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Starting a thread for it since it's still a new release Da Big Dakka - Mike Brooks (Audiobook) Brooks' third ork book, and his second Ufthak Blackhawk book, is here. Released to much fandom excitement and much fandom ire because it was basically the only pushed release for this year's Black Library celebration. I don't think either is super fair to it; like most works by Brooks it's a very solid "good." The orky bits in particular are more refined than ever. This time, we have Dark Eldar as our foil POVs. While they're still perfectly entertaining, I think it's a bit of a step down from Brutal Kunnin'. That book, to me, read like half of an actual Mechanicus novel that also had Ork chapters. I know that didn't work for many people, but I thought it created a uniquely entertaining read that showed exactly why Orks are such a fun faction. These Dark Eldar, by contrast, read like Dark Eldar in an Ork novel; it's all much more obviously tongue in cheek and they don't seem to have much reverence for their own culture, which is odd because of their supremacist views. The book is more evenly humorous because of this approach, but I think it takes away some of the charm and dilutes any really funny bits. The orky stuff, as mentioned, is the best from Brooks so far, even with the plot failing to meaningfully endanger Ufthak at any point. Brooks' writing isn't the most refined in the stable, but he has a unique talent for making fight scenes engaging. Better authors than Brooks have still managed to deliver complete snoozefests because their fight scenes ended up being poetically rendered filler. Brooks' style of giving us a play-by-play of everyone's decisions as the fight progresses means keeps every moment of this book's very frequent battles enjoyable. This is especially fun for Ork POVs, who doesn't love some good Ork logic? Ufthak describing humans as essentially Orks who are bad at being Orks was a personal favourite. I will say I noticed how often he lent into the "it was believed that X, but of course Y was true" style of exposition a bit too often, I hope he reins that in a bit next time. As expected, Snaggi is back as well. Despite my problems with the Dark Eldar here, I still found this book was back to the balance of opposing POVs that I thought made Brutal Kunnin' so much better than Warboss, so by extension I preferred this book's Snaggi content. At times, he reads like the only POV with legitimate stakes. Also, big shoutout to Harry Myers' narration. He's got a great range to his performance and I quite liked his Dark Eldar, despite his "unrefined" accent. That man can go deep and menacing when he wants to. Overall, super fun book that never had me bored. Probably what you want out of a running Ork series, eh? 7.5/10 To Taste because it's Brooks. The man's becoming to me what Guy Haley seems to be to other people: workhorse author with a strong respect for continuity, who also never fails to deliver something worse than "good." Now somebody crack the whip on a sequel to his Alpha Legion work.