So, we have a rather large backlog of Warhammer novels to get through from the past couple of months. Perhaps it's time to start resolving that at long last.
The best possible way to sum up Kingsblade would be to call it the Star Trek: Voyager of Warhammer 40,000 novels. The mid-to-late Voyager specifically, where you have a few solid concepts being played around with, one or two highlights and likable characters. The problem is that, while what you get is reasonably entertaining, it never pushes into taking full advantage of the concepts it has on hand. As such, you enjoy what you're given, but it's hard not to wonder why it couldn't take full advantage of the creative elements or freedom it had on hand.
Synopsis:
The story here is set on one of the myriad of war-torn worlds which makes up the Imperium of Man. Chaos has reared its head, striking down all in its path and despoiling anything too valuable to simply kill. However, the Imperium responds in force, with Cadian Shock Troopers, Mechanicus forces and several Houses of Imperial Knights leading the charge. The bloody street-by-street fighting proves to be vicious but the Imperium soon gains the upper hand, or so it seems. The Word Bearers have yet to play their trump card, one which will push a pair of untested knights into a trial by fire few expect them to survive...
The Good:
For a writer with only a few short stories to his name within Black Library, it can't be said that Clark doesn't put some thought into how his forces work. Often these books should serve as an expression of what certain forces are like, how they can be explored or even depicting the finer details which are all too often left out of codices. While Codex: Imperial Knights itself was highly detailed, Kingsblade capitalizes on it with some interesting new additions. How the Knights themselves are repaired, re-armed and reinforced while constantly on the move is a major part of the story, as is their creeds and traditions.
Taking Warhammer's more knightly aspects to an extreme, as chivalry, personal heraldry and succession each becomes a core part of the ongoing tale. There's a distinct spin on each theme here to where, despite often being repeated elsewhere or by other armies, such as their glory seeking ways. Most knights there, especially their elder members, live for the moments which adds another chapter to their saga. From winning close honour duels to overcoming insurmountable odds, it could have easily pushed them down the old Klingon route of honour ruling everything. However, it's always held back in some manner or another, and they are bound to ultimately respect the decisions of their king above all else. It's enough that it's a characterful problem and a key issue of their culture, but you can still see the strength behind that and just how it is kept in check. It's these minor moments here and there which helps to make this feel like a crusade without devolving into the usual mix of out-and-out cliches.
Another definite point in the book's favour is how it often tries to work in more elements than merely the Knights themselves. While this might sound more than a little odd, we have all seen how Games Workshop backed releases will often skew events in favour of their big cash cows, and the mini-titans were a big hit. Yet, while they were ultimately crucial to the overall victory, other elements were always in play. The Cadians were repeatedly cited to be a very effective fighting force, and we see this time and time again throughout the book, while other successes only come about thanks to the intervention of other forces. One late event is only made possible thanks to a massed assault by Imperial allied aircraft, for one thing.
While it doesn't cut away to massed details or information as often or effectively as Abnett would, the story here nevertheless manages to use it well. It retains a tight focus upon a few key characters and only one or two locations at the most, and then uses these to bolster the events of the war. It doesn't dramatically increase its scope, but they are used in order to help it overcome stumbling blocks or fluff which might slow down the story. There are more obvious and less subtle moments littered throughout the book, as the scene in the command center during the initial invasion quickly establishes who is who along with foreshadowing the book's big twist. This allows it to remain easy to breeze through, get to grips with and move on without ever feeling as if things are dragging on.
The few moments when the book does truly stop exists only to emphasise the action of mecha combat. What we have here is less the tank-on-legs approach often favoured with Titans and more of a direct basic merger between pilot and machine spirit. There is a constant emphasis placed upon the difficulty in managing information, news and the memories of old pilots, and calling forth their ghosts as advisers to guide the pilot's actions. It's less Evengelion (thank the Emperor) than it is Big O, with half-remembered thoughts and blended concepts driving the character onward. It's not obvious at first how connected and detailed some actions by the protagonists are to their past legacy, but it becomes infinitely more obvious as they adapt to their weapons of war. This adds a degree of benefit to re-reading the book, as you do pick up on a few smaller things in the early chapters which become more obvious later on.
