En los campos de batalla de Aexe Cardinal, las fuerzas de combate de la Guardia Imperial quedan inmovilizadas en una situación de estancamiento mortífero con los siniestros ejércitos del Caos. El comisario Ibram Gaunt y su regimiento, los Primeros y Únicos de Tanith, se ven inmersos en un infierno: la guerra de trincheras, en la que la amenaza de la muerte provocada por la artillería letal se cierne continuamente sobre ellos. La única oportunidad de sobrevivir que tienen Gaunt y sus tropas de exploración es ofrecerse como voluntarios a una misión tan peligrosa ¡que nadie se atreve a aceptarla!

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Straight Silver
Series: Warhammer 40K: Gaunt's Ghosts #6
Author: Dan Abnett
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 416
Words: 107K

Synopsis:

From Wikipedia

Still under the command of Van Voytz, the Tanith First is deployed as part of the Imperial Expeditionary Force to Aexe Cardinal, where a deadlocked land war has been raging for forty years between the Aexe Alliance (a handful of loyal nation-states) and the Chaos-corrupted Shadik Republic. Warmaster Macaroth insists that the Aexe Alliance is to remain in command of the campaign, with strained success. The Alliance employs methods of warfare considered obsolete and inefficient according to the modern standard tactics of the Imperial Guard.

Gaunt is quickly frustrated with the brutal strategies and lack of reliable intelligence, and disagrees with the deployment of the scout-specialist Ghosts as grunts in the trenches. Van Voytz and Count Golke – the Alliance/Imperial liaison – negotiate with Alliance Command and agree to a compromise: one half of the Tanith First is sent to the northern Montorq forests to scout the area, while the other is redeployed to the Seiberq Pocket – the most dangerous section of the war zone – where they are tasked with infiltrating the Shadik lines and destroying the enemy's newly developed siege guns.

Straight Silver is the first novel in which the Tanith First does not see a campaign through to its conclusion: after successfully taking out the siege-guns in the Seiberq Pocket and repelling a Blood Pact flanking manoeuvre in the Montorq Forest, the Ghosts are withdrawn from the front lines and redeployed to Herodor.

My Thoughts:

Another book in the series that doesn't disappoint. Action, politics within and without, drama, tension, this is everything I want in a ground pounder sf book.

The story line about Lija Cuu (who is an insane psycho who kills his allies as easily as the enemy) ramps up and Mad Larkin (a sniper who seems to be one of the better guys) pretty much loses it. Larkin is completely intimidated by Cuu though, so I'm not sure that justice for Cuu will come from Larkin. Cuu is definitely set up as the Bad Buy within the Ghosts. He cleverly kills another Ghost this time around and once again it is blamed on the enemy. Cuu makes me want to kill him (which is the whole point of the character, but still...)

The greater political game was good in that it put Gaunt in his place. Not that it was necessarily enjoyable to read about a competent man being over-ruled time and again and watching the bad decisions play out, but it keeps him from becoming a Candidate for Emperor in the reader's minds. Gaunt is a great commander but he's not in overall charge and the story does a good job reminding us of that.

While these books are not great tomes of literature, they are still well written, enjoyable and I can see why Abnett has made a name for himself as an author of franchise fiction.

★★★☆½ ( )

-One book in a series following Colonel Gaunt and his regiment of Imperial Guard, The Tanith First and Only. In this book the soldiers are sent to a war zone to break a 50-year stalemate. The war is old-fashioned trench combat with neither side showing much will other than to grind away from each other. The arrival of advanced Imperial troops seems to set the favor on the side of the alliance but their enemies have the favor of chaos and a secret weapon of their own. Gaunt and his men are thrown in the trenches and forced to fight a type of combat straight from the past. When they get the clearance to send a group on a flanking mission to destroy the enemy’s railguns, chaos traitors appear to even the odds. This was my first Gaunt novel and it was one of the better Warhammer novels I have read. The characters are all well developed and independent. There are really no tiresome types in the book. A testament to Abnett’s skill. The book is also a great description of the warfare found during WWI. It is shown for all its tedious brutal and pointless slaughter. The descriptions are well done the action flows smoothly and the book was quite enjoyable. While people who don’t like sci-fi or Warhammer might not buy in, it is good for that genre. ( )