Teaser

Bree Jagdea has put dogfighting behind her, content instead to fly cargo runs. But war has a way of dragging back the unwilling, and Jagdea is soon put in the hot seat as aerial forces clash in the hive city of Vesperus . . .

Review

Dan Abnett’s Sabbat Worlds stories first saw print in 1999, fleshing out a unique corner of the grim, dark future filled with Imperial Guard heroes and Archenemy villains. By 2004, The Gaunt’s Ghosts series consisted of seven novels. 2004 also saw the release of Double Eagle, a standalone story set in the same blood-soaked corner of the galaxy, but focused on aerial combat rather than ground troops. It was a smash hit, and speculation about a sequel quickly manifested, followed by confirmation from Abnett that there would one day be a sequel. Over time, that unpublished sequel garnered a name. Interceptor City. Of course, Abnett was high in demand, with Sabbat Worlds, Warhammer 40,000, and Horus Heresy novels regularly flowing from his pen. Interceptor City became something of a myth among Black Library readers. Then, with the conclusion of the Horus Heresy in 2024, the long-awaited book landed on shelves in limited edition. Now, a few months later, the regular hardback of Interceptor City is at last available.

Two decades is a long time to wait between instalments, but Interceptor City has managed to maintain its appeal over that long duration. Now that it is at last in my hands, only one question remains. Was it worth the wait?

The short answer is yes. If my opinion was the only thing holding you back, I hereby release you. Go out and buy a copy. This is a good book. A very good book. It’s been long enough since I read Double Eagle that I can’t remember what role, if any, Jagdea played in the earlier novel, but that doesn’t matter. The beauty of Interceptor is that it works perfectly fine as a standalone. If you haven’t read Double Eagle, don’t worry. The same is true if you’re new to the Sabbat Worlds as a whole. Indeed, this would make a brilliant starting point for anyone new to Warhammer 40,000.

Ever since I read Michael Stackpole’s X-Wing novels as a child, I have been in love with the idea of space and aerial dogfights. It is utterly unrealistic in space, but no less fun for that, as Space: Above and Beyond proves in its single season. Interceptor City takes place closer to the ground, and actually manages to be claustrophobic. How does it do this? Well, you know that cool bit in literally any fighter pilot story where they have to fly through a narrow chasm/low cave/tight space? Interceptor City is all about that. It’s aerial combat within an urban environment. Cities in Warhammer are vast, sprawling things, filled with caverns. Just about big enough to fly a Valkyrie through, but with plenty of opportunities to smash yourself to pieces on the sides of buildings. Abnett has always been good at action sequences, and he is in excellent form here.

Outside of the cockpit, things are equally tense. There’re suggestions of a traitor lurking among the pilots, but even without that sinister note, there is plenty of personal drama to go around. Abentt’s protagonists are, broadly speaking, decent people, but the stress they are under oozes from the pages. One of the things I’ve always appreciated about Abnett is how well he illustrates the ways people are damaged by war. Not simply through outright PTSD, but through survivor’s guilt, dissociation, and hiding in escapism. I would happily have taken a whole series about the pilots of Interceptor City, because they all feel real by the end of the book.

One final idea that I really enjoyed was the concept of ‘glory stories.’ These are in-universe pieces of propaganda filled with all the same tropes as Black Library books themselves, only with happy endings. I love it when Warhammer books take the time to think about how centuries of relentless warfare would actually shape a culture, and little titbits like this go a remarkably long way to making the setting feel lived-in.

That, dear reader, is your longer answer. Interceptor City is some of Abnett’s best work, and more than lives up to twenty years of expectations.

Book Stats

• The sequel to Double Eagle
• Limited Edition Published 2024
• Standard Edition Published 2025
• 407 Pages