Prospero Burns.

This book really wasn't what I was expecting at all. It was a complete surprise throughout and I absolutely love it for that! I'd been expecting the exact story from A Thousand Sons but from the other perspective, with Skarssen Skarssensson and Ohthere Wyrdmake following Magnus around tutting (or growling) until they decided to start the murder-make. What I found instead was a great story about a human going to live with the Rout and at the end the story crosses with the previous book.

The first chapter was a really weird one that nearly put me off the book, I had to force myself to get through it and it took some adjusting to get used to the style and language used. It was more like a prologue about some of the primitive tribes on Fenris and how the were still quite superstitious when our human, Kasper Hawser, had crash landed on the planet. At the end of the chapter he was rescued by an Astartes named Bear and that was the point that the story started for me. I'm glad I kept going.

From there onwards it was a fantastic tale of how the Wolves live, covering their traditions, what they think about other's misconceptions about them, and how they fight. They each interact with Hawser in their own ways as he's essentially their remembrancer, and I'm not sure if this is quite Astartes-worth but I found a lot of the writing to be touching and heartfelt. It's one of the few occasions in this series where I've really identified and understood the characters which I think is why I like this book so much.

Also, because they are 'good guys' there wasn't and didn't need to be a whole lot of story given over to the usual "oh I'm so misunderstood/it wasn't my fault" dialogue. Although speaking of bad guys the Emperor is becoming more of a dick with each novel, not a fan at all.

Dan Abnett has done a stunning job with this one and I'm really looking forward to reading Know No Fear when I get there in a couple of months. In a Warllama first, this gets a 10/10! Even more amazing as I've never thought about Space Wolves as a chapter I'd want to play.