Tyrant of the Hollow Worlds by Mark Clapham

[DukeLeto69]

Hey folks,

 

I finished this at the weekend, it's an excellent book. One of the more comprehensive Space Marine books I've read in a long while.

 

When I say comprehensive, I mean it gives a sense of scope and scale that few other books. The Red Corsairs have a lovely sense of size to their actions - the fight scenes tend to be illustrative of seizing ground, pushing objectives and so forth.

 

The flip-of that is done very well too - we get an excellent cast of characters, with very many on 'the other side' - not merely the Space Wolves off the cover, but also various humans of the Lastrati ('The Hollow Worlds of Lastrati'). There's dozens of pieces in here that are typically left out of other works, such as neutralisation of communications, the problems associated with 'running off to get reinforcements' (e.g. they don't come quickly).

 

There's a huge amount of very lovely character vignettes throughout (the most memorable for me being Trantor - a Red Corsair who'd had brain damage that meant his memories, after more than a few minutes, immediately transformed to 'the distant past'), with a stellar amount of insightful observations, interesting prose (that skirts the boundary of becoming pure poetry in quite a few places) and a lot of interesting choices in what to show, and when.

 

In terms of 'complaints' they're few and didn't adversely impact my enjoyment, so easily listed:

- Heavier on the 'tell' than the 'show', mostly thanks to the grand sprawl of characters, but fortunately the scale and time-span of the conflict really benefit from this.

 

- It's a perennial thing in GW stories, so no unique issue here, but given the great handling of the scale otherwise, but the 'command structure' of the Red Corsairs felt a touch... horizontal. (Huron->{Valthex,Anto,Garreon}->'Captains'->Squad Marines. In short, if felt like perhaps Valthex, Anto, Garron & especially Rotaka perhaps would have benefited from having their own underlings between them and the line-trooper corsairs. It meant the Red Corsairs seem like an incredibly small force, even though the strike detail of what is actually happening make it plainly not the case.

 

- Huron was a touch too angry, for my tastes. Again, this isn't a feature unique to this book (hell - plenty of characters in the esteemed Horus Heresy fall into this category) - but it's one that if he'd had a touch more to him (that wasn't simply flashbacks to Lufgt, or reminisces by others), the whole thing would have run even better than it did.

 

- Air cover. The interior of the Hollow Worlds seem a really fascinating place to have air-borne sequences. Again, this is often the case in 40k that air power is routinely overlooked/ignored/omitted for various reasons - but it felt like it'd have been a great thing to display in here (with excellent twists), or if deliberately excluded - it would have accompanied many of the interesting observations and exclusions otherwise death with in the book.

 

But, by the by, those are pervasive problems that occur throughout the Black Library demonstrated herein, not that should be seen as damning for this book.

 

----

 

But back on topic - the creative excellence. There's a lot of utterly mind-boggling (but well-presented) stuff in here. The Hollow Worlds themselves sit front and centre in this - they're a pervasive oddness that underpins/overhangs the entire story and really makes what is ostensibly a simple, long, thorough tale sprout very strange legs of its own.

 

There's a great degree of other choices in the novel that, in their depiction, offered really new and exciting things in BL fiction.

 

Foremost, the Space Wolves' armoured column that stages an ambush around halfway through. Individually, the pieces are pretty simple and innocuous enough - but the sweep of it - a simple demonstration of some Chaos Space Marines and some Space Wolves fighting a 'typical' 40k-ish scale battle was mega-cool. It's a tiny touch, but with its placement in the story, it really leapt out and spoke to me.

 

It's amplified, I think, by the characterisation of Folkvar and his compatriots - and that it's one of the first 'clashes' between antagonist and protagonist too, but without seeming inevitable, or inescapable, or consequence-less or even too foretold/portentous too. It's a very well measured, 'simple' scene and it worked excellently.

