Book: Space Wolf - The Second Omnibus
As you can see from the above screenshot, it is the book. The one titled Space Wolf - The Second Omnibus. I bought it in a bookstore called the Borders at the Gardens near Midvalley. I bought it almost 3 weeks ago and finished reading it a week ago.
I know, why am I posting about this book, which is the Second Omnibus? Don't get me wrong, I had the First Omnibus back at home and also had finished reading it too. But I'm gonna post about the second book first because the first one is not with me right now. I'll get to that later.
Anyway, the book is a sci-fi novel. Its about the universe of Warhammer 40k, in this particular book its exclusively about one the many chapters of Space Marine, The Space Wolf. Before I go about the book's content, let me tell the background of this novel universe.
The story revolves around a fictional future of mankind, in the 41st millennium. Where in that time, fictionally of course, mankind have develop space-faring activities and colonize countless of worlds. In this universe, the mankind have united under on banner, the Imperium of Mankind. United by force of course, when among the men rises one outstanding individual called the Emperor of Mankind. Story of it is that the Emperor launched a crusade to bring the entire mankind under his banner with brute and absolute power. No one know where this man is from or what kind of man is he. But he seems to be immortal as he lives a thousand lifetime.
The emperor had a vision, where the worlds at peace and the mankind stands triumph. To achieve this, he created a genetically-engineered super soldier using his own genetic, known to be his sons, the twelve primarchs. The primarchs are expected to be the generals, the statesman, the governers and all the things that a normal man could never achieved in one lifetime, in the image of the emperor himself. Things happened, and his sons were scattered across the galaxy and so began the Great Crusade in the 30th millennium.
The great crusade was lead by the greatest of mankind, the Space Marine, legions of super soldier created by the genetics of the former primarchs which later were found one by one as new worlds were conquered. The primarchs that were found quickly made the commanders of the Space Marines Legions, and the Imperium expand almost throughout the galaxy. As the great crusade progressed, the unexpected happened, the Horus Heresy occurred where half of the Space Marine Legions turned traitor, becoming the Chaos Marines, and attacked the Holy Terra (Earth). Horus, the emperor's favorite son was killed by the emperor himself. But the emperor was too gravely wounded and forever entombed to the Golden Throne.
Now it is the 41st millenium, and the mighty Space Marine Legions are reduced to small Chapters so that the Horus Heresy will never occurred again, serving loyally by the will of the emperor. Assisted by the Imperial Guards and Navy, the Space Marine stood fast as the protecter of mankind from heretics, mutants and xenos. Known as the emperor's Angel of Death, they fought against the relentless Ork, the vile Eldar, the suspicious Tau, the undead Necrons, the countless Tyranid and the treacherous Chaos Marines.
In this novel, the story is about a young Space Marine called Ragnar Blackmane from the Space Wolf chapter who was destined to do great things. The story started as Ragnar was fighting the forces of Chaos with his company, and among his aspirants they asked of him how did he become the Wolf Lord without being a Grey Hunter first. Then Ragnar told his tale..
In the Second Omnibus, Ragnar continued his journey from being outcast by his chapter. The Great Wolf of Space Wolf chapter had assigned him to be the Wolfblade, the twelve selected warriors from the chapter to be the bodyguards of the House of Belisarius, a house of Navigators that serves the Space Wolf. From there, he travelled to Holy Terra and learned the true nature of Imperium politics as the emperor sat immobile in his Golden Throne.
His adventures went from the attempt of assassination of the Belisarius leader, to the treachery of the Imperial Guard commander who turned to be the Fallen, traitor of Dark Angels chapter. His journey continues as he once again met with Maddox, a Chaos sorcerer from one of the Traitor Legion of the Thousand Sons, who try to cast the Wulfen curse onto the entire Space Wolf chapter. In his journey to end the attempt, he met with the old Space Wolf Legion of the Thirteenth Company which was rumored to be missing after giving a chase to the Traitor Legion, the Thousand Sons Legion after burning their homeworld of Prospero.
Ok, because this the Second Omnibus so the story continued on about how Ragnar finally able to retrieve the Spear of Russ, a relic belonged to the Space Wolf primarch, Leman Russ. From there, Ragnar learned the significance of the relic and also learned about what the Thirteenth Company had gone through. They were missing about 10 millennium ago, and it was shocking that they still held to their former mission, to hunt down every single one of Thousand Sons Chaos Marines.
The stories in this novel is divided into 3 stories, the Wolfblade, the Sons of Fenris, and the Wolf's Honour. In each of that stories, there were several other chapters that compiled the entire 3 novel in one omnibus.
I really enjoyed this book because I myself is a fan of the Warhammer 40k universe. I liked especially about the Space Marines, who are genetically-engineered humans specifically for war. The Space Wolf particularly is a chapter of Space Marines that their units have a slight more heighten senses compared to other Space Marine. They all bore the mark called the Mark of Russ which is the long fangs, sharp claws and a wolf-like appearance. And this Space Marines seems to be aged but never died of old age. The fact that in this novel, the Thirteenth Company that have been missing for 10 millennium still pursuing their objective with the former members of the company. And there was also the Fallen who had betrayed his chapter 10 milleanium ago and still living on as mercenary or hired gun. The Space Marine seems to be dying in battle or otherwise accidentally killed themselves only.
Well, what I'm babbling about the Space Marine for.. there a lot to write about them and the novel only focus on one Space Marine, Ragnar Blackmane of the Space Wolf. If I were to write about the Space Marine, it would be on another post. Haha
I bought the book at the price of RM56.90 and I'd say its a good bargain. At least it opened me up to more of the Warhammer 40k universe and adventures. There a re lot of other omnibus out there. I've already had the Space Wolf First and Second Omnibus, and the Ultramarine First Omnibus.
This book is a good read and must have to all Warhammer 40k fan out there.
Seriously! Unless you are into heretics, mutants and xenos. Heh :D
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