Of course, you're probably here for the fights. Do they deliver? Yes, but perhaps not in the same way you might expect. While the size and nature of battles from a knight is always made evident, it's depicted less through a Battletech viewpoint and more via that of an Arthurian saga. Moments like one major character's last stand on a bridge against insurmountable odds or the massed assault into a city, or the duels between pilots are all highlights within the book. Yet, in these moments Clark seems to dial back on some of the more hefty machine-like details to focus more upon the pilot and machine as one being. It allows the book to more aptly focus upon the knightly themes in its descriptions and presentation without going nuts and as a result it helps the book stand out more in terms of these factors. When it discards these for bigger scale battles or even the aftermath of a fight, there's a very smooth transition back and forth between these depictions.
So, that's what the book gets right. What about its mistakes though?
The Bad
The characters are unremarkable. It's as simple as that really, as the central cast of five figures fall into the roles of unwilling and untested but brilliant young leader, superior sibling overshadowing them, best friend anti-traitor and mentor very easily. They're all tropes you know in one form or another and, to be blunt, Kingsblade seems to heavily rely upon the archetypes over the characters themselves. While the book did a decent job at giving each one a basic character arc, you could tell from the very start where it was going and how it would end. Right from the opening battle to the ending chapter, there's no moment where you're genuinely wondering where the story is going or you cannot think of just what might happen next. It is admittedly well written and, in some ways, this could have assisted with its knightly themes, but it never quite hit the sort of exaggerated niche of storytelling needed for that.
The overall predictability of the tale is also a major issue throughout the story when it keeps trying to raise the stakes. Even without focusing upon it, you can quickly pick out or think up exactly where things are going, and what developments will befall the heroes next. This sadly even extends to the villains, and seriously hurts them as it tries to depict them as scheming geniuses. Unfortunately, rather than offering a 40,000-ified Victor von Doom, they come across as your common or garden dark lords. The Word Bearers in particular seem to only exist as a means to an end, while the true villains of the piece do very little to help them stand out. In fact, when they do truly act and try to enforce their power, all they accomplish is giving the heroes the opening they need to win.
This is another issue within the story: Things simply fall into place. It's another factor which ties into this predictability aspect, but all too often the moment there is some serious tension, it opts for a rapid resolution. An entire character arc is abruptly ended in one chapter and resolved for the rest of the book, while several obstacles are pushed out the way by secondary figures within the story. As a result, the heroes do not feel as if they have accomplished a true victory so much as capitalising upon circumstances or outright stupidity at points.
Another definite issue which keeps coming up is identity. You see, the book does a decent job of depicting the knights as a whole, when it comes to their roles, attitudes, traditions and even a few unique titles. That's all well and good, but there are multiple houses operating alongside one another in this book, yet you are rarely given a chance to see any distinction between them. This might sound cruel but, when you have two space marine chapters working alongside one another, the author will usually quickly an effectively set up a few distinct cultural clashes. Here though, we get very little. It means that the book seems as if it is lacking the sort of realism and dimensions which could have helped the story to seriously stand out. It's just left to some characters and titles to fill out, and that's unfortunately not enough.
Finally though, and perhaps the worst crime, we never learn much about the world itself. We see little of its people, of its monuments or even its general importance. As a result, there's a disconnect in terms of what is actually being fought over here, and it can make the war itself seem superfluous. Even more of a general history of the place, or a more emotive description of how the war came to be could have helped, but it just lacks that. It can make the early chapters remarkably insubstantial as a result, and causes no end of issues for the later ones.
The Verdict
This one is middling. Kingsblade certainly has some fun moments, ideas and concepts, but it only manages to be decent rather than noteworthy. For all the problems here, it's a tale I would recommend to a beginner within the hobby or someone who wished to know more of the Imperial Knights from a novel format. It's easy to get to grips with, breeze through and comprehend the actions at play, but there should have been something more. Give it a look if you're at all interested, but don't expect something which can stand up to the likes of Mechanicum.
Verdict: 5 out of 10
