When Chaplain Elysius of the Salamanders is taken captive by Dark Eldar, he faces a fight for survival at the hands of these cruel aliens. The Firedrakes of 1st Company attempt a daring rescue mission, but much more is at stake than the Chaplain’s life. He holds the key to secrets buried beneath Mount Deathfire, secrets that could reveal the damnation – or salvation – of their home world. The Salamanders must penetrate the Port of Anguish and defeat the xenos threat there if they are to unveil the mysteries within the Tome of Fire. Meanwhile, Dak’ir battles to survive the brutal Librarian training, and in his visions liesan even darker future…
CAUTION CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!
The latest novel by Nick Kyme, Firedrake, is Book 2 in the Tome Of Fire Trilogy. The Tome Of Fire Trilogy focuses on the Salamanders Space Marine Chapter as the secrets of the chapter could reveal the damnation, or salvation, of their home world, Nocturne. It also examines the fall of their heroes and how marines can be turned. The novels main characters and protagonists are the same as the previous book in the trilogy, and will no doubt be the same as the next novel. It’s nice to see that in this novel some of the more peripheral characters, such as Chaplain Elysius and Librarian Pyriel have more significant roles. New portions of the background and makeup of the chapter are revealed in the form of characters such as Forgefather Vulkan He'stan and his quest for the nine – no we’re not talking BSG style here!
The novel is extremely well written and the novel helps continue some excellent character development that really brings the Salamanders Chapter and their aggressors, both internal and xenos, to life. The plot of the novel, with its two intertwining stories, is also fantastic with some storylines from the first novel in The Tome Of Fire Trilogy concluding, others continue to be developed and new storylines are introduced. The problem is the intertwining story lines are often confusing and take some getting in too, their just seems too much meandering to make sense some times.
Overall, this is a solid but slightly slow novel that progresses the Tome Of Fire Trilogy well and helps develop the chapter, the Dark Eldar and looks at other aspects of other chapters and facets of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. I found that it was a good read to get more information but overall not as good as the first novel in the series, I guess it succumbs to the second book curse, but I can imagine the third book will end this well and pick up the pace.
Overall a good read but just down to its mixed up nature I am afraid it’s only a 3 star rating from me. Sorry Nick.
Available from:
http://www.blacklibrary.com/
Firedrake by Nick Kyme
Paperback • ISBN 9781849700047
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