Interceptor City

[Urauloth]

Ok, so I've been away for a while, and maybe I missed something, but I don't see a thread about this book and I'm surprised. This was pretty long-awaited, no?

 

Anyway, I'm partway through it, so I don't have a complete set of thoughts about it yet, but I'm enjoying it a lot so far. Double Eagle is one of my favourite 40k novels, and I'm very happy with this as a follow-up. Maybe there isn't much talk about it because it's so... polished? There's none of the odd plotting choices or experimental prose here that's made Abnett such a locus of discussion recently, he's just doing the thing he did so successfully for so long: this is a Sabbat Worlds book, and it does what it says on the tin.

 

Anyone else read (or reading) it, and if so what do you make of it?

 

Spoiler

I think the word "fightbird" is being oversold, but I know you can't have a Dan Abnett novel without a new term that overstays its welcome, so...

 

[grailkeeper]

I really enjoyed it although 

 

Spoiler

I wasn't mad about the new subplot introduced about 3/4s of the way through.

 

Whilst crumbs for the murder subplot had been subtly laid before hand, it still felt a bit tacked on. I think Abnett did an incredible job of setting up the world the characters live in, then decided after a while he better introduce a story. I was fine with the main plot. I'd have preferred it remain a war story than become a murder mystery set in a war.

 

The reveal of the killer wasn't great.

Still, Interceptor City, might be my book of the year.

 

Spoilers are for some important stuff that happens near the end. I tried to keep it vague but if you haven't finished it maybe don't open.

Edited March 5 by grailkeeper

[Preliminary Bombardment]

Yeah this is good Abnett, I didn’t get on with the never ending TotD but hes great here 

Edited March 12 by Preliminary Bombardment

[Preliminary Bombardment]

Just finished! This was great! Great fun all the way through 

[DukeLeto69]

What a great book. Easy fun read. Abnett’s prose just works and flows. So readable! Such a contrast to the heavy going of his siege of terra three parter that, while still well written, exhausted me to the point that I did not read a black library book for a year. Until now. Really loved Interceptor City. Need more Sabbat Crusade stories!

[LemartesTheLost]

I finally knuckled down and read this after dragging my feet because I just wasn't in an Abnett mood for the longest time. This was good! As others have said, the overuse of certain words and a somewhat rushed ending are staples of Abnett's writing, but what's new? I think Dan really poured a lot into this because it's been the first time he's written the Sabbat Worlds in years (last was The Vincula Insurgency IIRC).

 

He REALLY nailed a lot of the characters that make up a fighter squadron. I know nearly every pilot that appeared in the novel from experience. The call signs were really fabulous and made me think of all the wild signs and stories from my dad's own "Circus". Harlot, Dollface, Blowout, and Merry Death in particular stood out to me. The fact that every clown in the Circus had a different colored plane was too fun as well. The debauchery happening throughout Intercept 66 was almost up to snuff . The concept of the wet pilots was crazy, and I absolutely loved it. Aeronautica Dreadnoughts of a fashion, too cool. Typical Abnett worldbuilding here, which is to say nothing less than top notch.

 

Spoiler

This book's biggest issue was pacing. The first 90 pages were damned slow. Beautifully written, but slow. We all knew from the cover and synopsis that Jagdea was going to be killing bats. It shouldn't have taken the first quarter of the book just for us to get to the point where she is stripped of choices and forced to stay. I don't even think she dropped for combat until page 120. The middle half was excellent though, 10/10.

 

Then we get to the back quarter. I was also somewhat perplexed by the introduction of the murder/detective plot, but I really enjoyed it until Abnett ended it quite hamfistedly as is his wont. Not even upset though. Once I saw we were veering into left field with 130ish pages left, I just contented myself with the fact that the ending would be too rushed for my liking. 

 

I think we can all agree that this was a welcome change of pace from his Siege work. It didn't take me 6 days to finish this book at a healthy trot. As the other fraters have said, this book was extremely smooth/easy to read. Maybe I was just overly soured by TEATD, but this book has given me a little bit of faith back in Abnett. GW is sitting on Pandaemonium and he has to be good for at least one Scouring book, but where else does he go from there? More Sabbat Worlds? Potentially something Post Rift? I'm curious to hear what y'all think. 

 

[DukeLeto69]

Don’t agree on the pacing or the slow build. Too many times we are forced to rush in. This took its time and felt all the better for it. Also think the subplot was well signposted so came to a head at the right point in the book. But maybe just me!

[LemartesTheLost]

23 hours ago, DukeLeto69 said:

Don’t agree on the pacing or the slow build. Too many times we are forced to rush in. This took its time and felt all the better for it. Also think the subplot was well signposted so came to a head at the right point in the book. But maybe just me!

 

I should have clarified that I didn't really mind the slow build initially, and that I would have been more accepting of it overall had he actually introduced the subplot fully earlier or not at all. I think Abnett definitely could've trimmed 30 pages from the front in order to give it a little more breathing room.

 

Spoiler

 But between getting to 66, learning how to not die, then teaching everyone, then White Crow, then getting shot down, then more White Crow, the book just started to feel a little crowded for my taste. I would've loved it if the entire back half of the book was Jagdea trying to escape from the Hive.

 

[Fire Golem]

Is this really the only thread about this? I finally got round to rereading Double Eagle (read a couple of times before, one of my favourite BL books) and reading this in the last week or so. I really enjoyed this. I do agree with people here that the subplot was introduced fairly late and it definitely resolved very abruptly, but neither of those really hindered my enjoyment of the book. The characterisation and worldbuilding were both top notch, as usual. Just the idea of flying fighter jets through a massive city was both a great idea and actually went a lot further than I was expecting. 
 

