Bloody Books Review: The Great Work
Two points before I start this review. 1) I almost left the title to this as “The Great Ork” and I now wish that book existed. 2) Isn’t about time Guy Hayley got an award of some sort for tying up loose ends over millennia.
I’m absolutely serious. “The Great Work” is set during the Dark Imperium, and not only picks up loose threads from his own work* but also from the Horus Heresy. There’s elements here that makes “Pharos” a much better book. It is an utterly ridiculous undertaking that has more reveals and twists than every other 40k/30k publication of 2019 as well cementing concepts to link 30k and 40k. It’s utterly ambitious and somewhat both incredible and completely correctthat Guy Hayley managed to do it, and with flourish and ease.
It starts off in a purposefully disjointed manner, jumping back and forth in time to get the reader used to the idea. Each timeline has a strong enough through-line to be it’s own novel. Together though, it’s a whipsnap rush though the heaviest of 40k, bringing both the history of Archmagos Belisarius Cawl and the introduction of the Primaris Marines**. Cawl himself is a wonderfully bizarre characterisation, being both inhuman and more human than we are used to in 40k, just what he is and what that means when dealing with different parts of the Imperium. Literally from top to bottom.
The book is in essence three tales working in tandem. We get th. e story of Cawl over ten thousand years, the activation of the Pharos in “modern times” and the C’tan and finally The Scythes of the Emperor and how the Tyranids destroyed thier homeworld, with a introduction to the Primaris
It’s a book full of implications for the 40k setting and while it’s full to the brim, it’s held together with a fine strong hand with a complex yet neat manner it’s all cleverly tied together in a neat but surprisingly complex plot. Having Thracian and the Sycthes chapter soldifies the tale being told, whilst being intitally hard to warm to and Felix, who apepared in the “In The Grim Darkness” short story allows Cawl’s eccentricies and personality to be explored in a manner more sceptical than Cawl’s own viewpoint. Both contrast with Cawl’s dry humour wonderfully
Cawl is a joy thoughout. It matters little wether it’s a sequence from his point of view or from an external one, having as he does a wry manner with everyone he comes into contact with, and a daring manner to any risk that apepars in front of the characters. He is a character that went straight into a Top 5 characters based on this book alone, as well as being possibly the most sensible and likely the right person to right humanity in the universe. Bare in mind I also hold Arhiman and Fabius Bile as being right….for the setting….
The Great Work is both a derring-do action adventure and a lore-rich examination of 40k, with something for everyone, though I can imagine it would be hard going for a newcomer to the setting. Its both straightforward and twisting, giving questions for every answer it provides, adding more depth to each exploration, rewarding the reader with every page and inviting you to fall deeper.
*great or otherwise
**And much to my love, a way to bring Cloud Runner and the 1990 Deathwing short story back, though not with the Dark Angels