The Purging of Kadillus

Hello everyone. The Bikeninja here again with another book review. This one though is guaranteed to surprise. You see for those that do not know, my main 40K army is the mighty Space Wolves. Been playing them since 2nd Edition. I am very attached to my Wolves. So you’ll understand when I begin to heap praise on book depicting the silly Dark Angels that is not normal for me. Typically I would bash this book based solely on the fact that Dark Angels are in it. And even greater reason to smack it down is that this is Al’ blog. But integrity calls and I just cannot help but admit that I liked this book. So on with review and the loss of my good sense.

The Story
Finally we have Dark Angels book that shows them fighting for the Emperor and laying waste to some silly Orks. No Fallen or “I have a secret” stuff to get in the way. This is a well thought out book that flows from one chapter to another and really gives you a since of whole campaign rather than just a few battles. I will not spoil anything with these tidbits but the story is the Dark Angels Third Company versus Ghazghkull and Nazdregg on the planet of Piscina. Master Belial is the Captain of the 3rd but he is just one of a few characters that get a lot of attention. The stuff with Scout Sgt. Naaman and Chaplain Boreas is just awesome. Particularly with Boreas. Through his eyes and thoughts you get to see how the Dark Angels view themselves. You get to see how they view corruption and the lessons learned from the Fallen. You also see the ways of and thoughts of an Interrogator Chaplain of Dark Angels. Space Marine Inquisitors that is all I’m saying. Very cool stuff.

The Fluff
Gav Thorpe takes you for a ride into the mindset of the Dark Angels. In some respects this is good. As I stated above the stuff with Interrogator Chaplain Boreas is awesome. However, the Dark Angels have always been portrayed as very aloof and distant. The fluff gives us a lot of this type of behavior from the Dark Angels. This is most assuredly not the case with this book. You can almost confuse their actions with the non-Astartes in the book as those of the Ultramarines. I think this where the Dark Angels in this book fall into the typical Space Marine cliché. Thorpe does them a little disservice by taking them out of character in my opinion. This is the only fluff point I found in the book where Thorpe deviates from the fluff and goes out of character. (And yes, I know Dark Angels fluff; it pays to know ones enemy.)

Final Rating
I am giving this book an 8 out 10. (I know, I liked this one better than Prospero Burns, my soul hurts to admit it). While I believe the Dark Angels to be portrayed somewhat out of character, this book is good. The fights are done well and are very realistic. You can almost see the tabletop and the armies arrayed against each other. The overall campaign was hard fought and you are given a good look, in my opinion, another good luck into the mind of the Space Marines. Good stuff that I think any fan of the Adeptus Astartes will enjoy.