Death of Integrity Review

Books about Blood Angels and their successors have become some of my favorite stories that have come out of Black Library. James Swallow has written the larger works about the Blood Angels and as much as I enjoy his work it was nice to see Death of Integrity, written by Guy Haley, get released this month. This is the first book that I have read from this author and I am very much looking forward to future releases as well as possibly picking up some of his older material. Continue on to read my review of Guy's book, possible spoilers as always. If you are on the fence with getting this book for whatever reason allow me to push you to the side of getting it, it is well worth it.

Blood Drinkes chapter master Caedis has been hunting down a brood of genesteelers for 25 years when he finally finds their lair, a huge spacehulk designated Death of Integrity since whoever has the job of naming hulks has a sad disposition. Realizing that his attack group consisting of a battle barge and a few strike cruisers can't destroy the hulk he calls for aid in which the Novamarines answer.

Surprisingly a majority of the book takes place from the Novamarines point of view which was a bit of a disappointment since I was really hoping to gain a better look into how a Blood Angel successor chapter operates. Luckily there are a few very, and I mean VERY well written scenes where it is all about the Blood Drinkers and it's all I could have wished for. For the story to work how the author wanted it to he had to make the reader invest in the Novamarines which he did an admirable job of. They are a Ultramarine successor chapter that is really into tattoos, they take the 'By your deeds will you be known to the Emperor,' rather literally since they tattoo their deeds on their bodies. (Honestly if I had any freehand skills I would adopt this practice for my table top marines.) The character that the reader will spend the most time with is Novamarines Brother-Captain Mantillo Galt, rather young for his rank he a good tactician that has the respect of his men. Really the only other Novamarine worth remembering is Veteran Sergeant Voldo who goes on Deathwatch assignments like they are holiday breaks. I found these characters to be somewhat unique if not a little overbearing compared to other characters. Ultimately the only Soul Drinker that matters is Caedis and while the regular battle brothers do some awesome stuff it made me think better of the chapter as a whole than the single character.

How characters interact with one another is an integral part of any story and for the majority of the book interactions are solid. There were only a few moments where I really felt like things weren't as they should be, like when Caedis sits on the sidelines of all the strategic meetings and defers to Gault in almost everything. This is explained as the Novamarines having more recent expertise cleansing hulks and Caedis' own personal issues but he really had very little authority in the book. Even in combat situations the Blood Drinkers take a back seat to their more experienced cousins who actually find it difficult to restrain their instincts for close combat. Perhaps one of the worst conversations that shape how a character feels about the other chapter is when Voldo is telling Gault about an experience he had with some other Blood Angel successor chapter while away on a Deathwatch mission; apparently they just assaulted a fortress head on taking more casualties then the Codex Astartes would have permitted but they came out alive and still hungry for combat. For the rest of the book Voldo is looking over his shoulder to make sure the Blood Drinkers don;t run off in a frenzy and leave him by himself. Eventually his prejudice is removed to the back of his mind when he realizes the Blood Drinkers really are more than savages.

Eventually the Mechanicus shows up and makes everything 100 times more difficult. What was going to be a simple fleet based series of barrages to decimate the hulk now becomes a boarding action with over 400 battle brothers. Guy Haley writes some very good combat scenes, he really seems to flourish on the squad level between 5-10 battle brothers but anything less or more the quality seems to decrease. The big one on one dual while well written just didn't feel very intense and the big battle felt confusing and disjointed and not in a good way were it feels like the chaos of the battle is literally coming out of the pages. As with any story where marines board a space hulk you can expect the classic Terminator v. Genesteeler conflict. Terminator armor really is more useful than paper against the xenos claws, and while the steeler bodies do tend to pile up it's not like they are simply being slaughtered. There is damage to the terminator suits that cripple systems and make them less effective, storm bolters and heavy flamers run out of ammo, assault cannons seem to never run dry though.

Wrapping up the story, it all folded together very nicely and I desperately hope to see a part two and I will be sure to buy this if it eventually becomes an omnibus. I really didn't expect the ending and I don't want to elaborate much more on it because you should read it, but it was something new and somewhat profound. Any time the Mechanicus and Adeptus Astares work together some crazy things are going to happen, just ask the Soul Drinkers, and there was no disappointment this time.

I would give this book a solid 8. If you are a fan of space marines or space hulks I would highly recommend this book to you. If you have yet to read a book by Guy Haley this one would really encourage you to read other books by him, other than that it doesn't cater to fans of any other 40k race. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it and maybe even encouraged you to read the book. Have an Emperor Blessed day and keep an eye open for more posts.