 

Logistics: quite a lot of the story's conflict and plot-arcs are actually dependent on the 'mechanics' of fighting war - the problems of conquest, competing objectives, the nature of victory and so forth. It goes from a personal scale right up to interplanetary violence - it works very well.

 

There was also the use of naval warfare (and imagery) which I thought was a little treat in the book. It's nothing too deep (for any maritime experts/enthusiasts), but it was very evocative and inventive in its use. (Compare to Gav's Kadillus and Aaron's Helsreach that have a little bit of at-sea/harbourside - and this shows how it's an element that 40k massively underuses.)

 

Some people might be aware of my general dislike of the novel Brothers of the Snake - but less well ranted about is the few things I grudgingly concede as excellent from that novel. Foremost, it's a nice, relatively personal meandering story about some guys doing some stuff over some space for some time. Secondly, the sheer imagery that Dan evoked in the novel is a delight (I'm especially fond of the beach-scenes with the Marines on Ithaka).

 

In many respects, Tyrant of the Hollow Worlds is a similar novel - but, for my tastes, features absolutely nothing that I found egregious in Brothers of the Snake. Instead, it pushes a low-key 'personal' story, bolstered by innumerable incidental/antagonist character pieces throughout the story. It provides a vast sweep of insights and an absolute ton (in sheer quantity!) of story - the book is gargantuan!

 

It's also very... sci-fi. There's a great swathe of oddness and 'mad' stuff going on in the book, and the characters actually come off really well - really 'human' (or once-human) as a consequence of it. The eventual sweep of Rotaka's story, slow burn as it is, is a raw, somewhat horrific delight - meaning that by the end of the story, and all the craziness that accompanies it, is completely founded on a lot of competing, well-invested high-stakes.

 

---

 

In short: it's really rather good.

 

Now as a rule I have avoided most of the SMB books (got the first 6 or so in the series but with some exceptions was not keen). Also my reading list is pretty long and BL seem to have raised the bar in 2017 so list getting longer.

 

Looks like I may have to add this one too (as for the most part you and I agree Xisor). Thanks for review from me (damn it from my wallet).

[drooling blood]

I kind of feel It was written when pirates of the Caribbean came.

Well you know corsairs. So lets throw some pirate ships and yarrghs and crap in there.

Once they stopped doing that. it was ok. I guess

[HeritorA]

 

Hey folks,

 

I finished this at the weekend, it's an excellent book. One of the more comprehensive Space Marine books I've read in a long while.

 

When I say comprehensive, I mean it gives a sense of scope and scale that few other books. The Red Corsairs have a lovely sense of size to their actions - the fight scenes tend to be illustrative of seizing ground, pushing objectives and so forth.

 

The flip-of that is done very well too - we get an excellent cast of characters, with very many on 'the other side' - not merely the Space Wolves off the cover, but also various humans of the Lastrati ('The Hollow Worlds of Lastrati'). There's dozens of pieces in here that are typically left out of other works, such as neutralisation of communications, the problems associated with 'running off to get reinforcements' (e.g. they don't come quickly).

 

There's a huge amount of very lovely character vignettes throughout (the most memorable for me being Trantor - a Red Corsair who'd had brain damage that meant his memories, after more than a few minutes, immediately transformed to 'the distant past'), with a stellar amount of insightful observations, interesting prose (that skirts the boundary of becoming pure poetry in quite a few places) and a lot of interesting choices in what to show, and when.

 

In terms of 'complaints' they're few and didn't adversely impact my enjoyment, so easily listed:

- Heavier on the 'tell' than the 'show', mostly thanks to the grand sprawl of characters, but fortunately the scale and time-span of the conflict really benefit from this.

 

- It's a perennial thing in GW stories, so no unique issue here, but given the great handling of the scale otherwise, but the 'command structure' of the Red Corsairs felt a touch... horizontal. (Huron->{Valthex,Anto,Garreon}->'Captains'->Squad Marines. In short, if felt like perhaps Valthex, Anto, Garron & especially Rotaka perhaps would have benefited from having their own underlings between them and the line-trooper corsairs. It meant the Red Corsairs seem like an incredibly small force, even though the strike detail of what is actually happening make it plainly not the case.

