Teaser

Lazulai was once a jewel of the Imperium. Now it is a dying world, slowly sinking under the weight of tyranid invasion. Major Wulf Kahn of the Catachan 903rd fights on, but it is a fight she cannot hope to win . . .

Review

It’s rare that I get excited about a debut. The last time I remember counting down the days until a debut release was 2021, with Chris Hadfield’s The Apollo Murders, and that was largely because of the author rather than the book itself. Though for the record, the book turned out to be phenomenal. Debuts, by their nature, tend to take me by surprise. After all, there’s no prior knowledge of the author to get me excited, only the usual hyperbolic marketing. Things are a little different when it comes to the grim dark future. Black Library has a tried and tested method of publishing short stories before giving an author their first novel-length project. They also put out regular paperback anthologies, so I actually come into contact with these short stories. From these bite-sized teasers, readers such as myself become aware of new names working in the field. Names like Jude Reid, Rachel Harrison, and Marc Collins have all risen up through this system to become firm favourites of my novel shelves. One of the names that has cropped up a lot in the past few years is that of Victoria Hayward. The Siege of Ismyr, The Carbis Incident, and Wings of Faith all set her up as an author to keep an eye out for. Naturally, I was thrilled when her debut novel Deathworlder was announced.

Deathworlder falls under the same ‘Astra Militarum’ banner as recent novels such as Rob Young’s Longshot, Steven B Fischer’s Witchbringer, and most relevantly, Justin Woolley’s Catachan Devil. Not a series in the traditional sense, each Astra Militarum novel is a standalone story chronicling the exploits of a different group of soldiers fighting a war somewhere in the grim, dark future. With as many authors as there are books, it’s no surprise that each one brings something unique. So far we’ve seen tanks, psykers, snipers, and guerrilla warfare. Catchan Devil already gave us a look at how the Catachans do warfare, so my main question heading into Deathworlder was a simple one. What new aspect is Hayward going to explore?

The answer is this: What happens after you lose the battle for a world? Whereas most Astra Miltarum novels throw us into the thick of battle against some xenos horror, Deathworlder takes place on a world that has already been lost. The population slaughtered. The cities destroyed. The last few soldiers either in flight or hunkered down awaiting death. Lazulai is in the process of being devoured by the tyranids. It is, to the best of my knowledge, a totally new setting for a Warhammer novel, and Hayward makes the most of it.

This book is filled with horrors. Even leaving aside the looming Sword of Damocles that is the end of the world, the survivors have plenty of smaller-scale threats to contend with. I dare say this novel could be used as a primer for building a tyranid army of one’s own. The xenos come from every direction. Across the land, through the sky, and bursting out of the water. However, don’t come to this book expecting a checklist of names. For the 903rd, the xenos are horrors, and it is through this lens that hayward shows us the end of the world. The tyranids are not an enemy to be understood. They are there to be feared and killed, depending on one’s courage. Every new chapter brings forth a new nameless horror, replete with tentacles, mandibles, and other things to make Lovecraftian fans happy. This is a book that fully gets the horror of the tyranids. Not so much an enemy, as a force of nature. Albeit a nature that is utterly alien to our way of understanding.

Not a novel for the squeamish, Deathworlder still has a core cast of human characters. Major Wulf Khan and her unit are wonderfully written. First off, Hayward is great at banter. I could read this squad’s dialogue all day long, whether they’re setting up camp, cramming into a tank, or hosing down some xenos with a heavy flamer. The level of humour is spot-on, and neatly balances what would otherwise be an incredibly bleak novel. I also have to credit the book for including enough self-aware bicep-curling to make an eighties action movie blush. The Catachan imagery owes a lot to films like Rambo and Predator, and it’s good to see that some traditions never die. trooper Adair is in many ways the perfect embodiment of this. Musclebound and charming, the Catachan 903rd manage to be at once endearing and utterly terrifying. Especially to the non-Catachans they pick up along the way.

In short, Deathworlder is a fantastic novel. It takes all the strengths of Hayward’s short fiction and runs with them, all while adding in some fascinating new elements along the way. I haven’t even had time to talk about what happens to genestealer cults after the real tyranids show up, or the sacrifices the Militarum will make simply to ensure a single mission has a shot at success. These are things you’ll have to read about for yourself. What I can confidently say is that you won’t regret giving Deathworlder a read. In terms of both Warhammer 40,000 and military SF as a whole, it’s up there with the best. I am both hopeful and confident that we haven’t heard the last from this latest scribe of the Black Library.

Book Stats

• A Standalone Novel
• Focuses on the Astra Militarum
• First Published in 2024 by Black Library
• 292 Pages

For more information on Deathworlder in the author’s own words, you can find my recent interview with Victoria Hayward by clicking this link.

I received a review copy of Deathworlder from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. My thanks go to Victoria Hayward and the team at Black Library for arranging this.