Abnett, Dan
About the Author:
Dan Abnett lives and works in Maidstone, Kent, UK. He has written for Games Workshop, Marvel Comics, DC and 2000 AD.
AVERAGE REVIEW SCORE:
3.8 out of 5
(6 books)
TOP PICK:
Titanicus
Doctor Who: The Silent Stars Go By
An original adventure featuring the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) and his companions Amy and Rory. The TARDIS arrives on the planet Hereafter where human settlers known as Morphans are engaging in a generations-long effort to terraform the planet. However, the Morphans have found themselves plunged into an unfamiliar and unnatural winter and it's soon clear that the Ice Warriors have also set their sights on Hereafter.
This is a perfectly serviceable Doctor Who novel but, sadly, it's not much more than that. It's a little hard to quantify, but there's just not much in the way of mystery, drama or flair to this story, which leaves it feeling pretty flat overall. That's particularly disappointing considering it features the return of one of Classic Who's iconic 'monsters'.
On top of the flat-feeling narrative, the characterisation wasn't particularly great either. None of the new characters really engaged me to any great degree and the three familiar characters just didn't quite feel like their onscreen counterparts. Rory was by far the closest, but he still lacks the goofy charisma of Arthur Darville's portrayal.
One scene that did stand out to me as being really good was where the Doctor finally confronts the leader of the Ice Warriors. He stands in front of the fearsome Martians and plays off his towering reputation, recalling the times he has been both foe and ally of the Ice Warriors, and laying claim to that people's name for him (much like the Daleks call him The Oncoming Storm), only to discover that, for the Ice Warriors, none of his feats have actually happened yet and they've no idea who he is. It's a nice bit of comedic humbling for an incarnation of the Doctor who had a tendency to lean a little too heavily on his reputation at times.
3 out of 5
Horus Rising
The first book of the Horus Heresy series. Anyone who's ever played the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop game or read any of its related novels will know of the Horus Heresy which forms the franchise's legendary history. With this book Abnett begins to tell the tale of how Warmaster Horus, hero of Mankind, will eventually turn against his beloved Emperor, unleashing a civil war that devastates the Imperium of Man. But, cleverly, this book is entirely set before all that and here we see Horus and his Luna Wolves Space Marines (who will eventually become Chaos Space Marines) as the Emperor's champions.
What I enjoyed most about this book is that, unlike so much Games Workshop fiction, we're not thrown into a maelstrom of hideous daemons and corrupted heroes. Instead we're given mere glimpses of what Chaos is, as the Luna Wolves encounter it for the first time themselves.
I also very much enjoyed the last third of the book, in which Horus desperately tries to open diplomatic ties to a group of humans who his advisors are calling for to be destroyed. There follows a scene of genuine tragedy in which the Warmaster's optimistic and benevolent efforts turn awry. Overall this book shows a depth and emotional maturity that many of the books set in the same 'universe' sadly lack and was therefore a very enjoyable read.
4 out of 5
Primeval: Extinction Event
After dealing with a pair of entelodons which run rampant in London, Cutter, Abby and Connor are kidnapped by Russian agents who plan on using their expertise. In the depths of Siberia a vast anomaly has opened on the Late Cretaceous period, drawing through countless dinosaurs and a far worse threat looms in the skies. Meanwhile, Jenny has to make an unlikely alliance in order to rescue her friends.
I'm not well-versed in the Primeval TV series, having only really watched the first episode (so far, at least), but the truth is that as long as you can get onboard with the idea of windows in time bringing extinct creatures into our world, you'll be fine reading this book. Abnett makes the clever choice of taking the main characters far away from the situations of their onscreen exploits, meaning that he has far more freedom in creating a new and significant adventure for them than he otherwise would do.
The author has also done very well with his choice of location, the atmospheric wilderness of Tunguska, and with the specific types of prehistoric monsters featured. The dinosaurs of the Late Cretaceous are probably the most iconic and therefore you can look forward to our heroes encountering the likes of ankylosaurs, pachycephalosaurs and, best of all, a particularly mean tyrannosaurus.
An enjoyable tale in and of itself, this book also achieves its real-world aims of making me want to watch more of the TV series and maybe even read more of the associated original fiction.
4 out of 5
Riders Of The Dead
A Warhammer novel. This book begins in an all too familiar way, with soldiers of the Empire preparing to fight a massive Chaos hoarde from the north. No shocks there. It focuses on two Imperial soldiers, the educated and open-minded Karl and the cruel and arrogant Gerlach.
The first battle scene is the best in the book, as the two characters have to deal with a confused battle which goes completely against the Empire. The rapid pace and confusion of this battle scene gives a respectable degree of realism. After the battle Karl is a captive of the Chaos forces and Gerlach is alone in the endless steppes of Kislev.