 

- Huron was a touch too angry, for my tastes. Again, this isn't a feature unique to this book (hell - plenty of characters in the esteemed Horus Heresy fall into this category) - but it's one that if he'd had a touch more to him (that wasn't simply flashbacks to Lufgt, or reminisces by others), the whole thing would have run even better than it did.

 

- Air cover. The interior of the Hollow Worlds seem a really fascinating place to have air-borne sequences. Again, this is often the case in 40k that air power is routinely overlooked/ignored/omitted for various reasons - but it felt like it'd have been a great thing to display in here (with excellent twists), or if deliberately excluded - it would have accompanied many of the interesting observations and exclusions otherwise death with in the book.

 

But, by the by, those are pervasive problems that occur throughout the Black Library demonstrated herein, not that should be seen as damning for this book.

 

----

 

But back on topic - the creative excellence. There's a lot of utterly mind-boggling (but well-presented) stuff in here. The Hollow Worlds themselves sit front and centre in this - they're a pervasive oddness that underpins/overhangs the entire story and really makes what is ostensibly a simple, long, thorough tale sprout very strange legs of its own.

 

There's a great degree of other choices in the novel that, in their depiction, offered really new and exciting things in BL fiction.

 

Foremost, the Space Wolves' armoured column that stages an ambush around halfway through. Individually, the pieces are pretty simple and innocuous enough - but the sweep of it - a simple demonstration of some Chaos Space Marines and some Space Wolves fighting a 'typical' 40k-ish scale battle was mega-cool. It's a tiny touch, but with its placement in the story, it really leapt out and spoke to me.

 

It's amplified, I think, by the characterisation of Folkvar and his compatriots - and that it's one of the first 'clashes' between antagonist and protagonist too, but without seeming inevitable, or inescapable, or consequence-less or even too foretold/portentous too. It's a very well measured, 'simple' scene and it worked excellently.

 

Logistics: quite a lot of the story's conflict and plot-arcs are actually dependent on the 'mechanics' of fighting war - the problems of conquest, competing objectives, the nature of victory and so forth. It goes from a personal scale right up to interplanetary violence - it works very well.

 

There was also the use of naval warfare (and imagery) which I thought was a little treat in the book. It's nothing too deep (for any maritime experts/enthusiasts), but it was very evocative and inventive in its use. (Compare to Gav's Kadillus and Aaron's Helsreach that have a little bit of at-sea/harbourside - and this shows how it's an element that 40k massively underuses.)

 

Some people might be aware of my general dislike of the novel Brothers of the Snake - but less well ranted about is the few things I grudgingly concede as excellent from that novel. Foremost, it's a nice, relatively personal meandering story about some guys doing some stuff over some space for some time. Secondly, the sheer imagery that Dan evoked in the novel is a delight (I'm especially fond of the beach-scenes with the Marines on Ithaka).

 

In many respects, Tyrant of the Hollow Worlds is a similar novel - but, for my tastes, features absolutely nothing that I found egregious in Brothers of the Snake. Instead, it pushes a low-key 'personal' story, bolstered by innumerable incidental/antagonist character pieces throughout the story. It provides a vast sweep of insights and an absolute ton (in sheer quantity!) of story - the book is gargantuan!

 

It's also very... sci-fi. There's a great swathe of oddness and 'mad' stuff going on in the book, and the characters actually come off really well - really 'human' (or once-human) as a consequence of it. The eventual sweep of Rotaka's story, slow burn as it is, is a raw, somewhat horrific delight - meaning that by the end of the story, and all the craziness that accompanies it, is completely founded on a lot of competing, well-invested high-stakes.

 

---

 

In short: it's really rather good.

