Xathrodox86 reviews: "The Beast Must Die" by Gav Thorpe

The ploth thickens. The Imperium finally takes the fight to the greenskins, but the Beast has more than one surprise in its armored sleeve.

Mankind has enough of Ork's tomfoolery and decided that it's time to strike back. With Vulkan on board, and the High Lords pacified, at least for some time, the brave defenders of the Imperium set out towards Ullanor, the seat of Beast's power, to slay the vile fiend once and for all.

These series' covers are some of the best that I've ever seen. Seriously!

This is Gav Thorpe's second entry in "The Beast Arises" series, and I gotta say - it's really solid. There's almost zero politics. Instead we get a non-stop action with humanity finally getting tired of the greenskins, and deciding to take the fight to their world, which was once the same planet upon which Horus became the Warmaster.

From the very first chapter we see that the main hero of the book will be Vulkan himself. He's not his usual "hugging" self, however. This is Vulkan after a millenia and a half of lonely existence, being the last of his kind and knowing the horrible truth about chaos and how it can pervert and corrupt even the noblest of souls. The Lord of Drakes is very weary and tired, he's seen more than enough and suffered more than enough. He wants peace, and this new Imperium is an anathema to him, to everything that he and his brothers had fought for. Vulkan is no leader, however, as he makes sure that this honor remains Koorland's alone. He's sometimes acting almost like a mentor to the new Lord Commander of the Imperium, which I've really found more than touching. On the field of battle he's still a force to be reckoned with, slaying the orks left and right. An unstoppable force of nature and fury, the last of his demi-god kind.

The battles are frantic and desperate, and they're probably some of the best written in the whole series. Thorpe really makes us care for the stakes at hand, for those in the field. Look, this book is written almost entirely about stabbing, shooting and blowing stuff up, but it's no ordinary, vulgar bolter porn. It's a solid war drama, with high stakes and epic showpieces. The orks are a terrible threat to behold, and on Ullanor their society is shown in a really fascinating way. To portray how an ork would live in a time of "peace" is something that almost no one does in the 40K books. I am glad that Gav Thorpe went the different way here. He also brought a lot of oldschool ork stuff, back from the time of earlier editions of Warhammer 40,000. Those of you who have the privilege to know the old lore will not be dissapointed.

Without spoiling anything I will also add that we finally get to see the Beast for the first time. When I came to this part of the book, I was just... stunned. Well done Mr. Thorpe. Seldom I am shocked by an introduction of a ficitonal character in an story that I read/listen to. This was one of those moments. Kudos to the author.

"The Beast Must Die" is a very solid and enjoyable read, and another great addition to this series. I know that I often give Gav Thorpe a lot of shit, but honestly, lately almost all of his works have turned out really, really good. He clearly evolves as a writer, and I can't wait to read his entry in the "Siege of Terra" series. If it will be on the level of this book, I'll be more than happy.

Counting on you Gav!

Until next time!

Xathrodox86