With one book having now established the chapter within the Black Library, the Carcharodons return for a second. This time the conflict is one of a very different nature, however, and the story takes a very different turn.
Synopsis
Set ten years after the conflict with the Night Lords, the Carcharodons find themselves waging a losing war against the Tyranid Hive Fleets. With more tendrils emerging with every passing year, the chapter is slowly being whittled away by attrition, and must find ways to conserve then rebuild its strength.
Sharr's company is dispatched on two missions. The first to gather the flesh and steel needed to continue their war against xenos incursions. The second is to confront a psychic beacon on a shrine world drawing in the Tyranid ships, as the rest of the chapter attempts to delay the fleet's advance. Yet other things await them on that world, and the scars left by old battles still haunt more than one loyal follower of the Emperor. Ones which run deeper than any might have imagined...
The Good
Something which should be made clear when reading this review is this - There are large sections it will need to omit. This goes beyond simple late-story spoilers, as there is a massive bomb-shell dropped very early on into the tale people will want to be surprised at. The review will briefly address this later on in as vague a fashion as possible, but it does mean that some of its best parts cannot be directly analysed. Please keep this in mind when reading the following points.
The most immediate strength of Outer Dark is that the story seems to consciously tackle and deal with the greatest flaws of the past book. Many of the key failings cited in The Red Tithe are absent here, and others have been dramatically improved on. The most obvious among these is the total absence of the rock-paper-scissors engagements cited in the previous review. Furthermore, the threats posed in the novel are - barring one exception - purely xenos in nature, which is a welcome change from the sheer volume of Imperial vs. Chaos stories.
The book also takes a noted risk in terms of how it handles character developments. In a massive breach of the "show don't tell" rule, the story has jumped ahead ten years from the last novel. As such, it opts to cite moments such as how Sharr has matured as a leader since that time. Normally this would be an instant mark of failure, but MacNiven makes it work. The first half of the book focuses more on lore building and quieter scenes than the usual bolter porn. As such, the story mentions this fact, but then proves it with a number of major scenes. It certainly helps that, despite this change, the characters are still clearly the same people and visibly retain the same quirks.
There is also a much more memorable and engaging ensemble of human characters this time around (including one familiar face) in the form of an Inquisitorial warband. Due to the book's broader focus across the wider galaxy, this group is put to good use in performing some of the storytelling's heavy lifting. They serve to better show how the Inquisition views the chapter, establish a world within the story before the chapter arrives, and furthers one character's arc. It's a definite upgrade from the prison wardens of The Red Tithe, and while many of them have only a limited presence they still do enough for you to keep track of their names.
The character-building of the work goes hand-in-hand with many segments which build on the nature of the chapter. While the previous book established many key factors from their tactics to teasing the reader over their origin, this one is more interested in their history and operations. We see how a grey tithe, the gathering of material and munitions, is conducted very early on and the relationship they have with the Mechanicus. Furthermore, the novel also introduces several very interesting additions to their history. The big one debunks a key theory behind the Carcharodons, and also further highlights how they operate with factions beyond the Imperium's power. It's a key point within the story, and shows how flexible they can be in terms of following Imperial law while still remaining loyal. What this actually addresses cannot be detailed without delving into spoilers, so I will simply say this: They deal with a faction as old as the Horus Heresy which chose to follow no one.
The novel also avoids directly relying on its mysterious origins. While it certainly brings it up a few times, it's so often as The Red Tithe. Without the addition of the Night Lords, any heavy reliance on the mystery would have seemed exaggerated or unnecessary without something to work off of. This is a definite move for the better as, since there is no definitive answer behind this point, creating too many questions and dragging out the payoff could have seemed cheap.
The battles themselves do feature a number of major improvements here as well. There's a clear sense of scale to the ground battles, and there is much less of an emphasis on unit vs unit action. Much of the latter half of the story focuses on massed army scale engagements, and these work brilliantly. While the narrative is not concerned with tracking every single soldier in the battle, and will often focus on individual actions, it always has pauses. There are moments where it will work within the atmosphere of a scene to remind you of those involved, the state of the conflict and how the battle is progressing. While this might sound basic, it means that the fight sequences in question are not heavy going. Even when chapter after chapter focuses on nothing but white hot combat, you can easily breeze through them without feeling bogged down with details. It's certainly not a style which would work well for every story, but for the type of battles that Outer Dark focuses on, it definitely benefits the book.
Also, as a minor tangent, Outer Dark is one of the few examples which truly depicts the nature of "brutal" chapters properly. The Carcharodons are notably savage, uncompromising and are perfectly willing to let innocents die horrible deaths to more effectively achieve their goals. The difference is that they're not stupid about it, and they retain enough control (and self-awareness) to avoid making enemies of their allies. This is evident even in their most extreme examples, and it avoids turning them into exaggerated cliches.