 

Now as a rule I have avoided most of the SMB books (got the first 6 or so in the series but with some exceptions was not keen). Also my reading list is pretty long and BL seem to have raised the bar in 2017 so list getting longer.

 

Looks like I may have to add this one too (as for the most part you and I agree Xisor). Thanks for review from me (damn it from my wallet).

 

Excellent book? Totally disagree in my humble opinion. That's one of the worst SMB made ever. Exactly for the reasons you mentioned. Because they are totally polar to what you did wrote why it's good. That's exactly that kind of SMB novel after which people drop the lineup.

[Kelborn]

Different people, different preferences :rolleyes:

[HeritorA]

Different people, different preferences

Indeed - but you should see that there is a big difference between TotHW and Battle for the Fang or Legion of the Damned. The last 2 are amazing. And this one is sipmly 'okeeyish'

[Kelborn]

Legion of the Damned is good?

Hm...might give it a try then...no SMB since Helsreach & Battle of the Fang caught my attention.

[HeritorA]

Legion of the Damned is good?

Hm...might give it a try then...no SMB since Helsreach & Battle of the Fang caught my attention.

Helsreach & Battle of the Fang & Legion of the Damned are the best 3 SMB novels to date

[Xisor]

Oh, definitely, TotHW hasn't knocked LotD or Battle of the Fang off of the top tiers - but like many of the SMB books, it's not at all the bolter porn I always feared they might be.

 

(I was never super enamoured with Helsreach. A lot of good bits, but a lot of things that didn't do a huge amount for me too.)

 

In that respect in favour of TotHW it's got a very strong edge over the weaker SMB books (Hunt for Voldemort, Purging of Cadillacs, Fall of Dagnabit, Ron's World) - and it's not as po-faced nor miserable as "Wrath of Irony" or "Siege of Castle Dracula". (Though I did think those two to be very good, just by their nature rather difficult to seriously enjoy.)

 

Indeed, aptly for Red Corsairs, it sits rather happily aside "The Gilded Rift". Both from writers whose prose is a very fresh, engaging take on 40k, whilst also keeping very "classic 40k" in weirdness and down-to-earth oddness.

 

---

 

Especially on that last point, Clapham's writing is a significant tonal shift (without losing the grim darkness, overall) for most 40k stories - a much easier reading book than a lot of the muddier, more difficult pieces.

 

On that strength alone, it's very well worth a read.

[HeritorA]

'In that respect in favour of TotHW it's got a very strong edge over the weaker SMB books (Hunt for Voldemort, Purging of Cadillacs, Fall of Dagnabit, Ron's World) - and it's not as po-faced nor miserable as "Wrath of Irony" or "Siege of Castle Dracula". (Though I did think those two to be very good, just by their nature rather difficult to seriously enjoy.)' - lol, please do more I vote for you to be our title namer for all the next BL books

'Especially on that last point, Clapham's writing is a significant tonal shift (without losing the grim darkness, overall) for most 40k stories - a much easier reading book than a lot of the muddier, more difficult pieces.' - for me it was one of the blankest and hard to read SMB ever.

[DarKnight]

Oh, definitely, TotHW hasn't knocked LotD or Battle of the Fang off of the top tiers - but like many of the SMB books, it's not at all the bolter porn I always feared they might be.

 

(I was never super enamoured with Helsreach. A lot of good bits, but a lot of things that didn't do a huge amount for me too.)

 

In that respect in favour of TotHW it's got a very strong edge over the weaker SMB books (Hunt for Voldemort, Purging of Cadillacs, Fall of Dagnabit, Ron's World) - and it's not as po-faced nor miserable as "Wrath of Irony" or "Siege of Castle Dracula". (Though I did think those two to be very good, just by their nature rather difficult to seriously enjoy.)

 

Indeed, aptly for Red Corsairs, it sits rather happily aside "The Gilded Rift". Both from writers whose prose is a very fresh, engaging take on 40k, whilst also keeping very "classic 40k" in weirdness and down-to-earth oddness.

