"Fear to Tread"

Fear to Tread (James Swallow)

You probably already know from my Horus Heresy run down I really enjoyed this novel. What I remember most is the ending, which is about as happy as you can get in W40k.  A good, fulfilling ending just really makes me feel nice when I remember a book, and when it's capping off 500+ pages of excellent sci-fi, well. Let me back up a little: This book is about the Blood Angels space marine chapter, sent into a trap by Horus (and his darn Heresy!!!!) to either be destroyed or turned to Chaos (there's some disagreement on this between Horus and Chaos, which is a nice touch). The first half the book is more charecter oriented, and has a certain very effective creepy vibe kicking in as the Blood Angels arrive at their destination and find nothing but horrid boneless corpses and empty cities. Eventually the shit really goes down in a spectacular scene where Chaos animates one of the dead cities, and from there it's basically a massive conflagration until the book's climax. Even knowing what was going to happen to the Blood Angels and their primarch Sanginus, this is quite thrilling stuff, and nailing the climax and aftermath is icing on the cake, as weak endings seem to plague this series. I don't know that this can quite edge out Flight of the Eisenstein as Swallow's best book, but it's right up there, and if you can handle 250+ pages of truly stunning violence, you shouldn't miss this book.

Grade: A