The Warhammer 40k setting is as bleak as it is intentionally anachronistic and entirely unique. Just think about it: this story takes place roughly 39,000 to 40,000 years in the future, yet the tanks—as massive and destructive as they are—still run on diesel. Melee weapons like swords are common in combat, and mining on distant colonies still relies on manual labor. This sets the stage for the absolute slaughterfest that is Necropolis: Gaunt's Ghosts, Book 3. It is a rough, dirty, and bloody bus...

Okay, hear me out. I don’t often give out perfect ratings, and I want to be clear that Necropolis: Gaunt's Ghosts, Book 3 has its flaws: as usual, Dan Abnett rushes the ending, the geography can be confusing, and at times, it takes itself a little too seriously. But for military science fiction, this is as good as it gets. It hits that sweet spot with just the right amount of genre tropes, some incredibly imaginative imagery, and a massive amount of action. In fact, if I had to pick one aspect o...

Necropolis, the third book in the Gaunt's Ghosts series, proves Abnett is anything but formulaic. Each book in the series so far varies dramatically in presentation, content and narrative style. Here, Abnett starts oscillating among various people living in Vervunhive, a massive hive city in the Sabbat System (Gaunt's Ghosts do not even make an appearance until more than a third of the way in). A normal day gets interrupted by warning sirens. A test? What gives? The command structure of the city...

In August, I began reading The Founding, the Gaunt’s Ghosts Omnibus by Dan Abnett. Prior to picking up this book I was unfamiliar with the Warhammer 40,000 world and its novels. That is no longer the case. ‘The Founding’ Omnibus contains 3 novels and 1 short story about the charismatic, rock-em sock-em Commisar-General Ibram Gaunt and his own personal regiment of Imperial army specialists: The Tanith First and Only, a specialized group of mercenaries who are skilled in the art of war. The Empire...

Necropolis had me hook line and sinker the whole way through. I completely devoured the last 150 pages (one day of the siege) in one afternoon. It hit all the right notes of what Warhammer is to me. Warfare, warp abominations slain with lasguns/boltguns/powerswords and courage in the face of an uncaring and horrific world.

I listened to the audiobook and just didn't find the story enjoyable or interesting. It's not atrocious and Abnett is a fine writer, but I just didn't find anything here to hold my interest. The scene: set in the grim dark Warhammer 40K universe, a tremendous hive-city is under assault by the forces of Chaos from an adjacent hive city on the same continent. There are some interesting pieces to that setup - the hive cities are enormous self-sufficient factories that produce people and materials f...

4.5 Stars.

Still absolutely shamelessly enjoying these books. Solid characters and great sense of scale but can be a little tough to follow exactly whats happening at some fast moving points. That's probably an issue caused by the audiobook though to be fair.

-Entre combate y combate, muchos y de todo tipo, despliegue de nuevos personajes.-Género. Ciencia ficción.Lo que nos cuenta. El libro Necrópolis (publicación original: Necropolis, 2000) nos lleva hasta el planeta Verghast donde la Fábrica Ferrozoica de La Colmena, antiguo enemigo de La Colmena Vervun en los tiempos de la Guerra del Comercio y ahora socio, ataca de manera súbita a su colmena comercial hermana. La vanguardia de la ofensiva hace daño, pero las tropas que vienen detrás son tantas, u...

Great read. Review to follow soon.

It is funny that Abnett states that he really got his groove writing about the Tanith Regiment by this novel in his introduction to the first Omnibus, The Founding. Funny because it is so true. Here the characters are matured and defined and stuck in Hell. The Ghosts don't show for the first 50 pages of the book, and when they do it is unheralded and anonymously as per usual. Necropolis is a story of a knock dawn, drag out, to the last man defense of a city. The body count is in the 100,000s and...