Quite frankly, such a treatment of ingrained savagery the sort of quality I wish the Iron Hands would go back to having prior to the "We betray our father! We are only failures!" downward spiral they have been stuck in since Codex: Clan Raukaan. Yes, that might have seemed largely irrelevant, but any book which can get this right is one to be celebrated.
Still, Outer Dark does fall short in a few specific areas despite its strengths. So, here's a brief list of them.
The Bad
The book's negative qualities stem from something of an odd structure. The story itself is one of small missions and engagements which can be regarded as separate events. It does not follow a singular cohesive three act structure as a result. In fact, the main threat only truly appears in the last third of the story. The issue behind this is that said threat is intended to be an insidious force which infiltrates and turns societies upon themselves. There simply wasn't enough space here to make this work, and you can very quickly predict just who is going to be a member.
The actual battles which take place here are, as mentioned above, still effective but more than a few points seem extremely rushed. Having a group like the Carcharodons dealing with an invisible war bereft of a direct threat could have been an interesting subversion of their usual battles. Instead, their enemy is pushed into quickly revealing themselves and results in open combat within a few pages of their arrival. The actual conflict in this last part is still engaging, but it's just the issue of getting there which is problematic.
In order to balance out a broader depiction of the story as a whole, the book ends up following three groups. The first of these is an Inquisitorial warband, then Sharr's company, and finally Kahurangi. For the most part this works throughout the story, fleshing out certain details, offering varied scenes and offering depictions of characters outside of the Adeptus Astartes. The problem is that, toward the end, two quickly become superfluous. The Inquisitor and his small group are quickly bumped off save for one character, and take a back-seat once the Carcharodons show up. Kahurangi, meanwhile, serves only to offer brief glimpses of a much bigger battle. These are always extremely fleeting in nature, and not enough is done to emphasise the sheer scale of the conflict in question. In many regards, it's a flaw it shares with The Devastation of Baal's treatment of void warfare.
Character development takes something of a back-seat this time as well. MacNiven handles off-screen developments with a far defter hand than I would ever expect, but more than a few characters lack further development within the story. Sharr, for example, displays how he has developed since his conflict with the Night Lords but much of the story only establishes what has changed. Kahurangi is his usual self, but that can be justified thanks to his advanced age. Khauri, meanwhile, can get past this thanks to being relatively new. Others such as Korro, or supporting characters from previous novels such as Nikora and Uthulu remain out of focus. This lack of further development can usually be excused when a story is especially action heavy. However, the number of quieter moments in Outer Dark makes it feel as if it lacks opportunities to further benefit and establish the series' core characters.
A number of key points within the book are left unresolved. Several of these seem to be established in order for future novels to build on them, but others lack the benefit of being well ingrained into the story. A stand-out example of this is the presence of a wraith-like figure who haunts a side character for much of the tale. This only becomes relevant within the core story for a very brief scene, and is then forgotten in the face of a bigger threat. Like many of the flaws found here, the actual moments themselves are good, but the process of getting to them is heavily flawed. That and the fact that this, and the epilogue, might as well come with a message saying "See you in the sequel!"
However, the final and greatest failing of the overall story is how it lacks a sense of atmosphere in its locations. This is far more true of - as with anything - the second half once the action moves onto the planet of Piety V than anywhere else. While locations are described and detailed, the prose only seems to truly shine when MacNiven has something much more tangible to work with. A Tyranid boarding pod being carved apart by a living legend, an ancient battleship serving as both a fortress monastery and drinking hall, and even the semi-submerged Carcharodon warship interiors, those are fine. Something more nebulous such as a cathedral city or slums lacks that same strength, and it can make some larger scale scenes less engaging as a result. There doesn't need to be constant reminders of what the terrain is like, but the use of it to create clearer visuals would have benefited certain scenes.
The Verdict:
On the whole, Outer Dark is everything that a sequel should be. It actively minimised the flaws present in the previous release, worked to further the characters established, brought around suitable replacements for those killed, and pushed to explore new ideas. It still utilises themes and points that The Red Tithe introduced, but it was never so reliant upon them that it becomes creatively limited. It's enough to stick to familiar territory but shows enough innovation to constantly expand on the existing internal mythos.
Overall, this is a pretty damn good one. While The Red Tithe is still the novel you should start with, this is a rare example of a book which can serve as a solid gateway series while still offering old fans something engaging. If we (hopefully) get another novel, it will be where the story fully hits its stride. Definitely set some cash aside to buy it when you have the chance.
Verdict: 7.0 out of 10
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