Spoiler

I was kind of expecting her hydraulics to play some kind of part in a finale, because of the cold open with the failing hydraulics and then the repeated drawing attention to her red hydraulic light. I don’t think it would have been particularly subtle if it had but I’m surprised that seemed to go nowhere.

 

[Sothalor]

This is one of my favorite 40k novels in a long time. There are several things going on that make it so; I’m biased here because the experience of reading Interceptor City synced up things going on in my life and personal matters with the novel’s thematic arcs and plot. This was another one of those 40k novels that had personal resonance with me, right up there alongside The Dark City.

 

Besides that however I think this is some of Dan Abnett’s finest work, and I suspect this was a book he needed to write after The End and the Death from a professional/creative standpoint as well as a personal one.

 

Let me start with the “objective” stuff first. The prose is Abnett at his height: punchy, sharp, with an economy of phrase and wordcraft that immerses the reader in the voice of the narrative POV. The plot and pacing is tight and focused, a welcome contrast after the bloated, meandering TEATD. It blends character work, introspective moments, and small interactions with breakneck aerial combat in an utterly insane setting to deliver one of the most reflective, nuanced, and human stories you’ll find in 40k. On those bases alone I highly recommend this.

 

 

Now to delve into some minor spoilers for a bit more rumination.

Spoiler

Interceptor City is focused on Bree Jagdea, one of the characters from Double Eagle and Guns of Tanith. It takes place twenty years after Double Eagle and is really her story. With the exception of the prologue, we follow her for the whole book as the sole narrative POV. We never really leave her mind; the reader is right there experiencing everything she’s going through. It’s a remarkably claustrophobic and intimate book that uses its close narrative POV to brilliantly explore its themes. The slightly detached, clinically observational tone of It perfectly captures Jagdea’s combination of experience, world-weariness, and self-doubting anxiety.

 

Near the beginning I thought IC was an exploration of PTSD – and while there are some aspects of that it touches on, that isn’t the true core of it. Interceptor City is ultimately more an exploration of identity, proficiency, and confidence. It’s about an older person stepping (back) into a young person’s game, a reflection on somebody who might be considered past their prime. It’s about the mental space and the caustic self-doubt that afflicts us when we must step up to meet a challenge, about those things we ask ourselves in that moment – “can I actually do this?” “Am I still capable of being that person?” “What if I’m not good enough?”

 

I strongly appreciated the beginning of the novel in this regard; it’s a slow starter, taking its time before throwing Jagdea (and the reader) into the action. And doing this so effectively establishes the contrast in her life before and after being shanghaied into active fighter pilot duty. We get to experience her daily routine – and the small internal dissatisfactions – before it goes all cold-drop close-air dogfights inside a dead city the size of Mount Everest. We get to experience how comfortable – and bored – she’s gotten now she thinks her dogfighting days are behind her. And we get to experience the biting mental journey when she discovers they aren’t.

 

The dogfights and action scenes are great; because we’re always seeing things through Jagdea’s eyes, we’re also experiencing them from within the cockpit. The horrifically tight airspaces, near-collisions with buildings, trying to keep track of enemy aircraft, struggling with controls and mechanical quirks – Interceptor City doesn’t go down the “cinematic” route of describing aircraft maneuvers from afar. It forces you to experience it as a punishingly physical reality. Like its themes and plot – tight and claustrophobic. Beautifully awful stuff.

 

The character work is second to none either. It’s very much Jagdea’s story, but the characters around her still feel like real people – tired, worn, on edge, forced to operate in nerve-burning circumstances that push people to their breaking points and beyond. In particular Jagdea has a sort of id-ego-superego dynamic going between two other pilots and herself. Lopard and Gumm represent clashing expressions of who she is or might become, and the course of their interactions throughout the story are wonderful moments of reflection and unconscious epiphanies. There’s this great ebb and flow of setup and payoff with their interactions.

 

 

Now for the personal side – and why Interceptor City hit me the way it did.

Spoiler

I’ve been learning HEMA for the past two years, with a predominant focus on the longsword from Fiore dei Liberi’s manuscript The Flower of Battle. I’ve been doing classes twice a week and sparring on a nearly weekly basis for nearly the last year and a half. It has changed my life in ways I never anticipated – not the least of which was meeting my now-fiancé.

 

But I’m no longer a young man. Physical activity and recovery doesn’t come as easily as it used to. Earlier this year while prepping for our school tournament I flubbed a guard and got my thumb broken. It put me out of commission for a while. Post-recovery, I hadn’t realized just how much of a mental toll that had taken, how much negative self-talk I’d been unconsciously doing every time I kit up to step into the ring.

 

Until Interceptor City. As I read, every part of Jagdea’s experience and arc just clicked with me. All of the fears and coping and quiet doubts – yup. It was like Abnett had rummaged through that part of my subconscious and scribed it all on the page. Reading Interceptor City helped me reflect, recognize, and process what I was going through. It was honestly kind of uncanny and providential that I ended up reading IC when I did. This one hit personally, and ultimately in a healing way.

 

 

So, yeah, I’m biased. Interceptor City is one of those magical stories that uses a fantastic setting and backdrop to explore deep truths of the human condition. The prose, pacing, tone, and intimate, personal scope were an absolute delight. Don’t miss this one.