Review: Brothers of the snake - Dan Abnett

Title Brothers of the Snake
Author Dan Abnett
Pages 315 (Hardcover) 416 (MassPaperback)
Year 2007
Publisher Black Library
Reading time 15 days (June 2007)
Rating 8 / 10

I always have loved how Dan Abnett creates his stories. Having loved First and Only, Riders of the Dead, Gilead's Blood (one of my favourite books ever), I tried immediately after receiving it on pre-order.

This book is a collection of short stories but all of them tied together depicting the adventures of an Iron Snake Space Marine called Priad. For those who don't know he (Dan Abnett) created them.

Starting in the his first missions as a full battle brother to his defining as a Veteran Sergeant. As White Scars are based on Mongol Warriors or Thousand Sons as Egyptians the Iron Snakes are based on Greek, Spartan to be precise.

So much they are based on Greek History that the last story is based on the Battle of Thermopylae. I remember that the movie 300 had been released a couple of months before and so I made a connection... All the stories had something greek in it. The fighting the Wyrm is another thing that ties them.

One thing I liked, well loved, is the inclusion of Dark Eldars on this tales. I always thought that the Dark Eldars don't appear much on these stories and fortunally the Dark Eldars are the main enemy of the Ithaka saviours.

Another thing I liked was the humanity that Abnett created into his Space Marines. I have read some other books depicting Space Marines and they are apart from Humans... I don't think that's wrong, you see? I think that when you are a superhuman and have the weight of the safety of the universe on your shoulders you must have some distance from the rest of humanity. After all you are a superior being. But I liked to see these space marines more humane...

There are some flaws of course. The way he bcomes a sergeant (too quick). The disrespect with the gear (the helmet falling down (after all the revere every piece of equipament and they would not let the helmet fall down after the victory). The forgetting when fighting of a place (they have photographic memory).

Well in the I was happy to the reading and this book is a good book to start reading warhammer 40k. After three years there is no books in sight depicting more Iron Snakes or Dark Eldars... Shame.