 

---

 

Especially on that last point, Clapham's writing is a significant tonal shift (without losing the grim darkness, overall) for most 40k stories - a much easier reading book than a lot of the muddier, more difficult pieces.

 

On that strength alone, it's very well worth a read.

If you feel like getting into it, what parts of Helsreach didn't you really care for?

[Xisor]

If you feel like getting into it, what parts of Helsreach didn't you really care for?

Certainly, though I wouldn't want to derail for long - so I think it's probably good to parallel with TotHW too.

 

A long while ago, I wrote on my blog of Helsreach (amongst a series of little retrospectives on the SMB series of the time - https://xisor.wordpress.com/2012/05/06/space-marine-battles-a-series-perspective/ ) :

 

"It’s a wobbly novel in some respects, you can see a few of the decisions that Aaron has since become a bit more savvy at making, but across the board its bloody interesting and, in many regions, extremely good too. Grimauldus’ end is particularly inspiring and memorable, whilst the take on Armageddon, the setup and the set-pieces used in the novel (plus cameo/incidental characters) were really very well done. I’m not sure if I enjoy the novel more than I rate it, or if I rate it technically better than I enjoyed it. Depends when and what I’m thinking about, I suppose! A fine one, though, definitely ‘top tier’."

 

I often think of it as 'third to BotF and LotD' - but a significant third. I'd also caveat: I've not re-read Helsreach, and it was a very long time ago I did read it first.

 

The things that stand out to me, after all that time, are:

 

- Helsreach, the city, felt merely like a big city much more than it felt like a Hive. With the Hollow Worlds, except the caveat about air-power, they felt like bizarre worlds - especially in a lot of the vignettes and side-stories. Similarly, I don't recall a strong impression of Helsreach (or Armageddon) itself. The Third War, sure, but not quite inside the setting of the place as a lived-in thing.

 

- I've a penchant for 'boring characters done well' - and I think Grimaldus was a fascinating portrait of a character, perhaps unique in my experience, but it also accompanied him not being a hugely fun character to read. (Contrast against Pedro & Cortez in "Ron's World" who were a bit daft in principle, but intensely easy to read, or contrast again with Raldoron in "Fear to Tread", who wasn't just boring in principle, but a tremendous non-entity in practice!) In contrast to ADB's other works, Grimaldus and co just didn't have the same pizazz and charm. In fact, more than anything, I think Grimaldus was perhaps a perfectly done Marine - single minded in a very near-atypical sort of way. A fascinating character, and well-done, but not quite 'boring done well'.

 

(The high water mark for that, for me, has been for a very long time Ludwig Schwarzhelm in the Swords of the Emperor ecology by Chris Wraight. Charlmess, efficient, narrowly competent, unflinching, unsmiling, unbending... yet utterly compelling and a great foil to the rest of the cast.)

 

- Following on that last point, given what we know of Aaron's literary ability, I perhaps feel a little sad that the scope for Grimaldus was what it was. A bit too... functional? Contrast that with Rataka in Tyrant of the Hollow Worlds, who for a large portion of the book I found myself resenting (as he was a lot less interesting than the other characters in the novel, though somewhere in the second half that reversed significantly and I found myself really involved in his story).

- There were some 'lore' choices in the novel Helsreach that rubbed me up a little oddly. The Techmarine hijacking into the Ordinatus, for one. That said, Techmarines in 40k (and indeed in Tyrant of the Hollow Worlds too) feel a bit like '90s Hollywood Hackers, albeit without sunglasses and black trench-coats. That is: they can hack anything into anything. Perhaps that's just me being awkwardly fascinated by the implications of what it would mean to be a Techmarine in 40k, and resenting the lack of plunging deeper into it. Incidentally, it's only really towards the end of Tyrant of the Hollow Worlds that we get a good look inside the mind of the Techmarine of the story - but when we do, again, it was very nicely done.

