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| The front cover of the Space Marine Codex from Games Workshop |
Warhammer 40k holds a special place in my Sci-fi loving heart.
I have always had a soft spot for the big space battles of Star Wars, the grim dystopian feel of Blade Runner or Neuromancer and the visceral carnage of a good alien vs man battle featured in films like Aliens or Starship Troopers.
Warhammer 40k has all of these qualities, in a grim universe where everything is about war and nothing is pure and innocent (The Emperor of humanity is a mortally wounded human encased in a complex life support system/golden throne that requires the death of thousands of people every day to keep him alive. And they're the good guys!)
It also features tough as nails no nonsense super soldiers such as the above pictured Space Marines, who wear full combat armor and carry machine guns... that fire tiny armor piercing rockets with time delayed warheads designed to explode *inside* enemies turning them into festive meat pinatas (or at least festive by the grim dark standards of the 41st millennium)
Finally there is a lot of variety in the 40k universe as it has a lot of different factions that each have a very distinctive feel to them. You've got everything from elegant super advanced space elves (Eldar) to brutish meat cleaver wielding greenskin Orks (apparently 38,000 years of evolution has moved us from spelling orcs with a k instead of a c)
Within the human faction there is also a large spread ranging from the super human Space Marines to the lowly conscripted people of the Imperial Guard and the fanatical Inquisition.
All this means that reading 40k fiction doesn't get old quickly since books cover very different protagonists and antagonists.
I've probably read at least 40-50 Warhammer 40k books by now and though the quality of writing is certainly not always grade A material I find them to be very entertaining "sci-fi trash novels" (and I mean that in a positive way)
Particularly I can recommend the Eisenhorn and Ravenor books, as well as the Horus Heresy line of books as something of a high watermark of the stuff that I have read.
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| The Eisenhorn Warhammer 40k book |
If you're interested in looking at the Warhammer 40k books you can find them at blacklibrary.com
Warhammer 40k has also made its way into the video game world (see how this all ties up nicely with the ven diagrams of sci-fi and video games?!)
I've not played all the 40k video games but I have spent a lot of time with the Dawn of War RTS series, particularly Dawn of War 2 (DoW2), the multiplayer mode of which I still play several times a week.
Though DoW2 has been out for a couple of years now it has gotten two expansion packs and the multiplayer is still being patched fairly regularly by the developer. It has also aged well and is still one of the best looking RTS games you can find on the PC if your machine is up to the task.
It has an interesting single player campaign (or several if you also get the expansions) which focuses on persistant squad levelling and loot collecting rather than the traditional base and unit building romps that is the norm in the RTS world.
The multiplayer is also a very tactically focused game, with very little building management, which makes you feel more like an army commander and less like a... builder...type...guy...yes.
I'll return with a more in depth look at Dawn of War 2 and why I think it is super cool(tm)
If you're interested in checking in out there's a demo of the game available also, which gives you a taste of what it is all about.
In the mean time keep those chainswords sharpened and oiled (yes, chainswords, basically an effing big sword with the chain and blades from a chainsaw stuck on it. You see, this universe is great)
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