On a hot and sleepless summer night Karl Hoche, heroic army officer of the 5th Reiklanders, follows a hunch that something is amiss in the army camp. This leads to a fatal discovery of the remains of a horrific Chaos ritual performed by an inner part of the Reiksguard. Following up on his discoveries, Karl Hoche is soon entangled in a web half truths and carefully spun lies, and is drafted by an undercover agency called the Untersuchung. Hoche is constantly thrown into situations, that can only be solved by using his head, his heart, his sword or if all else fails his faith in Sigmar.
The book follows Hoche through almost a year and is divided into chapter each describing the shift in his life, status, environment and mindset. It is quite amazing to follow the changes that man goes through during these few months and the way the book is sectioned only supports this. You are often left with a short breathing space to digest the how comprehensive these changes would be to a man. This is necessary as you are otherwise occupied with the captivating story and at the same time highly impressed by the extensive complexity of the plot. I have read this book twice now, and during the second read, I was still amazed by discovering new twists and turns and details, that I had overlooked the first time.
James Wallis has a classic approach to secret agencies, deep undercover agents and double agents we would know from any secret agent or super spy book, but the way he has adopted this seamlessly into the Warhammer world is where his creative talents and skills as a writer really shows. I like to think of myself as quite familiar with the executive powers in the Warhammer world, but reading this I was easily convinced that several secrete agencies exists right under our noses. That is impressive.
The book mainly describes the actions of Hoche in classic third person style. The usage of the language is strong, captivating and yet still very light reading. The major strengths of James Wallis is his abilities to let the language dance lightly around the otherwise highly complex plot. That is absolutely no small feat!
Overall this is a fantastic book. The plot is complex and the description of the changes in the simple soldier’s life for Karl Hoche is thorough and highly atmospheric. A highly recommendable book.
