Reading the First Blood Angels Omnibus (Thoughts)

[Son of Carnelian]

Alright, so I loved Fear to Tread and while perusing my local used bookstore, I came across the collected edition of James Swallow's other Blood Angels works. I picked it up and dove right in, reading the first 180 pages in a day.

 

My first impression is that these are not the perfect saintly marines we see in many stories. They fight, they bicker, they even feel flashes of fear. I do wish that Swallow didn't do so much of the "this person has this attitude as you can plainly see" style of writing. I prefer when writers let us form our own impressions of the characters first, especially in a third person novel. Rafen doesn't really have a character as of yet, so I'm not fully on board with his inner conflict regarding Arkio yet. Arkio himself doesn't seem that engaging, but maybe that's just because the reader has so little time to know him before his transformation.

 

Also, one day I will read a book where the Inquisitor isn't corrupted by Chaos. Stele comes off as little more than a trope without any engaging character traits. I would have preferred learning more about his bond with the Blood Angels and how that pact formed. How does the Inquisition feel about him getting so close to the Blood Angels? Maybe some of that will get explained later but right now, he feels paper-thin. 

 

I realize this sounds like I'm doing a lot of complaining, but I assure you all that I will finish this omnibus based on the strength of some of the imagery alone. Where many of Swallow's characters fall flat for me, the settings he crafts are killer. Cybele, a massive burial world, just screams grimdark and Swallow's incredible talent for crafting these images for the reader always astounds. Just look at his Sororitas' Valkyrie Towers at the beginning of chapter 3. That's the kind of thing that fuels terrain projects. Even his descriptions of the Bellus, which could go a predictable route, somehow manage to seem lived-in and engaging. It's odd because I found the opposite true in Fear to Tread. I can't name a single interesting setting from that book but I love the characters there.

 

Finally, he gets MAJOR points with me because of the Neon Genesis Evangelion references. First he names a planet "Evangelion," but that does not necessarily mean it's a reference. But then he names one of his main characters Sachiel. While a real angel in the Bible, Sachiel is also the name of the first Angel that Shinji fights in NGE. But the name of the fortress on Shenlong seals it: Ikari. Any one of these names by themselves would not necessarily mean that the author had seen my favorite show of all time. But all three together? That's a reference.