When the necrons rise, a mining planet descends into a cauldron of war and the remorseless foes decimate the human defenders. Salvation comes in an unlikely form – the Death Korps of Kreig, a force as unfeeling as the Necrons themselves. When the two powers go to war, casualties are high and the magnitude of the destruction is unimaginable.
The novel has a simple premise, Necrons, Guard, Civilians? Then game on. This though to my mind is somewhat over shadowed by the style of flitting between one character or the other. Linked to the fact that the book has action but its short, sharp and has little detail, to me not something that makes the book work as a combat novel.
The novel itself didn’t really impress me unfortunately but it was a good first look at the Death Korps, giving little bits of info away about the way they are “titled”, no names just numbers, designations and ranks. The ease with which they died and sacrificed themselves as well as the callousness of the commanders was good and really helped highlight the fatalistic nature of the korps.
Other interesting bits where how the novel showed the reaction of the local population to an almost alien unfeeling invader, and that’s just the Death Korps, and how it takes time to defend itself and almost accept the Korps. Yes, there are more aspects to the book but to go in to them more might spoil it but let’s just say not a great novel as far as stories go but when it comes to information and background a very good read. Over all then from me it’s a three and a half stars!
Available from:
http://www.blacklibrary.com/
Dead Men Walking by Steve Lyons
Paperback • ISBN 9781849700115
