Steel Tread

[Roomsky]

A thread for this book. Kudos to Black Library for continuing to just drop some books paperback straight away. Wish they did it more.

 

Steel Tread – Andy Clark (Audiobook)

 

When reading Clark, I feel like I’m still chasing the high of Gate of Bones, and won’t get it until he drops another Dawn of Fire novel. It probably isn't fair to him, but it’s hard not to make the comparison.

 

This book was okay. It’s certainly competent, but it delivers very little you couldn’t find in dozens of other pieces of military fiction. It’s the new leader proving herself, it’s the unmotivated crewmember who’s tired of the war, it’s the belligerent crew member who gets in a fight with their superior, it’s the younger more idealistic crew member, it’s the annoying one who talks a lot, etc etc etc. It’s pretty middle of the road and by the time we’re ramping up to the big finale all the more interesting elements have already happened. It isn’t helped by the Chaos forces (with one literally large exception) being about as flaccid as I’ve ever seen them.

 

The only thing that really caught my attention was how well this works as a companion to Hill’s Minka Lesk series. While those books do a great job at detailing the struggle of the displaced Cadians from their perspective, Steel Tread flips the dynamic and we get to be the outsiders looking in. Needless to say, it’s a much less flattering portrait and succeeds at what I’d love to see Black Library used for more often.

 

All in all though, it’s fine, it’s not great, gets a pass but not much else.

 

ANR: 5.5/10

Diehards/Bored People Only. There’s better tank books and better Guard books you could be reading.

 

[sitnam]

I'm halfway through on audible and I can't quite agree, as I'm throughly enjoying it. I haven't read a ton of 40k tankers books, but this rates fairly well for a standalone guard book imo.

 

Not as good as the Minka Lesk series however

[cheywood]

As always Roomsky you make some great points. I can’t disagree that Steel Tread is a relatively generic look at a 40k tank unit, but I love a good armoured warfare novel. I think it’s been a while since we got one (Shadowsword a good 5-6 years ago?) so I was quite enamored with this. I think Clark does a good job with the tropes and I ended up appreciating the banter of the tank crew despite the relatively cliched roles everyone plays (idealistic youngster, trauma-scarred officer, hardened NCO, religious fanatic, roguish criminal). I’d put this above Gate of Bones personally, but then I seem to prefer Clark’s smaller scale stories, like this and Gloomspite. Edited January 27, 2022 by cheywood

[sitnam]

I’m a big Andy Clark fanboy, so any story of his is an instant pickup for me (Besides Fist of the Imperium lol, just don’t like Imperial Fists). This was a fun action novel (as his novels tend to be) and whilst the tank crew were tropey I quite like the cast of characters. What Roomsky said about this in relation the the Minka Lesk novels is an excellent point.

 

The thing I really like about Clark’s novels is that he handles the sense of scale very well. I feel like the world spanning conflicts he portrays are actually world spanning conflicts. This novel focuses around a cheeky Leman Russ Demolisher crew, but this was but one battle on this planetary campaign. And whilst the heroics of said crew are a big focus of the novel, they are just a cog in the machine and they do not fight alone