crippled and encased in a metallic ‘chair’, but still having the loyalty of the men and women who serve him in his role as Inquisitor for the empire. His current mission is to discover the source of a new ‘drug’ called flec and to stop its import into the imperial worlds. He discovers that there is corruption even in the highest reaches of government and the source of the drug is only the beginning of a greater problem for political stability.

There’s not a lot of joy and merriment in the world of Warhammer, but there is loyalty and friendship. It is the relationships between the various members of Ravenor’s team which make us care what happens. To be honest, you’d have a hard time feeling much but distaste for the unseen Emperor who cares only for his own survival and you sure won’t find much to sympathize with in his opposition who are just as, if not more, ruthless in what they plan for mankind’s future.

Certainly not light fantasy or the black & white space opera of George Lucas, still Dan Abnett makes you care about his characters, even those you don’t particularly like at first. A rough group of bastards they may be, but by their own rules they standby their friends, which in the end is what matters.