Haley is one of my favorite writers of Warhammer novels. He always tell an excellent story and creates such good characters. Astorath is no exception.
The book initially follows a group of Red Wings, a successor chapter of the blood angels, as they investigate strange occurrences on the planet Dulcis. As events progress It becomes necessary for Astorath, High chaplain of the blood angels, to get involved. I don’t wish to spoil any of the books events but if you know anything about the lore behind the Blood Angels, you kinda know why Astorath gets involved in anything. The novel does reveal a bit more about the “black rage” and its origins, but not anything super eye opening or revolutionary. It does reveal some things about the new Primaris space marines and how the rage effects them though.
The book is told from multiple points of view and the characters, besides Astorath, are not too fleshed out. Although to his credit, Haley does a great job developing characters in so short a novel, as he always does in his writing. The novel did not heavily focus on combat like some warhammer novels, but that’s ok because the events of the book progress more like a hunt than a battle or war. The combat scenes that it does contain are well done and very descriptive. The reader is able to view each attack and defense easily and with great detail. Haley creates vivid images of combat in this novel.
If you are a fan of Haley’s work get this one. If you like the Blood Angels chapter of the space marines, you’ll want to get this as well. Overall it’s another very well donde warhammer novel by Haley.