It is with a deep and abiding shame that I say that I mostly enjoyed the first Warhammer 40k novel that I read. Granted, it's my understanding that it's one of the most highly recommended Warhammer novels. In sum: military sci-fi that valorizes the martial virtues; self-conscious pretenses to granting war the grandeur and dignity of Homeric epic, though this comes at the expense of three-dimensional characters as well as the political and social intrigue that should accompany a galaxy-spanning war machine. I think it would be worthwhile to think about these novels as modern-day pulps.
I am reading a second Warhammer novel by a different author--it is also different type of story set in a different time period--that I'm enjoying much less.
