Death Rider - Rhuaridh James

[Casual Heresy]

I've got about 40 pages left and I have been loving this book.

 

I've never been as keen on the Death Korps as many others. They've grown on me recently, but of all their aspects it's the Death Riders I like best so wanted to give the book chance.

 

I've really enjoyed it. I enjoy James' prose style and I like how explored a Death Korps Commissar's role is different from the standard. I do think the trope of a Commissar who is not a ruthless zealot is a little over done, but I don't think this book would work with another type of character.

 

Has anyone else picked this one up?

[sitnam]

I had a bit of Krieg fatigue due to Krieg and Siege of Vraks being a bit disappointing compared to Lyons earlier works. I might give this a try, perhaps James can do something different

[Jareddm]

This was an auto buy for me, as James blew me away with his short story, "The Sum of its Parts." Have not gotten to crack it open yet but I have high expectations and find it unfortunate that his first novel is arriving on the back of a small hill of Krieg novels.

[cheywood]

Quite liked this read. One of the better debuts we’ve had in recent years. The prose is good, the characters rich and the perspective interesting. It truly treats the Krieg as different from the Imperium’s other forces, something I think Lyons doesn’t quite know how to do in his recent novels. I love that it’s a perspective on what happens after a disaster in wartime, and its deeply cynical take on the Imperium resonates with me. It’s a little funny too, which is nice. Above all I think it has a lot of pathos in it for such a dark and dismal story. I cried a couple times. 
 

There are some signs it’s a first novel - weird pacing, unnecessary chapters, some lack of descriptive clarity in action scenes. Very excited to see James write more for BL. 8.5 out of 10. 

[The Scorpion]

Alright. Y'all have me convinced. I'm reading this next.

[The Scorpion]

I just started and so far it has been peak. But I think the author may have made a big error making the lore for the comissars, including the main character.

 

Comissars are brought to the regiments from off-world, to prevent any conflicting loyalties. In here, it looks like the Attilan comissar is from Attila and the Korpsman comissar is from Krieg. But it is a minor issue, it is more than made up for it with things like how the Attilans think the main character's horse gives him all of his aura.

[Jareddm]

On 5/23/2026 at 5:40 PM, The Scorpion said:

I just started and so far it has been peak. But I think the author may have made a big error making the lore for the comissars, including the main character.

 

Comissars are brought to the regiments from off-world, to prevent any conflicting loyalties. In here, it looks like the Attilan comissar is from Attila and the Korpsman comissar is from Krieg. But it is a minor issue, it is more than made up for it with things like how the Attilans think the main character's horse gives him all of his aura.

Neither of those things is true, as will be detailed later.

 

Edit: What I meant was that neither commissar is from their regiment's homeworld.

Edited May 25 by Jareddm

[Jareddm]

A little over halfway through but I especially loved the chapter of 

Spoiler

Going through the motions of inventing an entirely new Tau allied race, explaining their entire culture and history and integration into the Greater Good, all the way to some random act of rebellion by a worker that just wanted to carve sculptures having to work on rail guns to explain why the Tau gun misfired a decade later to showcase the ability of a minor psyker whose only ability is luck.

 

Edited May 25 by Jareddm

[sitnam]

On 5/24/2026 at 11:26 PM, Jareddm said:

Neither of those things is true, as will be detailed later.

 

Edit: What I meant was that neither commissar is from their regiment's homeworld.

 

I'm only 4 chapters in, but my impression is that they are commissars "gone native", adopting the customs of their regiments. This helps them better lead their troops and understand their various cultures.

 

I'm already hooked so far. The ragtag group of riders is such a neat way to portray the Astra Militarum. I'm getting flashbacks of the awesome Deathworlder: a group of Guardsmen on a world that's already doomed.

[The Scorpion]

On 4/22/2026 at 7:03 AM, sitnam said:

I had a bit of Krieg fatigue due to Krieg and Siege of Vraks being a bit disappointing compared to Lyons earlier works. I might give this a try, perhaps James can do something different

I love how the recent mood on B&C about Lyons is "when your GOAT is washed" while Siege of Vraks deadass won Book of the Year and nobody here could explain why.

 

21 hours ago, sitnam said:

 

I'm only 4 chapters in, but my impression is that they are commissars "gone native", adopting the customs of their regiments. This helps them better lead their troops and understand their various cultures.

 

I'm already hooked so far. The ragtag group of riders is such a neat way to portray the Astra Militarum. I'm getting flashbacks of the awesome Deathworlder: a group of Guardsmen on a world that's already doomed.

The cataclysm in this novel is cool though: a ship with half a hold worth of torpedoes crashes into the planet, effectively creating an extinction-level event. Before you get to know the characters you know the fate of Rezlan first: a desolate Death World, devoid of any Imperials or Tau. The whole war is thrown into disarray by the cataclysm.

[sitnam]

WOW, what a great book. I'd need to stew on it a bit, but this might be my favorite Militarum novel ever. The core group of characters were fantastic, the settings and pacing was great. Even though this is a Krieg novel, it really feels like a commissar novel, and a great one at that. It's also nice to see a novel that acknowledges so many background regiments: Athonians, Mordians, Savlar, Attilans. It's such a grimdark story without venturing into grimderp territory.

 

Also had some good moments for the T'au and their allies, as few as they were.

[The Scorpion]

On 6/2/2026 at 7:46 PM, sitnam said:

WOW, what a great book. I'd need to stew on it a bit, but this might be my favorite Militarum novel ever. The core group of characters were fantastic, the settings and pacing was great. Even though this is a Krieg novel, it really feels like a commissar novel, and a great one at that. It's also nice to see a novel that acknowledges so many background regiments: Athonians, Mordians, Savlar, Attilans. It's such a grimdark story without venturing into grimderp territory.

 

Also had some good moments for the T'au and their allies, as few as they were.

 

This is a great way to describe it. The main character's backstory is what sold me on the the idea that this book was peak, but the secondary and minor characters are what make it: Jens, Katarin, and the Tau commander (for what the little time he appeared) all struck me as 10/10 characters.

[grailkeeper]

I really like Rhu James, but I wasnt as mad about this book as his other work. Maybe I should re-read it in light of whats been said here.