The Purging of Kadillus - Gav Thorpe - Advanced Review

The Purging of Kadillus: Gav Thorpe

 A Space Marine Battles Novel

“Indeed it is Brothers. Today it is truly victory or Death.”

Faced with an ork invasion of Piscina IV, the 3rd Company of the Dark Angels believes the threat to be minimal. As enemy numbers continue to increase, their commander, Captain Belial, insists that his Company are strong enough to resist. But Scout-Sergeant Naaman knows just how dangerous this foe can be, and when a renewed greenskin offensive takes the Dark Angels by surprise, the orks swarm towards Kadillus Harbour. Little do the Dark Angels know of the technological power available to the xenos, and the true scale of the threat they face. Belial, Naaman and their fellow Astartes fight a desperate siege at Kadillus, knowing that they must hold out until Imperial reinforcements arrive or the planet will be lost.

~http://www.blacklibrary.com/all-products/coming-soon/The-Purging-of-Kadillus.html

Now then, it’s time for me to tell you what I thought of The Purging of Kadillus, the latest instalment in the Space Marine Battles series, written by Gav Thorpe, who also brought us novels like Path of the Warrior and Malekith. Now, before I read this book, out of the Space Marine Battles novels, I’ve only read Rynn’s World and Helsreach.

Because one book was excellent (Helsreach), and the other not so excellent (Rynn’s World), I was wondering whether the Dark Angels book would actually be any good, after eagerly waiting for it.

And was I entertained? Well, in a manner of speaking, yes. I was given a bolter-porn packed book that had some enjoyable fighting scenes, but apart from that, this book was defiantly no Helsreach.

The Purging of Kadillus didn’t really come of as a good book for me, as it lacked numerous things which make a book good, first of all – it lacked character development, and as mentioned earlier, was mainly bolter-porn, fast paced action that didn’t really put it above all others.

Now, the description in this novel was relatively okay, however Mr. Thorpe doesn’t really go into detail that much.

Back to the character development. Although, does people going from rivalries to respected companions throughout the whole novel count as character development? Because this does happen in the book, between Scout-Sergeant Naaman, as mentioned in the blurb, and Ravenwing-Sergeant Aquila.

Ah, now, Sergeant Aquila. This brings me onto the subject of names, and let’s just say, Gav Thorpe doesn’t keep them all original. Take the name of the Master Chaplain, for example. And, guess what he’s called: Uriel. Last time I checked, a Space Marine named Uriel Ventris just happened to be the main character of the Ultramarines series, written by popular author Graham McNeill.  

But wait, there’s more. Another Chaplain, an Interrogator this time, oh just so happens to bear the name of a Soul Drinkers character Sarpedon.

Now, moving on from the character names, I’m going to talk about the Orks. It’s our third Space Marine Battles novel out of four which features them as the opposition, and at long last, we finally get a bit from their point of view, in the prologue, and the epilogue. And it’s not just any Ork who we get a point of view from, oh no – it’s the almighty Hand of Gork and Mork himself, the Beast of Armageddon, Ghazghkull Thraka, and it’s pretty awesome, let me tell you this. From my point of view, it was one of the highlights of the book.

And on that bombshell, I leave you with this:

Rating: 6/10, an action packed book leaving little room for character development.

Should you buy this book? Unless you are a Space Marine Battles, Dark Angels or Gav Thorpe fan then you can probably give this book a miss.