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akirathelemur's review
1.0
Warhammer 40k books will never be classified as great literature. But they can still be quite entertaining, and have one key element going for them: one of the grimmest and most compelling settings in sci-fi. Even a halfway competent author can take that and put together a text that is at least mildly entertaining.
Henry Zou is not, alas, a halfway competent author. He badly bungles the overall tone (there's room for lightness in the setting - see Ciaphas Cain) and manages to construct characters who feel out of place in the Warhammer 40k world, as well as feeling out of place as, you know, characters.
It all has the feel of a generic story that got a layer of Warhammer 40k paint and vocabulary slapped on top of it. I suppose all that would be excusable of Zou managed to tell a slightly entertaining story. He does not. His prose is very much of the and then this happened, and then that happened variety. It was a chore to read, endlessly tedious, and I only finished out of pure stubbornness.
Terrible all around.
Henry Zou is not, alas, a halfway competent author. He badly bungles the overall tone (there's room for lightness in the setting - see Ciaphas Cain) and manages to construct characters who feel out of place in the Warhammer 40k world, as well as feeling out of place as, you know, characters.
It all has the feel of a generic story that got a layer of Warhammer 40k paint and vocabulary slapped on top of it. I suppose all that would be excusable of Zou managed to tell a slightly entertaining story. He does not. His prose is very much of the and then this happened, and then that happened variety. It was a chore to read, endlessly tedious, and I only finished out of pure stubbornness.
Terrible all around.
frater's review
3.0
Emperor's Mercy was quite an entertaining book, though I didn't enjoy it as much as the James Swallow Blood Angel's books I read recently. In some ways it had a lot more emotional impact, as we walked around with the regular imperial guard during a chaos invasion, rather than with the superhuman space marines, and Zou didn't pull any punches describing the horrors that Chaos brought to the area.
Besides all this, and some excellent inquisitorial characters, It's probably one of the first science fiction books I've read that involves the destruction of an entire solar system/star cluster (planets and all). Which was interesting in and of itself.
I'll certainly go back to have a look at the erstwhile inquisitor's next adventure.
Besides all this, and some excellent inquisitorial characters, It's probably one of the first science fiction books I've read that involves the destruction of an entire solar system/star cluster (planets and all). Which was interesting in and of itself.
I'll certainly go back to have a look at the erstwhile inquisitor's next adventure.
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