Lord-General Lugo – whose career has been unstable since his disgrace at Hagia – plans to use her as propaganda, and does not care that she is an imposter; he believes that he will be forever remembered as the man responsible for a miracle in the Sabbat Worlds. The second book here is the weakest of the three - though that's only relative to the others, for it still (just about) scrapes a 5 star for me (though I understand why others less enthusiastic than me would rate it lower). Abnett had talent from an early stage, and judging by some of the short stories included, he was getting the hang of it by 2002. Aside from these battles, Ghostmaker is interspersed with short stories (originally published in Inferno!

The mega-city's neighbouring hive, Ferrozoica, amasses an army and marches on their former rival with an unknown agenda.But as the forces of the Imperium and Chaos square up for the final, large-scale confrontation, Gaunt discovers that the greatest threat of all may come from inside rather than out. Voltemond is described in Ghostmaker as a temperate world, similar to Earth, with extensive marshlands around Voltis City, the planetary capital, which was under Chaos control before the events of Ghostmaker.

The Gaunt's Ghosts (Novel Series) is a Black Library series written or edited by Dan Abnett following the adventures of the Tanith First and Only Imperial Guard Regiment battling to free the Sabbat Worlds system from the forces of Chaos. Especially when I entered them with very middling expectations - I thought they'd be pulpy action fun, and nothing more. The Founding gathers together the first three novels and one short story in the Gaunt's Ghosts series. The forge-world of Orestes, a vital supplier for the Sabbat Worlds Crusade, becomes the battleground of Imperial and invading Chaos Titans.This omnibus edition of the first three books in the series shows us Gaunt at various points: in childhood, in training as a Commissar, as part of another regiment, whilst raising the Ghosts as a regiment, and in the aftermath, as they and he work together to, if not save the universe at ;east try to prevent it getting any worse. In the Chaos-infested Sabbat System, the massed ranks of the Astra Militarum - more commonly known as the Imperial Guard - stand shoulder to shoulder as they counter an invasion by heretical forces. The scale here is incomprehensible, the level of death and destruction incredible and deeply sobering. The combat is good, if in a fantasy sense where the same guys keep fortuitously surviving as everyone around them dies at stunningly high rates. With just eighteen days until the fleet (large enough to wipe out the liberation force even if the fleet were a quarter its current size) arrives, Gaunt is given one last chance to redeem himself by the arrogant and pompous Lord-General Lugo: recover the Saint's remains and holy relics from the Shrinehold in the Sacred Hills for evacuation.

Partly because it's a genre I have very little experience with but clearly am all there for (military sci-fi), partly because it's tapped into this young teenage nostalgia (from when I was into the Warhammer 40k hobby itself) and dormant love for the universe, and partly because these are, surprisingly, genuinely well written and absorbingly dramatic stories. The title Sabbat Martyr is a reference to the psychic message experienced by a number of Ghosts in Honour Guard.

But these stories (and going on to educate myself with endless in-depth, 90 minute lore videos on Youtube) really impressed upon me the dark, hopeless, terrifying tragedy of it all.

The Tanith First-And-Only are among the most legendary regiments of Imperial Guard and at their head stands Commissar Ibram Gaunt, unflinching in duty and unrelenting in combat. Then, you get wonderfully sharp images and descriptions of actions and character, compacting in small sections.The answer is, the average Ork Boy is the height of a man (though they stoop), but they can range from about 5 foot to about 30 feet (the Ork warlord known as The Beast of Beasts). If you've never experienced the start of Black Library's longest-running Warhammer 40,000 series, now's your chance. The protagonist is Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt, one of the few political commissars of the Imperium to be officially awarded command of a regiment. But now the very future of the regiment is in jeopardy as Gaunt's Ghosts battle the forces of Chaos across the Sabbat Worlds. Amongst the Guard are the troops of the Tanith First-and-Only, a displaced army forced to flee their home planet before it succumbed to the unrelenting assault of Chaos.