Bloody Book Reviews- Assassinorum: Kingmaker, by Robert Rath

All you out there are aware that I adore Robert Rath,, and that The Infinite and the Divine is one of my all time top five 40k books. I went into Assassinorum: Kingmaker with high hopes. After a slow start, I was treated to a shining example of what 40k fiction can be yet again.

The best Black Library novels are to me, the ones that step away from the constant battlefields. Whilst they absolutely have a place for novels to explore, but when the aforementioned Infinite and The Divine or The Vorbis Conspiracy exist, I find I want more of that. Explorations of what life in in the setting of 40k.

Here we are shown how the Offico Assassinorum fits in the greater whole. Outside of the HH era novel Nemesis* and some short stories by Rath himself, it's not an area that's really been explored, and it does so wonderfully. Kingmaker does not just attempt to explore the assassins though, as that's not enough for Rath. Doing what he does best, he also draws in a Knight world and all the layers of intrigue to be found there and creating a 40k adoration of the height of spy thriller novels, with a less than subtle nod to a famous Bond scene.

Kingmaker also takes on the lauded task of tackling a Knight World, with the layers of intrigue that such a society is weighed down with. Part of the overall narrative comes from one particular assassin of the team of the Callidus Temple dealing with the multiple personalities she has to assume in order to infiltrate the Knight World. This underlying plot of a particular highlight, as fully assuming those personalities is of utmost importance for the Amiger to accept her, posing as a rogue son of one of the Knight Houses. For all these layers of subterfuge, it all twines together to form a super-stompy smash-em-up, as if Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy ended with Crash and Burn.

I would be remiss to not mention the use of Found Footage language in order to get across some of the information needed to see the larger picture. It's a genuinely innovative take for information dispersal. There is a sensation of these information being prepared for a particular someone, a mysterious figure that is far too high up in the chain to be visible to the Temple Assassins. This leaves a few questions hanging beautifully for the reader to consider. Nothing here is narratively open at the end of the tale, but these transcripts and reports hint a much larger picture.

In short, Rath is quickly becoming one of GW's best wordsmiths, earning a place alongside the Abnetts, Demski-Bowdens and Hayleys the stable has to offer

I would like more. Soon. And often.