ACT I, CANTO VI
Ship's chapel, Rogue trader Malescaythe, The Eye of Terror
Enter CAPTAIN REINETTE TORRES
Torres had insisted that...
- Atlas Infernal, page 125.
A couple of hundred pages in...
The first thing that impresses upon starting this book is how each chapter opens. I say chapter, but in the realms of Atlas Infernal, chapters are labelled 'cantos' - an Italian reference used to describe parts of a long form poem.
Each part of the book follows this literary flourish - a chapter is a 'canto', a part is an 'act'. Each entry to a canto then sets the scene much in the same way that a script would - the players and their opening actions in the scene are taken outside of the text itself before diving back into the narrative.
It's an unusual trick - but one that is utterly fitting for a story that involves both the harlequins - with their passion for drama and lore - and the baroquely old fashioned descriptions of the Inquisition.
I love a good 'chapter entrance' in fantasy fiction - those brief descriptive sentances that come before the text itself that give you an insight into the setting and/or those people that inhabit it. It's an effectively efficient way of growing a fantasy world in your mind without drowning the reader in exposition. Atlas Infernal does this in a slightly different way (there is no new information in the detail presented), but what it does with spades is reinfoce the tone.
It also gives the feeling that - assuming it is a play - the whole thing is pre-ordained to finish a certain way. This, too, would be completely in keeping with the eldar and how their mindset works.
Rob Sanders style is eloquently efficient - the pace is fast when it needs to be, without any sense of loss in detail. The characters met so far were easy to differentiate quickly and 'put in place'. All of the typical Inquisitorial band roles are filled (rogue traders, daemonhosts, navigators, psykers adeptus astartes (a Relictor even!), but are done so in unique and well described ways (the character of 'Father' in particular made me laugh out loud when I read it - in a good way!). There are, however, some original concepts that I was surprised and impressed by that I won't go into here (though see the spoiler text below if you wish).
The early aspects of the tale involve the reuniting of two long seperated colleagues, fun in The Eye of Terror and some really well written action scenes. I can tell it's setting up a tale where there are going to be quite a few unhappy antagonists for our 'heroes' to deal with.
All in all, I'm very much enjoying this book so far. It is both what I wanted and expected, but holds enough mysteries to have me diving back for more.
Will report back later when I am deeper into the story to report how my initial impressions are holding up.
Highlights so far? See spoiler text below (highlight to read):
- The initial attack and invitation by the harlequins: evocative and entrancing, yet riddled with panic at the same time.
- A Deathwatch squad made up of lesser known astartes chapters (Excoriators, Crimson Consuls, Scythes of the Emperor, Astral Fists)
- Saint Joaqhuine, 'The Idolatress': an apparently immortal ex-death cultist.
- Torqhuil, an astartes of the 'Relictors' Chapter: The Relictors were already one of my favourite Chapters, and Torqhuil's presence is an aptly grey one in this tale. His one man assault on a Khornate raiding ship prove beyond a doubt that tech marines know how to bring it when they need to!
- So endeth the spoilers - see you next time.
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