BLOODY BOOKS REVIEW: THE HOUSE OF NIGHT AND CHAIN by DAVID ANNANDALE
Warhammer Horror has gained a certain traction since it's inception. The worst that has come from the label has been at least, average, with very little in the way of actual bad releases. David Annadale's entry "The House of Night and Chain" continues this tradition with a bleak tale of spiralling madness leading to gasping paranoia. This is not the guns and combat that 40k often falls into step with, but a haunted house story in the 41st millennium
We follow Colonel Maeson Strock returns to his agri-world home of Solus to take up the reigns of Governorship. Strock is wounded in every way possible, to the body, to the mind and to the soul, a traumatised widow, he steps into his family's ancestral seat in Valgaast to find corruption in the city's council. He wishes to rebuild his family in name and relation but each steps draws him deeper into a darker universe than even one such as he imagined.
Annadale has always had a deft twist of horror in his work, and "House of.." allows the author to embrace those abilities to walk in the skin and see through the eyes of what happens to soldier upon retirement from the Imperial Guard. Strock is scarred inside and out, and as a career soldier, sees the challenges ahead of him as a soldier would. He prepares for a political battle with the other councillors, the mystery surrounding his wife's untimely death draws him away from the fight.
there is nothing of the lasgun here, it is all atmosphere, ramping up a slow build of dread and tension. Malveil, Strock's family home, extends a gradual malign personality that dances the line between Strock's damaged psyche and actual supernatural occurrence Strock's mourning and self-loathing war with his self discpline and honour with Malveil insidiously shaping the decisions Strock takes. .
It may seem that this is something of a quintessential horror, but the roots are embedded in 40k, making a creepy , ambiguous backdrop for the acts to play out against. There is something of an undermining when those 40k elements take front and centre stage, but it doesn't detract from the tale, though the ambiguity that floats throughout taking solid shape. that being said, this is a darkness of the 41st millennium rarely seen, and highly recommended