Bloody Books Review - Leviathan by Darius Hinks
As each edition of the flagship games that GW produces arrives, so too does the tie in novel. These releases exist for a few layered reasons, being at once a novel in it's own right, to give narrative to the current state of play, to introduce new players and readers to the setting, and of course to sell other parts of the hobby to the masses. Leviathan does all parts admiralty, but it feels the final part of that equation comes down harder than the other in this particular release.
That is not to say this is a novel beholden to one capitalist master over all others, as a rendition of 40k in written form, it sets out to exactly do what it accomplishes. The novel is the game writ large, actions that can easily be recreated on the dining table. There are no subtleties to it either, the Ultramarines are The Good Guys, though with some calls to how inhuman they can be and the Tyranids are The Bad Guys with a large amount of fascinating fiction thrown in to get across just how terrifying such creatures would be. Both feel scanned from their respective codexes and placed upon the world.
It may feel that I'm beleaguering the point somewhat, and I am. The Tyranids are monsters that need a good shooting, and the Marines are the ones doing the shooting. The first half of the book is easily the better part, with the threat rising and explorations of the more insidious parts of a Hive Fleet Invasion. Tensions rise as more and more otherworldly events takes place, and seeing such things from a street level always calls to me more than a god's eye view that 40k often reverts to, and thankfully, there's more than a few human characters to root for and get behind as the action ramps up. However, the second half of the book fails to continue that well structed narrative as the battles begin in earnest.
It's not a bad book, but nor is it a great one, despite a very promising start. As an introduction to 40, it's a little too by the numbers but gets the job done well enough, and as a way into the modern setting it feels lacking.