 

(I should add at this point: I'd be very excited to see a cradle-to-grave story about a Techmarine and the high-level 'mechanics' of their duties. What sort of staff do they have? What authority? What's their philosophical and theological position, in specifics? What are the varieties of conflict they're plunged into? How strongly does the logistical burden of the chapter fall on them versus the Chapter Master and the Captains? Etc etc etc)

 

Of course, that's just a couple of remarks that still stick with me to the day. There was a huge amount of 'Helsreach' that I did enjoy, so by no-means take nit-picking as wild criticism - but next to 'Legion of the Damned' and 'Battle for the Abyss', I find it hard to enthuse too strongly about it.

 

Paragraph to paragraph, of course, 'Helsreach' is buoyed by the fact Aaron's a damn smooth writer that's a pleasure to read, and to race through. Depending on where your tastes lie, as a reader, obviously one's milage can vary. But, as I'm a slow reader anyway, the pacing of prose registers with me a lot less.

[DukeLeto69]

Oh, definitely, TotHW hasn't knocked LotD or Battle of the Fang off of the top tiers - but like many of the SMB books, it's not at all the bolter porn I always feared they might be.

(I was never super enamoured with Helsreach. A lot of good bits, but a lot of things that didn't do a huge amount for me too.)

In that respect in favour of TotHW it's got a very strong edge over the weaker SMB books (Hunt for Voldemort, Purging of Cadillacs, Fall of Dagnabit, Ron's World) - and it's not as po-faced nor miserable as "Wrath of Irony" or "Siege of Castle Dracula". (Though I did think those two to be very good, just by their nature rather difficult to seriously enjoy.)

Indeed, aptly for Red Corsairs, it sits rather happily aside "The Gilded Rift". Both from writers whose prose is a very fresh, engaging take on 40k, whilst also keeping very "classic 40k" in weirdness and down-to-earth oddness.

---

Especially on that last point, Clapham's writing is a significant tonal shift (without losing the grim darkness, overall) for most 40k stories - a much easier reading book than a lot of the muddier, more difficult pieces.

On that strength alone, it's very well worth a read.

Xisor not sure if those retitled books were deliberate or (even funnier) you have autocorrect on but they made me LOL... Quite intrigued to read Ron's World haha

[HeritorA]

 

Oh, definitely, TotHW hasn't knocked LotD or Battle of the Fang off of the top tiers - but like many of the SMB books, it's not at all the bolter porn I always feared they might be.

(I was never super enamoured with Helsreach. A lot of good bits, but a lot of things that didn't do a huge amount for me too.)

In that respect in favour of TotHW it's got a very strong edge over the weaker SMB books (Hunt for Voldemort, Purging of Cadillacs, Fall of Dagnabit, Ron's World) - and it's not as po-faced nor miserable as "Wrath of Irony" or "Siege of Castle Dracula". (Though I did think those two to be very good, just by their nature rather difficult to seriously enjoy.)

Indeed, aptly for Red Corsairs, it sits rather happily aside "The Gilded Rift". Both from writers whose prose is a very fresh, engaging take on 40k, whilst also keeping very "classic 40k" in weirdness and down-to-earth oddness.

---

Especially on that last point, Clapham's writing is a significant tonal shift (without losing the grim darkness, overall) for most 40k stories - a much easier reading book than a lot of the muddier, more difficult pieces.

On that strength alone, it's very well worth a read.

Xisor not sure if those retitled books were deliberate or (even funnier) you have autocorrect on but they made me LOL... Quite intrigued to read Ron's World haha

 

Purging of Cadillacs, Fall of Dagnabit are much better as title than Ron's World :)

To the topic  -TofHW is actually a prequel to a lot of shorts and to the 'Silver skulls' books. And most of all it's a prequel for the siege and taken 'Wolf of Fenris' strike cruiser of the same SW band. That ending actually explaing how Red Corsairs knew about 'Wolf of Fenris' warp route and predicament.

That was a nice small touch to the lore.