Where Abnett breaks from the predictable is in how his characters develop. Karl, who we instinctively like at the beginning, is seduced by Chaos because he is educated and open-minded. Gerlach, on the other hand, finds himself befriending a group of Kislevites when, at first, his intolerance almost makes enemies of them. Ultimately, it is Gerlach who becomes the hero and Karl the villain, an interesting and believable switch in how we perceive the two characters.
Better than most Warhammer books because Abnett is not afraid to stray from the sex, guts and swearing that other Games Workshop authors feel they have to provide for their teenage male fanbase.
4 out of 5
Titanicus
A Warhammer 40,000 novel. When the forge world of Orestes is attacked by the forces of Chaos, the Titans of Legio Invicta respond to the Imperial Governor's call for aid. However, as the war engines do battle, a schism is forming between the Imperium and their Mechanicus brethren which could lead to the destruction of both.
At first I struggled getting into this book as we're bombarded with new terminology like Omnissiah, princeps, executor fetial and moderati with little or no explanation. However I soon came to respect Abnett for adopting a 'keep up or give up' attitude to the organisations, ranks and so forth he introduces. There are two types of people: those who can extrapolate from incomplete information... If you fall into the second catagory then you'll struggle with this book but, in truth, this book would've suffered greatly from another hundred pages of scene-setting exposition and the author wisely dispenses with it. You'll definitely need some experience of the 40K universe but beyond that you should be able to figure the rest out as you go.
Abnett does a fantastic job of capturing the epic scope of the battle for Orestes by featuring a mix of POV characters ranging from a tank commander to a civilian shopkeeper, allowing us to see all aspects of the conflict across the planet. I particularly enjoyed the storylines of Varco, the aforementioned tank commander, and Cally Samstag, a part-time militia soldier who finds herself in charge of a group of beleaguered fugitives. These two characters in particular give a sense of scale to the fighting by being largely insignificant to it and merely trying to survive.
The battle sequences in this book are fantastic too. The action never detracts from the overall narrative, as has happened in lots of other Games Workshop-based fiction, and actually leads to some of the book's best scenes. The Titan vs Titan combat is a brilliant extrapolation of mechanised warfare and really manages to maintain both pace and tension.
Basically, if you've no experience of Warhammer 40,000 fiction, then don't start here. For an old hand like myself, however, this is quite simply the best novel set in that universe that I've read to date.
5 out of 5
Titans Vol. 1: The Return Of Wally West
(Art by Brett Booth, Norm Rapmund and Marc Deering)
A Rebirth book. Returned from being lost outside of time, Wally returns to his old friends and former teammates, only to discover that they no longer remember him. The Titans then have to rebuild their lifelong friendships and confront the villain behind the erasure of their memories.
Whilst I'm not a fan of DC's constant reboots, the Rebirth event was one that worked better for me than most. What it did that gained my interest was to reinstitute characters, storylines and events that had been erased by Flashpoint and the New 52, bringing back elements that I loved before they were retconned. One of these things was Wally West. I got my start reading comics in the 90s, so for my formative years as a comic consumer Wally West was the Flash (Barry Allen was long-term dead at that time) and I was always a bit annoyed that he was swept aside to focus on Barry as the default version of the character. It was nice then to see him brought back here to rebuild the friendships that had defined him since his days as Kid Flash (I'm aware that things with Wally went screwy further down the line, but I've not got there yet). I found it genuinely heartwarming to see Wally reconnect with each of the Titans in turn, which is given a nice counterpoint later on when they're forced to fight doppelgangers of their younger selves.
Unfortunately, one seemingly insignificant thing can derail an otherwise solid story. Here it is Abra Kadabra. Comics have always had heroes and villains with ridiculous names (Element Lad and Psycho Pirate jump to mind) but there's much less excuse for them to appear in modern times and for the villain here to have that stupid a name breaks the entire flow of this book. It wouldn't be so bad if he were a more interesting villain, but he's really just a moustache-twirling stereotype who wants revenge for Wally defeating him in previous encounters. *Yawn*.
So, an emotionally engaging story which is largely spoiled by a really trashy antagonist.
3 out of 5
Collaborations & Anthologies:
Doctor Who: The Story Of Martha (here)
Guardians Of The Galaxy: Guardians Disassembled (here)
Guardians Of The Galaxy: Thunder In The 31st Century!/Legacy (here)
Hammers Of Ulric (here)
Marvel Platinum: The Definitive Guardians Of The Galaxy (here)
Star Trek: Early Voyages - Part 1 (here)
The Superman Monster (here)
The Transformers: Volume 4 - Heart Of Darkness (here)
Thor/Iron Man: God Complex (here)
Titans Vol. 2: Made In Manhattan (here)
X-Men: The Movie (here)