What do You think about Ghostmaker (2002)?
This book is more several short stories, each featuring one of the 'Ghosts', set around an overarching final story which concludes at the end of the book. In his normal style, Abnett doesn't let the reader know this but lets one figure it out as one goes.It's well written, like all of Abnett's work, but I found it hard to be drawn into this book and it took me a while to finish. For me there just wasn't a 'wow' factor and while the book was good and I enjoyed reading it, I don't think its one that I'll keep coming back to and read over.
—Frank Mikes
Dan Abnett's Warhammer 40K novels certainly deliver. This is the second Gaunt's Ghosts novel, and I enjoyed it even more than the first (First and Only (Warhammer 40,000)). I'm not an expert on the Warhammer 40K universe. I read the books because they come highly recommended by my brother in law. With good cause, I might add. I guess it all comes down to specific taste, but these novels do exactly what they set out to do, and there is no pretension to anything else. What we have here is military Sci-Fi from a front-line perspective. The closest you'll likely get to a comparison, outside of science fiction, are infantry memoirs from a total war perspective. Something like If You Survive: From Normandy to the Battle of the Bulge to the End of World War II, One American Officer's Riveting True Story. The locales are exotic and the action takes place on desert worlds, ice worlds, water worlds, swamp worlds and any kind of other world you can quickly call to mind (no gas giants so far). A veritable testosterone fest, with cool world building as foundation. Oh, and did I mention the atmospheric Gothic vibe of the whole setting? Mr Abnett is probably one of the most important writers in the W40K stable. His action scenes are visceral, economic and riveting. The cast of characters, from the Tanith First and Only to Commissar Gaunt himself, are truly entertaining. The reader often finds himself caring when they die, which is probably not the norm in this kind of fiction. This is 'The Expendables' of military science fiction. Now - on to Necropolis (Warhammer 40,000).Note: According to goodreads, this is book #3 in the series, with Necropolis being book #2. According to The Founding (Warhammer 40,000), it is the other way round. Anybody care to comment on that?
—Dirk Grobbelaar
Second book in the Gaunt's Ghosts series. And where the first one dropped you in the middle of the campaign with the Ghost's this book does not have a long running narrative. Sure there is a story that we visit on every other chapter, and it is the tale that gets you from point A to point B. However, the real story is every chapter is about one of the main characters in the Tanith 1st Regiment. You get one action packed vignette about all the big names. Gaunt, Brin, Bragg, Corbec, Rawne, Mkoll, Larkin, Dorden, and Caffran. The main tale takes place after the first book, the vignettes arc all the way back to the Founding, to the events of book 1, and beyond up the present day theater the Ghosts are fighting in. If you liked the first book, and really want to dig into the nature and background of the troopers and officers then you will love Ghostmaker. I think it was far superior to book 1.
—Andrew Ziegler
