Night Lords: The Omnibus

Product Information

This is part of the brilliance of Aaron's writing- Talos spends so much of the series truly believing his fanciful notion that the Night Lords were noble, that they were true warriors, even if their methods of forcing compliance and submission were rather more brutal than even what the Space Wolves or World Eaters would do. This is made all the more believable by seeing Talos through the eyes of two slaves, Septimus-the 7th and Octavia-the 8th. Through the eyes of these two mortals, both of whom, in their own way, show their unwavering devotion to Talos throughout the tale, we see the true greatness within Talos as an individual. Talos' greatness, both as a warrior and even, dare I say it, as a man, is made all the more apparent by its contrast with the rest of the members of his Claw, the warband he's attached to, and the rest of the Legion as a whole. The Night Lords are cruel, demanding and vicious, but in the context of a universe where there is only war, perhaps no more so than any other entity. The fact that they recognize the cruelty inherent in their lives and the lives around them perhaps make them more sympathetic as characters than the factions that matter-of-fact accept the situations and horrors that people find themselves in. The Night Lords - traitors and killers who use fear as a weapon - face threats from within and without as they struggle to rebuild their Legion and continue to fight the Long War. The story, the persona's, the feeling of the world and the desperate universe the Night Lords and their slaves find themselves in all come together near the end of the story, and you'll be moved to tears as everything finally unfolds. I may be reading too deeply into this, but the book also forces you to morally evaluate yourself. It may be a tired trope, but the abundance of "grey characters" (neither being clearly good nor bad), really made me pause before damning one character over another. This is maybe more of an anecdote, but it is nonetheless testament to the quality of the books.

The problem is that Talos' words are undercut (or even emphasised) by the omnibus being another series of our "bad boys" struggling. Within the fandom it has turned into a well explored, dare I say it for the tenth time: Talos, the 'Soul Hunter' is the main character of the tale. Talos is a haunted individual. Haunted by the former greatness of his Legion, by the former greatness of a cause now long abandoned, and haunted by the ideal of the noble warrior that he truly believes the Night Lords once were and could be. And Aaron Dembski-Bowden did not just meet my expectations, oh no. He did the impossible, and exceeded them, which makes Void Stalker one of the best novels that I’ve read in 2012 so far that were released in the same year. This stands alongside novels such as Anne Lyle’s superb The Alchemist of Souls. But I’ve rambled for too long. Without further ado, after the blurb, let’s explain why I felt that the conclusion to the Night Lords Trilogy is as good as I felt it was. The epilogue also bothered me. How is Lucoryphus alive? But I can't say what bothered me exactly about the last part it just...it bothered me.

Customer reviews

The Night Lords, once under the leadership of Konrad Curze but now turned to the path of Chaos, roam the dark places of the Galaxy. Plagued by visions, their prophet Talos now leads them into the Imperium, and into danger . . . ADB has excelled with this trilogy. Each book is unique and sensitive, and Void Stalker does an excellent job of bringing closure to one of the best Warhammer 40k stories there is. The books give off a feeling of a complete theme over the trilogy as well, which the author eludes to in the Night Lords omnibus’s introduction. The stories in each are somewhat independent but connected by the characters, but you also see a rising war band in book one, it’s continued trials and triumphs in book two and finally it’s erosion and fall into darkness in book three. This final book is indeed the darkest, for both the characters and the events. we are granted a front row seat to watch a legion of psychopaths and depraved murderers and are surprised by mercy's granted ,love found ,loyalty ,brotherhood and the pain a primarch's sons bear for his vindication.

The character development ramps up one last time to show us our ''villains'' at their breaking point, once again at the gates of war, battling for something that maybe, just maybe, has meaning and value. Great conclusion to the Night Lords series by Mr. Dembski-Bowden. This is set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe where the bad-guys and good-guys run a fine line. The story is based around a group of "Traitor" space marines who must fight the Imperium, other traitor chapters and at times themselves. There are times they appear human in their frailties even though they are what could be considered far evolved from that. At times they appear as a line from Jessica Rabbit, "I'm not bad Eddie, I'm just drawn that way." Why on earth are Eldar involved all of a sudden ? (hint: they were also involved in Lord of the Night) Surrounding Talos are the equally flawed and fascinating members of his combat squad, First Claw. What I love about these guys is that they don't really like each other, but they would and do kill to protect each other. They're a very dysfunctional band of brothers. So they're fun and easy to root for and when their personal demons lead them into conflict against each other it makes for some powerful and haunting scenes.Mercutian might be a bit more on the noble side like Talos, but even he falls prey to the Night Lords trait of enjoying the slaughter and torture of those they've conquered or defeated.