40K: Fear the Alien: Book Review
Fear the Alien is another Black Library anthology filled with stories about… you guessed it, aliens.
Unique to this set, however, are a few stories from Alien perspective. These, along with the novel “Path of the Warrior” mark a change in policy at Black Library, and I’m interested to see how that works out.
Anyway, Fear the Alien! Over all, this is a pretty decent anthology. It starts off strong with a classic slasher mystery with a 40k twist in “Gardens of Tycho” by Abnett, and continues apace with a more traditional blood and guts story of Guard versus Tyranid in “Fear Itself” by Juliet E. McKenna.
Unfortunately, the book then takes a nose dive into Salamander Town with “Prometheus Requiem” by Nick Kyme. I honestly hope that the Salamanders novels are better than the short stories, because this is the second anthology that I have read with a Salamander story from Mr. Kyme, and they have both been the low point of their respective books. Requiem paints the Salamanders as petty, fractious, and incompetent. Even though the story is about the Firedrakes, supposedly the elite of the chapter, the characters are constantly belittling each other, bickering, and feeling bad for themselves. I suppose the author was trying to give the main character some depth by making him a masochist, but all it really accomplished was making him even more irritatingly not a Space Marine. I dunno, maybe it works better in the full length novels. Regardless, I doubt I will ever find out.
Aaaaaanyway, moving on! The next story in the line up is the first of the two “alien perspective” stories, “Mistress Baeda’s Gift“ by Braden Campbell. This story follows the exploits of a Dark Eldar Archon as he tries to win the heart of a lovely lady. If you think that sounds ridiculous, you would be right. Baeda’s Gift is ridiculous… and totally awesome. Campbell’s Dark Eldar are so absurdly evil that you have to either laugh or cry, and in this case, I couldn’t help but laugh. It may not be high art, but this story is definitely fun.
After Baeda’s Gift, we have “Iron Inferno” by C. L. Werner. This is the second of the “alien perspective” stories, and parts of it have us looking through the eyes of an Ork. This story isn’t anything particularly amazing. Its not bad, but it kinda feels like its just a longer version of one of the fluff pieces in Codex: Orks.
Next in the pipe is “Sanctified” by Mark Clapham, which follows the desperate struggle of a lone Enginseer against unknown aliens that have invaded his engine room. This story is a good read, with a satisfying conclusion.
After Sanctified comes a story titled “Faces” by Matthew Farrer, author of the excellent Enforcer series. Overall, I have to say that this is the best story in the book. Most 40k novels and stories are just that, a 40k novel/story. With Faces, Farrer manages to write a really good science fiction story that happens to be set in the 41st millenium. If it weren’t for the very end, (which is still good mind you) this would fit neatly into one of those “Sci-Fi: Best of
Next in line is a story titled “Unity” by James Gilmer. It covers the exploits of a lone Raven Guard and his guardsman ally as they struggle to rejoin friendly forces in a war against the Tau.
After that comes “The Core” by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, which is particularly notable in that it covers the same events as Prometheus Requiem but from the viewpoint of the Night Lords. Unfortunately, though this is a good story, the thing that sticks in my mind more than anything is how much worse it makes Prometheus look. I mean, when Chaos Marines manage to out do you in terms of coordination, following orders, and sticking to the plan… Maybe their gearing up for some future fluff-splosion where the Salamander’s fall to chaos? I hope not…
The final story in the book is “Ambition knows no Bounds” by Andy Hoare. Ambition paints a picture of foolish greed through the adventures of a Rogue Trader, and is a satisfying conclusion to the anthology.
Overall, this is a pretty good anthology, and honestly is worth it for Faces and Baeda’s Gift alone.
~ 4/5 stars. While many of the stories are good, but forgettable, and one is really bad, there are a couple of great stories that really make this worth reading. Has anyone else read this one? What did you think? Also, am I just a hater, or are the Salamander stories actually that bad?
